When you chose the hymn, I believe it is in the blue book, “O Jesus, I Have Promised”, Mark, were you aware that there was to be a baptism today? (man: Yes, I was.) You were. Because the hymn you chose this morning could not have been more perfectly chosen for such an occasion—just filled with key Scriptures that have to do with baptism itself.

Turn to 1 John 5:1. Starting out with the first part of the first verse, where the Apostle says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” And then to verse 4: “for everyone born of God has overcome the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” We sang that this morning in our first hymn, I believe, or second hymn. “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.” And then in verse 10: “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe the Son of God does not believe God, has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.” And it’s just that plain and just that simple.

And we’re going today to a baptism, and you know Christians love to go to baptisms. Get out to the beach or the pool or whatever it is. I even know one place where they just hose people on stage. And it’s a kind of celebration and there’s often a kind of, “Well, come on, let’s go there, let’s get baptized. He’s getting baptized, she’s getting baptized, let’s go in together.”

Now some of the following may be very simple for some of you and things you would know from earlier ages. But perhaps for others it will be essential to understanding the matter of baptism.

Baptism was commanded by Jesus; we all know that. So Christian churches carry it out. Yet millions receive water baptism with scarcely any idea of what it actually signifies and declares. It is a revered and a holy ritual practice—good because we are told it’s good. Perhaps some may think that it has certain almost magical properties because God has said to do it. So the commandment is obeyed, short of an adequate understanding of baptism.

Turn to Matthew 28:16. And would someone who possesses a good, clear voice read 28:16-20? (man: Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.) Notice that: they worshipped him, but some doubted. (Then Jesus came 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 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.) So this was the risen Jesus that commanded the making of disciples and baptizing them.

The manner of baptism—and let me precede this by saying to those among us who are Presbyterian in background, I mean no offense to precious Presbyterian believers. The manner of baptism, the way it’s carried out has to do with the meaning, central to the very meaning of baptism.

So we think about the manner for a moment, not for its own sake but for what it actually teaches us about the act of baptism, about what Heaven intends it to be for us—for me, for you.

Turn to Mark 1:9. Marena, would you read 9 through 11? (woman: At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”) Amen.

Never be surprised if something special happens at a baptism. The Calvary Baptist Church in New York City lends its baptismal fountain or pool to the Bowery Christian Mission. And sometimes people baptized in that pool come up remarkably manifesting gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is not Baptistic in doctrine. They have chosen to lend their pool to these for the most part Bowery [?], etc. 

…when some are baptized. You can’t require this, it’s just that wonderful things may happen at baptism.

Now notice that Jesus was baptized and it says what about that? Verse 10: “As Jesus was what? …coming up out of the water….” Well, to come up out of the water, you have to do what first? (Go in.) You have to go down into the water. So Jesus obviously, though I can’t prove it by a straight declaration here, but reason allows me to say that if he came up out of the water, then he must have gone down into the water preceding it. (man: My brother, it says that he was baptized in the Jordan. And the Jordan is a river and he went into the river. Now, can you tell me he only got wet on his head?) I can’t tell you that. (I believe he was completely wet in the water.) Yes, oh yes. (man: Unless he was walking on his head.)

Look at verses 9 and 10. The Gospel of John chapter 3:22-26. Would someone read that one? (man “After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he’s baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”) And then down at verse 35 and 36. (“The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”)

And just noting briefly in verse 23, John, of course, was the great expert on baptism because he was called to be a preacher of righteousness and a baptizer in water. And he was baptizing in Aenon near Salim for a reason. And the reason was what? “Because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized.” So it was obvious that he did not consider that he needed a flagon or a modest supply for he needed enough water to baptize all that would come to be baptized.

Acts 8:26-39. Somebody read…well, I think maybe I’ll do a little reading here. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on the way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in the chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he answered, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture. Would someone read that passage? (Jenn S.?: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”)

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And he ordered the chariot to stop. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but he went on his way rejoicing.

And then turn to the same book, chapter 2, Acts 2:14. (man: But Peter, standing up with the Eleven, raised his voice and said to them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and keep my words.”) And then verses 22 through 24. (“Men of Israel, here these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it.”) And also 36 through 41. (“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”)

Amen. Now, this was spoken to exactly whom? Who did Peter say he was addressing? Men of Israel. He was speaking to Jews and Jews only. And he accused them of crucifying the Lord of glory. They were cut to the heart by the truth. They said, “What shall we do?” And he said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And he was, in effect, using the key of salvation to the house of Israel, commanding the Jew to be baptized.

But then look at Acts 10, with this same Peter, by revelation—it was a most un-Jewish thing and goes to some Gentiles in a house of a Roman official at Caesarea.

Acts 10:24-29, 34, 44-48. (man: The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.” Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.) Then down to verse 34. (Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him, who do what is right.) And verses 44-48. (While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.)

Now unless—but apart from those among us who are Jewish in origin—this is where we came in. For Peter took that same key in the house of this Roman official and this large gathering of people, preached salvation. The Lord poured His Spirit out, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and you know that changes the order a little bit. We have in other places where they are baptized in water and then they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. But just as soon as you make a hard and fast rule out of something for Heaven, Heaven will do something a little different and break that hard and fast rule. Not that there aren’t some hard and fast things—there are, of course. But it’s always a little dangerous to try to categorize something with absolute precision lest God in His wisdom do something different.

For Peter, it was a very bold act to say, we’re going to baptize these Gentiles just the same way we baptized the Jews a while ago. And he needed something to be done, some evidence given, that baptism was due these people also. And God was pleased to pour His Spirit upon them. And Peter used that as the very reason. “Can any man forbid…?” He was challenging them a little bit. There might have been some, “Well, I think maybe we could forbid.” But there was an evidence there that sufficed to quell the objection, thank God, and they also—Gentiles—were baptized. So we know Jew or Gentile among believers, we are all rightly to be baptized. It’s universal among believers.

So knowing that water baptism is good and right and commanded is still not all that is necessary to understanding. But that’s about as far as many choose to really go. They just take the words—this is to be done—and they do it. There are many exceptions too, thank the Lord.

And sadly, many more people are baptized than really ought to be baptized. And far too many individuals receive water baptism short of an intention that reasonably matches God’s intention regarding it. And just possibly, and before I say this I want to connect it with what Helen and Jaan spoke earlier, not a matter of feeling, a matter of fact and faith.

It’s possible that even some of those intending to be baptized today perhaps should reconsider on the basis of what we’ll now look at.

The longer you live the more you see it; it’s a truism you’ve got as a fact. You have eyes, you live longer, you have more time, you see more. And over my forty-odd years as a Christian about half of all those I have seen go into water baptism have subsequently turned away from the Lord, just turned pale, nothing spectacular, just gone aside. After four or five years, they’re not there anymore. Or they become enmeshed in some sin, which takes them over and makes them captive; perhaps they’ll be recovered there, we pray for that. But they were baptized and they have demonstrated that they did not understand baptism by the manner of life that followed it. And you know that falsifies water baptism wretchedly.

It’s a glorious thing, it’s a tremendous declaration that you intend to make today publicly before fellow believers and perhaps before some unbelievers. It is a matter of the longest lasting significance and power. Better far. I know this is so contrary to leave, “Come on, let’s get in there, we’ve got seven, let’s get nine. We’ve got nine, let’s get 13 to be baptized.” Better far not to be baptized in water at all than to be most properly baptized and then to fall aside. What did Jesus say? “He who endures to the end will be saved.”

Now, there is one reason that is not primarily valid in choosing to be baptized. Baptism is a highly individual matter: it’s between your soul (and regenerated spirits) and the living God before men. It has little to do with what anyone else chooses to do. So if perchance—I would doubt that it’s the case—but if perchance anyone is to be baptized because somebody else is being baptized, that’s not a sufficient basis. It may be encouraging. But you need to decide this profoundly for yourself before God.

Water baptism signifies a separation of one thing from something else forever. And as Jaan said earlier so well, we don’t always perceive this reality to be our experience. Nevertheless, this baptism has to do with an eternal separation of one thing from another, thank God.

Every human being comes into the world with a fallen, sinful, self-centered, Adamic nature. We got it honestly. We got it from our first father, Adam. He passed it on to us as an unfailing inheritance. That’s why Jesus being born had to bypass the Adamic nature so he could be a sinless sacrifice. And that Adamic nature is beyond all mere repair. You can’t touch it up, you can’t beautify it. You can modify it absolutely, you can adapt behavior, yes. But you can’t change the nature or the fact of the nature. Someone has well said we are not sinners because we sin, though we do. But we sin because we are sinners. It’s just a fact. By nature, the Scripture declares, we are all children of what? Say it louder. Wrath. We are children of wrath, even as others, the Scriptures says. That’s a stark fact, but it is a fact. And we need to recognize it squarely: this is what baptism has to do with.

Ephesians 2:1-8. Somebody with a good voice. (PW: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.) Amen.

Now look at that verse 1, speaking to believers, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live.” And down to verse 4, “But God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved.” And then verse 6, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” And then I’m going to read verse 11, “Therefore, remember that you formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 15 tells us these two things: “In Adam, all die.” And if that were the story, that would be the end of it. But “In Christ, will all be made alive.” You have to understand that you can’t make that into universalism [?] and say, “Well, everyone died in Adam, Christ came, He made everyone alive again.”

In Christ, those who were dead through Adam are made alive again, thank God. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49. Somebody read that please. (man: So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.) Thank you.

And then to get to the very heart of the matter, Romans 6. For those who have the NIV version, you may notice the title line is two short phrases: Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”

Look at verse 3: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were therefore buried with him…how? (Through baptism.) We were buried… Well, why was he buried? He bore our sin to his own body; on the tree God judged sin. In Christ, he was buried as a consequence of the death he died for sin. Otherwise we go to that death and judgment. But we’re buried with him through baptism.

I had the chance to hear this morning as I was going into the prayer room Marena, praying about this. Marena, what was the essence of you were expressing in that?

[woman: I’m not sure what part you meant. (JP: It was about leaving.) Oh, it was about very distinctly leaving behind the old self, the old flesh and the old things and clearly walking out in newness of life, recognizing that… In baptism, we recognize that we are buried with Christ, and just as he died, we are dead with him there. So the prayer was for a real recognition of the separation that is going on. When we make that spiritual declaration to be baptized that the old is gone and that we’re saying spiritually, “I stand with Christ, I am united with him in his death by faith. And I am raised with him in newness of life. I am going to walk in that newness of life that he has provided.”] Amen.

What was the next thing? I had it down here to walk in newness of life. Spoke it twice, Roy prayed it this morning in pre-prayer. Well, one final matter here.

In taking water baptism today, are your intentions as deep and as long and as whole as the Scriptures tell us they need to be? It’s not for a time. This is a forever day. Baptism is not something you try on to see if you like the way it fits. Baptism is something you decide to do, because Christ commanded it and because you understand that when you go down into the water, you are, in a visible figure, being buried with Christ. But when you come up, you are rising as it were from death into newness of life with Him. What a wonderful day, God bless you as you go.