Baptism, Ritual or Reality

This is North Way tape number 112. This message, baptism, ritual, or reality, was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian community on June 28, 1981. We have heard an enormous amount of excellent material transmitted in two weeks. And I've heard a lot of people say, I never knew that before, about this subject of baptism. And the great thing about that is that we're growing in our understanding. The difficult thing about that is that we, in order to make the implications clear in our lives, need to come to grips with that. And so today, as I conclude this series, I realize that this is important material and it's also very emotional. There are going to be some of you out there who are absolutely, at this moment, resistant to the whole idea of being baptized. Right. Don't put your hand up. I mean, I know that. And there are some of you who aren't sure about what to do, some of you who just can't wait. Now, as we've dealt with this subject in our own hearts before today, we felt like we needed to address three groups of people at least. The first is those who have not been baptized in water since coming to Jesus, those who have been baptized at some point in their life, either before or after coming to Jesus, but didn't know why, and those who have been baptized with full understanding and yet have not found themselves walking in the release that baptism was intended to inaugurate in life. Now, this teaching today, beloved, is really crucial to an ongoing walk with Jesus. And I want to exhort you, if you aren't given to taking notes, that you listen carefully, maybe even get the tape later on and go over it again. The previous tapes as well, that Grant has done, and I've gone today to the lengths to have an outline, and I'm going to put that on the overhead so that you can follow along and take notes as you will. Now, we want to avoid two basic things today at this baptism at 4 o' clock at the Kings. Hear me on this. The first one is we want to avoid the party mentality. We're going to have a baptism party at the King's. Let's all go out and everyone get dunked and have a good time, jump on the bandwagon and head on out there and God's given us a beautiful day and why not scratch that? In no way do we want you to feel like, hey, everyone at North Way is going out to get baptized. You might as well join on in. That is not what we want you to do. We don't want you to feel like you will no longer be a part of this body if you don't go to the baptism today. Hear that? It's important. But on the other hand, neither do we want you to put it off. If God has spoken to your hearts in the last couple of days or weeks and maybe conclusively today, don't let the lie of the enemy, which has always been put it off, whether it be coming to Jesus or making a relationship right or whatever. Don't let that lie prevent you from coming out today and entering into this experience of baptism. Now, I want that really clear. We don't want a party spirit, everyone coming out and just doing it because everyone else is doing it. But nor do we want you to say, oh, I'll do it later, because there's a good chance that later you may not have the conviction that you have today. We're going to have baptisms on a continual basis. So if for some reason you're not convicted in your own heart today, that's all right. We'll have another chance. But I don't want you to buy the line that the enemy will give you, well, I'll just put it off and do it later, because that is not God. Now I'm going to deal with this in a systematic fashion. I decided that the best thing I could do would be to go through the six basic questions. I had a teacher once in my training period who called them the six million dollar questions. Who, what, where, when, why and how. And I felt like it would be the clearest outline. But before I do that, I want to deal with some myths about baptism. Are you warm? Is it warm today? Isn't God marvelous? I saw you praying out there and let there be air conditioning, and there was air conditioning. God is faithful. All right. The first myth about baptism is that it will improve my standing before God somehow. We think that if we go ahead and get baptized, we're going to be more acceptable in the eyes of God, that we will have done something that will have lifted us a little closer to sainthood. Beloved, what is the qualification? What is the criterion in the Bible for being a saint? You're cleansed by the blood of Jesus. If you have come to Jesus on his terms, repenting of your sins and turning in faith to him, you are a saint. Don't get so excited, saints, you are a saint. Why don't you just turn to the person and say, hi, I'm saint, and give your name? Go ahead. Praise the Lord. Go ahead. Saint j. Tell you what, beloved? I just met st. Paul. Well, God has his ways. Amen. But you are a saint not because of what you do, but because of what Jesus has done. Amen. And don't forget that. Don't forget that it's a myth. You will not improve your standing before God. Now, another myth that people say, I haven't been baptized because Scripture isn't very clear about it. Ephesians 4, 5 says, there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. But Hebrews 6, one says to deal with the laying of foundations. And one of those foundations is baptisms in the plural. And you see, we feel like, well, Scripture doesn't seem to be clear. So I'm not going to make any step on something I don't fully understand. But you see, coming to understand baptism is coming to understand the Trinity of God. There's at least three baptisms that are very clear in the New Testament, Beloved. One of them is the baptism in water that we're dealing with. One of them is the baptism into the body of Christ that First Corinthians 12:13 talks about. And one of them is the baptism in the Holy Spirit that is mentioned several different times in New Testament scriptures, beginning in John, chapter one, verse 28. So there's at least three scriptures or at least three baptisms that are dealing with. And just as God is perfectly three in one, so these baptisms are three. And yet they're one. That's why Ephesians 4 can say one baptism, because it talks about the full experience of God baptizing us into all that he means and is and does. And yet that does not undercut the other truth that there are significant individual experiences of baptism that God wants us to deal with. Another myth is that there's only one formula that you can be baptized in. I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And others would say, well, no, that's not right. I've got to be baptized in the name of Jesus only. And others say, you need to be dunked for each time you're given a name and you get all these different things storming along. And people say, well, I was only baptized in the name of Jesus only. Does that mean I need to be baptized in the Father, Son, Holy Spirit? I'll tell you, you know what that really speaks of religion? That is a religious spirit that would say because you only had one formula under which you were baptized, that it wasn't a valid baptism. I don't believe that you can make an absolutely concrete case against either one of those two that I've suggested and even some of the others that others have come up with. So don't be bound up by a religious formula there. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go forth making disciples of all nations, teaching them all that I've commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But in the Book of Acts, we see accounts where they were baptized in the name of Jesus. Beloved, the formula isn't what is important, it's the reality of the experience. Another myth is it doesn't matter what I believed at the time of baptism. What this tends to do is to exaggerate the claim of baptism, that it's so powerful in and of itself that it doesn't matter what you believed or what you felt or what you opened up to. There's so much power in baptism that it did it all for you. It's sort of a hyper sacramentalism. Baptism in and of itself has an intrinsic power that doesn't matter. It isn't dependent upon your response. And I don't believe that's true. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. John 1:12 says that we need to receive what God gives us in order to become sons and daughters of God. There is a literal reception of those things. But on the other side, there's the myth that baptism is purely symbolic and that all that God looks on anyhow is your heart. So why do you have to be baptized if God is just looking at your heart? But that's a myth too, because you see, God has ordained, and Jesus has clearly taught that in baptism, the literal, physical, baptismal act, the melding of that with the spiritual reality that we'll look at here, and what that does brings forth a transaction in your life that is eternal. You hear what I'm saying? The literal act and the spiritual reality join together. That chemistry causes to come forth an occurrence in your life that is real and life giving. All right, so those are some of the myths of baptism. And as we go on now to deal with these six questions, I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to open up revelation to your heart, to be open to what God would say here, and to weigh it as we go through. You know, it's kind of like a story I've heard. A man who was the. His job at the factory in a town in England was to blow the whistle. And he did that quote religiously every day. And on his way to work, he would stop at this little clock shop and take a look at the clock and set his watch to it and then walk over to the factory and go up and at the precise time that he was told, he'd blow that whistle. Well, one day he stopped and said as he was there, this shopkeeper came out and said, aren't you the man that blows the whistle every day? He said, yeah, he is. And every day I stop here to get the correct time. And he says, that's funny. I set my clocks by your whistle, you see. And if you don't have a standard of truth, then one is telling you this and another is telling you that. And many times they're offsetting each other. That's the kind of thing that will bind us up. I implore you by the spirit of God to be open to what these things would mean to you. What is baptism? And the Greek baptism is very clearly spelled out. The Greek word is bapto. You can see the transliteration is very plain. It means to dip, sink, plunge or immerse. Arton Gingrich, which is probably the authoritative lexicon of New Testament Greeks, says that to immerse really is the only necessary or allowed meaning of the word. Only necessary or allowed meaning of the. Word. To plunge, sink, dip or immerse. It was used in classical Greek of a man who would take, who was a dye, who was a dyer. I'm not sure if that's the right word, but his job was to dye cloth. And he would take that piece of cloth and he would baptoe it in the dye or another meaning is to take one vessel and completely immerse it in another. Not like if you take a ladle and you'd want to get some punch out of a big vat, you'd take the ladle in, that would be bat toeing it and pull it out full. And so the picture in the Greek is absolutely fundamentally clear. There's really no discussion about this point. I may speak a little later as to why it got so confused. But out of that I see two very important principles. The first one is that baptism is a physical law, literal experience. There's been a teaching among some through the ages that baptism was simply symbolic, that all you needed to do was to understand that you were baptized into God. But look in your Bibles first of all at Matthew, chapter three, Matthew three, Beginning in verse 13, Bible says, then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized. The Jordan was a river and John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me. But Jesus answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, he went immediately up from the water. So the picture is he was baptoed down in the water and then came up from the water. Literal, physical water, a river just as much. In Acts, chapter eight, we find the Ethiopian eunuch who comes to a revelation of who Jesus is, stops his chariot and says, here's water. What prevents me from being baptized now? And off they went down into the literal physical water. So baptism is a physical act, water baptism. But it also has a tremendous spiritual significance. Now, Grant has laid an excellent foundation for us and I don't want to re establish any of those things, but I may overlap a little bit just so. I'm sure to cover these things. We have said through Christendom that back Baptism is a sign of the initiation of a believer into conversion and the body of Christ. It's a sign. The Greek word for sign is Simeon. Simeon. Actually it's spelled S E M I O N. And that word means a mark of personal property, a distinguishing mark of personal property. Baptism is God's distinguishing mark on you that you are his. That's what the sign idea is all about. Baptism is a sign that you belong to God. Now, the theology or the underlying scriptural basis is clearly spelled out in several passages. Quickly, look with me. I'm not going to read through them as much as just point you to them. Romans 6 is the first one. Romans 6. I encourage you to turn there with me so you can see it for yourself. Baptism is a sign. Baptism in a spiritual sense is an identification. Identification with the life, burial, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Look with me as we read beginning in verse 3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. How plain that is. So that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Baptism is a physical expression of a spiritual experience. It is saying by our action what we declare to be true, our spirit, that we have died with Christ, been buried with him, and in the spirit, man raised to newness of life. It is such a beautiful picture. Do you see it? You see, Jesus came, beloved to identify with us in our need, in our sinfulness, and in so identifying he went to the cross, died for our sins, and was buried and raised again. He identified with us, but he says to us, now you identify with me and my provision by being baptized. And so there's a point in which you are identifying, publicly taking on a public expression, that you are identifying with Jesus in this action. The next thing it does, it marks the point of union. A believer in Christ. Look at the next verse. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. And I say hallelujah to that. You see, in the New Testament times, the focus of New Testament Christianity was union with Christ. We have lost that focus by and large in American Christianity. We have made Christianity focused on a religious system and a whole bunch of different things that are secondary to the ultimate reality of New Testament life, which was union with Christ. John 17. I believe that's the capsulization of life, isn't it? To know him is eternal life. Jesus prayed, father, that they may be one, I in them and thou in me, that we may be perfectly one. That's what God's about doing. And baptism marks that point of union. When you say, I want the world to know that I'm united with Christ. Next thing that baptism does spiritually, it expresses an exchange of life. Look at Galatians 3, Galatians chapter 3, beginning in verse 26. For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. You see, beloved, salvation comes through faith. That's what I said initially. You don't improve your standing before God. Salvation comes through faith and the blood sacrifice of Jesus. But look at verse 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. You see, there is an exchange of nature. There's a putting off of the old, as Grant said last week, and a putting on of the new. And what makes baptism so significant is that it is in your mind, indelibly written, that you went to those waters and did what Christ commanded and have found that to be your expression of exchanging your old nature for the new nature and life. In Jesus Christ. The weight of your sin was lifted by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But the freedom from the power of sin in your life is released through the experience of putting off the old nature and putting on the new. And baptism marks that experience in your life. And the New Testament Church knew that. And that's why they baptized people right when they were saved. I yearn for the day when in God's grace, we either build a baptismal thing right here in front of us and wheel it out here every Sunday morning or whatever, or whatever God has planned for us. But that when people come and say, I want, I need this newness of life in Jesus, that we can right then and there baptize him. Because you see, something happens when you walk out of here and say, well, I think I did, but I don't know if I did. I tell you, when you go into those waters, something in your spirit is released. And as I said, it's more than just symbolic. It is a reality that God works forth. It is then as you put off the old in baptism that you release. The new Baptism is a releasing of life. It is an inauguration. The old ruler is gone, a new ruler has come. The old ruler being self, I, ego, me, but the new ruler being the lordship of Jesus. Remember President Reagan most recently inaugurated in January 20, I believe it was, when he stood up and took that oath of office and was inaugurated into his office. Everything that that implied in terms of a working out of his authority and power and leadership has not been seen yet. But all that was given to him at that point of inauguration was by the people recognized as having been established. In other words, he was given the authority when he took the oath of office. And, and now the working out of the reality of that authority is being seen in budget cuts and tax cuts and all the kinds of things that are happening. You see my point, though, that he was given the authority at his inauguration, but the working out of that release now is happening through his term in office. Likewise with baptism, the authority for new life is given, but the working out, the release of that life takes place throughout our walk with Jesus. The cross has established forever our relationship with Christ, but baptism establishes the release of Christ in our life. You will never be more forgiven than you are by the blood of Jesus on the cross, but you may never know the fullness of experience in Christ Jesus unless you obey his command and follow him into the waters of baptism. The process of salvation began at Calvary, but the dynamic of the working out of it is markedly expressed and begun at the point of baptism. Why has the Church withheld this truth from us? Because it's been clouded over for centuries in this mythical understanding of symbolism and ritual. Do you see the power that's here as an expression of experience? Yes. Praise the Lord. The final expression is in the spiritual. Baptism is a circumcision of the heart. Turn to Colossians, chapter two, and does anyone have an amplified Bible that's handy. Oh, wonderful. I knew the Lord put you up here. Shall I? Thank You. Colossians, chapter two. I want to read it right here. Verse 11. Why don't you just listen to this first and then you can read along in yours. In him also, you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a spiritual circumcision performed by Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh, the whole corrupt carnal nature with its passions and lusts. Thus you were circumcised when you were buried with him in your baptism, in which you were also raised with him to a new life through your faith in the working of God, as displayed when he raised him up from the dead. Let me read first part of verse 12. Thus you were circumcised when you were buried with him in your baptism. I appreciated that. Thank you. What that is saying is, beloved, that there is a cutting off as circumcision literally was in the physical, a cutting off of the old nature that takes place at the point of baptism and gives us a freedom and a release into the new nature that God has ordained for us. And so you can literally say that baptism is a spiritual circumcision, a spiritual circumcision. In Acts 7 Stephen, just before he is about to be stoned to death. Verse 51 says this. Acts 7:51, talking to the Pharisees and the scribes and the ritualists, you stiff necked people, uncircumcised in your hearts. You see, they had not had the old nature cut off. They were not circumcised with a spiritual circumcision. Deuteronomy 36. Spiritual circumcision is described. Circumcision is given as a release of love toward God. You see, when you are circumcised spiritually, love is released in you to God. So not only it is a shunning of what is past, but it's an embracing of what is ahead. Beloved, that's what baptism is. And I say, God, what marvelous revelation is in your scripture. I've just really quickly gone over this and Grant elaborated much of it last week, but I wanted to put it in this form so that you can hang on to it. I want to go on now with why be baptized? Why be baptized? Now I have to say this. When I thought of this question, I said, lord, one reason why be baptized is because I had no idea that this was true. Beloved, if you say, well, you know, J I was baptized, but none of that kind of stuff really happened to me. Could it have been because you didn't expect it to happen. You weren't coming with faith to receive what God had intended to give. And as I said earlier, you receive from God what you open to in faith. So this is to me the number one reason to be baptized is because of the reality of the truth that God would want. But here's some others just in case. It's a command of Scripture. It's a command through the scriptures. Jesus. Matthew 28:19 Baptizing them. Go forth baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38. Look at it with me. Let's begin at verse 37 of Acts 2. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. God always deals with the heart. Your head doesn't really matter that much to God. He cuts to the heart. And he said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? And I'll tell you. When your heart is cut, that's the response that you come to God. There is a sense of urgency. Lord, what do I do? Peter says this. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. There's the command, repent and be baptized, every one of you. And then we see it through example and through further teaching all through the Scriptures. It's a command of Jesus. It's a command of the Scriptures, not a suggestion, but a command. Be baptized. We saw in Matthew 3 that Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. The second thing that I would say, let me add to that. Look at Mark 16 for a moment. This is an interesting point that I appreciated learning. Just to further nail down the first point I made about salvation and baptism. Verse 14 of Mark 16. Someday. By the way, I don't know how many of you have in your Bible some kind of notation that this part of the Bible is only in some manuscripts. I'm going to talk about that someday because that can absolutely foil your faith. It can become a stumbling block to you because, well, is it really in the Bible? And most of what has been annotated in this regard has come through modern scholarship and the whole idea of biblical criticism. And I want to talk about that. But just suffice it to say today that I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit intended for this Scripture to be in the Bible and has been through the centuries, and modern scholarship isn't going to erase it. So let me go on. Verse 14. Afterward, he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table, and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Has God ever done that to you? He has to me. Because they had not believed. Those who saw him after he had risen, and he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. Notice that he who believes and is baptized, there's the union of faith and action will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. You notice he doesn't say he who does not believe and is not baptized. Jesus does not link condemnation with baptism, but he commands us to be baptized. And there's an openness that comes by obeying that command that I'm going to talk about in a minute that is just absolutely liberating to a heart. You know, I asked myself, if it really wasn't that important, why would Jesus say get baptized? I mean, there must be something more than just putting his Amen on your face. There must be something. There's a purpose in this, and I hope that I've expressed it well enough for you to grab a hold of. But see it that it's more than just something that the church has been doing all along. And you might as well do it because it's there now. The second reason of why be baptized is it answers to conscience. Turn to 1 Peter 3. I know Grant really wanted to dive into this last week and we ran out of time. I'd like to dive into it, but we're out of time. Going to be out of time again too. But I want to do a little one more thing with it. 1st Peter 3:21. Baptism which corresponds to this talking about Noah being in the ark. What a picture this is now. Saves you not as removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience. Now, this isn't talking about baptismal regeneration. It's not saying that baptism is what gives you that standing before God. But baptism is that part of the initiation rite that seals what God has done. Even as Noah was in the ark and was safe from the flood waters of judgment. So we see that we in Christ, in the baptism with which we are baptized, are saved from the judgment that's coming to the world. But what I want you to especially see is an appeal to God for a clear conscience. Baptism answers to our conscience. Hebrews 10:22 talks about our access to God, Our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with the pure water. There's the Symbolism of baptism and the expression of a clear conscience before God. Why be baptized? Because you can say before God, Father, I have done what you've asked me to do. And I don't know of too many people who have been baptized who haven't said, you know, there was just something that happened in me and that act that I knew was right and I knew that I was pleasing my heavenly Father. God has done so much for us, towards us, that to take this step to please him is right and brings pleasure to him. Another reason to be baptized. It's an expression of the humility of our hearts. I believe that pride, fear and ignorance are the three reasons why people don't get baptized. Silly things of pride is so much so that I don't want people to see me with my hair wet. All. The way to more serious things of all those people are going to see me do that. I believe that if people come to see you, it's not because they're coming to check out how you look when you're soaking, but they're coming to rejoice with you that you've had the urging in your spirit to obey the command of Christ. And fear will keep you from those waters. Fear that somehow you're getting fanatical. That. Only the fanatics worry about things like that. I don't even know how to address that. It's such a plain thing in scripture that it's so fundamental. I can't believe it's become something that is associated with radical fringe people. But anyhow, there comes in you an expression of humility in second kings. Don't turn there. Chapter 5, verses 8 through 14 is the story of Naaman and his leprosy. Remember that? And the prophet came and he tells Naaman to go get baptized. Literally what he's doing is he tells them to go get dip in the river seven times. This cruddy river, the Jordan River. And the king is indignant about it. And he says, we've got more beautiful rivers than that where I come from. But his servant convinces him that he should do what the man of God says. And the Bible says that when he came up out of the water, his skin was like a child's skin. Remember that? And there's something about being baptized that produces a childlikeness in it in each of us. And I just think the picture is really plain there in scripture. Alright, who should be baptized? Well, clearly from all I've said, all of us who have opened our hearts up to life in Jesus need to be baptized. All of us. There is no separation in the mind of the New Testament writers between repentance, faith and baptism. They go one inside of the other. I don't believe in the mind of the New Testament apostles and prophets and pastors. I don't believe there was a separation in that experience. It was a conversion and initiation melded together. I repent of my sins, Lord. I turn to you in faith in Jesus, and I'm baptized to demonstrate. So the first thing is all those, okay, who have opened their heart to Jesus. Now the next thing is not correct on the outline. That's my fault, I'm sure. Couldn't be your fault, could it, Mimi? No, I don't think so. Of course, you have been quoted as saying here that we praise the Lord. The next point should be. And it kind of ties in with conscience a little bit that some would say. I believe what you're saying here, Jay. I see what the scriptures say, but I haven't been a very good Christian. I asked Christ into my life a while back, but I sure haven't lived like it. And I don't really think I should be baptized until I get my life in order. Beloved, I want to say to you, one of the ways in which your life will come into order is when you obey Jesus and take this step. It is meant to be a source of release, not something that you aspire to and then finally accomplish and then get it done. And so if your conscience is condemning you, maybe that's what I meant here. If your conscience is condemning you, I'm not good enough. Put that off. Believe it. It's a lie. You're good enough if you've come to Jesus on his terms of faith and repentance. What about the question of re baptism? Who should be baptized? Well, I was baptized when I was seven or an infant. Now it would be easy for me, based on what I've said, to be pretty narrow minded here, but I really believe that you need to do what the Lord Jesus is telling you to do. And only you can discern in your inner heart. If the things that God had intended to take place in baptism have really taken place in your life, and if they have not, then you need to respond according to the word of Scripture. I cannot put those words in your heart and I won't tell you what you should do. But I do want to urge you to come to grips with scripture. And if you come to a point of peace that you've done what God has said, then beloved, I will not say to you, you're wrong. I will not. It's a matter of conscience between you and God. When be baptized. Well, the best time to be baptized, of course, is when you come to Jesus. As I said, I want to see it happen. Now, the Rock Church down in Virginia beach, which is a tremendous congregation of people who are seeking the Lord. That's when they have their baptisms and they provide everything for people. People walk into that place having no intention whatsoever of getting near these fanatics and walk out loving the Lord and they provide robes and the whole thing. People don't even get their clothes wet. So it can happen. But that's the time that the eunuch in Acts, chapter eight. We won't turn there, but that's the picture of it. Or really, I believe at Pentecost, right after the sermon, people were baptized right on the spot. That's the time to do it. And you know something? One of the reasons why so much confusion has arisen around baptism is because we separated it. We separated our faith from our action. And we've gotten into a confused state about