Acts 2:36-41
In Christ Jesus, dear fellow recipients of our Lord’s baptismal grace,
There are some things which are important to you, even though you may not truly understand how they work. Your car is a good example. You can’t live without it, but do you really understand how it works? If some light on your dashboard suddenly appears, indicating that something isn’t right, and your car quickly stalls out, would you know how to fix it? You open the hood and put on a good show by staring at what lies before you, but you really have no clue as to what went wrong. Our cars are important to us, but how many of us truly understand how they work?
The same could be said about your computer. Suddenly the screen turns blue, and the word “error” appears with some other lingo that makes absolutely no sense to you. What do you do? Turn it off and on again, and hope it goes away? And if that doesn’t do it . . . ? Computers are another thing that we depend on, even though we may not know much about how they work.
Let’s put baptism into this category. According to the Bible, it’s something that’s very important, something we need. Remember what Jesus said in that well-known passage (Mk 16:16), “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” It’s important enough for Jesus to include with faith as things necessary for salvation. Those who believe what God’s Word says will seek to be baptized and to have their children baptized. So we can picture the world as being made up of two types of people – those who are baptized and those who need to be baptized. It’s that important.
Sadly, there are too many churches today – even Christian churches – that minimize the importance of baptism by claiming that it’s only symbolic, or that it’s something meant only for adults who can “decide” to be followers of Christ, that by itself baptism doesn’t really have any power. Here at Messiah, we beg to differ. This morning I want to show you why. From God’s Word, I want to show you that:
“Baptism Matters”
I. The need for baptism
II. The blessings of baptism
III. The meaning of baptism
First of all, why do I even need baptism? Why should I be concerned if I’m not baptized or if my children aren’t baptized? Picture baptism as a spiritual cleansing or washing, something that cleans us up and makes us fit for heaven. Still think that you don’t need it? Still think that you’re not that dirty, that you’re “good to go” as you are? Thinking that your children, although they’re not always saints, still can’t be all that bad? Let me give you one passage from Scripture that says otherwise – Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” That’s King David talking, one of our “heroes of faith.” And yet he was led by the Holy Spirit to confess the way it is. We’re born – yes, even conceived – dirty with sin. And it’s not as if we can clean ourselves up either. On our own we can only make things worse. Paul says that finally we’re “dead in [our] transgressions and sins” (Eph 2:1). So much for us being able to fix things! Dead people don’t have that kind of power.
That goes for our children as well. They may inherit our good looks and our perky personalities, but they also inherit something else from us. No matter how cute and adorable those little babies appear, by nature those little bundles of joy are nothing more than little bundles of sin, spiritually dead in the eyes of God. As Adam passed on his sin to his children, so also we’ve done the same. To try and argue otherwise is to argue against Scripture itself. We all, like David, can only admit, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
When Peter preached his powerful Pentecost sermon, there were some pretty worried people out in his audience. He told them about Jesus, the one “whom you crucified” (v 36) was how he put it. He didn’t pull any punches, and his message had an effect (v 37), “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” They realized they had sinned. They realized they needed help.
Peter had the answer for them (v 38), “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Here’s the solution to sin – God’s forgiveness! And baptism provides that forgiveness! That’s what every infant, every child, every adult needs to be declared fit for heaven. The simple water of baptism contains the powerful promise of God that all our sins are taken away through Christ. In baptism we’re joined to our Savior. Paul tells us the blessing that goes with such a union in Galatians (5:24), “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” In baptism the old Adam is ripped from us and nailed to the cross of Christ. We are forgiven, and with forgiveness comes life and salvation!
How do you know that you’re forgiven? Peter mentions another blessing we receive in baptism (v 38), “And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The only reason you believe that Jesus is your Savior is because of the Holy Spirit. Before baptism, we’re “Spirit-less.” God changes that. In baptism he reclaims us as his own and fills us with the Spirit to latch on to the truths of his Word so that we can always be part of his family.
God wants a big family. He wants all mankind back in his fold. Peter proclaims (v 39), “The promise is for you and your children [note that children are to be baptized too!] and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Baptism is God’s promise to us, not ours to him. When a child is adopted into a family, that child doesn’t take any oaths or make any promises to be faithful to his or her new parents. The adopted child doesn’t have to pay any legal fees. But the parents make an oath of love and faithfulness to that child. They’re the ones who choose to have that child as a part of their family, and they pay the price to make it happen. It’s the same with us being adopted into God’s family. We didn’t choose to be his – he chose us! And he paid the price by sending his Son to die for us. Baptism matters because it assures us that we are once again members of God’s family!
But what about after baptism? What does it mean for us 10, 20, 40, 60 years after the fact? As powerful and unexplainable as it may be, baptism still isn’t some kind of magic formula that guarantees our ticket into heaven. There are people in hell today who were baptized. You can lose the blessings of baptism. So just what does baptism mean for us today?
Baptism signifies a change in us. It casts off our sinful nature and replaces it with the Holy Spirit. But that ugly old Adam keeps coming back to wreak havoc in our lives. That’s why God wants us to keep growing in our faith, to “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25), to center ourselves around his Word so that the Spirit can continue to strengthen us and lead us closer to our Lord. That’s why it does no good for us to baptize our babies and then just neglect them spiritually the rest of their lives. That newborn faith created inside them by the miracle of baptism needs to be nurtured! You need to teach them what their baptism means to them. Tell them about their Savior. They’re never too young to learn about Jesus. Visit our child care center and watch those little ones during chapel or Bible Time and you’ll see faith growing before your very eyes. Expose your children to God’s Word. It troubles me that on a weekly basis only about half our children are in Sunday School. I doubt that it’s their choice not to be there. Parents, are you the problem? Your kids need to be there. You wouldn’t dream of keeping them from school during the week, so why keep them from learning something much more valuable in Sunday School? And don’t forget about the older kids. Do you know that only about 1/3 of our teens are in Teen Class on Sunday morning? Again, parents, are you encouraging them to be there, or do you assume they get enough “church” during the worship service? There is nothing more tragic than having a child become a member of God’s family through baptism only to lose that faith later in life through neglect of the Word. Do everything in your power to keep that from happening by having your children in church and Sunday School so that they learn that their baptism does matter.
And it doesn’t hurt you as adults to remain strong in your baptismal grace by taking regular time to be in the Word as well. We have a tendency to downplay the importance of God’s Word when our time schedules are overwhelmed and our priorities get yanked out of whack. I don’t think many people “plan” to neglect the study and hearing of God’s Word, but it still happens. It might be a slow bleed at first, but after a while it can be fatal. Now’s the time to stop the bleeding! Seek God’s forgiveness for past failures in making time for him and his Word, and use the Holy Spirit he’s given you to make some needed changes. Remember God’s promise in baptism, a promise that he never removes, even if we forget about it for a time. It’s like coming upon an old birthday card from a few years ago and finding a $20 bill inside. You may have forgotten it was there, but that didn’t lessen the gift or make it go away. That’s how baptism works. We may set aside God and his promises and go back to our sinful ways, but that doesn’t make him recall his promises. He’s still there for us, still offering us the forgiveness he first gave to us at our baptism, still holding out the gift of eternal life for us as his children. That’s what baptism is all about. That’s what motivates us to make some changes and to follow him. That’s why baptism matters.
Perhaps it’s helpful to picture baptism as a boat. On that boat you’ll find forgiveness and love. When you’re baptized God puts you in that boat. During your lifetime you might jump off that boat. You might stray from your Lord. But God’s love and forgiveness are always there – that boat never sinks. That’s why we don’t “rebaptize” people — God never breaks his promises even when we do. When you repent, God is still right there, reaching down with his almighty hand to pull you out of the waters of sin and back into his boat of forgiveness and love. He’s been there all along, waiting to bring you back into his family. That’s his promise in baptism. That’s why baptism matters.
Back in 2004 a giant tsunami hit Southeast Asia and snuffed out 250,000 lives and did billions of dollars worth of damage – all because of one wave! That’s how powerful water can be. But the destructive power of a tsunami pales in comparison to the constructive power of baptism. With a few drops of water connected to the powerful Word of God, heaven opens up and God makes a sinful child of the devil a saved child of his very own. Can I explain how that’s possible? Not really. After all, it’s a miracle. I can’t figure out how my vehicle runs or how my computer works, but they do, and they’re important to me. In the same way, I don’t need to know how baptism works. I’m just glad it does. God says it’s his way of making me his very own, and that’s good enough for me. I hope you feel the same. That’s why baptism is so important. That’s why baptism matters!
Amen
– Rev. Jonathan Rockhoff