Water Baptism - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. In this video, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Baptism is simply, as I said, a ceremony by which somebody is immersed in water. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. I would like to speak this morning about a very unpopular subject in the Evangelical Church today.

I want to speak on water baptism. Virtually, there have been no recent books written about it, almost no articles written about it at all. Very few sermons in the last 10 years even speak of it. The subject is something that the church is virtually indifferent to. And yet when you read the New Testament, it turns out that in the New Testament, it is an extremely important thing.

I read an article that prompted this some time ago that said that fewer evangelicals in the United States have been baptized in the last five years than at any time in history among evangelicals. And the author gave four reasons why that was the case. The first one was they're ignorant. In other words, they never been taught about what the Bible has to say about the subject at all. Secondly, they're indifferent. And that is it doesn't fit their schedule. They never really get around to it.

They don't think it has any importance at all. Thirdly. He said his pride. They've been serving the Lord for a long time and it's kind of embarrassing to do it now. And lastly, he said they could be defiant.

I refuse to do something that I don't think is very important. So what I want to do today is deal with what does the Bible say about this? And so I will use a series of questions to sort of help us. The first one, the first question that I want to answer is this. What is water baptism biblically?

It's not as complicated as you think. It is a ceremony. By which a person is immersed in water. That's it. It's a ceremony by which a person is immersed in water.

That's what it is. That's what water baptism is. You see, there are two Greek words for baptism. The word bapto, that's only used four times in the New Testament, and it means to dip into. As I've said in the past, it's a fuller's term. Those who dye garments, dip garments into the dye. And then the word baptizo, which comes from bapto. And it's more intensive form of bapto.

It means to dip completely to immerse in that sense. The Greeks, by the way, have several words for pouring or sprinkling. None of those are ever used in the Bible ever when it comes to baptism. This is so obvious that when you think of even Protestant traditions like from Calvin and Presbyterianism or Lutheranism coming out of the Reformation, which both have traditions of sprinkling and infants at Calvin. John Calvin wrote this. He said the word baptize means to immerse.

No linguist can come up with anything else. The word baptize means to immerse. It is certain that immersion was the practice of the early church. And yet they sprinkled. The verb is also to baptize is never passive.

It's never that kind of verb. It doesn't mean that the water is passive. I take water and I sprinkle it on someone. I take water and I pour it on someone. It's never passive.

In fact, it's always the same. It's not a matter of touching the water and then touching someone. It's immersing a person in the water.

It's never a passive term. Now, go with me first this John Chapter three, the Gospel of John Chapter three. Jesus has already been baptized.

We'll talk about that in just a moment. But Jesus has already been baptized. And then it says in verse 22 that after these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea and there he was spending time with them and he was baptizing. Later on that chapter, John will tell us Jesus didn't baptize anyone, but his disciples did. Then it says John was also baptizing near Anon near Salim, he said, because there was much water there. Now, if he was obviously sprinkling people, you don't need you need a jug. But he's baptizing in the Jordan River because there's much water there.

The Jordan's notoriously shallow in spots and only some spots where you have a lot of depth. John was clearly going where there was water and it was deep enough so they could immerse people. Go with me to the book of Acts. The book of Acts Chapter eight.

And here you have the Ethiopian eunuch. And in verse 38, it says after Philip had talked to him about the gospel, it says, and he and he ordered the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water, Philip, as well as the eunuch. And he baptized them.

And it says, and when they come up out of the water. There's clearly this idea again, they find enough water, he went and immersed them and he baptized them. And this is the pattern you see all the way through the Old Testament. Understand how important this is biblically, even the Roman Catholic Church. Until the Middle Ages immersed all babies.

I don't know if you knew that. They immersed babies because it was so clear in scripture that you have to immerse. Now, I don't want to talk about them immersing babies, but you have to understand their line of their line of thinking. Their line of thinking was that in the early church and maybe by the second century, there were a whole group of Christians who started believing in what is called baptismal regeneration. In other words, how is a person saved? Well, you need to believe in Jesus and then you have to be baptized. And if you're not baptized, then you can't go to heaven. You see, even if you believe in Jesus, you have to be.

It's called baptismal regeneration. That's exactly what the Judaizers did to the Galatians and said, you need to believe in Jesus, but you have to be circumcised. And if you're not circumcised, you don't get to go to heaven.

Paul said, let them be anathema. There's only one gospel. There's only one way a person is saved. So the point was baptism was essential. Well, then the issue became, well, what about all the children who die? They said, well, then we've got to baptize them up front. So that's what started this whole idea of baptizing infants.

And it was with the church for nearly a thousand years to the Reformation. We want to baptize them because we want to make sure they get to go. And it's still called christening or baptizing. And in those traditions, it's essential. If you're not been christened or baptized, you can't go to heaven.

Kind of a strange thing. And by the way, if a baby in Catholicism is not baptized, then they go to the limbo of the innocence. They invented that nothing in scripture with that and Catholicism, it's the limbo of the innocence. Babies that aren't baptized to die all go into limbo. Limbo is not heaven and it's not hell. So it's not as bad as hell, certainly not as good as heaven. And they stay there forever.

Now, how people come up with things like this, invent them on their own, not I can't imagine anything more pessimistic than that particular view. But baptism is simply, as I said, a ceremony by which somebody is immersed in water. And then it says, is there baptisms, though, in the scripture? Without water. To be immersed in something without.

Yes, a lot. John says the one that comes after me will baptize you with fire judgment. You see, you'll be immersed in God's judgment. Go with me now to First Corinthians. Chapter 12 and verse 13. First Corinthians 12, verse 13. Actually, I'll read 12 and 13. First Corinthians 12, 12 and 13.

Paul is writing. And he makes this statement in verse 12. He says, For even as the body is one and yet has many members, he said, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body.

So also is Christ. In other words, he takes the analogy of the human body and he says, look, my human body has hands, fingers, arms, legs. It's all different things, but there's only one of my body.

That's what he uses the analogy. He said there's all kinds of us, but there's only one body of Christ. Then he says in the next verse, for by one spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, you were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free. We were all made to drink of one spirit, for the body is not one, but is not one member, but many. He said the Holy Spirit, which indwells every believer at the point of salvation, baptized us, immersed us into one body, identified us with one body. Whenever you became a believer, you became part of the body of Christ.

Here, it's not any water. This is the spirit of God who indwells us is the one now who gets us to identify or be immersed in one body. In fact, go back to Chapter 10 of the same book. First Corinthians, Chapter 10. And notice what he says here in the first two verses, Paul says to them here, for I do not want you to be, he says, to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and they passed through the sea.

And then he says this. This is about the Exodus generation, he says. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And they ate the same spiritual food and they drank the same spiritual drink. Notice they were all baptized into Moses. They all were immersed in Moses. They all identified with Moses.

So when Moses led them not, they were all identified as the people of Moses in the Exodus uses the same word. He uses the word of being immersed or baptized. Now, I want to give you a little theology with this. Go with me to Romans Chapter six. Romans Chapter six.

What really happens? What is the difference between the the symbol water baptism? And real baptism, the spiritual baptism, Paul tries to explain this painstakingly in Romans six.

And for a lot of centuries, I think when God's children see these verses, their eyes glaze over. It's just like, I don't understand that. Try to understand this. What are you saying?

This is really important. He says he's talking about grace of God, how it saves all of us. He said, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so grace could increase? It's an interesting statement.

Some and by the way, still problem today. Some people say, well, you know, grace covers your sin. Well, how much sin does grace cover? It covers all your sin. Idea, then I should sin all the more because the more I sin, the more grace I get. That's called that's called grace abusers. I go, just keep sitting and grace will keep covering.

What a deal. Paul's like, come on. That's not what I mean. He says, may it never be mega noita. He said, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? That's his point. You and I are dead to sin spiritually.

So why would I live in it? And you would think, what does that mean? Here's what he says. He said, Or do you not know? And most of us don't. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? All of us who are immersed in Christ Jesus, all of us who identify with Christ Jesus, not just identify with Jesus Christ. We identify with every aspect of Jesus Christ, including his death. That's my immersion by my faith in Christ, including his death.

I am immersed in Jesus Christ. He says, Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father. So we too might walk in the newness of life, for if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we are no longer to be slaves of sin. He says, For he who has died is free from sin, and if we have died with Christ and we have first class condition, we believe that we shall live with him.

That's what happens spiritually. When you and I put our faith in Christ, we are immersed in Christ. We identify with Christ. And that means, and you see this through scripture, the immersion is so complete that where I am, Christ is. Remember, the scriptures say Christ in you, the hope of glory. So I'm here and so is Christ. You're here and so is Christ because he's in us. But where he is, so am I. Paul says to the Ephesians and Ephesians two were seated in the heavenlies. Now you could say, well, no, I'm seated here. Yes, but in Christ, you're seated in the heavenlies because he's seated in the heavenlies.

But it goes bigger than that. Once you're immersed in Christ, it's not only that he is where I am and I am where he is. But I also am where he was. That's the identity. And when he was on the cross, guess who was on the cross?

Me. You see, when he was crucified, I was crucified and you were crucified. When he was buried, I was buried and you were buried. And when he was raised from the dead, so was I. I have a new life. I am a new creature in Christ. So Paul says, why then would I want to sin? I'm dead to sin.

I paid for sin. That's what happens spiritually when a person comes to a saving knowledge of Christ. Water baptism is just a picture. A symbol of that dying, buried, rising again. I'll say it after the 10 o'clock service, we're baptizing two people. I'll say when I put them under buried with Christ in his death, raised to the newness of life. That's the symbol that didn't do it.

It's already been done. It's just the symbol. People have always been exactly saved the same way. Somehow, it isn't as interesting that Jesus gave the church only two ordinances. The Lord's table do this in remembrance of me and water baptism. And what did the church do? We made them both sacraments.

Just the opposite. No, this is the only way you can go to heaven. You have to do these sacraments in order to get to heaven.

No, there are ordinances. He said these are things that picture something else. And we said, no, no, no, we have to earn this. We have to do it ourselves. So we took the Lord's table and baptism and we made them essential to salvation.

And of which they're clearly not. At all in scripture. Turn with me to First Peter, Chapter three. First Peter, Chapter three. Verse 21. I want you to see what Peter wrote.

It's important. Peter says. In verse 21, corresponding to that. Baptism now saves you. Immersion in Christ now saves you, but he realizes just how dense we are and what we'll do with something like that. And so he continues, he said, corresponding to that baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh.

What's he mean? Not water, not talking about water. You see, that's important to understand. We're not talking about water. He said not not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what saves you.

Peter is as clear as it could be. Water baptism doesn't save anybody. He's never said it did. In fact, he says here, it clearly doesn't save anybody. Philippian jail or Paul and Silas are in the jail.

There's an earthquake. They could have escaped. They didn't. He would have lost his life.

He didn't have to worry about that. So he said that what must I do to be saved? And what they say, you've got to find a water. And if you don't get baptized, you're going to go to hell.

They didn't say that. He said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now. That's the spiritual reality that I'm talking about here.

There is the baptism, the true baptism of the Spirit of God, which occurs when we put our faith in Christ. Maybe the best way to point it out would be this. I have this is a wedding ring. OK, that's my wedding ring. So if you have a wedding ring, it means you're married, right?

Does it? No. Could I have a wedding ring and not be married? Right. I could have a wedding ring and not be married because does this marry you?

No, there's no. This is a symbol. You see, what marries me is the covenant relationship I have with my wife. I said, I do.

She said she does. And we were married. We made a covenant with each other, just like when you came to Christ and the ring is the symbol behind that covenant. That's exactly what water baptism is. Water baptism is the symbol of your covenant relationship with God through your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. What is water baptism? It's just simply a ceremony in which a person is immersed in water. Are there baptisms without water?

Yes. Fire judgment from God, the Holy Spirit and being in Christ are all spiritual baptisms. The third question is, what is the history of baptisms?

Why did they ever occur? The history is strictly from the Old Testament, from the Jews. The Jews came up with a system by which, when a Gentile wanted to be a follower of God and become Jewish. The Jews would put them through a three step process as Gentile proselytes to be able to become Jewish. The first step was called the milla.

Didn't affect women, but did affect men immensely. The milla is circumcision. So if you're a Gentile and you want to become Jewish, the first step for the man is he has to be circumcised. That's the first step. That's the sign behind Abraham.

So that was the first step you did. The second is called the tabula, and the tabula means you're baptized. There were immersed in water. They are baptized. And the third step that they had to do was called the korban, and that is an animal sacrifice has to occur. Now, when all those Kurt, a Gentile who was not part of the covenant community of Abraham, could become Jewish. Then John the Baptist showed up and John decided, I'm going to do something very different.

I'm going to make I'm going to ask Jews to be baptized. And it's like, turn with me to Matthew Chapter three and let's get a picture of that. Matthew Chapter three.

In verse one of Matthew three, it says, Now, in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and he was saying, and here's his message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He said, For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready for the way of the Lord, make his past straight. John is an unusual man.

Notice the next verse. Now, John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist and his food were locust and honey. He was a Nazarite. He didn't cut his hair.

He is sort of a wild man of the wilderness. But he's asking something here of the Jews that they would have did not understand, especially the leaders. You don't baptize Jews.

John said, You're going to have to do it now. Messiah is coming. And notice what John's message is. Repent. You see, repentance has nothing to do with being baptized. Baptism is the symbol that you did repent.

Repentance occurs in the human heart, just like faith does for us. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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