Rev. David Holwick ZI "Questions People Ask" topical series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 10, 2002
1 Corinthians 1:11-17
WHY BAPTIZE?
I. OUR BAPTISM TANK IS FULL THIS MORNING.
A. Congregationalists will use it.
1) Pastor Kevin Fiedler knew we would have a baptistry.
2) No one from our own church has requested it this week...
B. Baptism is the distinctive mark of our denomination.
1) We get our name from it.
2) Much humor is attached to it.
C. Baptism also a distinctive mark of Jesus.
1) His cousin John started the tradition, Jesus continued it.
2) Their baptism was not just for outsiders coming into
Judaism, but for Jews too.
a) Is it for you?
II. BAPTISM CAN BE A DIVISIVE ISSUE.
A. Required for church membership in most traditions.
1) "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" - fiance must get baptized in
order to marry Greek girl in her church.
2) "Can you believe what he has to put up with??"
B. Note how it divided the Corinthian church.
1) Paul has to emphasize how FEW people he had baptized.
2) Issue of baptism divides our denominations.
a) Our church accepts baptisms from other Protestants.
b) Some Baptists accept only other Baptists.
c) A few only accept those baptized IN THEIR CHURCH.
3) (This is reason Salvation Army, which is a actually a
church, doesn't practice baptism.)
C. Common objections to baptism.
1) It repudiates my family.
a) Many were baptized as babies, myself included.
b) Does baptism here mean the traditions you were brought
up in are totally wrong?
1> Your parents might feel that way.
2) We have to talk to deacons.
a) Who are they to judge us?
3) We have to speak to congregation.
(baptism candidates in our church give their personal
testimony during the ceremony)
a) Public speaking is not a #1 thrill for most people.
b) Our testimony is a personal thing and hard to share.
1> What if I choke up?
2> What if I freeze up?
3> What if they don't think my story is adequate?
III. WHAT IS REQUIRED FOR SALVATION.
A. Believe on the Lord Jesus.
1) God's gift: grace to be saved..
2) Our response: believe in Jesus and repent.
3) Salvation is something we possess now and forever.
a) Good deeds and religious acts are our way of saying
"Thank You" to God.
b) They are not our entry fee for heaven.
B. Baptism not required for salvation.
1) Classic example of the thief on the cross. Luke 23:40-43
2) Church membership not required for salvation, either.
C. Should we ask for more?
1) Is baptism a meaningful distinction, or a barrier to
the sincere?
a) Some churches have dropped it as a requirement of
membership.
2) Life is more than just being saved.
a) Christians are to continue living in obedience.
1> We are to obey the full gospel, not just the
entrance requirements.
b) Jesus commands us to baptize, so we do it. Matt 28:19
1> Many instances of baptism in gospels and Acts.
A> When they ran into new believers, they checked
on whether they were baptized or not.
2> Paul does not repudiate baptism, but only the party
spirit it can produce.
A> He himself was baptized a few days after his
conversion.
IV. WHAT HAPPENS AT BAPTISM.
A. Different Christian groups put various meanings on it.
1) Some believe it makes you a Christian.
a) Even if you are a baby.
2) Others see it as a special kind of skit.
a) We are dramatically portraying what God is doing
in our heart.
B. Difference between sacrament and ordinance.
1) A sacrament is a ceremony that imparts holiness.
a) Baptism makes you a Christian.
2) An ordinance is a ceremony that Jesus commands us to do.
a) There are only two: baptism and communion. (& feet?)
b) These ceremonies are symbolic and meant to
dramatize inner spiritual realities.
c) They cannot produce this reality if it is not
inside you already.
C. It's more than a rite of passage.
1) For early Christians, this change was often dramatic.
a) The message of Jesus was new and bold.
b) They were joining a dynamic movement of people.
2) For us, baptism is often reduced to a routine expectation.
a) You are in the eighth grade, get baptized with the
rest of the herd.
b) It can become ho-hum rather than earth-shattering.
A few years ago a Pentecostal group called "The United
House of Prayer for All People" held a large baptism.
They gathered 2,000 candidates in the parking lot of a
church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Then they turned a fire hose on them.
It was hooked to a hydrant and set on a fine mist so
no one got hurt.
Firemen oversaw the event to ensure everyone's safety.
#15781
Some of you here might prefer that impersonal approach!
D. Maybe we need to be more serious about conversion.
1) If your religion is mostly stuff you don't reject,
you are not serious enough.
2) Why are you here? Because of your parents? Habit?
3) If you could choose without any backlash, would you be
somewhere else right now?
4) When a person is truly saved, their perspective about
spiritual issues changes. It matters to them.
V. THE POWER OF BAPTISM.
A. It's a witness to other believers, and to community.
1) Many Christians are deeply moved when they hear the
baptism testimony of a new Christian.
a) It reminds us where we once were.
b) ...maybe where we should be again.
2) Those who aren't saved can get a realistic idea of what
becoming a Christian is all about.
In Guayaquil, Ecuador, a bus driver named Jorge was hired
to transport seven new Christians to a place outside of
the city for baptism.
During the drive, the Christians joyfully sang praises to
God.
Their enthusiastic singing intrigued Jorge, who was not a
Christian.
Describing the singing as "very contagious," he asked if
the Christians would allow him to return to the city so
his family could listen too.
He drove the believers to his home, where the group sang
several praise songs for his family.
After the singing, Jorge's family joined the entourage to
the baptism.
At the river, two house church leaders baptized the seven
new believers.
When they finished, they noticed Jorge standing in the
water.
"I am a sinner," Jorge said. "Can I be saved?"
The church leaders shared the gospel with Jorge, who then
prayed to receive Christ.
Then Carlos, one of the church leaders, baptized him
right there in the river.
As everyone filed back onto the bus, Jorge said,
"I feel a special fire within me!
I want my family to come to know Christ as well!
Can you come to my house and start a church there?"
The new house church is the 59th meeting place God has
started in Guayaquil in the past 10 months.
#19207
B. It's a witness to ourselves.
1) To go through with a public baptism requires a degree of
seriousness that we should not water down.
a) It is not something done lightly.
b) I can't imagine the "Greek Wedding" movie scenario
here - we don't "do" a baptism to you, you
participate fully in it.
c) (Jewish girl who wrote article on transforming humans
with bat wings, ran from her Episcopalian baptism)
2) Baptism should require a personal commitment.
a) We safeguard this by requiring the deacon interview
and your testimony during the ceremony.
b) I will accept a baptism from any Christian tradition
as long as you personally expressed your faith
in the saving work of Jesus upon the cross, and the
baptism was done in name of Father, Son and Spirit.
c) If baptism was something that was just done TO you,
it was really a dedication ceremony.
d) Real baptism should be done the way the Bible describes.
VI. WHAT BAPTISM DOESN'T DO FOR YOU.
A. Bible stresses that the water itself has no magical power.
1) Matthew 3:6-8 - without repentance, it is meaningless.
2) 1 Peter 3:21 - not the water, but the faith.
a) The power is from Jesus, unleashed due to our
repentance (faith) and acceptance of his salvation.
B. It doesn't make you a perfect Christian.
1) We are often disappointed when someone is baptized but
doesn't act like a Christian.
2) This must be a common occurrence.
Jerome Engel, a Southern Baptist preacher, was strolling
along the seawalk at a church convention in Charleston,
South Carolina, one day.
He saw a fisherman fishing, and stopped down to watch him.
Presently the man made a catch and pulled in a repulsive
looking fish...
It looked like a cross between a toad and a bullhead.
Not knowing much about fishing, Engel asked the man,
"What kind of fish is that?"
"They call that a Baptist fish, suh," the man replied.
"A Baptist fish?" asked the preacher.
"Yes, suh," replied the fisherman, throwing his catch back.
"They call them that because they spoils so quick after
you take 'em out of the water."
#5674
VII. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
A. Identify yourself with Jesus. (baptism)
B. Identify yourself with this church. (membership)
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 5674 "A Baptist Fish," author unknown, from Chestnut Collection in
Holwick's Database.
#15781 "Sprayed With A Firehose," by Rev. David Lemmons, LemmonsAid;
http://www.hcis.net/users/dlemmons, contained in
Fredericksburg Collection of Holwick Database. Original
article is by Mark McWhorter from The Electronic Gospel
Herald, Vol. 1, Issue 19, October 7, 1998.
#19207 "Joyous Singing Draws Lost Bus Driver To Christ," by Brittany
Jarvis, Baptist Press, http://www.baptistpress.org/;
May 31, 2001.
These and 20,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://illust.holwick.com
=========================================================================
An interesting article that espouses a position that is stricter than
mine. My main objection: if the understanding of the baptizer matters,
what about those who are baptized by pastors who later fall into sin or
apostasy? The Donatist Controversy of the early church established the
principle that a sacred ceremony derives its authority from God Himself
and not from the holiness of the pastor. (The Donatists argued any
baptism was null and void if it was performed by a priest who later
surrendered Bibles to the persecuting Roman authorities.]
HOLWICK'S ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION ID Number: 18906
SOURCE: Internet: Baptist Press (with Crosswalk.com);
http://www.baptistpress.org/
TITLE: What Should A Baptist Make Of Other Baptisms?
AUTHOR: Mark Coppenger
DATE: 3/11/2001
EVANSTON, Ill. (BP) -- To the average ear, "alien immersion" may sound
like some sort of Martian exercise, but to Baptists, it means church
controversy and denominational discipline.
When I interviewed for a Baptist state convention position, the
committee asked me whether folks immersed in other denominations should
be baptized for membership in a Baptist church. In other words, "What
if their immersion were alien?" I answered that they should be baptized
if their baptism was not baptistic. The answer sufficed, and I think it
holds up. Let me explain.
Some say that only Baptist baptism "counts," and that those who haven't
received it should be rebaptized. They reason that Baptists are the
only true church and that only her ordinances are valid. But I think
this can lead to absurdity. A graduate student friend of mine, a
Mennonite, was interested in joining the church in which my wife and I
were members. When he spoke to the minister, he found that he needed to
be rebaptized even though he had undergone believer's baptism by
immersion. The requirement for rebaptism was particularly curious since
it was the Anabaptists, in which tradition the Mennonites work, who
taught Baptists how to baptize.
On the other side are infant baptizers, whether Lutheran, Catholic,
Episcopalian, Presbyterian or Methodist. These people put water on a
baby, with varying shades of meaning. And at these, a true Baptist
balks. Not only is it spiritually vacuous to put ceremonial water on an
infant. It is spiritually dangerous, in that all parties involved can
get the impression that something spiritually substantial has occurred.
But what if someone receives believer's baptism by immersion in a
tradition that honors infant baptism? Is it enough that their
particular baptism was not an infant baptism? My answer has been that
the understanding of both the baptizer and the baptized are crucial.
Whatever the candidate meant, it is also important to ask what the
baptizer meant by what he was doing.
The New Testament speaks repeatedly of "John's baptism," a baptism of
repentance, as distinguished from the baptism of the Apostles, a symbol
of new life in Christ. A particular baptism is tied to the
administrator and to the meaning he attaches to what he is doing.
If one were to come to me from a Lutheran church, I would note that
Lutherans take a sacramental view of baptism. The Lutheran apple of the
Reformation didn't fall that far from the Roman Catholic tree on this
issue. They teach that baptism affects faith in the recipient, even if
he or she is a newborn, and that is emphatically not a Baptist
understanding.
So I would ask the Lutheran to submit to our baptism. Luther's baptism
is not John Smyth's baptism. We are in Luther's debt for his advancing
such doctrines as salvation by faith alone, trust in Scripture alone,
the priesthood of believers, the sacredness of "secular" vocations, but
we are not in his debt for his understanding of baptism, for it is
essentially pre-Reformation.
Does this make a big deal of baptism, attaching unwarranted importance
to its Baptist application? Actually, it's just the opposite. It is
those outside the Baptist tradition who have attached more or different
weight to baptism than it warrants, and we are concerned that we
distance ourselves from those baptismal traditions. On our account, the
act of faith in Christ is the thing, and those who conflate it with a
water ceremony do that saving faith a disservice. And how can we trifle
with such a significant misunderstanding?
Of course, we believe that baptism is our duty and that the genuinely
saved seek it. It is a wonderful occasion for worship. It is a
striking picture of saving change and eternal prospects. It is distinct
from United Methodist adult immersion in that it is obligatory rather
than optional. But it is not sacramental.
So what shall we make of other immersions? If they are truly alien,
then Baptist baptism is in order. If they are baptistic (or New
Testament), then they stand, and the person may join on the basis of a
statement of faith without rebaptism. This would apply, for instance,
to folks baptized in Evangelical Free or Bible churches.
This account displeases those who insist on the exclusive validity of
baptism in a Baptist church. It also displeases those who've been
baptized as adults in infant baptism traditions. But the question
stands, "Does it displease God?" I think not.
Does this mean we cannot cherish and work with Christians who affirm
infant baptism? Not at all. It simply means that collegiality is not
indistinguishability.
__________________________
Coppenger is pastor of Evanston (Illinios) Baptist Church. Other
columns by Coppenger may be viewed at listen.com and
comeletusreason.com.
