05. Water baptism

 

 

A. The baptism is important

 

1.               It is a commandment

      It was one of the first commandments Jesus gave to the church  -  Matt.28:19, Marc. 16:15-16;

      Peter commanded Cornelius, his relatives and his close friends to be baptized: Acts 10:47-48.

 

2.               Jesus was baptized Himself  -  Matt.3:13-17

We need to follow Jesus’ example,  because He realized, that it was necessary to be baptized.

 

3.               In the book of Acts we read about baptism

All the believers were baptized; repentance / conversion and faith preceded baptism:

      The day of Pentecost  -  Acts 2:38-39;

      Philip baptized the believers at Samaria  -  Acts 8:12-13;

      Paul was baptized  -  Acts 9:18;

      Cornelius and his relatives and friends  -  Acts 10:47-48;

      Lydia  -  Acts 16:15;

      The jailer of Philippi and his family  -  Acts 16:33;

      Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, and his household, and many more  -  Acts 18:8.

 

4.               Nowhere you find in the Bible, that babies were baptized

Only believers  -  Marc 16:16, Acts 2:38.

It is impossible for babies and little children to come to repentance and to believe.

 

5.               Immediately after salvation baptism followed  -  Acts 2:41 and 16:33

The first Christians, after their rebirth, did not wait to become “better Christians”  before they were baptized.

 

 

B. How to be baptized

 

The Greek word baptiso means: to immerse, to bury. See:

               Rom.6:3-4  -  here a link is made between baptism and burial; also Col.2:12;

               Matt.3:13-16  -  the baptism of Jesus: …..Jesus went  up immediately from the water…..(v.16);

               John 3:23  -  why do you need much water? Certainly not for sprinkling;

               Acts 8:38  -  the baptism of the court official of the queen of Ethiopia: …..they both went down into the water…..

 

 

C. The meaning of baptism

 

Rom.6:1-14   -   Col.2:9-15

 

Baptism is a public confession of an inner change; in this confession we declare death to our flesh, and we also say that we are alive in Christ.

Through water baptism we symbolically identify ourselves with the death, burial and the resurrection of Christ:

               death  -  when we are baptized in water, we put to death our “old self” , our old, sinful nature;

               burial  -  when we come out of the water, the “old self” , the old, sinful nature, remains behind, dead and buried;

               resurrection  -  we come out of the water in newness of life; as Jesus was raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit,  so we are raised up by the power of the Spirit to a new life.

 

Do we still sin, and does our old and sinful nature still hinder us? Yes, certainly, but we can go back to our baptism, where we buried our old nature; and there we remember, that the reality now is, that we no longer live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

 

 

D. A few last remarks

 

                 Acts 22:16  -  just do it, be baptized; do not hesitate.

                 Acts 2:37-39  -  we take the first two steps, and God the third, so we can live the life, that God has in store for us.

                 1Pet.3:21  -  a prayer / appeal to God for a good conscience.