Why the Water? [B]

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Transcript:

This morning we started looking at Acts 2. 38, and if you’ll turn there with me again, we’ll look at it a little bit more tonight. We started talking about the idea of baptism, and this being one of those passages that’s sometimes misinterpreted, and how sometimes we can know the right thing to do, and we can even do it, but if we misunderstand the reasons why we’re doing it, it can lead to confusion and disappointment.

Well, one of those areas is in the area of baptism. As I tried to lay out for you this morning while looking at this passage and a few others, really, if we try to add baptism as being necessary for salvation, first of all, I don’t think the Bible teaches that. There are passages that sound that way until you look at them in the context of some other passages that are, I think, clearer, we start to see that the Bible does not teach that baptism is required for salvation, although the Bible does teach that baptism is important.

But the real danger in buying into the idea that we have to be baptized in order to be saved, other than the fact that Scripture doesn’t teach it, is that by trying to add baptism, trying to add baptism as a condition for salvation, we end up diminishing the work that Christ did on the cross by saying it was not sufficient. It was not all sufficient. It did not make a full sacrifice for sins.

It did not accomplish everything. And in fact, Jesus was confused when he said it’s finished. When he said it was finished, it was either finished or not.

He didn’t say almost finished. He said it was finished. and so if baptism is not required for salvation though that doesn’t mean that it’s not important there are a lot of things that are not required for salvation but it doesn’t mean that they are not important do I have to pray every day to be saved?

no but it’s still a really good idea do I have to read my Bible every day to be saved? no but it’s still a good thing for me baptism is one of those things that the Bible does teach as being something important and something that’s valuable to us, even if it’s not required for salvation. That’s why when they said, what should we do?

His answer was repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. And I’ve told you this morning, I think that means because of the remission of sins, not in order to obtain the remission of sins. What he had just talked about in Acts chapter 2 is everything that Jesus had done already to purchase for them the remission of sins.

So in response to what he’s already done to purchase the remission of sins, what do we do? He says, repent and be baptized. In other words, humble yourselves before him enough to ask his forgiveness and then go follow him.

Because that’s one of the things that baptism is about. It’s about a sign of following Christ. And I’m getting ahead of myself tonight. But we’re going to look at this passage.

And then we’re going to talk about, we’re going to look at a couple passages in Acts and Romans tonight. and see, okay, if baptism isn’t part of salvation, then what is it for? And there are three things tonight that we’re going to look at, and I don’t think this will take very long, but three things we’re going to look at tonight as far as what baptism is for, what the Bible teaches that baptism really is for.

And I’ll just go ahead and lay it out for you that baptism has nothing to do with saving us, as I’ve already said, but it has everything to do with pointing back to the salvation that we’ve already found in Jesus Christ. Let me repeat that for you to make it crystal clear. Baptism has nothing to do with saving us, but it has everything to do with pointing out the salvation we’ve already found in Jesus Christ. And that’s what he’s telling them. That’s what he’s telling them.

He’s already done all this for the remission of sins, so you go and repent and be baptized. If you’re wanting to respond to this message of the gospel, then repent and then follow it up with baptism. Turn with me a few chapters back to Acts chapter 8.

There’s a passage in here that raises a lot of questions for me, but not questions about what we’re discussing tonight. Acts chapter 8, starting in verse 35. Shortly before we start in verse 35, Philip has been traveling on the road, and he meets an Ethiopian eunuch who has been sent there by the queen of Ethiopia.

And he comes alongside him on the road and sees him reading out of the book of Isaiah. And it’s out of Isaiah chapter 53 about the, let me see if I can find it here, about the lamb who was led to the slaughter. In verse 32 it references that.

That’s a reference back to the book of Isaiah. And he asks the eunuch, he said, do you understand what you’re reading? And the eunuch says, how can I unless there’s somebody to guide me in understanding it?

Isaiah 53, along with a lot of parts of Isaiah, it can be difficult to understand if you don’t know who Jesus Christ is. But if we know who Jesus Christ is, folks, I challenge you to look at Isaiah chapter 53 and tell me that he’s not talking about Jesus Christ. I’ve used this phrase for years since I left Blanchard. Brother David Pickard up there used to refer to it as the gospel of Isaiah.

He said it’s so clear in its referencing of Jesus Christ. He said that I like to call it the gospel of Isaiah. And I thought that’s great. I’ve used that ever since.

It’s a reference to Jesus Christ. So he began to open the scriptures and he began to explain to this Ethiopian who the Messiah was that was being referenced in Isaiah 53. Began to explain to him Jesus Christ through the scriptures and the man was convicted. See, the Ethiopians had some knowledge of the Jewish religion going back centuries to where Solomon had met with the Queen of Sheba.

And so they had the scriptures. They had the Old Testament. He’s reading it.

He’s in Jerusalem to come and worship. But he didn’t understand it in its fullness until Philip took him aside and explained to him who Jesus was, how he was the fulfillment of that passage, and what it was exactly he had come to do. And so after he’d explained this, it says in verse 35, Then Philip opened his mouth and began the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.

And as they went on their way, they came to a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? So the man had put his trust in Christ, but he’s thinking, now I need to be baptized.

He’s explained to me the crucifixion. He’s explained to me the resurrection. He’s explained to me the need to take up my cross and follow him.

He’s explained to me the need to follow him in obedience. Well, there’s some water. Is there any possible reason, Philip, you can think of why I can’t be baptized?

And Philip says in verse 37, lays out the precondition for baptism. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He said, if you believe, then it’s time to be baptized.

we don’t wait around and see do I really want to follow Jesus Christ we don’t get baptized we don’t jump into baptism because everybody else is doing it because it’s a cultural thing we don’t baptize because you’re an infant and you’re born into a Christian family if you believe in Jesus Christ you follow him in baptism and his answer here is I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and by saying he’s the son of God He’s assenting to everything else that Philip had taught him about the crucifixion, about the resurrection. You can’t read Isaiah 53 and not think about the crucifixion and resurrection. And so for him to say that, he’s saying, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

He’s the one that God promised. I believe Philip’s message was one of Christ crucified for our sins. And for him to say, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

He’s saying, I believe with all my heart this message that you brought me about Jesus. Verse 38 says, and he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.

And this is just a little aside in this. It’s a relative, I mean, it’s not unimportant, but it’s a relatively minor point to this message. You notice that in several of the places where the Bible talks about baptism, it says they went down into the water and they came up from the water.

There’s a reason why we baptize by going completely into the water. And first of all, that’s the way they did it in Scripture. Second of all is the picture that it paints, which we’re going to talk about in a few minutes of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But what was Philip doing?

I mean, what was the eunuch doing by being baptized? Was he being baptized? Because that’s what I’m supposed to do.

It’s a cultural thing. He’s from Ethiopia. They had the Old Testament, but obviously he didn’t know about Jesus until Philip came and explained it.

Philip told him, if you believe, then let’s do this. And he said, I absolutely believe. I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God.

By undergoing baptism, that eunuch was making a statement to Philip. He was making a statement to everybody else, anybody else who might have been there. He was making a statement to the whole world, ladies and gentlemen, that he believed Jesus Christ was exactly who he claimed to be.

That’s one thing that baptism is supposed to be about today. Not about saving us, but about a statement of faith. That’s why it always accompanies a public declaration of faith.

When we baptize somebody, any place I’ve ever been, when we baptize somebody, we want to hear from them that they believe in Jesus Christ first. And most of the time in Fayetteville, when I was going to baptize somebody, I had them get up in front of the church and tell them exactly what happened and what they believe. And on rare occasions, when somebody is too shy to speak in front of the group, hey, you write it out and stand up there with me and I’ll read it. And all you have to do is tell the people, yeah, he got it right.

But one way or another, you need to make a, this is what you’re doing. You’re making a public declaration. This is not just some thing we go through.

It’s not just some rite of passage. You are making a declaration of faith. You are saying, I am persuaded.

I am convinced that Jesus Christ is exactly who he claimed to be and that he died for my sins on the cross. That’s what baptism is. It’s not to earn our salvation, but it’s pointing out the fact I believe that what he did for me on the cross has already purchased my salvation.

First of all, baptism is a public declaration of faith. Turn with me to Romans chapter 6. This is sort of where we’ll camp out the rest of the message.

Romans chapter 6. They’re talking about baptism here again. He says in verse 1, what shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. You know, there’s a teaching in scripture that where there was sin or where sin abounded that much more did grace abound you know where our sin was was deep and wide the grace of God was deeper and wider still and so that could lead some people to the false conclusion that well let’s just sin that much more than there’s that much more grace to go around and Paul’s answer here is hey you know it’s it’s great that the grace is available when we’ve sinned greatly, that there is abundant grace.

And we should be thankful for that. But let’s not deliberately, let’s not deliberately go big or go home here so that God’s grace just abounds. Okay, let’s not abuse the grace of God.

He says, God forbid. No, we shouldn’t sin more on purpose so there’s more grace. He says, God forbid.

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? He said, in Christ, we’ve died to the old way of living. That old guy is dead.

The Bible refers to it as the old man in places. The old man is dead. He’s been killed and you put on the new man.

So if we’re dead to sin, how can we live in sin anymore? How can we? Listening to the radio this week, one of the interviewers, one of the talk show hosts was talking about a certain politician.

And honestly, I can’t remember which one it was. but something they’d said over the last couple weeks, and the talk show host said, ah, he’s dead to me. And that wasn’t a threat of any kind.

That was just saying, you know, after what he’s said, after what he’s done, I don’t want him on the show. I don’t want to talk about him. I don’t want his name mentioned.

He’s dead to me. Okay? If the host is dead to Senator so-and-so, that means I’m not going back and interviewing him.

I’m not giving him publicity, the time of day, any of that. Folks, if we’re dead to sin, or sin is dead to us, however you want to look at it, the Bible says we’re dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Our goal should be to not give sin the time of day, rather than embrace it and say, let’s bring it in so there’s that much more grace to abound.

How then, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? He says in verse 3, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

First of all here, well, first of all from this passage, it’s actually the second point of the message, is that baptism is a proclamation of our change. It’s a proclamation of our change. And before we get too hung up on the phrasing our change, let’s not misunderstand.

I’m not saying that we change ourselves. I’m not saying that we clean our lives up. As a matter of fact, it talks about us being baptized into Jesus and being baptized into his death.

And talks about us no longer living in sin, but the old man being crucified, as it refers to in so many other passages. The old man being crucified, but even says this in verse 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. And he says the baptism is a picture of that death.

When something dies, you’ve got to bury it. And he says that old man with the sin is buried. And so even though it’s not the baptism that saves us, ladies and gentlemen, we could look at our baptism as sort of a going away party, a good riddance party.

The funeral for the old man when we finally put him in the ground. Baptism is symbolic of the change that we’ve been buried with Christ and we’ve been raised, it says, to walk in newness of life. And I love that phrase.

I’ve heard, you know, I grew up in a church that switched affiliations. And so I grew up independent Baptist and then Southern Baptist and then missionary Baptist. and they all three, I mean after you say buried in the, I’m sorry, baptized in, I bury you in the name of the Father, I’ve never said that, baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, they all have a slightly different wording to what they say next and I never can remember what any of them are and I think when I baptize people, I mean at that point the exact words you say are not tremendously important as long as it’s a biblical message and You’re baptizing in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But I never could remember exactly what words I was supposed to say.

And it usually came out some kind of combination of the three that I heard growing up. But I think every time I used the phrase, and raised to walk in newness of life, because that comes right out of the scriptures. We are supposed to be different, not because we got dunked underwater.

We are supposed to be different because we were baptized into his death at the moment of conversion. That we were baptized into Jesus at the moment of our conversion. We were immersed into Jesus.

Because the old man was crucified and the new man was put on. Not by any effort of our own, but by Jesus. And us going under the water is simply a picture of the burial. And then we’re raised not just to be left dead, that we’re raised to walk in newness of life as we’re enabled by the Holy Spirit.

And folks, baptism should be a proclamation that there’s a change that has taken place and a change that’s begun. Because as I’ve said so many times, and I think both the Bible and experience teach this, that the change that Christ makes and the Holy Spirit makes in our hearts is both instant and ongoing. I think it’s called conversion for a reason.

there should be some level of immediate change that takes place in our hearts and our lives when we come to Christ if there’s no immediate change we might want to take stock of what we think we’ve experienced but that’s not to say that everything in our lives changes we don’t immediately become immune to sin we don’t immediately not everybody does a complete 180 at the moment of conversion And there should be some change that is instantaneous. But then, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the grace of God, He continues to work in us and through us for the rest of our lives to conform us to be more and more like Jesus Christ. And so the change is ongoing. And so this ceremony, for lack of a better word, that we go through, this ordinance that we observe, is a picture of the change of life.

that has just taken place in one sense and has just begun to take place in the other. That baptism is a picture of the newness of life that we’re raised to walk in in Jesus Christ. So it’s a public declaration of faith. It’s a proclamation of our change.

And finally tonight, it’s a picture of Christ’s death. This is perhaps the most important. It’s a picture.

It’s a reminder of Christ’s death. I may have told you all before, I struggled for several years trying to figure out why foot washing was not an ordinance of the church. It’s not that I believed it was, but thought, okay, why do we draw that line there?

I said, well, because Jesus commanded us to do the other two. Well, he told them that they needed to wash each other’s feet. Okay, what is it?

And several things. Well, what if this is the line? No, that doesn’t work.

And it finally occurred to me one day that both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are pictures of the death of Christ. they’re both illustrations if you want to use that terminology they’re both illustrations of the gospel they both provide a picture to the church and to a watching world of what Christ did baptism is ultimately a picture of what Jesus Christ did for us every bit as much as the Lord’s supper and I know sometimes the the Lord’s supper is is treated as a time of a lot of we treat it with a lot of reverence and we should. You know, I read that passage about taking it unworthy and some have fallen asleep and meaning some have died from taking it unworthy and it always scares the living daylights out of me. And you know what, I spend a lot of time preparing when we’re going to take the Lord’s Supper.

And rightfully so. We ought to consider taking that much time to prepare ourselves every time we go to worship. But I spend a lot of time, and I know a lot of people do too, spend a lot of time preparing to take the Lord’s Supper.

And it’s a solemn thing, and it’s something we treat, at least in the churches I’ve been in, we treat it with reverence, and we’re careful about it. I’ve also seen sometimes we’ll just baptize anybody at the drop of a hat, whether they understand what they’re doing, whether half the time people get up and leave while we’re having baptism because they’ve got to get to the restaurant. Folks, they are equally, and I’ve never seen this here, so I’m not calling you out on it.

But folks, they are equally pictures of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. I think they carry equal weight. They show the same thing. Now, I think there’s a little more celebration involved.

Well, no, there’s a different kind of celebration involved in baptism because you’ve also got the added element of somebody’s just starting out on their journey for Christ. But folks, baptism is every bit as momentous a picture of Christ’s death as the Lord’s Supper. And we ought to treat it like a serious thing because it’s a picture to the world that we really do believe that He died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again. That’s why there’s so much talk in the Bible about the symbolism of baptism and burial, But we don’t just stick somebody under the water and leave them there.

Or we’d have to have a burial for real. No, we put them under the water. And then we bring them up and we say they’re raised to walk in newness of life. Not because of the baptism.

Again, just it being a symbol of the change that’s already taken place. But we’re identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We’re saying not only do I believe this happened, that He did this, and that He did it for me. But I’m saying I choose to walk with Him.

at many times throughout the history of the world and at many places in the world. That’s a death sentence. And I’m not saying there shouldn’t be joy and enthusiasm about baptism.

I’m saying we shouldn’t treat it lightly because we’ve got to remember what it is. It’s not just, oh, he got saved, he needs to get baptized. It’s just something you do.

It’s a picture. It’s meant to be a picture of what Christ did for us. Just every bit as much as the Lord’s Supper, it is a picture, a reminder of what he did.

how much He loved us to go through it and everything that He accomplished when He gave His life, when He shed His blood, when He died and suffered for our sins, for my sins and yours, and when He rose again to prove that He had the power to forgive the sins He claimed to. Baptism is not, according to Scripture, is not about salvation, but it is very much about pointing out the salvation we’ve received.

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