Baptism Sunday

Sermon Outline for Sunday, July 11, 2021

Our Lord Jesus ordained the rite of baptism. Its clearest statement of ordination is the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The early church observed this rite both in its exhortations to believers (Acts 2:38) and in its practices in evangelism (Acts 8:12; 10:48). It is significant that in all the sacramental practices of the New Testament period of the church, the church did not create any ordinance either by its own decision or by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

Acts 2:38 ESV

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:12 ESV

But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Acts 10:48 ESV

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Sacraments are designed to portray religious experience. The sacrament of baptism is designed to depict the following experiences in Christ: the new birth, cleansing, death to sin, burial, and resurrection to a new life. Therefore, all the elements of the ceremony are important.

• In order to represent cleaning, water is appropriate. Ananias exhorted Saul of Tarsus to be baptized and, as he did, he related the cleansing of water as the symbol for the washing away of sin:

• In order to represent death, burial and resurrection, immersion is appropriate:

Colossians 2:11–12 ESV

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

• In order to represent the new birth, the coming forth from the water into a new life is appropriate:

Romans 6:4–5 ESV

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 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.

The temporal agent of God in the administering of this ordinance is the church. The church is subject to error in its judgment; so, its administering of the sacrament is not an assurance of salvation. It is an acknowledgment by the church that the body of believers accepts the testimony of the one who is being baptized. It does not state that the one who is being baptized is perfected in their walk with God.

Acts 16:31–33 ESV

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word 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 wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

• The experience of being baptized in water does not regenerate; however, it is spiritually related to our baptism into the body of Christ:

Galatians 3:27 ESV

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

• This experience enforces and strengthens our baptism into the body of Christ and our baptism into death.

1 Corinthians 12:13 ESV

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Romans 6:4 ESV

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Pastor Andy Lambert ~ pastorandy@cvcog.church