Last week Paul mentioned in his Resurrection morning sermon that there are some folks here at Riverside who are moving towards Baptism.
It is not, in my mind, a coincidence that in a resurrection message, we heard Paul telling us about up and coming baptisms. He made that link because the bible makes that link.
And what I want to do this morning is flesh out for us the significanceof baptism. Not only for those people who are moving towards baptism, but for the whole church.
I think it will be good for us, who have been baptised, to be reminded of its significance. I think it will be good for those about to be baptised, to be acquainted with the significance.
Paul quoted in his message, Matthew 28:19 which are the words of the risen Lord Jesus to his disciples prior to his ascension into heaven.
They are marching orders for the disciples and for Riverside Baptist Church: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptising them in name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit’.
So, Jesus left us a focussed task in which we are to make new followers of Jesus, and then we are to baptise them.
Now, we took that verse seriously at Riverside when we decided to constitute this new little church. We took it seriously by choosing a name that reflected the significance of Jesus’ words – we’re called ‘Baptist Church’ for a reason. We took it seriously by writing into our Member Statement of Faith document that ‘we believe Christians should be baptised’. And we took it seriously again last week when we completed our Organisational Guidelines document by writing and adopted this wording: Article 2.10: ‘The church shall hold that membership is predicated on the basis of fully immersive believers’ baptism’. To be a member at this church you need to be a baptised Christian.
What that means is that the words Jesus spoke in Matthew 28 have shaped, and are shaping, our approach to doing church together, and that’s hugely important. We do not want to be at odds with the risen Lord Jesus. He has told us to make disciples and to baptise them, and that is what we intend to do.
Paul made a comment in his sermon, just before quoting Matthew 28, and it dovetails so well with article 2.11 of our guidelines which also deals with baptism. Here’s what Paul said speaking of the candidates who are moving towards baptism here at Riverside, ‘Despite all the opposition that is found in our culture to even the notion of the existence of God, they have decided to follow Jesus’.
That is amazing! Paul’s words are good, but what they are pointing out is even better.
Think on it. These people are saying, ‘I want to declare my devotion to Jesus in a world that has zero regard for him, or his Father, or his Holy Spirit’. They don’t love him. These people do!
Something so foundational, so deep rooted, so spiritually transforming has happened to them, they want to declare their love for him. That’s what baptism is.
Baptism is the first step on the long road of following Jesus wherever he calls you to go. And he calls his people to walk some pretty rugged roads! These people know that – so this is no small thing.
Let me show you very simply in Acts 2 what I mean. In verse 37, some people in the crowd who had been listening to Peter tell the good news of the risen Jesus, we’re told they were ‘cut to the heart’.
What does that mean?
It means they felt their need acutely.
They felt their sin; they felt their enmity with God; and they felt their need of Jesus.
So, they said to Peter, ‘what shall we do?’. How do we remedy this problem Peter?
Peter said to them, ‘repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins’.
So, you feel the weight of your sins. Not just that they have consequences, they do, but that they put relational distance between you and God.
‘How can I be reconciled into a loving relationship with the God who made me?’ – that’s our biggest problem. Peter says ‘repent’.
That means own your sin, recognise how heinous it really is in God’s sight. Recognise how it has devalued him and how it has treated him like the opposite of what he really is – supremely precious and desirable.
And commit to treasuring him with fulness of heart and mind and soul and strength.
And then Peter also says, ‘be baptised’. And he says, ‘do these things in the name of Jesus and for the forgiveness of your sins’. In other words, what you must do to become a forgiven follower of Jesus is repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus.
Now some of you might be thinking, ‘hang on, you (and Peter) have said nothing about faith. And isn’t there a verse in Romans about professing as well?’
There is. Romans 10:10 says, ‘For it is with your heart that you believeand are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved’.
Peter says, ‘repent and be baptised’. Paul says ‘believe and profess’.
So, are they saying different things? And the answer is ‘no’. When the crowd were ‘cut to the heart’ what was that? It was them believingeverything Peter had said was true!
They believed in Jesus as Lord and Messiah (verse 36). They believed that he was the answer for their sins. ‘Now Peter what should we do? We’ve heard what Jesus has done and we believe in him, now what do we do with that?’ Peter says ‘repent’.
And then he says ‘be baptised’. And Paul say ‘profess with your mouth’. Baptism is a declaration of repentance, and profession is a declaration of belief.
So, now that we’re coming to baptise these people we want to hear them profess with their mouths that they have real, active, faith in Jesus.
There are two results of this repentance and baptism in Acts 2. Verse 41 tells us ‘they were added to the believers’ which means they became part of the fellowship. And verse 42 says they ‘devoted themselves to four things: the apostles teaching (bible), fellowship, breaking bread (the Lord’s supper) and prayer’.
So, on the back of baptism these brothers and sisters will be looking to belong to a fellowship of believers and to devote themselves to the bible and its exposition, to fellowship with brothers and sisters, to participating at the Lord’s table, and to ongoing prayer. In other words, baptism kick starts a new way of life for the young believer.
It’s important to say, baptism is not powerful to change anything. Baptism doesn’t save a person. Baptism doesn’t convert a person. There is nothing mystical about Baptism. The water is just tap water. The going down into it and coming up out of it is just the same as going under the water in the bath or diving into the swimming pool. There is nothing supernatural going on with the water. Faith and repentance are the toolsof salvation, not water baptism.
But, it wouldn’t be right to say that baptism is merely ritualistic either. It wouldn’t be right to say that experientially we should expect nothing tangible or significant when we witness these baptisms. We should.
When Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit lighted on him in the form of a dove. Often in Acts, the recorded baptisms are accompanied by manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
When someone, in obedience to Jesus, declares their devotion to him by going through the waters of baptism, then we should expect God to be pleased and we should expect to experience both as the church watching, and as the individual participating, some sense of encouragement and strengthening of our faith by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
And I believe we will, when we gather to baptise these people.
One of the main reasons we will experience that kind of powerful faith-boosting encouragement is because of what is being conveyed in the symbolism of baptism. And I think the new testament has two main ways that it talks about baptism as a metaphor for spiritual realities that have taken hold in the lives of the baptizees.
The main ways it talks are in terms of death and resurrection – that’s one, and the other is in terms of cleansing. But, whilst they are ‘main’ because they are repeated, I think there are others too. And I would like to share with you the seven that I can see.
I think they are all really there, and I think they are all useful.
Number 1 – The waters of natural birth connect baptism with new birth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In John 3 Jesus said that ‘no one can see the kingdom of God unless they be born again’. And that puzzled Nicodemus, who asked how a person could possibly enter back into their mother’s womb and be born a second time.
Then Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh and the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “you must be born again”’.
So, Jesus is saying, to enter into the kingdom of God – which is to say, to become a part of God’s entourage; to be a member of his household; to have a hope of his glory – you must have more than merely a natural birth.
You must be born of both water and spirit, not just water alone. All people are born via water, but to enter the kingdom of God you must have a second water birth. Not natural waters this time, but supernatural waters – that is you must be birthed as a new person made alive by the Spirit of God.
And I think it’s legitimate to make this link with baptism because, all over the new testament where baptism is recorded, it is attended by manifestations of the Holy Spirit of God.
And, because of one text which makes the link really clear, 1 Corinthians 12:13: ‘For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body’.So, according to Paul, what Jesus was referring to when he used the phrase ‘born again’ was a form of baptism. An immersion in the Holy Spirit of God.
That immersion – that new birth – has to be present for anybody who is going to be baptised. By water baptism we are saying, ‘we have been born again of the Spirit of God’. Not one birth of water, but two births – the second being by the Spirit.
So, the waters of birth connect baptism with new birth by the Spirit of God.
Number 2 – The waters of the Red Sea connect baptism with a new way of life.
Exodus 14 records the miraculous events of Israel’s escape from Egypt via the Red Sea. With the Egyptians in pursuit of the people, the Lord parted the waters of the Red Sea and the Israelites crossed on dry land - safely to the other side.
Their enemies pursued them, and then God caused the waters to engulf them as they receded to their normal place.
Now, 1 Corinthians 10:1 picks up on these events and comments that the Israelites all passed through the sea. And then Paul says in verse 2, ‘They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea’.
Then in verse 6 he says, ‘Now all these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did’.
In other words, Paul is using their example of unbelief following their baptism in the red sea, to encourage us not follow in their footsteps.
What really happens when someone is born again is they are translated from death to life. Now the Israelites were translated from death in Egypt to life on the other side of the Red Sea. And God did that. He translated them by a miracle that Paul calls a ‘baptism’.
The supernatural translation we have undergone should have implications for the rest of our lives. We are not to be like the Israelites who were disobedient after their baptism, we are to live lives worthy of the miracle of transformation that has really happened.
Here’s what Paul says about that in two places. First Colossians 3:3, ‘For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God’ and then in Ephesians 4, verses 22 following, ‘You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its evil desires and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness’.
By the Baptism of the Holy Spirit you were translated from death to life and when that happened you died to your old self and you put on a new self-created to be like God.
So, if you now live with no change in your life then you are not what you think you are. Change is inevitable in the Spirit-born believer. We cannot be like the Israelites and continue in disobedience.
The waters of the Red Sea connect Baptism with a new way of life – a life of obedience in love for God.
Number 3 – The waters of Naaman connect baptism with cleansing.
2 Kings 5 has the story of Naaman, a commander of a powerful army who had leprosy. He had an Israelite maid and she thought the answer to his disease lay with the God of Israel.
Elisha sent for Naaman and told him this, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the river Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed’.
After Naaman had objected to the River of choice, verse 14 tells us he dipped seven times and ‘his flesh was restored and his skin became like that of a young boy’.
Now when the Apostle Paul was recounting his own conversion experience, he said that God had spoken to him from heaven. And one of the things he said to him was, ‘what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on his name’ (Acts 22:16).
So Naaman had to be dipped to be cleansed of Leprosy and Paul’s baptism is a picture of him being cleansed from his sins.
Therefore, the waters of Baptism remind us that God has cleansed us thoroughly by the blood of Jesus.
Number 4 – The waters of the flood connect baptism with rescue.
In 1 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter takes up the response God made to the disobedience of people in Noah’s day. He says, ‘God waited patiently in the day of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also’.
So, baptism symbolises rescue from the wrath of God.
Number 5 – The waters of Meribah connect baptism with soul-satisfaction.
Exodus 17 records the time when the Israelites had no water to drink and God made water burst forth from a rock to satisfy their thirst.
The apostle Paul picks up on the event in 1 Corinthians 10 again. He says that that rock was Christ and the water was spiritual water.
What he means is, that like the rock from which water sprung to satisfy the thirst of the Israelites, Jesus has spiritual waters that flow from him and they satisfy his people who are constantly thirsting for God – which is exactly Jesus’ point when he encounters the woman at the well in John 4.
Baptism speaks to us of our soul at last experiencing full satisfaction in God.
Number 6 – The waters of the cloud connect baptism with obedience.
In 1 Corinthians 10, where the apostle Paul said that the Israelites were all baptised into the Red Sea, he also said they were all baptised into the cloud.
I think he has in mind Exodus 19:9 when God said to Moses, ‘”I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you”’.
The occasion of that meeting was for God to make covenant with the people and to share with them all his commandments from Mount Sinai.
And now Jesus has come, and in his blood, made a new covenant with his people. So, it’s not surprising when, in his parting remarks to the disciples, he not only tells them to baptise new followers of Jesus that they make, but also to ‘teach them to obey everything I have commanded you’.
The waters of the cloud connect baptism with obedience.
Lastly, seventh – The waters of the river Jordan connect baptism with death and resurrection life.
Joshua 4 records how God again divided the waters to allow the Israelites to pass through. They passed through on dry land into the promised land – Canaan.
However, most of the Israelites that passed through the red sea, did notpass through the Jordan. Why? Because, God declared in his anger that they would not enter his promised rest.
Hebrews picks up on this in chapter 4. Verse 6 says, ‘Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it “Today”.
That means that there is a corresponding spiritual land of rest that Canaan was pointing towards and by faith in Jesus we will enter into it. We will not fall by the way side like those Israelites, who, through unbelief did not enter.
1 Peter 3 tells us that baptism is the pledge of a clear conscience towards God and it saves us by the resurrection of Jesus who has gone into heaven. And Romans 6:4 says, ‘We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life’.
We will all die. And those who die with Christ will be resurrected to everlasting peace in the new heavens and new earth – the home of glory. Baptism is the pledge of that future reality.
So, those are seven water motifs that speak of the work that has been wrought in our lives by God Almighty and which Baptism is the emblem of.
It, just remains to be said that it will be a glad day when these Riverside folks are baptised. We will rejoice like the Ethiopian Eunuch. We will be glad like Lydia and we will overflow with joy like the Philippian jailor because of all the things God has done on our behalf and on their behalf which we will be witnesses of.