Jesus had a ministry that lasted a little more than three years. Of all the things He could have started His ministry with and ended His ministry with, He started it by being baptized and concluded it by commanding the church to make disciples and baptize others. Now, since baptism was the bookends of the ministry of the Son of God, that alone should tell us that baptism, is a big deal. It is but not because of what some people think.
There are two extreme ways that people have of looking at baptism. There is one group that says baptism is necessary to go to heaven, therefore it is a big deal. There is another group that says baptism is unnecessary to go heaven, therefore it is not a big deal. In this case the truth lies exactly in the middle, because both groups are half right. Baptism is unnecessary to go to heaven, but it is a big deal.
We are a Baptist church. Webster defines a Baptist as a "member of a protestant denomination holding that baptism should be given only to believers after confession of faith and by immersion than sprinkling." [1]
Now having said that I want to make something very plain. Baptism is important, not because Baptists say it is, but because the Bible says it is. In fact, the Bible talks about baptism seventy-four times. Baptism is not a Baptist idea, it is a Bible idea. In order to understand why baptism is a big deal, I want to answer three questions.
I. What Is The Symbolism Of Baptism?
Mark 1: 9–11 which is our starting text tells us in vivid detail about the beginning of the ministry of Jesus.
"It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He was the heavens parting and the Sprit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven. "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Mark 1:9-11
If you went back in time, two thousand years to the days of Jesus, you would have heard a Greek word used in every day language to describe a variety of situations. That Greek word is the word Baptizo. The word meant to immerse, dip, or dunk. It was used to describe ships that sunk in the sea or cloth that was dyed in a certain color. One ancient Jewish historian even described a man that was murdered by baptism. In other words, he was drowned. Now, parenthetically let me just say that I am sure he was not sprinkled to death.
For a long period of time the word Baptizo had no religious significance whatsoever. Women baptized their dishes. Sinking ships were baptized into the sea. Kids playing in a river dunked or baptized each other. Then one day a man showed up named John and he began baptizing people. Mark 1: 4 tells us: "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Mark 1:4
John said that baptism is an outward sign of an inward repentance. In fact, he became so identified with the new meaning of this word they began to call him "John The Baptizer" or "John The Baptist." John did something in a religious setting that had never been seen before. He baptized people who wanted to repent from their sin and place their faith in God.
Now it is important to see how John baptized the Lord Jesus. Verse 9 tells us that Jesus was "Baptized by John in the Jordan." Literally, it says He was baptized "into the Jordan." Verse 10 tells us that Jesus then "Immediately came up out of the water." Now, it is obvious the reason that Jesus came up out of the water is because He had been placed down into the water. But, there is a reason why John not only baptized Jesus in this fashion, but also in this place.
John 3: 22-23 says: "After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. New John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized."
That statement is very revealing. Why did John have to have much water? I mean after all, it doesn't take much water to sprinkle people. If baptism was done by sprinkling, I could take two glasses of water and sprinkle this entire congregation. So, why does it take "much water?"
The reason is because to be baptized you have to go down into the water. That is exactly what we read about Jesus. We also read it about another man in the Bible. "So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him." Acts 8:38
Now, why is it necessary to go down into the water? Because in order to be baptized, you've got to be buried beneath the water which is exactly how Paul describes baptism in Romans 6:4: "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"
When you bury a corpse you don't take a few ounces of dirt and sprinkle it on the body and leave it there to bake in the sun. You bury that body beneath the ground and a baptistery is meant to be a liquid tomb where a person is to be buried beneath the water.
As we have already seen, you not only go down into the water, you come up out of the water. Now, if you go down into the water and you are buried beneath the water and you come up out of the water then you can only conclude that you must have been immersed in the water. Without question, that is the New Testament way of being baptized. Without question, history tells us this is the way the early church practiced baptism.
II. Who Are The Subjects Of Baptism?
Regardless of how a person is baptized it begs the question of who is eligible to be baptized. Now this may come as a surprise to some of you, but in the New Testament without exception the only kind of baptism that was practiced was what we call today "Believers Baptism." I grew up all of my life hearing preachers ask people to walk down the aisle of a church and "profess their faith in Jesus Christ." Well, in the New Testament that is not the way you profess your faith in Jesus Christ. Think about this, nobody was ever asked to walk down an aisle in the New Testament, because they didn't have aisles. In the New Testament, the way you would profess your faith in Christ would be to be baptized. Baptism was the profession of faith, because in the Bible two things always go together - Belief and Baptism. They always go together in that order.
Without exception, every time you read about someone being baptized in the New Testament, it was after they believed, after they had committed their heart to God, never before. Look at these examples:
"Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. Acts 2:41
"But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized". Acts 8:12
Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Acts 8:36 – 38
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. "Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just 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. Acts 10: 44, 47-48
And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." Then they spoke the world of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their strips. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Acts 16:30-33
Now, do you sense a pattern emerging here? People were presented the Gospel. They responded to the Gospel and they were baptized. Now, I want to hasten to add that the Bible is also very plain that you do not have to be baptized in order to be saved. Water doesn't save anyone regardless of whether it is a spoon full or a tank full. The only liquid in the Bible that saves is the Blood of Jesus Christ.
"...the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." I John 1:7
A person is never baptized in order to be saved. A person is baptized because they have been saved and they want to show that they have been saved.
That is why we do not practice infant baptism. You do not put a wedding ring on an infant and then wait for that infant to grow up and get married. It is not until an infant is old enough to choose a husband or a wife and then after marriage gets the wedding ring. Just as a wedding ring is to be put only on the finger of a person who is married, baptism is to be performed only on a person who is a believer.
III. What Is The Significance Of Baptism?
There are three words I want to share with you today that if you will write them down and remember them you will always understand why baptism is a big deal.
a. Identification
Think about this for a moment. Why was Jesus baptized? Jesus was not a sinner. Jesus did not need to become a believer. He is the one we are to believe in. He wasn't professing His faith in God. He was God. So why was Jesus baptized? This is important. The reason Jesus was baptized is directly related to why we should be baptized. Baptism is a means of identification. When Jesus was baptized He was identifying Himself with us and giving us an example to follow and when we are baptized we are identifying ourselves with him.
How does this work? Baptism is God's physical picture of the Gospel. Now, as you know the Gospel is the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that He was buried and three days later He was raised from the dead. That is exactly what baptism pictures: the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Guess what? That is exactly what Paul tells us in Romans 6:3-5.
"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 n the likeness of His resurrection" Romans 6:3-5
As you read this passage, you will see very clearly (1) the death of Jesus Christ: "we were "baptized into His death..."; (2) the burial of Christ, "We were buried with Him through baptism unto death"; and (3) the resurrection of Christ "That just as Christ was raised from the dead...even so we also should walk in newness of life." So, baptism is a means of identification whereby we identify with what Jesus did for us.
b. Publication
As I have already told you in the New Testament a profession of faith was not walking down the aisle of a church. It was being baptized. Twenty-seven years ago, when I got married, I immediately put on a wedding ring. Now I didn't have to put on the ring in order to be married, but I put on the ring in order to show that I was married.
I wear that ring today to show that I am a married man. Now, I can take the ring off and put it in my pocket, but I would still be married. You see the ring does not make me married; the ring shows that I am married. Just as a wedding ring shows that you are married, baptism shows that you are a believer in Jesus Christ and that you belong to Him.
I heard about a little boy that went to a church that had a children's church where the children would go and learn Bible lessons. While he was in children's church one Sunday morning, he gave his heart and life to Jesus Christ and accepted Him as his Lord. The teacher told him after church was over that he should go to the pastor and tell him that he had been saved and wanted to be baptized.
Well after the service was over, he walked to where the pastor was standing and he forgot the words they told him to say. When he got up to the pastor, he looked up into his face and said, "Pastor I've been saved and I want to be advertised." Well, quite frankly that is exactly what baptism is. It is your advertisement to the world that you have become a believer in Jesus Christ accepting His death, burial and resurrection as payment for your sins.
c. Transformation
Now get this picture in your mind because a picture is so important. Baptism pictures the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross as we have already read in Romans 6. Whenever a person is baptized, they are picturing a death and burial as they go down into the water and as they come up out of the water they are picturing a resurrection. What they are picturing is not only what Jesus has done for them, but what Jesus has done to them. Their old person has died, their old person was buried, and as a result of believing in Jesus they have been raised as a brand new person. The only method of baptism that pictures that is immersion.
Suppose you come up to my wife, Teresa, and you say, "I want to see a picture of your husband." Now imagine she were to reach into her pocketbook and pull out a picture of a bull-dog. Now you would probably think to yourself something like this, "Man she married a dog." Then you would probably say, "Surely, that isn't your husband?" Now what if she looked at you and said, "No, that is not my husband, but after all the picture really doesn't matter." No, the picture really does matter, because if she shows you a picture of anybody except me, she is not showing you a real picture of her husband.
Well, baptism is meant to be an outside picture of an inside change that has been brought about by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let me explain it this way. There are two ordinances in the church. One is the Lord's Supper and the other is Baptism. Now if I were to ask you, who does the Lord's Supper point to you would obviously respond – Jesus. If I were to ask you how, you would say the bread points to His Body, the juice points to His Blood.
Well, just as the Lord's Supper points to Jesus so should baptism. Now how does baptism point to Jesus? We have already seen that it points to His death, burial and resurrection. It also points to the fact that when a person gives their heart to Christ, the old person dies, their sins are buried forever beneath His forgiveness and they are raised as a brand new person to live their lives for Christ.
Conclusion
I want to close by speaking to several groups of people here. First of all, there are some of you here who have not only never been baptized, you have never become a believer. You have never truly received Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life, which is what we mean by being "saved." So, there are some of you here that have never been baptized and you have never been saved. I am going to ask you in a moment to surrender your life to the Lord who died for your sins.
Now there are some of you here who fall into this category. You were christened as a baby, sprinkled as an infant, but you too have never been saved. I am going to give you an opportunity to get everything spiritually right in your own life by taking the first step toward true baptism which is once again becoming a believer in Christ and receiving Him as your Lord.
Now, there is a third group of you here and you have been immersed. As far as the method of baptism, you did it correctly. Somewhere, sometime perhaps as a child you were put under the water and brought back out of the water, but you were not saved then and are not saved now. One of the reasons you struggle spiritually is because of that very fact, that even though you did what you were supposed to do on the outside, God has never done with you what He needs to do on the inside. You too, today need to respond to Jesus Christ by receiving Him into your life.
Finally, there are some of you here perhaps and you have been saved, but you have never been biblically baptized, that is immersed since you have been saved. You may have been immersed as a child or christened as a baby, but later on in life you received Christ, but you have never been baptized since you have been saved. Today, you need to respond not by becoming a believer. You already are a believer; you need to respond by becoming obedient to the command of Jesus to be baptized.
Let me close by reading one of the sweetest letters I have ever received in my ministry. I received this letter years and years ago from an elderly lady who had been a member of the church for fifty years when she wrote this letter. Here is what she wrote.
Dear Pastor,
I prayed a few days ago for the Holy Spirit to help me in being quick to obey His bidding. The Lord brought up the subject of believers baptism again. He had been speaking to my heart fifteen or twenty years about the fact that when I was not saved when I was baptized.
Someone I loved very much came to me at church and encouraged me to join the church. I was not saved until two years later when I heard God's Word and asked Him to be my Savior.
When I prayed a few days ago, I was made aware that Jesus was not pleased with my putting off His plan for me to have believers baptism. Satan said, "You can do just as much like you are."
But, Jesus said, "This is not obedience. You can only fulfill my plans for your life when you are willing to obey me in everything. You will stand before my throne obedient or disobedient."
She concluded her letter by saying:
"I am coming for believer's baptism because of what Jesus Christ did for me."
I am sure there are those here today who need to be saved and those here who need to be baptized. You must be saved in order to go to heaven. You must be baptized in order to be obedient. I pray you will do what God is calling you to do right now.
[1] Webster's new world dictionary, p. 109