Baptism

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We’re going to be in Colossians chapter 2 tonight. We’re going to look at what our beliefs are about baptism, what the Bible teaches about the subject of baptism. And as we look at what our doctrinal statement says, there’s one statement on baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

I’ve decided to break it down into two parts, and we’ll talk about the Lord’s Supper next week. But if you have your copy of the, if you have your Bible, turn to Colossians 2. If you have your copy of the Baptist Faith and Message, we’re going to be on page 14.

and we’re going to look at this in section 7 and it says christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit okay there’s a lot of information right there uh to to go off of we believe first of all that baptism is immersion in water it’s not sprinkling it’s not pouring uh it’s to be put under the water because it and that ties into some of the things that we’re going to talk about tonight, about the symbolism of baptism, that it is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I don’t want to go to a funeral where they just sprinkle or pour a little bit of dirt on the dead person, right? That’s not typically how we do it. When we bury somebody, we put them all the way in the ground.

Even though Jesus wasn’t buried in a grave as we know it, he was taken and put in a tomb, and he was sealed up inside the earth. It was closed off. So he was buried.

And baptism is a picture of burial. So we believe baptism is by immersion. It’s done of a believer. There are some Christians who believe in baptizing infants.

I mean, you can dunk a baby under the water, or you can pour water on him. It’s not going to hurt him, but it’s not going to do anything either, as far as I understand it, as far as I’m concerned. in every instance in the New Testament where we are shown somebody being baptized they are being baptized subsequent to a profession of faith and so we do believe in something called adult baptism but don’t be thrown by that we do sometimes baptize children but only after we are convinced that they have made a decision with comprehension of what they’ve done I got to baptize Benjamin a while back I all but tried to talk the boy out of making a profession of faith because I wanted to make sure he understood what he was doing.

But he was persistent. He believed Jesus died for him. He believed Jesus paid for his sins.

And he wanted to trust Christ right there. So he did that. And subsequently he was baptized.

And we even waited on the baptism because we wanted to make sure, did not want to give him false assurance, but we wanted to make sure that he understood what was going on. And to the best of our knowledge, he did. And so we move forward with baptism.

And adult baptism just means that, that we baptize those who have consciously trusted Christ as their Savior, that we don’t baptize infants thinking that that somehow brings them into the covenant relationship with God.

all right in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit because there are those who insist on being baptized in jesus name only there are instances in the new testament where it talks about baptizing somebody in the name of jesus and I believe this is done in contrast to in that day people would be baptized into judaism if you were being converted to judaism you would undergo baptism or you could undergo john’s baptism I believe when the bible says talks being baptized in Jesus’ name, I believe it’s talking about being baptized under Jesus’ authority as opposed to one of these other baptisms. It’s the baptism of Jesus rather than the baptism of John or the baptism of conversion into Judaism. And when Jesus said we were to baptize, he said to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Now, ultimately, if we baptize somebody in Jesus’ name, that’s not a huge concern for me except for many of those who insist on baptizing in Jesus’ name do so because they don’t believe in the Trinity. They believe that Jesus has at various times been the Father, He has at various times been the Son, and He is now and at various times the Holy Spirit. So it’s a denial of the Trinity.

It’s what’s called modalism. And so we believe in the Trinity. We believe there’s one God in three persons, three eternally distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And following the formula that Jesus presented there in the Great Commission, we baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. And we’re going to talk about several of these things tonight.

But what we need to understand is baptism is an act of obedience. Baptism is something that we are expected to do out of obedience to Jesus Christ. Do we need to be baptized in order to go to heaven? Not according to my understanding of the Bible.

But do we need to be baptized in order to be obedient to Jesus? I believe so. We are baptized as a way of identifying ourselves with Jesus Christ and out of obedience to Him.

Because he told us, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So that’s one of the commands that he gave in the Great Commission was for us to baptize and make disciples. And then, as it mentioned, it symbolizes the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection.

It represents our death to sin. It represents our newness of life. We’re going to talk about these things tonight.

It says also it’s a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. So we also, by symbolizing his resurrection and our identification with his resurrection, we are telling the world we believe that he is going to raise us up in the same way. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

We believe that in order to be a member of the church, you have to have at least made that step of obedience of being baptized and obedience to Christ’s command and participating in the Lord’s Supper. Same thing, that that ordinance is open to those who’ve made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and have been baptized as a result. That’s sort of what we believe.

That is what we believe. That’s a basic overview of what we believe about baptism. But we don’t believe it just because the Baptist faith and message says it.

We believe it because this is what we take from God’s word. And so I’d like for us to look tonight at one particular passage here in the book of Colossians in chapter 2 that is one of many that expresses what we believe about baptism, where we take our view from. And so we’re going to look at Colossians 2, starting in verse 11 and going through verse 15.

It says, In him you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised you from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

So he’s talking a little bit about baptism here in conjunction with these other things. And we see in this passage some things that baptism symbolizes. I’m going to give them to you as quickly as possible tonight.

First of all, we see that baptism is a symbol of God’s covenant with us like circumcision in the Old Testament. We talked a little bit this morning about the covenant relationship with God, that in the Old Testament, Israel, they were God’s people, and he was their God. And one of the symbols of that covenant was that the men were to undergo circumcision, which was a cutting away of part of the flesh.

Similarly, the New Testament talks about circumcision of the heart, where God cuts away the unclean parts of our heart, and it’s a spiritual thing. Okay, but just like they were part of the old covenant, and circumcision was a picture of that, verse 11 here draws the comparison between the two and says that baptism, as we look at this whole passage, baptism is a symbol of our part in the new covenant. Now, I want to be very clear, baptism doesn’t bring us into the covenant.

We need to understand that. Baptism does not bring you into the covenant, just like the act of circumcision, did not bring you into the covenant. When my boys were babies, we took them and had them circumcised.

That does not make them Jewish in and of itself. They’re not part of that old covenant. By the same token, if I go dunk somebody in the water, that in and of itself does not make them part of the new covenant.

It is simply a picture of being part of that covenant. And verse 11 draws the comparison between the two, between the circumcision and the baptism. where one symbolizes being part of the covenant, so does the other.

And so baptism is a picture of us being part of the new covenant with God. It doesn’t bring us into the covenant, but it’s a picture of it. So when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, when we come to God by faith in Jesus Christ, and we’re adopted into God’s family after receiving the forgiveness of sins that he made available on the cross, one of the ways that we show that, One of the ways that we tell the world about that is by undergoing baptism.

Now, it shouldn’t be the only way that we show the world or tell the world. Our lives, our testimonies, our words should tell the world that we now belong to Jesus Christ, that we’re now part of God’s covenant, but we need to be baptized in obedience because that’s one of the ways that God has us to show that we’re part of this covenant. And it’s a symbol of that, just like circumcision in the Old Testament.

it doesn’t bring us into the covenant but it shows it’s a symbol of our belief that we’re in it if we continue to look at verse 11 we see also that baptism is an outward picture of internal cleansing it’s an outward picture of internal cleansing through Jesus Christ because the verse 11 says in him you also were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. And so it’s talking about the putting off the sins of the flesh. Now, that doesn’t mean, again, that doesn’t mean that baptism cleanses us of our sins. It’s real easy to get mixed up ideas about baptism.

I know when I was about Madeline’s age, there was a kid at church a year or two older than me and our families ran around together and he had gotten baptized and he had me convinced that you get baptized so you don’t get dirt on you when you get to heaven. I don’t know where that idea came today. Don’t know where that idea came from.

But that’s what I believed for a little while. Fortunately, it was explained to me. And no wonder after I got saved, I was not in a hurry to get baptized.

Because I was scared of going underwater, especially as much as I sat on the front row and talked to the preacher during the sermons. Didn’t want him putting me underwater. And if I’m just worried about getting a little dirt on me in heaven, what’s a little dirt?

But later on, I realized it was a sign of obedience to Jesus Christ. Just like it doesn’t wash dirt off of you in heaven, baptism doesn’t cleanse your sins from you here on earth. But what baptism is, is a picture of what Jesus Christ has done. We go under the waters of baptism and come up something completely different.

It’s a picture of the fact that Jesus Christ has taken our heart, and just like with circumcision, He’s cut away the unclean parts. We still have that sin nature, but as far as God’s concerned, you look at us, our sin has been forgiven, and Christ has put a new nature in us, whereby the power of the Holy Spirit, we can obey God, we can follow Him, we can love Him, we can serve Him. And so Jesus Christ has begun this cleaning up and sanctifying of our hearts and lives.

And the baptism is in part an outward picture of what Jesus Christ has done inwardly. And again, you can be baptized. You can be baptized and not have your sins forgiven.

You can be baptized and not have your sins washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. But that baptism is a picture of what’s happened. And so we as believers, we don’t trust in our baptism to save us, but we look at our baptism as a testimony to the world, saying we believe that Jesus Christ has washed us, He’s cleansed us. He’s made us pure of this old flesh.

He has cleansed us and he’s made something completely different here. Now let’s look at verse 12. It says, Buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

Believers are buried with him in baptism. Now that’s not something mystical that when we go under the waters, it’s like we’re metaphysically in the tomb with him and all of that. it’s talking about the old self being dead and being buried.

And when we go into the waters of baptism, it’s symbolic of us joining Him in this death, burial, and resurrection. Because our sins were put to death in Him. We’re raised to new life in Him.

And so everything He did was on our behalf and for us. So when it talks about being buried with Him in baptism and being raised with him through faith in the working of God. We believe we have faith.

It’s not the baptism that does anything. It’s the faith. It’s the belief that what God has brought about through Jesus Christ is effective for our sins.

We begin to identify with this. Because again, he died on our behalf. He rose again on our behalf.

We’ve been raised in him to walk in newness of life. And so all of this is exhibiting faith in the God who is able to raise the dead, whether it’s Jesus Christ or whether it’s raising us spiritually from the dead, that we believe and have faith in the ability of God who can raise the dead. And what we’re doing when we enter the waters of baptism is we are identifying ourselves with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we’re saying we’re with him.

Not to trivialize it, but to explain, to give an illustration of what it’s like. I remember during the 2016 elections, seeing people with yard signs and t-shirts and bumper stickers that said, I’m with her. Now, they meant Hillary Clinton.

I’m with her. That shirt was a way of telling people, I’m with her. Again, not to trivialize baptism, but one of the things that it does for us is that same thing, to point to Jesus and say, I’m with him.

Got it? And that’s part of what made baptism so dangerous early on. That’s why baptism was such a big decision.

People didn’t get baptized lightly in the earliest days of Christianity. Nowadays, people will come in and they’ll get baptized, and it’s a culturally accepted thing, and it’s a rite of passage for some people, and there may never be, God forbid, but there may never be an ounce of conversion that has taken place in the life of a person. Somebody can come and get baptized, go through the waters, have never trusted Jesus Christ, have never repented for their sins, have never even realized that their sin condemns them before a holy God.

But they can go through the waters of baptism, and then we may never see them again. That happens all too often. In the early days of Christianity, when you were baptized, it was a big decision.

Because what you were doing was identifying with Jesus Christ and saying, I’m with him. And remember, Jesus was crucified. He was not accepted.

He was not acceptable in society. He was crucified. The Jews hated him because he claimed to be the Messiah.

The Romans hated him because they saw his claims to be the king of the Jews as an affront to Roman control. And so you’re identifying with someone who’s in the Jews’ eyes was a blasphemer and someone who was in the Romans’ eyes a criminal. And you’re saying, I’m with him. And you very, in a very real sense, took your life in your hands, identifying with Jesus Christ. It was a crossing the Rubicon kind of decision.

if you’re not familiar with what that means. So I used that expression at home, and Benjamin said, what’s a Rubicon? It is a jeep, but that’s not what it’s talking about.

Julius Caesar was not allowed to, no Roman general was allowed to enter Roman territory with their army still under their command. Julius Caesar faced serious problems if he went back to Rome without his men, and yet he’d been called back to Rome, but he was going to ignite a civil war and be a criminal if he crossed with his army. So he got to the edge of the Rubicon River and had to decide right then and there, do I go in, take my life in my hands, and put myself at the mercy of the Senate, or do I go in armed and basically I’ve started a civil war and I have to win or I’m dead?

And Julius Caesar crossed his armies with the Rubicon. Or in American history, you know, was it Coronado? I can’t remember now.

Coronado said burn the ships so his men couldn’t flee back to Spain. There are those moments where you have to decide whether you’re going to cross the Rubicon, whether you’re going to burn the ships. There is no turning back.

And that in a very real sense is what baptism meant to the early church. I have to make the decision now, do I stand with Jesus or do I not? And I’m not saying I want to go back to those days, but I am saying we ought to go back to that level of commitment when it comes to Jesus Christ and identifying with Him.

Baptism is a sign of identification with Jesus Christ with His death, burial, and resurrection. And now let’s look at verse 13. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made you alive together with Him.

There He’s talking again about raising us to new life. He says, having forgiven all your trespasses. every little sin you’ve ever committed God has forgiven in Jesus Christ if you’re a believer he’s forgiven every little sin he has forgiven all your trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us all the laws all the things that we were guilty of breaking all the things that Satan had as ammunition to accuse us God has wiped all of those clean which was contrary to us and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross.

Your sins and my sins were nailed to that cross with Jesus Christ. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. And so Jesus Christ, the one we’re baptized to follow, has given us forgiveness. And He’s given us new life.

And our baptism is a symbol of being initiated into that forgiveness and new life. It’s an image of the forgiveness and the new life that we have in Jesus Christ. Again, the baptism itself does not save you. The baptism itself is not an earth-shattering thing.

But the importance of baptism and why we need to be careful and treat it with the importance it deserves is because baptism is a picture of an earth-shattering event. It tells the world about an earth-shattering event where Jesus Christ comes and takes wretched sinners like me who don’t deserve God’s love, who don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, who deserve nothing but separation and condemnation from a holy God. But Jesus Christ looks at us anyway and forgives our sins because he paid for them in full.

And not only that, takes us and cleans us off and gives us new life in him. That is the most incredible transformation that can take place in anybody’s life. You know, you can go get all sorts of self-help books, and there’s all sorts of programs out there about how to modify people’s behavior.

You know, sometimes we can change some things about ourselves. Sometimes we can do better. If New Year’s resolutions are any indication, more often than not, though, we just don’t.

I don’t know how many Sunday nights I tell Charla, I’m going to eat a lot less bad stuff this week. Then Monday comes and I see something delicious and I lose all control. And how many people get to January and say, I’m going to exercise more?

Right. I take them off and then I get 20 back. How many people say, get to January and say, I’m going to quit smoking?

And January 3rd, there they are lighting up again. How many, you name it. We work so hard trying to fix behaviors and trying to just be marginally better people than we were last year.

And we don’t accomplish very much at doing that. Because when you’ve got fallen creatures like us, it’s hard to change anything. It’s especially hard for us to change anything.

And yet what Jesus Christ offers us is total transformation. Because he forgives us, and he cleans us up, and he gives us new life. And baptism, and being raised out of those waters of baptism, is a picture of being raised up from the dead, and having our feet set on the firm ground to walk again in newness of life.

If we treat baptism as just some social rite of passage, if we treat it as just one more thing I’ve got to do to be a member of the church, if we treat it as something I have to do to add to my salvation, we miss the point of it all together and we totally diminish it in its real importance it’s a testimony to a watching world of the total complete 180 degree change that only Jesus Christ can put in us in our behavior, in our relationship with God in our eternal destination