Baptism

Introduction: Peter's Message at Pentecost

I would like to speak a little about baptism, reading from Acts chapter 2, verses 38 and 39. This was from Peter's message on the Day of Pentecost:

"Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." -- Acts 2:38-39

Now Peter told them on the Day of Pentecost to repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were many mikvehs around the temple area in Jerusalem where the Jews would have their purification -- they would go and wash so that they could be purified for going into the temple. So there were many places where these people could be baptized. And it says that on this day three thousand were added, three thousand were baptized. What they were doing was declaring their faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

What Baptism Signifies

Baptism is a wonderful word because it means to be totally immersed. When we confess our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through baptism, we are totally immersed in the water, and it signifies our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

When a person receives Christ or comes to Christ, it is not just a case of saying, "Oh, I believe that Jesus died for me." There are many people who believe that Jesus died for them. They may also believe that Jesus died for their sins, and that by accepting Christ they can have eternal life. Maybe they even pray the sinner's prayer.

But believing must be more than just an acceptance of it as being true. Believing means that you totally embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. You are a person who is dead in your trespasses and sins, a slave to the world, a slave to sin, with no hope whatsoever. But then we see that Jesus gave His life so that we can be set free.

A person who has faith in Jesus is one who reaches out to the Lord Jesus Christ and says, "I want to be free from this slavery to sin, from this slavery to the world." They totally embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for them. Then by faith they are buried with Christ -- all of that sin is now taken to the cross, crucified with Christ, buried with Christ -- and then we are raised a completely new creation in Christ.

Baptism signifies that: I am crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and raised a new creation in Christ. I am confessing my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ -- that I have totally embraced Christ as my Lord and Savior, to be free from the world, to be free from the slavery of sin, and to come into this wonderful new life knowing that I am a new creation in Christ.

Buried and Raised With Christ

We can also see this in Colossians chapter 2, verses 11 to 13:

"In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead." -- Colossians 2:11-12

There you see that we are buried with Him in baptism. That baptism is signified by water baptism -- I am buried with Christ as I go down into the water. But it is also a reality in that I have totally embraced Christ as my Lord and Savior. I am crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and all of my sin is buried with Him. I am free from all of that, and then I am raised a completely new creation in Christ.

The baptism in this sense is the baptism where I have embraced Christ: I am buried with Christ, completely free, and raised a completely new creation.

Baptized by the Holy Spirit Into One Body

"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." -- 1 Corinthians 12:13

There it says that by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. This is the baptism by the Holy Spirit where we are baptized into the body of Christ.

When does that happen? It happens when I embrace Christ as my Lord and Savior, when I turn from my sin and say, "I want Christ and nothing else. I want to give my life totally to Christ." This only happens when there is a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart and life of a person. You cannot even come to Christ unless the Holy Spirit draws you. It is all a work of God, all a work of the Holy Spirit.

Then we come to Christ, we cry out to Him for salvation, we are buried with Christ, and then we are raised in newness of life. When we are raised in newness of life, the life of Christ is in us. This is what the New Testament gospel is all about:

Christ in me, the hope of glory. That is the mystery of the gospel that the angels longed to see in the Old Testament. Christ living in me -- Christ in me, the hope of glory. It is wonderful!

I am baptized by one Spirit -- the Holy Spirit -- into the body of Christ, because Christ lives in me. I am made alive by the life of Christ in me. But it is not just me alone; I am now part of a wonderful body, the body of Christ. I am brought into a family. That is why we love this word "church" -- Ecclesia, the called-out ones. It means we have been called out of the world. We have forsaken that, and now we have been brought into the body of Christ, called out of the world to become part of the assembly of God. We are the church! We cry out, "Our Father!" because we are the body of Christ, children of the living God.

The Born Again Experience

This baptism in 1 Corinthians 12:13 is the born again experience. Jesus said, "You must be born again," and it is only the work of the Holy Spirit that does this. It can only happen when we totally embrace Christ as our Lord and Savior.

If we love sin, we cannot embrace Christ fully -- that sin will stop us from turning to Christ. But if we are slaves of that sin and our heart is desperate to be free, then we rush to Christ and embrace Him as our Lord and Savior, buried with Christ and raised a new creation. Set free from the past, set free from the old habits!

But then we have to walk in newness of life. We grow in that new life -- it is a wonderful new life. We put on that new life daily. We learn; that is what discipleship is. A disciple is a learner. So we learn to walk in this wonderful new life where we are buried with Christ. That old man is buried with Christ, and now I have a new man, a new nature, the life of Christ in me. I have to learn to put on this new life daily and to put off that old life, so that I walk continuously in the Spirit. I am free to be holy, free to live a holy life, set free from the past.

He Who Believes and Is Baptized

"And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.'" -- Mark 16:15-16

There it says, "He that believes and is baptized." What baptism is that? Water baptism does not save you -- it cannot save you. There is nothing magical about the water. But water baptism symbolizes that baptism when we come to Christ and fully embrace Him, when we are buried with Christ and raised a new creation in Christ, when we have that new life -- born again -- when we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.

The baptism that saves is the born again experience -- the baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. That baptism is signified by water baptism, where we are buried with Christ and raised in newness of life.

Water baptism is a wonderful confession of faith. In some countries, people will say that they follow Christ, but they never get baptized, and nobody takes them seriously. But when they are baptized, they have to make a stand, and then suddenly people take notice of what they are saying. Sometimes they are terribly persecuted, sometimes cast out by their families. But if we truly have faith in Christ, whatever it costs, we will be willing to pay that price. If we are hated by everybody, if we truly have faith in Christ, we say, "That is nothing compared to our love for the Lord Jesus Christ."

Baptized With the Holy Spirit

In Acts 1:8, just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus said to His disciples:

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." -- Acts 1:8

John the Baptist baptized people in the Jordan. The baptism of John was where people came to him, repented of their sins, and trusted in one who was going to come -- one who would remove the sins from them. It was a baptism of repentance, where they put their trust in a coming Messiah. But then John the Baptist said, "There is one coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

Rivers of Living Water

"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" -- John 7:37-38

On the Day of Pentecost, in Acts 2:2-4, it says:

"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." -- Acts 2:2-4

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon them -- this is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. But how does this come? It comes out of a thirst for the Lord Jesus Christ. If you totally embrace Christ as your Lord and Savior, buried with Him, risen with Christ, and your heart is just longing for Christ -- then Jesus said, "Out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water."

Whether you call it being baptized with the Holy Spirit or being filled with the Holy Spirit, the point is this: the evidence of it is not speaking in tongues. On the Day of Pentecost they spoke in tongues and prophesied, and in other places they spoke in tongues and prophesied. But the evidence that someone is filled with the Holy Spirit will be seen by your love for the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be seen by your desire just to love and to serve Him. You will radiate with the love of Christ. Regardless of what people say about you, you just love Christ. And it will give boldness.

Boldness to Preach the Gospel

The early disciples prayed for boldness to preach God's word. It does not take any boldness to tell people what they like to hear, and often the church is just preaching things that the world loves to hear. You are not going to get persecuted too much if you talk about looking after children, or looking after people, or being kind and showing love -- which are all things that the Christian does.

But when you preach the gospel and say, "There is no other name given amongst men whereby we must be saved except the name of Jesus" -- when you start saying that without Christ you are heading to a lost eternity -- when you start preaching the gospel, telling people they need to turn from their sin and follow Christ -- that you cannot be a born again Christian and love the world and love the sin of the world, and you cannot bring the sin of the world into the church, because the church is holy and walks in holiness and righteousness -- then there is boldness needed.

There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus! We walk in the Spirit, we put off the old -- it is wonderful. But Jesus said to the prostitute, "Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more." Turn away from it. You cannot continue in your sin and follow Christ. You cannot be the slave of sin and the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But when you love the Lord Jesus Christ, when you desire Him, when you thirst after Him, then He said, "Out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water." Those rivers of living water will bring life wherever you go. When a person is filled with Jesus, filled with His word, in love with Jesus, praying for the people around them, praying for family, praying for others -- then the Lord moves in that person's life.

Conclusion

So that is just a short message about the born again experience: baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, signified by baptism in water. And then as we thirst after the Lord Jesus, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized with the Holy Spirit, so that we can be witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ -- just radiating with the love of Christ, so that rivers of living water will flow out of us.

The Christian should be known by their joy. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then you have joy -- even as Paul and Silas in prison had joy, and sang and prayed. Praise God! We have joy even in the hardest times, the most difficult times, because the Holy Spirit is in us, and we are overflowing with joy. Even in the midst of sorrow, we have the joy of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that will radiate in our life.

The Lord bless you. God bless you until the next teaching.