BAPTISM: THE SIGN OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS

ACTS 2: 37-41

INTRODUCTION

The timing, method and meaning of baptism have been a source of great conflict throughout the history of the church. Many of the great divisions within the Christian church have been in part due to the ways in which different Christians have understood baptism. The church has divided over who should be baptized: all infants, only the infant children of believers, or only individuals who have given a credible profession of faith in Christ? Churches differ over the method of baptism: by sprinkling, pouring or immersion? The church has argued for centuries over what is the meaning of baptism. Baptism is an important subject for us to understand and one about which you cannot remain neutral. The practice of water baptism is mentioned over 80 times in the NT. Jesus commanded us, the church, to baptize all those who we enlist as his followers in Matthew 28:19. Baptism is not an issue that you can remain indifferent to. It is my aim this morning to attempt to summarize the NT teaching on the issue of baptism.

I have personally experienced the heat generated by this topic on several occasions. My first encounter with the controversy surrounding baptism was during the spring semester of my senior year of college. As I have mentioned on several occasions God caused me to born again by his Spirit and his word in the spring of my junior year of college. God, through various people presenting the gospel to me, brought me face to face with the reality of my sin and of his just condemnation of me for my sin. He then revealed to me the greatness of his love for sinners in his sending Jesus to die for sinners and to rise from the dead so that every sinner who renounces their sin and trusts in Jesus is forgiven of their sins and declared perfectly righteous because of Christ.

My parents are members of the Lutheran church and baptized me into the Lutheran faith when I as an infant. We were very sporadic in our attendance of Sunday worship until we moved from Janesville to Oregon, WI when I was 12 years old. At that time we began attending worship every Sunday and became very involved in the life of the church. I went through confirmation classes and was confirmed in the Lutheran faith when I was 13 years old. While I went to church with my family through high school and even taught Sunday School during some of those years, my “faith” was very minimal and generic. I knew God existed and if anyone had asked I would have agreed that Jesus was the Son of God who died on the cross and rose from the dead. However, I had no real interest in Christ, the Bible or the church. Living as a Christian was not something I ever thought about. In my senior year of high school in order to justify certain sins I was enjoying I decided that the whole concept of sin and of Satan was not true. I didn’t share this with anyone and I didn’t stop going to church until I left home and went to college.

By the time I was a junior in college I decided that God didn’t exist and that is what I told my friends whenever we would get into religious discussions. I loved school and being active in student government and having lots of friends and partying and hunting and playing basketball and girls. I had no interest in Christ or anything associated with him and would regularly mock anyone who talked serious about religious matters. No one was more surprised than me when I became a Christian in the spring of 1975. One moment I was a contented fun-loving pagan and the next I loved Christ, loved reading the Bible, going to church, attending small group Bible studies and talking with others about Christ. Whenever I would go home I would talk with my siblings and parents about the gospel and my faith in Christ. My siblings were all basically in the same place I had been. My parents were both glad about my new faith and a little suspicious of my enthusiasm.

My parent’s church got a new pastor during my senior year and one weekend when I was home from college my mom told me that I would probably enjoy meeting the new pastor. I did go to see him and we had a wonderful conversation about the gospel and about our conversions to Christ. His experience had been similar to mine except that he was converted to Christ while attending seminary to be a Lutheran pastor. It was while reading through the Bible himself for the first time in his life that he understood that it was what Christ had done for him in his life, death and resurrection that gave him a relationship with God, not what he did. He asked me if I would be interested in taking a few minutes to share my story with the congregation. I agreed and so we set a date for me to take five minutes to share my story of coming to faith in Christ with the congregation in which I had grown up. I spoke for twenty minutes that Sunday morning, taking up the entire time for the sermon. I explained how I had become a Christian. While a number of the adults who had known me during my teens expressed their happiness in my conversion, I found out years later that I deeply offended many other individuals in the church.

While I didn’t know it at the time the offense I gave was summarized by what the assistant pastor, whom I had known for years, said to me as I was leaving church that morning, after sharing my story. As he shook my hand he looked me in the eye and said, “John, remember your baptism.” While I never talked with him about what he meant, over the years as I studied and grew in my understanding of church history, especially the history of Christian doctrine, I came to understand what he was saying to me. He meant that when my parents baptized me that I was born again by God’s Spirit and became a child of God. I became a Christian when I was baptized. My parents brought me to baptism believing the promise that Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead to give me eternal life. I was saved by the grace of God through the faith of my parents in Christ at my baptism as an infant. So when I said that I had become a Christian during my junior year of college, in the eyes of my former pastor and many in the congregation I was repudiating everything that they believed about the gospel and what it means to be a Christian. As far as my pastor was concerned and many in the congregation I had been a Christian my whole life and to say I had become a Christian during my junior year was highly offensive.

It is not possible in the time we have this morning to critique this and every other view of baptism. What I want to do is begin with Acts 2: 37-41 and show what the NT testament teaches about what baptism signifies. In my preparation for this morning I read through every passage that uses the verb “to baptize” or the noun, “baptism”. Then, in light of what we discover in this survey I want to answer four questions. Who should be baptized? Is baptism necessary for salvation? What does baptism accomplish? What is the position of River Hills Community Church on baptism?

MAIN POINT

Acts 2 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. It is one of those chapters, like Genesis 3, which records the fall of man into sin, that record events that have changed the history of the universe. The events of Acts 2 occur 50 days after the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was killed. Jesus was hung on the cross and buried in a tomb on a Friday and the following Sunday he arose from the dead. Over the course of the next 40 days he appeared numerous times to his disciples, one time appearing to over 500 of them at once. If you’ll look back at chapter one of Acts you will see a summary of what he did in v. 3. Notice that in vv. 4-5 Jesus tells his disciples that they should remain in Jerusalem until they are baptized with the Holy Spirit. This coming of the Holy Spirit is called “the gift my Father promised”. When did God promise the coming of the Holy Spirit as a gift to his people? Isaiah 44, “I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring.” Ezekiel 36, “I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to walk in my ways.” Then, three years prior to this event, John the Baptist said that while he was baptizing with water, that Jesus would baptize his people with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit himself is the gift that God had been promising to give to his people for thousands of years.

In 1:9 we see Jesus leaving his disciples for the last time and ascending into heaven. Then, 10 days later, the Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and his Father to the 120 disciples of Jesus who are gathered together in a room. Look at 2:1. All 120 disciples, both men and women, young and old are filled with the Holy Spirit. There are three physical manifestations of this filling. There is a sound like the sound of a violent wind in the house where they are sitting. There appears over the head of each of these disciples what seemed to be a tongue of fire. All of them began speaking in other languages. The sound of the wind and then the presence of these 120 men and women in the streets of Jerusalem quickly gather a crowd of people who are amazed as they realize that these people are all Galileans and yet they are declaring the praises of God in their native languages. This occurred on one of the Jewish feast days, the feast of Pentecost. There were Jewish people from throughout the Roman Empire in Jerusalem to celebrate. They are bewildered and want to know how this could be possible, that these 120 Galilean men and women are speaking in the various languages of the known world.

Peter stands up and explains what is happening by quoting from the OT prophet, Joel. He says that what they are witnessing is nothing less than the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the OT to save his people. He says that this is the first day of the last days prophesied in the OT. He explains that Jesus is the long awaited Savior and Messiah. He is the descendant of Eve that God promised in Genesis 3:15 would come and destroy Satan. He is the one who is fulfilling God’s promise to bless all the nations of the world through the descendants of Abraham. He is the Son of David who is ruling on the throne of Israel forever. Peter’s whole point is that Jesus Christ by his death and resurrection has satisfied God’s wrath against sin and has now sent the Holy Spirit to gather together his scattered people into the people of God. Peter says that what they are witnessing is what John the Baptist said that Jesus would do. He is baptizing his people with the Holy Spirit and so gathering his wheat into his barn.

I want you to see what happens when Peter finishes his sermon in vv. 36-37. When he tells the people that Jesus, whom they crucified, is the Lord and the Messiah, this crowd of Jewish men and women are cut to the heart. They are terrified and grieved by what they have done and they cry out to Peter, “what shall we do?” What does Peter tell them to do? He first tells them to repent. They must turn around. They must acknowledge that they were wrong about Jesus and they were wrong to kill Jesus. They must acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord and the Messiah. They must turn away from their sins and turn to Christ as their only hope and only Savior. Then he tells them they must be baptized in the name of Jesus. In other words, they must openly identify with Jesus by being immersed in water.

Now notice that immediately he says that this baptism is “for the forgiveness of sins.” That little preposition “for” is key to understanding the place and function of water baptism. It could mean that when you repent and are baptized that then your sins are forgiven. In other words, baptism causes or results in forgiveness. There are significant portions of professing Christians that teach exactly that. They are in error. The “for” doesn’t mean in order that you can be forgiven. Rather is means because you are forgiven. The simplest way I know to show this is to consider this statement that is on every wanted poster down at the Post Office. What is on every wanted poster? Wanted for murder or kidnapping or embezzlement. Do these posters mean that these people are wanted in order to commit murder? Obviously not. They are wanted because they have committed the crime for which they are wanted. In the same way, baptism in the name of Jesus does not produce forgiveness, rather you are baptized in the name of Jesus because you are forgiven by Christ through your repentance and faith.

One thing that baptism signifies then is that a person’s sins have been forgiven. Then notice that Peter says that another thing that is true of all who repent and are baptized is that they have received the Holy Spirit. Verse 39 is the climax. It begins with the word “for”. “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for as many as the Lord our God will call.” Peter is again making the point that all that is transpiring here is the fulfillment of all God’s promises throughout the OT to save his people. When you repent of your sins and are baptized into the name of Jesus Christ you show that you are participating in that great salvation that God has promised to all whom he will call out of all the nations of the world. What I want to do now is to show you the faithfulness of God to his promise that is symbolized by water baptism.

 

Baptism is the external sign that God has been faithful to his promises by…

 

•  Forgiving your sins for the sake of Christ (Acts 2:38)

We’ve already seen that baptism is the external sign that your sins have been forgiven for the sake of Jesus.

•  Giving you his Spirit, i.e. effectually calling you to himself for the sake of Christ (Acts 2:38, 10:47, Titus 3:5)

We’ve also seen that baptism also signifies that you have received the Holy Spirit. If you would flip over to Acts 10 for a moment to see this even more clearly. In Acts 10 Peter has gone to the home of a non-Jewish person, an officer in the Roman army. He has preached to this officer and his entire Gentile household the good news about Jesus. Read with me beginning in v. 44. While Peter is speaking to these Gentiles, the Holy Spirit came upon them. The way that Peter and the other Jewish Christians knew this happened is that they began to speak in other languages and to praise God just like he and the other 120 believers had done on the day of Pentecost. He then commands that they be baptized with water as it is evident that God has saved them as well. He has fulfilled his promise to “pour out his Spirit” to these Gentiles. So baptism is the external, physical symbol that God has given you the gift of his Holy Spirit.

If you’ll flip back to Acts 2 this is connected to the last phrase of v. 39. Receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is equated with God’s calling a person into his salvation. What we have here is a statement of God’s sovereign grace. It is what he promised in Ezekiel 36 when he said that he would put his Spirit in his people and give them new hearts. It is what he promised in Jeremiah 31 when he said he would write his law on the hearts of his people so that they would all know him. It is what Paul says in Titus 3:5 when he describes what God has done for every Christian, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So baptism is an external sign of an inward reality. It shows that God has effectually called you into his kingdom by the work of the Holy Spirit.

•  Giving you repentance for the sake of Christ (Acts 11:16-18)

After I printed the notes I realized that points 3 & 4 actually should be sub points of two, as they are simply showing the effect in a person’s life of the coming of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 11:16-18 Peter is describing the conversion of the Roman soldier, Cornelius and his household to the skeptical Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. He explains how he baptized them when he saw that God had poured out his Spirit upon them. In fact, he had to do it as God obviously had accepted them. When the Jewish Christians heard this they said, “So then God has granted even Gentiles repentance unto life.” Baptism symbolizes not only that you have repented but that God is the one who has given you repentance.

•  Opening your heart to receive the gospel, i.e. giving you faith in Christ (Acts 2:41, 16:13-15)

In Acts 16 Paul is preaching the gospel to a small group of Jewish people gathered together on the Sabbath outside the Roman colony at Philippi. We are told in v. 14, “One of those listening was a woman called Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’” God enabled Lydia to believe the gospel and she was baptized as a result of her believing the gospel. Baptism is again a symbol of the fact that God has granted you faith in Jesus Christ by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit.

•  Giving you salvation for the sake of Christ (Acts 2:40, 16:31-34)

Just state the point.

•  Washing away your sins for the sake of Christ (Acts 22:16 with 1 Corinthians 6:11 & Eph. 5:25)

In Acts 22 Paul is recounting the story of his own conversion. He tells how the Christian Ananias came to him in Damascus to heal him of his blindness caused by the Lord when he appeared to him on the road to Damascus. He says that Ananias said to him after healing him, “Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins by calling on his name.” Baptism is a perfect picture of that spiritual cleansing that takes place by the death of Christ when you trust in him. There are several times in the NT where the effect of Christ’s death is described in exactly this language. The physical washing of from your body with water in baptism symbolizes the spiritual washing of sin from your life by the blood of Christ.

•  Uniting you to Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:1-10, Col. 2: 11-12)

We have in Romans 6 and Colossians 2 the climax of what baptism signifies. Here we are told that everyone who has been baptized into Christ Jesus has been united with him in his death and in his resurrection. Paul is not saying that baptism is the cause of our union with Jesus. We know this due to the fact that Romans 6 is preceded by five other chapters which make plain that we are united to Christ by the grace of God operating through our faith in Christ. Then in Col. 2:12 we are specifically told that all those who were buried with Christ in baptism were raised with Christ by their faith in the power of God. The point is that all who are baptized have faith in Christ. Baptism is the physical symbol of the fact that God has united us to Christ. What this means is that baptism shows that when Christ died, we died and when Christ was raised from the dead we also were given a new, resurrection life. Going under the water in the act of baptism shows that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. When we come up out of the water we are showing that we have been given the new, divine, resurrected life of Jesus Christ. We show this reality by living new lives of love for God and people.

•  Making you a member of Christ’s body, the church (Gal 3: 26-29, Eph. 4:3-6 with 1 Cor. 12:13)

The last thing I want to emphasize here is that baptism symbolizes the unity we have been given in Christ. All of us who have faith in Christ are members of God’s family. We all belong to Christ equally. We all have been given the gift of salvation and by passing through the waters of baptism we bear public testimony to this spiritual reality that we receive by faith. Notice that for Paul, everyone who believes in Christ has also undergone water baptism. It is the assumption of the NT because water baptism is the physical symbol of God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promises to all his people.

•  Rescuing you from his wrath for the sake of Christ (Matt. 3:7, 1 Peter 2:19-21)

State the point.

Who should be baptized?

It seems quite clear to me that the only people who should be baptized are those who have been born again by the Spirit of God and give evidence to their regeneration by the fact that they have repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus as their Savior. Personally, I do not see any evidence in the NT that anyone but those who have been regenerated and who trust in Christ were baptized. I do not believe there is any indication in the NT that infants were baptized.

Let me be quick to add, however, that while I am convinced that those who baptize babies are in error, there are going to be millions of people in heaven, saved by Christ, who were baptized as babies. Some of the best and most articulate Christian theologians and pastors through the centuries have been persuaded that babies should be baptized. It seems to me that baptism should not be an issue that divides true Christians from one another. It does present some practical difficulties when we all belong to the same church but I do not think that the form of baptism should divide us. However, there is an erroneous view of baptism that must be repudiated, that I must address.

Is baptism necessary for salvation?

There are many who teach that baptism is either necessary for salvation or the cause of salvation. Either position is wrong and dangerous. Baptism is not necessary for salvation, nor does it automatically confer salvation upon the person being baptized. Let me give you what I have found to be the simplest and most persuasive evidence that it is not necessary for salvation. In Romans 1:16 Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” What is it that saves people from the wrath of God and gains them eternal life? Paul says it is the gospel, the good news about Jesus. Who are the people the gospel saves? Those who have faith in the gospel are saved by it. Then in 1 Corinthians 1: 13-17 Paul, in the midst of rebuking the Corinthian church for their divisiveness says, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name… For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…” Paul, the great apostle, did not come to baptize but to preach the gospel. If baptism is necessary for salvation or confers salvation upon those baptized, he would not have said that. Baptism is not a part of the gospel and the gospel is what saves people, therefore baptism is not necessary for salvation.

What this means is that anyone who holds that baptism is necessary for salvation is not believing the gospel. All who teach that baptism saves people, makes them a part of God’s family or who teach that you cannot be saved without being baptized are not Christians for they are not believing the gospel.

What does baptism accomplish?

Baptism is the ceremony that Jesus Christ established as the symbol of his saving work in the life of an individual. It is a picture of the gospel. It symbolizes our union with Christ that results in our forgiveness and our living a new life by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a celebration of the faithfulness of God to his promise to save people from death and hell and to give them new, eternal, resurrection life. Therefore, all who profess Christ ought to be baptized. Refusing to be baptized is not something that a true Christian will do. If you count yourself as a Christian, then you should bear witness to the saving work of God in your life by being publicly baptized in water. We are going to be holding a baptismal service in November and so if you count yourself a Christian and have not yet been baptized then I want you to talk with me or another elder so you can be baptized in obedience to Christ.

What is the position of River Hills Community Church on baptism?

The doctrinal statement of the Evangelical Free Church of America, of which we are a member states, “We believe that baptism and communion are ordinances that the church is to practice but they are not to be regarded as means of salvation.” In other words, you can belong to our church, be a member of our church, and believe that babies should be baptized as long as you do not believe that baptism is the means of salvation or necessary to it. You cannot belong to our church if you do not believe that Christians should be baptized. What I have taught today is what I am convinced to be what the NT teaches about baptism. So, if you are going to hold to infant baptism you simply need to know that whenever I speak about it I will say that the only people who should be baptized are those who profess faith in Christ, which infants cannot do. However, you also need to know that believing that babies should be baptized will in no way affect your standing in the church or your ability to serve or give leadership in our church, unless you make it an issue of division. We are not here to baptize but to preach the gospel.

We are beginning a new process in relation to baptism. One of the difficulties that face us is deciding when to baptize the children of believing parents. It’s easier to tell when an adult who has been living as a non-Christian places his or her faith in Christ than when a child raised in a Christian home has done so. Therefore, the elder board has decided to use a process that was developed at Bethlehem Baptist Church in St. Paul, MN. All of you will be getting in the mail either yesterday or early this week a description of the process. I would like everyone to take the time to read this and if you haven’t been baptized or if you have a child between the ages of 11 and 18 whom you think is ready to be baptized, then talk with me or another elder and we’ll begin the process.