Water Baptism - Pastor Jason Bishop

THIS IS AN AUTOMATIC TRANSCRIPT AND MAY NOT BE 100% ACCURATE

So we'll have some questions answered like why do we dunk people in the water? I take a bath. I go swimming. I get in the water.

That what is different about that water than any other time I go under the water? Why is it different? Why is it important? Also, one important thing I want to cover which I feel is extremely important according to scripture is what name do we baptize in? The act of water baptism, being immersed in water in response to receiving salvation, a very important first step in the Christian's life, being water baptized.

Matthew 3:es 13-17 says, "We see the Lord Jesus himself coming to his cousin John to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness in his life." He then went on to establish baptism as an eternal ordinance for his church. Jesus did, calling every believer to follow in his example and be baptized. Matthew 28:19, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." In our modernized comfort zone Christianity, we often take the commandments of God too lightly. We don't put enough emphasis on the things that the Lord has established to be. Most westerners take Chuck Coulson sure some have heard of him said most westerners take baptism for granted but for many in the world the act requires immense courage in countries like Nepal it once meant imprisonment for Soviet or Chinese or Eastern block believers it was like signing their own death warrant what these people would go through to be baptized a wedding ring if I can get it off is an outward sign to everybody that I'm married.

I'm marked. I'm my wife's and she's mine. But you can see that there's an outward sign that happens with the wedding ring. And we do believe that when we go down in baptism, a very small part of water baptism, I say that because the emphasis should not be on the outward sign, but a portion of water baptism is an outward sign of identifying with Christ publicly before the world. And why do I say it's a small part?

Because there are actually things that happen to us in baptism that are important to say it's just a symbol or an outward sign of an inward work. It takes away from the depth and reality of what water baptism is and what it does. It's a public declaration, but it's also so much more than just that. When we're saved, when we receive Christ, when I say, "Lord, I repent. I believe in you.

I confess you with my mouth and I believe." When I'm saved, we're spiritually baptized into Christ. Galatians 3:27, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ and baptized into his body, the church." 1 Corinthians 12:13, "For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit." We're baptized into Christ, were baptized into the body, the church as a whole. Baptism in water is an outward representation of all these realities. And I say that in a very in a small sense because it's going to go much deeper. But it's not just it is not just an outward representation.

People minimalize or minim sorry minimize baptism so much nowadays with no authority to do so. We follow scripture in biblical symbolism. Water represents inner cleansing. The water represents cleansing, cleaning, making pure. You can find this in Ephesians 5:26.

I'm not going to read everything, but if you're taking notes, Ephesians 5:26, Hebrews 10:22, and also spiritual rebirth. We can find that in John 3:5. Both of which are central themes of baptism. Water baptism is in essence a funeral, a burying of the old man, of the carnal nature. We testify both to God and to the world that the person we were before is dead and buried below that water, buried and gone, and were raised as a new creation in Christ.

All those sins that we did as a slave to sin are now gone, erased. Romans 6:4, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Colossians 2:12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead. You never read of an unbaptized Christian anywhere in the Bible. It is always necessary.

You find these guys going out and preaching repentance, preaching salvation, they immediately go into water baptism immediately. They didn't see it as if something was delayed or put off or a possible option. They said, "All right, you've been you've received Christ. You need to go in the water." It was necessary and immediate. Acts 2:38, when the people respond to Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, the first thing he instructs them to do, the first thing, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

What name did he say? Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. We further read in verse 41 that they gladly received his word and were baptized. That's what the Bible says. They gladly received his word and they were baptized.

Mark 16:15, he said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." We have examples, many examples of people baptized in the New Testament. Acts 2:37-41, we have the people at the day of Pentecost. People at Pentecost, they're baptized in verse 41. The people in Samaria also in the book of Acts, Philip preached and he baptized.

We had people in Samaria. We have the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-4. Philip leading the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ. And as they finish their discussion, remember this as they finish their discussion, he says, Philip says or the eunuch says, "What's hindering me from being baptized?" Philip explained the importance of it perfectly. And this man says, "Well, what's stopping me right now?

What's holding us back from me being baptized?" He saw the need, the necessity for it, the urgency. And Philip replies, if you believe with all your heart, you may. If you believe in Christ and you confessed him, you could be baptized right now. Then they came to a body of water and Philip promptly baptizes him right there. Paul in Acts 22:16 uh 22:16, the first thing he is told to do after conversion is to be baptized.

We have Cornelius the centurion, Lydia, a dealer in purple from the city of Thotyra, the Philippian jailer, many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized, the 12 Ephesians that Paul met. And it goes on, the examples of baptism in the Bible are immense, overwhelming, and it was something Jesus commanded us to do. It was carried out by thousands of people in the in the New Testament church, in the New But what is its importance? To understand it, we need to look at a few examples. Anybody familiar with typology and symbolism a little bit?

So things from the Old Testament that were, you know, now remember everything in the Old Testament points toward Christ, right? And everything in the New Testament reveals Christ. So we can go back as far as Genesis and it's pointing to Christ. And so we have examples in the Bible and I want to look at a couple of examples here in 1 Peter 3 verses 20 to 21. This is out of the message.

It says, "You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exact, saved from the water, by the water." The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin, but by presenting you through Jesus's resurrection before God with a clear conscience. The flood is a picture of baptism. They were saved from the water by the water. It's baptism. The eight people on board the ark knew that they were different than all the other people.

They knew they were in the ark in safety. They knew that they were there. They were marked. They were saved because they believe they believed what God said would happen. And they obeyed.

They were obedient. The wickedness of the people was gone. And the eight would start over. Fresh. Buried in baptism.

The old man gone. Coming up, starting over, fresh. It is a symbol. It's looking toward baptism. The old way was gone.

Baptism comes from the Greek word baptism, which means immerse. It is not biblical. We don't find it anywhere in scripture to sprinkle or to splash or sprinkle water for baptism. It's not a biblical example. It is not found in the New Testament anywhere.

Our example is by immersion, a burying of the old man. That water symbolizing the grave, the top of that water symbolizing the earth, right? being buried down and rising up a new creation. That does not happen with a sprinkle. Okay, we have the examples in front of us.

We're to go down in the water uniting ourselves. When we go down, we are uniting ourselves with Christ in death. And when we come up out of the water, we are uniting ourselves with him in resurrection. Okay, it's clear. It's very clear.

We rise from the water uniting ourselves with the resurrection of Christ. And we see this in Romans 6:es 3-11. It says, "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, knowing this, pay attention. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The clearest example that we have that shows the meaning of baptism is a text from a Greek poet and physician named Nikander who lived at 200 BC. And it's a recipe for making pickles.

Does everybody remember me talking about this before? Like a couple years ago, but it's a recipe for making pickles. And it's helpful because it uses both words. Nikander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be dipped or baptized into boiling water and then baptized or baptized into vinegar. Okay?

So he's showing the differences in those words. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first baptism is temporary, a temporary dip in the boiling water. And the second baptism was the act of actually baptizing and saturating that vegetable in vinegar. And so the difference was pull out and the other one was like just sit there and soak, right?

Take when you come up out of there. And when you JJ's a big pickle fan. I like pickles. Shamma makes them. They're they're they're good.

They're good. But that's a cucumber. But it takes on from being immersed in that vinegar, it takes on the flavor of that vinegar and the garlic and everything else. When we are immersed in Christ, we take on the flavor of Christ. There's a difference.

There's a difference. When used in the New Testament, this word more often refers to our union identification with Christ than to our water baptism. And for example, Mark 16:16, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Christ is saying that all of our intellectualism isn't enough. We are not going to ascend intellectually.

It's not enough. There must be a union with him, a real change, something that happens in us. We take on all, we saturated with all of him and we take him on and there is a clear change in our lives. And that's how we know we're his. We've got to be like the cucumber changing to a pickle.

We no longer taste like the cucumber. When my friends from 30 years ago come and find me, I shouldn't look like old Jason. I shouldn't be saying the same things I said before I was saved. I shouldn't be doing the same things that I did. They should see a complete change.

They should see the flavor of Christ in me. That vinegar, for those that don't like vinegar, she's not in here right now. Shamba's mom doesn't like vinegar that much. And like from a distance, I made chicken wings one time and just the buffalo sauce from like 25 feet away. I was out in the kitchen.

She was way back in the corner of the living room and she smelled it and she's like, "Who's got vinegar? Who's got vinegar out?" So, it's a very potent smell. Those that love it love it. Those that don't, they don't. But we can't argue those that love it, those that don't.

It's potent. And that's how we should be for Christ. There should be a change. 1 Corinthians 10:1. I want you to bear in mind, brothers, that all our ancestors were beneath the cloud.

This is the second example. And all passed through the sea. That in the cloud and in the sea, they all underwent baptism as followers of Moses. By crossing the Red Sea, many things were taking effect. They had to trust God.

They were leaving their past behind. They had a new future, but it was unknown and it was a little scary. They were leaving slavery. Slave to sin. They're leaving slavery.

They were becoming warriors. The past ruler over them died, was done away with. Now they had a new leader. It's a symbolism. It points toward water baptism.

There may have been a helpless feeling when the Israelites walked through the waters. How high? walking through those waters on either side, seeing the past coming after them as they go in the water. Come on. They're going in the water with all the knowledge of the past.

The past is right on their heels trying to kill them. How many know that as you're going to go down in water baptism, your past is going to hound you? Your past is going to be right on your heels and it the devil's going to be reminding you how unworthy you are and how unfit you are. But that's all in the past. That's that's behind the waters of baptism are coming to help and erase all that.

And so we see that here in this example, the past at their heels just coming after them as they pass through the water that's parted. And there's a helpless feeling when they're going through there. But on the other side, they found new life and new land. And when you come up out of the water of baptism, you come out new and you find new life and new land. It points us toward it.

The third Colossians 2:11, "In him, Jesus Christ, you were also circumcised in the putting off of sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins. Remember Romans 6. What shall we say then?

Verse one. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore, we were buried with him through the baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, pay attention, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died, had been freed has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.

Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lust.

Death, burial, resurrection. We are identifying. We're uniting with Christ in baptism. There's a few more things I want to cover here and I'm trying to get through them for you. The New Testament records of water baptism.

Some of these we saw. We're going to go a little more detail before we finish here. Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2:es 36-38. We read about this earlier, but he says, "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, 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." What name? Jesus Christ.

for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So Peter baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 8:es 12-6, we're getting into the name that we baptize in now. But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, what name? Jesus Christ.

Both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

What name? the Lord Jesus. So here, Philip baptized all those here in Samaria in the name of the Lord Jesus. Peter and John come along in full knowledge that they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and say, "Hey guys, let's now pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit." So you got Peter and John completely on board baptizing in the name of Jesus. They were in full agreement of baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Acts 10:47-48. Then Peter answered, "Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit as we have?" And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days. Here we had Peter seeing Gentiles getting filled with the Holy Spirit and he's telling his Jewish counterparts, "How can we forbid them from water? How can we forbid them from baptism when the Lord himself has baptized them in the Holy Spirit?

How can we hold them back?" And then he baptized them in the name of the Lord, Jesus. Maybe people will say, "Hold on a minute. It didn't say Jesus. It said Lord. I'm I'm glad you saw that.

Maybe you didn't, but I'm glad you did. That's exactly what it said. If we could turn to Philippians chapter 2, verses 10 to 11. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is what?

Lord to the glory of the father. Jesus Christ is lord. Lord here in verse 11 comes from the Greek curios which also it means supreme in authority. The synonyms for it the meanings of it were God, master, lord. Jesus is lord.

Acts 19:5-7. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now, the men were about 12 in all. Paul baptized about 12.

And they're talking about the men. There could have been women and children there, too. I don't know. But we know is approximately at least the 12 in the name of the Lord Jesus. When we pray for the sick, we pray in the name of Jesus.

When we pray for those who are demon possessed, those who are bound, we pray in the name of Jesus. There is authority in the name of Jesus. We pray in the name of Jesus. We don't say in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit come out. We those are titles.

That's not the name. Stay with me. Don't be offended. Stay with me. We've been given the authority in the name of the Lord Jesus.

That's where our authority comes from. You have some authority in your life. Not near what he has, but we have some. Dave, you if you want a mortgage, you have that level of authority in your life. If you want car payments, you are the authority over those car payments.

You are a son. You're a father. You're a brother. You're a husband. But what do you sign when you go get that mortgage?

David Billard, maybe your initial, maybe your middle name. You do not sign. You do not sign father. You do not sign husband. Those are titles in your life.

The authority in your life is David Bolar. How many know there's a name? There's a name above every name that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, and that name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Stay with me.

Do not get upset. Acts 22:16. And now, why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. What is the name of the Lord?

Jesus. Calling on Jesus. Ananas baptized Paul in the name of the Lord. Romans 6:3 says, "Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" Baptized into who? Christ Jesus.

Baptism is identifying with the Lord Jesus dying on the cross and rising again. Everything about it is pointing to Jesus. So just as all throughout the New Testament, we also baptize in the name of Jesus. Galatians 3:27-28. For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male or female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. We have one scripture and I'm not I'm not going to knock the scripture.

We're reading it. We have a scripture that me mentions being baptized in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Anybody know which one that one is? It's in Matthew. Yep.

This one's narrow. I'm just putting Holy Spirit in parenthesis. Matthew 28:19. Where we at? Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So, if that was the command in Matthew 28, why was everybody baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? If that's the command, does that mean all of those other baptisms in the New Testament were done incorrectly? No. They baptized correctly. It does not say in the names of the father, of the son, and of the holy spirit or the holy ghost.

It says in the name singular, not plural, not plural. So we have titles here. Father, Lord, Son, Jesus, the anointing, the Holy Spirit, Christ, the anointed one. The name that we should be baptized in is the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgive my handwriting.

It's never been great, but you get the point. The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. And don't walk out on me yet because I'm tying this all together. The father, son, holy ghost. These are titles just like you have titles.

But the authority lies in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the fullness. Stay with me. The Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form.

Everybody understand what the Godhead is? You hear talk about trinity and all that kind of stuff. There's no mention of trinity in the Bible. It says the Godhead. So I say the Godhead because that's what the Bible says.

So the Godhead would involve Father, Son, Holy Spirit. That's the Godhead. But what about Colossians? What does Colossians tell us in chapter 2? We'll find it in verse 9, but I want to read verses 8 to 10.

It says, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men. according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. Verse nine, for in him capital H, who is him? Jesus. For in him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.

In Jesus is the fullness all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and in him it says we are complete. Just like the apostles in the New Testament church when we say Jesus Christ is Lord we are also saying that Jesus Christ is Lord God even over the Old Testament. The Godhead is a mystery that you and I will never completely understand. For us to stand here and even try to explain it, we'd be fools. I see people try to do it and they argue with each other.

I say, "Great is the mystery and I'm going to believe what the Lord said in his word." He'll work out all the details I need to know later on. I don't need to argue with anybody. I if we ever have a disagreement, we just go to the word. I'm not going to yell and fuss about it. John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Phillip?

He who sees who he who has seen me has seen the father. So how can you say show us the father?" Jesus himself telling Phillip, "How can you tell me, show me the father when I'm right here with you? If you've seen me, you've seen the father." What does the Bible say? God is a spirit. Those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

We have a bodily form. Colossians 2:9, for in him, in Jesus, dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This was huge for the early believers. You think it's risky now? It was way risky then.

Jews calling Jesus when they say when they identify him as Lord, they're identifying him as Lord God over the Old Testament. They were in some serious waters there in their culture. So what name is the father, the son, the holy spirit, the lord Jesus Christ? In him dwelt all the fullness of the godhead bodily church doctrine is to be established by the volume of scripture. And when it comes to water baptism, we have a volume of scripture with it full of examples for us.

There's no way we should be messing up water baptism. So, we have some people that are looking to get water baptized. If there's any questions on this, and there's a lot more. I'm just I'm kind of wrapping up for time sake. Uh, but if there's any questions on this topic, if somebody is thinking about getting baptized, you might want to join in with them when they do it.

Come to me and I'd be happy to talk with you about it. Amen. It's important. Really is. Lord, we just thank you for another day to come together and worship you.

to get into your word, Father, and learn more about you. We just pray that God as we go out there and it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and things just drone on, Lord, that you would remind that you'd bring us back and we would meditate on baptism, uniting with you in death and resurrection. Lord, help us to see it. Help us to see it for what it is. Help us to see it clearly, God.

We thank you for your provision. We thank you for the sacrifice made for all of us. The Bible says once for all. You did it one time for everybody. Lord, we thank you for it.

We're grateful for it. We thank you for all that you've done in our lives and all that you continue to do in Jesus name. Amen.