Well, turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28. As Pastor Stephen mentioned, and as your bulletins tell you, we are speaking on baptism tonight. So we will begin at the command for baptism, where Jesus tells us to baptize disciples. Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, this is the great commission of our Lord Jesus Christ before he ascended back to heaven. This is the word of the Lord. And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

We’ve been studying the subject of worship this year in our evening services, and we’ve looked at a lot of different things already. We started with kind of a big picture view of what worship is and all that that entails, and we’ve looked at specific areas of our lives. that worship affects, that are actually acts of worship. And we looked at things like in the home with daily worship or worship with the family. Or last time we looked at our work as worship. And now we come to the part of this series where we will focus on what we do in our worship services.

But one thing that I do not want to do is emphasize some sort of distinction between the sacred and the secular. There are many who do make distinctions like that, but I really don’t find that terminology helpful. As if what we do in the worship service is what is sacred or set apart to God, as if that is what real worship is. And that is where real worship happens, because that’s just not true.

As we’ve seen already, worship happens all through our lives. A famous Dutch theologian by the name of Abraham Kuyper, he was a theologian and a politician, he once famously said this. He said, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine. So the idea that there’s any part of life that is secular versus sacred, meaning not dedicated to God for a Christian, that idea just doesn’t fit with what the Bible tells us. It is very true that Christ is sovereign over all of our lives and therefore all of our lives are worship.

So I don’t really like this sacred-secular distinction because it de-emphasizes the rest of our lives. But all that said, the truth of the matter is our worship services are different. They are different than the rest of our lives. They are a next level of worship. They are the pinnacle, our high point of our week of worship. If each and every day is a life of worship, we build toward that Lord’s Day gathering where we worship him corporately. So you could, if you want, make the distinction as sacred and more sacred.

But all that said, I don’t want to de-emphasize what we’ve already covered when it comes to worship. But as we think about our worship services, where we must start is the things commanded in Scripture. Generally, the Bible doesn’t give us a lot of detail as far as what specifically our worship services are to look like, and worship services look differently depending on the culture or the context or the time period. Throughout the ages of the church, worship services have differed. However, there are some things that scripture says we must do. in our worship. There are some non-negotiables in our worship services, and that begins with the ordinances.

Scripture provides us with two ordinances, the Lord’s Supper and baptism. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the only worship rituals commanded by Jesus for the church. Baptism is a sort of one-time initiation into the body of Christ and into the community of faith. And the Lord’s Supper is a repeated ritual or ceremony or whatever word you want to use there, through which we celebrate and remember the work of Christ and our membership into His body. So we’ll think about baptism this evening and the Lord’s Supper next week.

And this will be a very surface-level look at baptism. We’ll look at a lot of different passages, but we won’t really do a lot of in-depth exegesis. We’ll look at some different passages, and I’ll pull out a couple principles to help inform our idea of baptism. I’d love to do a series just focusing on baptism someday, and we can walk through a bunch of different passages and several sermons. But for tonight, we will look at the biblical evidence for what baptism is. and how we are to incorporate that into our worship.

And we must start with making a distinction a little bit in terminology. I’ve already used a word, ordinance, whereas sometimes you will hear people use the word sacrament. For example, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are two of the seven sacraments of Roman Catholicism. to Catholics, sacraments are means of salvation by which persons become more fit to be justified.

That’s their terminology for these things. They believe that grace is actually imparted whenever the sacrament is administered, as though you are infused with more grace by partaking in the sacrament. regardless of the spiritual state of the person taking it, really. That is just not a biblical view. It’s just not.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, and the ordinances or sacraments or whatever word you want to use, they do not contribute to our salvation. They are not a means of salvation. It is not through them that we are saved. The works that we do in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and that’s what they are, they’re They are things done by the believer in obedience. Those works do not save us. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, right? For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, not of baptism, not of the Lord’s supper, so that no one may boast.

It cannot be anything we do that saves us. And so technically, while the word sacrament is a fine word in itself, we usually use the word ordinance to avoid that whole idea of any sort of infused grace or means of salvation. So we use the word ordinance often. Protestants like us recognize two ordinances, baptism in the Lord’s Supper. Not seven, just two. Two things that Jesus told us to continue to do.

And we view that, and we’ll often hear, especially in more historic Protestant thinking and reading, is that we call the ordinances a means of grace, not a means of salvation. Really, these means of grace are simply provisions through which God blesses his people.

They don’t infuse any sort of grace. They don’t contribute to our salvation. They are a grace in that they are a gift from God, and they remind us of what he’s done for us, but they are not a means of salvation. They don’t contribute to our salvation at all, like the Catholic view of these things. Our participation in them contributes nothing to our justification or our standing before God.

They are what we do in obedience because of what he has done in us. Again, we believe by justification comes through faith. Traditionally, Protestants have recognized That the Holy Spirit uses many means of grace to comfort us, to encourage us, to remind us of the gospel.

And all these things can be called means of grace, but they’re not necessarily ordinances. Really, again, anything that reminds us of the grace of God given to us in the gospel can be considered a means of grace. And they’ve been spoken of this way in Protestant history. Things like the ministry of the word. And baptism and the Lord’s Supper are included in that, but also prayer and worship and giving and fellowship and using our spiritual gifts and evangelism, things like that. And there’s no set list of them, but you can think of the means of grace like that. They are things that God has given us to remind us of who we are in Him, who we are because of what He has done in us. And there’s other means of grace that have been discussed over the years, over the centuries.

Things like, even like a baby dedication, or a marriage, or even a funeral like we had on Saturday. That was a means of grace. It communicated the gospel to us. It comforted us in the truth of what Jesus Christ has done. So those are things that we think of as a means of grace.

But because there are no biblical commands for any of those other things besides baptism in the Lord’s Supper, those are merely a means of grace. They’re not ordinances. That’s why we only have two ordinances, because that’s what Jesus commanded us. As we read from the confession earlier, the London Baptist Confession of Faith, that first paragraph we read, it says, baptism in the Lord’s Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution. They are the things that God has given us. They are appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, and are to be continued in the church to the end of the age. And so the first ordinance that we will look at tonight is baptism.

And believe it or not, baptism itself was not a new idea. with the Great Commission or the institution of the church. It was a different kind of baptism, but there was baptism already in existence. There were several forms or kinds of water-washing, worship or purification rituals in the Old Testament.

For example, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest bathed himself completely in water to purify himself before he could put on the holy garments for the ritual of the Day of Atonement. You see that in Leviticus 16 as it explains all those things the priest was supposed to do. Water was also used for purification of priests and people after contact with unclean objects. They were to go bathe themselves entirely. So there was a form of completely cleansing yourself with water. And then after the Old Testament, but before the New Testament, in that intertestamental 400 year period, The Pharisees began to emphasize the need for all people to be cleansed like this.

And there was also proselyte baptism that came about. Whereas when a Gentile converted to Judaism, they had to be baptized to signify their complete cleansing and purification and entrance into the covenant community of God. So there were these Old Testament hints and ideas at baptism. These weren’t, especially the proselyte baptism and those things were not prescribed in the Bible.

They were extra biblical customs. But as we come to the New Testament, we are first introduced, one of the first characters we see is John the baptizer. And that’s really how his name is written there. Evangelists, the gospel writers call him that, John the Baptizer. He was the one who baptized people.

The baptism of John the Baptist was kind of a transition between the Old Testament purification and the New Testament, the Christian baptism. John’s baptism was different than the purification rituals in a few different ways. Purification rituals were done to yourself, whereas John’s baptism, he baptized others. The ceremonial or purification washings of the Old Testament, they had to be repeated after every time someone was defiled. But John’s baptism was a one-time occurrence. John’s baptism was also associated with repentance, whereas Old Testament purification was about cleansing for a specific ceremony.

And then also another difference is that John baptized in the Jordan River, whereas the priestly washings and things happened in man-made cisterns and baths and things. So there were several differences as far as what was going on, which explains why the Jews sent investigators out to John to see what’s going on. What is this guy doing? What does he think he’s doing? I mean, they had proselyte baptism where Gentiles would get baptized, but this guy’s baptizing Jews. What is he doing out here in the wilderness?

And so there was something similar but different about what was happening with John. And of course, the most well-known of those John baptized was Jesus himself. So if you’re in Matthew, turn back to Matthew chapter three. We see the baptism of Jesus there. Matthew chapter three, starting in verse 13. It says, then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent him, saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?

But Jesus answered and said to him, permitted at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted him. And after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And behold, there was a voice out of the heavens saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

So when Jesus comes to John there in the Jordan River, John immediately recognized, you don’t need my baptism. This baptism is a baptism of repentance, and Jesus had nothing to repent of. Jesus did not need to be cleansed of his sins. He didn’t have any sins, but Jesus insisted that he be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. In this event in Jesus’ life, God speaks from heaven and announces that he is the Son of God. This is my beloved Son.

And so you see John’s baptism here, but again, even that is different from what would come in Christian baptism. The Great Commission that I opened with in Matthew 28 shows that Christian baptism, the baptism Jesus was commanding, was to come after this.

It was to come after his ascension and after the beginning of the church, because Jesus then, as we see in Acts, tells them to go and wait. Wait until the Holy Spirit comes. We see that in Acts chapter 1 and 2, that that happens there. And then immediately, as we’ll look at, we’re going to walk through some passages in Acts. That’s exactly what they do. The Holy Spirit comes, they start preaching the gospel and baptizing. And it happens throughout. the book of Acts. So what is baptism? What did these disciples standing there as Jesus is giving them the great commission saying, go make disciples of all nations and baptize them, what did they understand him to mean? What was baptism?

Well, the English word baptize is actually a Greek word. It is in Greek, baptizo, spelled almost the same, but in Greek letters. And as it’s transliterated, it looks exactly like our English word. And the definition of the word baptizo in Greek is to dip, to dip under, to immerse, to sink down, to drown, to go under, and to bathe. Kind of gets across an idea of what is happening with that word baptize.

In fact, that John baptized Jesus in the Jordan. In fact, that word in is also the word for into. He baptized him into the Jordan River. It shows us what happened. And not only that, but especially you see it in Matthew’s account of it, but in Mark chapter one, it says this as well, that John and Jesus came up out of the water. And so it shows exactly what’s taking place in this baptism.

And again, while Christian baptism is different than that, it’s different than John’s baptism, this is what these disciples would have understood by the word baptize. In that great commission, Jesus sends out his disciples to make more disciples and to baptize them. And there’s an order there. Make disciples, baptize those disciples. baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything he commanded. They were to baptize and to teach. And through baptism, believers in Christ are declared his disciples. And through teaching, they then grow in that discipleship. And they are to be baptized, as Jesus says there in Matthew 28, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now there’s something very important to notice there.

Notice it doesn’t say names, plural. It is the name, singular, the singular name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There have been some, like brethren groups, who practice triple immersion, where they dunk three times, once each in each name. But it says the name. Not names, right? So you baptize once in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is a Trinitarian statement. This is one God in three persons. One name for God in three persons. So even our baptism confesses the Trinity. It confesses the God that we believe in.

So the great commission here is really the first mention of Christian baptism in the church, what they were to do in the future. And we have to go to the book of Acts to really see the first actual Christian baptisms. And Acts provides the most detailed information of the practice of baptism in the early church. And we see, as we will see here in these passages, we’ll have to look at these rather quickly and I’ll look at the different instances of baptism here and we’ll pick out some principles that we see there. But as we will see, baptism was always associated with repentance and faith and confession and regeneration. These things happened with baptism. Baptism is shown to be the initiation of believers into the church as they are given the name of Christ and enter His covenant community.

So we will look at eight specific instances of baptism in the book of Acts. So turn with me first to Acts chapter 2. We see a baptism in Jerusalem as the church was to start there and then to go out. But Acts chapter 2. speaks first of baptism in the church. So following Peter’s sermon there in Acts chapter two, we get down to verse 37, and it says this. Acts two, starting in verse 37.

Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men, brothers, what should we do? They heard the gospel, they realized their sinful condition, and they needed to do something, What should we do?

And Peter says to them, repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. For the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the Holy Spirit. For the promises for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as our Lord will call to himself. And with many other words he solemnly bore witness and kept on exhorting them saying, be saved from this crooked generation. So then, those who received his word were baptized. and that day there were added about 3,000 souls.

Now, there’s a few things we want to look at when we look at instances of baptism as we pull principles of what we should do with baptism. First of all, what happens before baptism? What is the condition of baptism? Well, Peter tells them, what they should do is repent and each of you be baptized. They need to repent. and then be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And then it says near the end there, so then those who had received his word were baptized. Those who had received the word, those who had believed, they were the ones baptized.

Now there’s the verses there in the middle that are often debated. It says the promise, this promise of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of sins, this promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord will call to himself.” Now, this verse is often used and pointed to for baptizing children, baptizing infants. It says, the promise is for you and your children, therefore, you should baptize you and your children, is often the argument there. But we keep reading, and it says, for you and your children and for all who are far off, So it’s not just your children, it’s others, and it’s clearly talking about all those who are far off who will believe, right?

It’s not for every person in the world, it’s for all of those, and then it clarifies very clearly, as many as the Lord, our God, will call to himself. Those who are called, those who are saved. And then he says, be saved from this crooked generation and those who had received his word.

There it is. The ones baptized were the ones who received the word, who believed. Faith came first. So Peter includes baptism in what they must do. And this tells us something. It is a fundamental element of converting to Christianity. It is fundamental to being a Christian. Faith, repentance, confession, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Spirit are all mentioned here.

Now, what he was not saying is that baptism saves you. He doesn’t say you have to be baptized in order to be a Christian, but what he is saying is being a Christian, you ought to be baptized. Christians are baptized people. And so repent and be baptized was shorthand for this whole process. This is what you must do. Become a Christian. And it includes all these things. He was telling them to be Christians and baptism was part of that.

So that’s the first instance of baptism. Next, turn to Acts chapter 8. We see next in Samaria, which follows the pattern given in the beginning of Acts of where they ought to go, Jerusalem, Judea, and then Samaria. And here we are in Samaria in Acts chapter eight with the preaching of Philip. And there’s a lot to read here. We won’t read it all. We’ll pick up in verse 12.

After Philip had preached to them, verse 12 says, but when they believed Philip, Proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and he observed signs and great miracles taking place, and he was constantly astounded.

Again, there’s an order here. There’s a clear order of how this ought to be done, but when they believed, Philip proclaiming the good, preaching the gospel about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized. They believed and then were baptized. And the same thing it says with Simon himself. He believed and then was baptized. And so you see again, there’s a clear process here, but it’s included in becoming converts to Christianity, becoming Christians. Faith comes first, but then they are baptized. We see later on in Acts chapter 8, another baptism that happens with Philip as well.

We see here the Ethiopian eunuch as he is on the road here. And we’ll pick up here in verse 26. We’ll start in verse 26. It says, but an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, rise up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. So he rose up and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.

And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, do you understand what you’re reading? And he said, well, how could I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this. As a sheep is led to slaughter and a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth. In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will recount his generation? For his life is removed from the earth.

And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you earnestly, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. And as they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, and Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch no longer saw him. but went on his way rejoicing. And Philip found himself at Azotus, and he passed through and kept proclaiming the gospel in all the cities he came to in Caesarea. So here, baptism is again part of the conversion experience. In response to reading the gospel in the Old Testament, in Isaiah, and then having the gospel preached to him by Philip, the Ethiopian knew he needed to be baptized.

And Philip baptized him after he met the condition. Now in the text, at least in the LSB, it has it bracketed where it says, and Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

That’s bracketed there because the very earliest copies of this text that we have don’t include that sentence. It is found in later copies. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s wrong, and it doesn’t contradict anything in scripture, but all that to be said, it’s still true. Even though we may not think it’s original, it was added very early on in the life of the church. It was added by early Christians, and they were explaining, this is what you must do to be saved, and this was common knowledge. They knew this.

What’s the condition in order to be baptized? Yeah, you gotta believe with all your heart. And then he confesses the Lord Jesus Christ. But nevertheless, whether that verse is original or not, what we do see is that faith precedes baptism once again. He believes first and then is baptized.

And notice it says, They both went down into the water. I need to be baptized. I’m on a desert road. I obviously have water in my chariot because I’m traveling on a desert road. But I need to be baptized. So I got to find water that we need to go down into. And that’s what they did. And they went down into the water and he was baptized in that water. So that’s just another occurrence there in Acts chapter eight of another baptism, and we see some more common themes that are true of baptism.

Let’s go next to Acts chapter nine, the very next verse. Here we have brother Saul, the persecutor of the church, and the conversion of Saul. And we’ll pick it up in verse 17, where God speaks to Ananias. In verse 17 it says, well after God speaks to him, he leaves here in verse 17, Ananias departed and entered the house and he laid his hands on him and said, brother Saul, the Lord sent me, that is Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he regained his sight and he rose up and he was baptized. It was the baptism of Saul who became Paul. After he believed and was saved and received the Holy Spirit, He was baptized. This baptism again follows conversion, follows faith and repentance and true conversion. Fifth, you have the baptism in Caesarea.

I’m going to flip over again one more page to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. We’ll pick up in verse 44 with Peter. It says, while Peter was speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the word. And all the circumcised believers who came with Paul were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter answered, can anyone refuse water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did? And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

They asked him to remain for a few days. They heard it. They heard the word being preached by Peter. They heard the gospel. Obviously, they believed because they received the Holy Spirit, were prophesying, speaking in tongues, magnifying God. That’s what believers do. In the early church, that’s what marked when the Holy Spirit came. This is what happens in the book of Acts. Even though they were Gentiles, Peter could not deny them baptism. Can anyone refuse water for these to be baptized? That’s a question with an obvious answer. No, they can’t. Why? Because they’re obviously believers. They’re obviously Christians. They had all the marks of a baptism candidate, faith, repentance, conversion, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the logical conclusion is next is baptism. That’s how it goes. That’s, again, the same pattern here in the book of Acts. After they’re converted, immediately they look to be baptized. Next we have baptism in Philippi. We have a few baptisms in Philippi. Let’s turn to Acts chapter 16. So a few more pages here. Luke tells us of two different baptisms in Luke, or in, yeah, in Acts chapter 16.

Starting in verse 11, you see them come to the area of Macedonia. So setting sail from Troas, we ran straight course to Samothrace, on the day following to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city in the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. And we were staying in this city for some days. And on the Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to a riverside. where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer.

And sitting down, we began speaking to the women who had assembled. And a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening. To those, sorry, whose heart the Lord open to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us.” So here we have the first European convert to Jesus Christ. It was a woman, Lydia, a merchant who dealt in purple fabrics, who was already a worshiper of God, and she heard the gospel. And the text only mentions Lydia’s faith, but it says that she and her household were baptized.

So again, it’s one of those passages that is used to support household baptism or the baptizing of infants. But some important things to notice, we aren’t told who was in the house, who was in the household, or how old they were. And we’ve seen the pattern of the apostles requiring true conversion before baptism. So there’s really no need to assume that they were baptizing infants just because it says the word household.

Another thing to notice there, as far as the mode of baptism, where were they when they did this? You probably missed it because it’s early on in the text. But they went down to the river. Paul went out to the river. They went outside the gate to a riverside, an important detail that Luke includes. They had to go to the river to be baptized.

And so you see some more of the same elements of baptism here. And then you have later on in chapter 16, starting in verse 27, the Philippian jailer who was baptized. Starting in verse 27, it says, and when the jailer awoke, this is after They are miraculously released from prison.

When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, do not harm yourself, for we’re all here. And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your house. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly with his whole household because he had believed in God. Again, another household passage.

After Paul and Silas’ miraculous release from prison, This jailer obviously believed in Jesus. That’s what Paul said he had to do. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You and your household need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that’s what Paul does.

He spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household. And he took them, washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized and his household. and he brought them into his house and set food before them and they rejoiced greatly with his whole household. Households used a lot, referring to a lot of different things, not just baptism. It’s belief, it’s baptism, it’s rejoicing. The whole household is able to do these things. That’s why it mentions them. So again, it’s pretty clear that these are believers. An unbeliever doesn’t rejoice in the belief and baptism of someone else. These were believers, and they all became believers, the entire household.

Next, flip over to, we have one verse in Acts chapter 18, another baptism of Crispus. Acts chapter 18, verse 8. It says, Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household and many of the Corinthians. And when they heard, Sorry, and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized. Many Corinthians heard the gospel from Paul, they believed, and then they were baptized. Hearing led to faith, which naturally led to baptism. And the last one we will look at in Acts is in Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19, starting in verse one. It says, now it happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the upper regions and came to Ephesus and found some disciples. And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And he said to them, and they said to him, no, we have not. We have not even heard if the Holy Spirit is being received. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John’s baptism. Then Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him.

That is in Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. Now there were in all about 12 men. So building upon the work of John the Baptist, Paul becomes an Anabaptist.

He re-baptized them. He re-baptized these believers properly this time in the name of the Lord Jesus. So anyone that has a problem with re-baptizing someone properly, namely R.C. Sproul was one who had a very big problem with that. But they ought to have a problem with Paul here too, because this is what Paul does. The baptism you had before was not sufficient.

So therefore, they had to be baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, because that’s the proper baptism. And so that’s what Paul does. And so that is baptism in the book of Acts. And throughout the book of Acts, you see that the covenant community, the church, was found wherever people believed and were baptized. This is what it was to come into the church, was to believe and be baptized.

Now there’s some more texts in the New Testament that we’ll have to move through quite quickly and just really mention them that speak about baptism. And again, we’ve got to move pretty quickly through these, but actually Paul rarely speaks of water baptism in his writing. A lot of times he speaks of spirit baptism, which is the spiritual reality that water baptism represents. He does that in Romans chapter 6, really verses 1 through 11 he speaks of that, but just verses 3 and 4.

He says, or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him in baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. This is speaking about the spiritual reality that happens when we are saved.

And water baptism is the physical act where believers identify with Christ in His death and resurrection. That’s why we go down and come up in the water. We are buried with Him in baptism, raised to newness of life. And water baptism pictures what Romans 6 describes spirit baptism to be. Colossians chapter two is another passage, verse 12, talks about having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God. So those who have been justified by faith have been baptized and consider themselves dead to sin and alive in Christ.

But it is not the water of baptism that saves, it’s pointing to a spiritual reality that has already happened. Another place Paul actually mentions water baptism is in 1 Corinthians, but not in a good light, because whereas water baptism is supposed to be a symbol of unity in Christ, it was bringing division, because these people were more concerned with who baptized them, whether it was Apollos or Cephas or Paul. Paul says that baptism’s not about the baptizer. It’s about the name of Christ into which you are baptized. Later in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul uses the metaphor of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea to represent baptism and warns that those who have been baptized ought not to fall into sin like that generation did.

Galatians chapter 3 verses 27 to 29 speaks of baptism as a symbol of unity. We are all baptized into one body and the walls that separate Jews and Greeks and male and female and slaves and free are gone because we are all one in Christ Jesus. And Ephesians 4 says the same thing. Ephesians 4 verses 3 through 6, be diligent to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

And if we really want to be confused about baptism, we can look at what Peter has to say. In 1 Peter chapter three, this is what Peter has to say to us. We’ll start in verse 19. It says, in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you. Not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I can leave that one alone. No, I’m just kidding. We will talk about it a little bit.

Here, Peter is comparing Christian baptism to the ark through which Noah and his family were saved through the water when the rest of the people were destroyed. He starts that way. Then he does say, baptism now saves you. And some, like those in the Church of Christ and some other groups, read this verse, and they highlight where Peter says, baptism now saves you. And they then teach that you are not saved unless you are baptized. Baptism is a step in your salvation. It is a part of salvation.

But, Peter goes on to explain that that’s not what he means. He goes on to explain that it is not the water itself that saves, it is not the act of baptism that saves. He says, he goes on, baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, not the act of water baptism, not the water, it’s not the act of baptism that saves you, but then he says it’s an appeal of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So Peter’s clarifying here.

It’s not the actual act of baptism that saves, it’s what leads to baptism. What leads naturally to baptism, repentance and faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, an appeal to a good conscience. As New Testament scholar Tom Schreiner says, Peter speaks of an appeal, meaning baptism doesn’t save apart from the commitment of the one being baptized. And another scholar, Peter Gaiman, says, Peter’s definition of baptism here assumes volitional expression of commitment to God. That’s what that phrase is speaking of. So he’s not saying the act of water baptism is what saves.

It’s the things that lead to baptism. And baptism is a sign of your salvation. So given all of that evidence that we’ve seen from the New Testament, What are some principles that we can see about baptism? So I’ll give you five principles tonight that we’ll gather from all of the texts we’ve looked at about what baptism is and how we ought to practice baptism. So first, what we’ve seen is that along with faith and repentance and confession and receiving the spirit, all of the things mentioned in those passages, The New Testament, especially the book of Acts, presents baptism as part of the process or really an element of Christian conversion. It is not what saves you, it is what you do since you’re saved.

In Acts, to be a Christian is to be baptized. We don’t see anything about an unbaptized Christian in those verses. Unbaptized people had either refused to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, or in very rare instances, I could only think of one, they did repent and believe but were physically unable to be baptized, the thief on the cross. But that’s a rare exception, and that proves the rule. Christians get baptized. This is what the Bible explains. The overwhelming norm is that being a Christian means being a baptized believer.

This does not mean that baptism saves us. In fact, as we’ll see in our next principle, that really apart from faith, baptism doesn’t do anything for you. Baptism has no value at all without faith. But back to number one here, we’re not saved through or by our baptism, but unbaptized Christians is not what we see in the Bible. So if you’re a Christian, get baptized.

That’s the principle we see here. But with that, baptism is a step of obedience, but it’s more than that. Baptism isn’t just, I do it because I have to. It’s not just, well, Jesus said so, so we must do it. Jesus did say so, so we must do it. Baptism is an act that signifies that we are buried with Christ and raised with Him. It’s not just a duty, it’s a privilege. It’s the highest privilege. We get to proclaim the gospel in the waters of baptism. It’s not that we have to be baptized, we get to be baptized. That’s what baptism is.

And secondly, as I already mentioned, water baptism is only effective as an ordinance given by Christ if it’s accompanied by faith and repentance. That’s the clear pattern in scripture. Baptism shows that those being baptized have turned from sin to God and placed their faith in Christ. and they have been regenerated and have received the Holy Spirit. All of the things mentioned in all of those texts, only regenerate persons qualify for baptism.

This is why we interview candidates for baptism. This is why we do this as a church. We don’t just have a free for all invitation on baptism day and anybody that wants to come jump in the water, come get baptized. That’s not what we do. We interview people And we’re looking for people that demonstrate that they are truly converted through their testimony and through the confession that they make and how they explain the gospel and all of those things. We are looking for people that demonstrate they are walking in newness of life. They are repentant believers.

That’s who should be baptized. Thirdly, baptism means immersion. That’s what the word means. That’s what all of those passages explain. All of the biblical cases of baptism speak of people going down into the water and coming back out of the water. Immersion also most closely pictures the spiritual reality of what happens to us.

We are buried with him and we are raised with him. The fourth principle. is that New Testament baptism, Christian baptism, it links us, it unites us to the body of Christ. It is a sign of unity into the body of Christ. Believers are baptized not just into Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says we are baptized into one body. And since the church is the body of Christ, through baptism, believers are initiated into the church.

This is why we combine baptism with church membership. If we’re gonna baptize you, we’re gonna bring you into membership. That’s how it works. And we’ll only baptize you if you are joining our church. If you’re not joining our church, we encourage you to go to the church you’re joining and have them baptize you. Because that’s what is supposed to, the way it’s supposed to work. You’re supposed to join the church upon your baptism.

And that’s what we encourage people to do. And lastly, fifth, when we baptize, we baptize in the one name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because Jesus said so. That’s what he said to do. This is why we baptize the way that we do. This is why this is important. This is a supreme act of worship. It is obedience. And it’s important that we do it the right way.

We started this series by looking at those who worshipped God the wrong way, who worshipped God and were sloppy in the details. Which tells us we ought to pay attention to the details. When Jesus tells us to do something in worship of him, we need to be very careful and pay attention to how it is that he wants to be worshiped. And in the ordinance of baptism, it’s important that we know what we’re doing and why.

Again, it is a supreme act of worship. It glorifies him. It shows that he is worthy of honor. Who else does this? Who else publicly goes and dips in water and comes back out? Christians do this. It proclaims our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.

And we glorify God when we obey him by making disciples and baptizing them. We show that he is most important in the act of baptism. And this is one of the two ordinances that Jesus Christ himself gave the church. Jesus specifically spoke two things for the church to do, and one of them is baptism.

The next one that we’ll look at next week is the Lord’s Supper and what we do regularly here at this church and gathering around the table. So we’ll look at those passages and why we do that, the way that we do that next time. But tonight, let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this evening. Our God in heaven, we thank you for the clarity of your word, for what your word specifically tells us and the way that it explains to us what these things look like. We thank you for giving us the ordinance of baptism so that we can proclaim in our actions what has happened inside of us, that we have been buried with Christ in his death and raised to newness of life. We thank you, Lord, for who you are. We thank you for your word, and we pray all of this has glorified you in the name of Jesus Christ.