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Told you that we were going to be in Matthew this morning. That was the plan until I decided to change that this past week. The summer is upon us, and the beginning of summer is a time to think about a lot of things.
It takes work to get ready for summer. That's why they call it spring cleanup. You trim trees, clean up the leaves from the last fall. You fire up your lawnmower that hasn't been used in eight months.
You start landscaping again. You buy summer clothes for your kids. They've grown out of their clothes from the previous year, and now you need to get new ones. This time of year is a time of preparation as we get ready for the next several months of summer.
And as a church, this is also a time to start thinking about baptism. Now we did have a baptism last winter down in Taylor's Falls at First Baptist of Taylor's Falls using their baptistry. And they were very kind to let us use that.
But typically, baptisms happen outside, unless you're really brave. In fact, in the history of our church, there was a time where they actually cut a hole in the ice in the middle of winter, and they did a baptism outside.
So anybody want to do that? Anybody? No, probably not. So summer is really a time where we start thinking about baptism. Let's go to the lake where it's warm enough. Let's have a baptism. Now I preached a sermon about a year ago on baptism, and I thought it would be good to do it again as we think about this, because this is such an important step to take in the Christian life.
We've seen that already this morning as we looked at the call to worship, where Jesus says, preach the gospel and baptize people in the name of Jesus Christ. So this morning, we are going to look at this.
And as we begin, our big idea is this. This is what baptism is. Water baptism is a public display to show the reality of God's work in one's heart. Let me say that again. Water baptism is a public display to show the reality of God's work in one's heart.
You don't have to turn to one specific text this morning. I'm going to be kind of all over the place. But I encourage you to write down the verses as we go through them. Now, at Eureka Baptist, one point I want to emphasize is that everything we do is rooted in the Word of God.
This is our book. Everything we do comes from this book. We do not do things because that's the way we've always done it. We don't do things because that's the way others in history have done it. We don't do things because it's cultural.
We do everything because it's in the Bible. The Lord Jesus gave the church two ordinances during His ministry, and we already did one of those this morning, the Lord's Supper. And the other one is, of course, baptism.
If you have lived long enough, what you already know is that there is a disagreement over baptism within wider Christianity. Some churches baptize infants, while others only baptize when one is old enough to understand, and then that person goes into the waters.
For a church to be a Baptist church, what this means is that that given church believes one should only be baptized upon profession of faith in Jesus. I want us to first take a look at the infant baptism position before we take a look at the practice that we do in this church, which is baptism upon profession of faith.
And as I preach this, I realize that in this neck of the woods, this topic is controversial. When Brianna and I were planning on getting married over eight years ago, we looked for a church to have the wedding near Wyoming, where Brianna's parents lived.
And we really liked that Lutheran church on the hill in center city, Chisago Lake's Lutheran church. In fact, Amber got married there as well. And we asked the church if we could get married there, since we really loved the architecture and the spot it was located.
And the lady we asked said, as long as you're not Catholic or Baptist. At that time, I was in the evangelical free church. So we were good. We got married there. Little did they know what was coming in the future, right?
A Baptist pastor got married in their church. So there's controversy between different movements within Christianity. One of the main tensions between Lutherans and Baptists is the issue of baptism. We have Lutheran churches, Methodist churches, Covenant, Reformed, and Presbyterian.
All of them practice infant baptism. But the fact that this is controversial does not mean that we should avoid the topic. We're a church that doesn't avoid controversy. I think you've learned that by now.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15 says that we're supposed to speak the truth in love. And sometimes telling the truth means entering into difficult conversations. But that is God's calling for every church to do.
We don't just pick some places in the Bible to go to. We go to every place in the Bible. We talk about it, and we follow it. That's our goal as a church. Those Christians who hold the infant baptism believe that once a baby is born into a Christian family, the child should be sprinkled with water.
We have true brothers and sisters in Christ who believe this. We should respect these people. And I am grateful that they love the Lord, the Gospel, and the Word of God. But I think that they are taking part in a practice that is not rooted in Scripture.
Let me explain why. I will first present their interpretation of Scripture on this topic, and then show why I think it is unbiblical. Then I will explain why believers' baptism is biblical. I will not be presenting all the views on baptism, but only that are most closely tied with us.
We're an evangelical church, a Lutheran church. They believe that the Holy Spirit actually is with the child at baptism. This would be called baptismal regeneration, and that the Holy Spirit only remains with the person if the person follows with faith.
I'm not going to be focusing on that view today. What I am going to be focusing on is more the Presbyterian, the covenant, historically the Methodist view that the baby actually enters into a covenant with the people of God through infant baptism.
Now, it is obvious that we do not believe this is biblical because one cannot receive the Spirit unless one has faith in Christ. Now, John 3 says, Brian quoted John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Then in the context of that passage, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, and what does Jesus tell Nicodemus? You must be born again, and it's through faith that one is born again. You don't become born again through infant baptism.
Now, that's the Lutheran view, but like I said, there's other Christians who actually don't believe that, but actually still baptize infants, so what's the point? Where do some Christians get this understanding that it is biblical to baptize babies?
Proponents of infant baptism see the New Testament ordinance of baptism as equivalent to circumcision in the Old Testament. Just as a male Israelite was circumcised as a sign of joining the covenant community of God, so babies born into Christian homes are to be baptized as a sign to be ushered into a covenant with God's people, which in the New Testament era is the church.
The passage that is appealed to is Colossians 2, verses 11 and 12, which reads, in him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, putting off the body of 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.
Circumcision and baptism are mentioned in these verses and proponents of infant baptism argue that a connection exists between the two. The problem is that really no connection is there between circumcision and baptism in this text.
In this text, Paul describes that believers are circumcised spiritually and those spiritually circumcised are baptized with Christ, being buried and raised with him. In this text, Paul simply uses an Old Testament illustration describing the inward spiritual life of God's people.
They are those that are made alive spiritually. This is what physical circumcision in the Old Testament symbolized. It was a picture. It symbolized spiritual circumcision. So spiritual circumcision is the same thing as the new birth.
You see those passages in the Old Testament that talk about one being spiritually circumcised. It's the same thing. It's being born again. Paul explains that the spiritual circumcision that every believer has is put in new language in the New Testament because of what Christ did when he went to the cross.
The language in the New Testament is that every believer dies and rises with Christ. The use of Old Covenant language, circumcision, and New Covenant language, baptism, does not mean that circumcision and baptism are parallel.
If a connection exists between physical circumcision and infant baptism, then why is Colossians 2, verses 11 and 12 focusing only on what happens spiritually? If Paul were instructing churches to baptize infants, he would have just said, just as male infants were circumcised in the Old Testament, so you should sprinkle physical water on your infants in the New Covenant.
But what Paul is saying is that just as physical circumcision was a symbol of spiritual circumcision in the Old Testament, so water baptism is a symbol in the New Covenant. It is appropriate to say that we believers are spiritually circumcised.
As I mentioned, that's the same thing as saying you're born again. You are made alive with Christ through the Holy Spirit. What you will notice also is that in Colossians 2, verses 11 and 12, Paul does not explain the method of baptism, but that comes clearly in other places.
So Colossians 2, verses 11 and 12 does not support the view that just as an Israelite male was circumcised, so Christian infants or babies born into a Christian home should be baptized. Proponents of infant baptism are drawing a conclusion that's not there in the text.
Secondly, Christians who hold infant baptism go to households being baptized in the New Testament to support their view. What they conclude is this, as some believed when they heard the good news of Jesus preached, so the infants in the household were baptized along with the adults who had just believed.
An example of this would be from Acts 16, verse 14. During Paul's missionary journey, he came across a woman named Lydia. Paul shared the gospel with her and she believed and was baptized. What the text tells us is that the household was baptized along with her.
But there is no mention of babies being baptized, just others in the household. This is the same for every other text in the New Testament that is like this. Therefore, this is not a strong argument. At best, proponents of infant baptism can say that infants being baptized is implied.
But when your arguments are built on that which is implied and that which is explicitly in the text, that's a problem. It's not a strong position. What is interesting is that the strongest argument for infant baptism is not from this book.
You know where it's from? Church history. The dominant view from the second century to the 15th century is the infant baptism position. This is something that proponents of believers baptism like our church have to contend with.
Those who hold the baptism upon profession of faith, like we do, need to ask the question, is the mainstream view over a period of 1300 years wrong? It was not until the Anabaptists in the 16th century that believers baptism started to have a large following.
Our movement, the Baptist movement, started in 1609, and this history has continued strong ever since. But as I mentioned, from the second century to the 15th century, infant baptism was the dominant view among Christians.
Now, it is true that Christians should value the views of those who have gone before us. If you hold to a position that nobody else in church history holds to, that's probably a problem, because the Bible is clear.
And we studied the Bible and we learned from others, oh, they see that, okay, well, I can see that too. But the Bible is written to be understood. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand it.
Most passages are very clear. So people present and people from long ago should largely come away with the same interpretations. But while we do value the views of others, it comes down to what is the plain meaning of the text.
This is the ultimate authority. Nobody from church history is the ultimate authority. This is the ultimate authority. If the majority from church history missed the plain meaning and the minority saw it, you go with the minority.
And what you will find is that if you really want to know the truth, if the truth really matters to you that much, the whole truth, then holding to certain positions will lead you to a minority position.
Just because the majority believes something does not mean it is true. Doctrines go through fads just like clothing do. I mean, look at the 80s. Look at some of the clothes they wore. What were they thinking?
And then in the present day, 20, 30 years from now, they're gonna say, what were you guys thinking? I mean, the clothes go through fads. Doctrines go through fads. There's certain doctrines that right now are really popular, but they're just gonna be a flash in the pan because they're a fad.
So just because a position is popular does not mean it's right. What is the plain meaning of the text? A theologian, Paul Copan, has said this powerful quote, truth is true even if no one knows it, even if no one admits it, even if no one agrees with it, even if no one follows it, even if no one but God grasps it fully.
As American Christians, this is a good word for us to hear right now. In America right now, there are many fallacious views that are in the mainstream and some people jump on the bandwagon because it's more acceptable and more comfortable and applauded by most people in society.
But God calls you to be people of integrity. He calls you to believe the right thing and to do the right thing even when it's not popular. In the history of the church, the believer's baptism was not popular.
If you go back to the 1500s and the 1600s, these people were persecuted because they were saying, you're going against the grain. You're going against the mainstream. These people are reading their Bibles and they got in trouble.
The Baptist movement, this is going to be a strong statement, is bringing the Reformation to its logical conclusion. We're grateful for the Reformers. We're grateful for Luther. We're grateful for Kelvin.
And all these Reformers, they dealt with some serious things. They rediscovered the Gospel, but they didn't have enough time to take it even further. Not only did the Baptists take the Bible to its logical conclusion, with eschatology too, by the way, the study of the end times, it's like people started to read their Bibles again.
Like, oh wait, we've been told the wrong things. The Bible is clear. It can be understood. So let's read it. But God calls us to be people of integrity. He calls you to believe the right thing and do the right thing when it's not popular.
And when it comes to infant baptism down through church history, more people have believed that than what we hold to. Now, today, it's probably like half and half. Lots of Baptists out there. But historically, it was not the dominant view.
Now, at this time, I am going to explain to you why the New Testament supports believers' baptism. The clear pattern of the New Testament is people being baptized upon believing in Jesus. Let me say that again.
The clear pattern of the New Testament is people being baptized upon believing in Jesus. In fact, there's no evidence that an infant was ever baptized in the New Testament. Once again, it has to be implied.
Households are baptized. Must have been an infant in there. Doesn't say it. As we think about this, it is important to stress what happens before a true biblical baptism takes place. What happens is that the Gospel is preached to a sinner.
Remember what the Gospel means. The Gospel means good news. It is only good news because there's first bad news. The bad news is that we are sinners. Romans 3 .23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 6 .23 tells us what our sin deserves. The wages of sin is death. What this means is that we are deserving of death because of our sins. God is just, and a just judge gives the sentence that one deserves.
This is not just physical death. This is spiritual death. This is eternal death. We are deserving of eternal death in hell because of our sins. But God sent Jesus to save us, as John 3 .16 says, as Brian quoted in Creation this morning.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. A few weeks back in our Sermon Series through Matthew, I explained that it is only the repentant who will be in the Kingdom of God.
In fact, if you go way back in Matthew 5 .3, that verse calls the repentant the poor in spirit. It is the poor in spirit who will be residents in the Kingdom of God. In 2 Corinthians 7 .10, the Apostle Paul describes what true repentance looks like.
Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret. When a person realizes his or her sin and how it offends the Holy God, this is how one comes into a relationship with God. But there is good news.
There is the Gospel. Jesus went to the cross and rose from the dead to save sinners. And the ones who are qualified to be baptized are the ones who realize this. It's so humbling, isn't it? When you think about baptism.
When you think of all the things you do in life to receive a certification or an award of some kind. To get into a college, you have to work hard to get there. To get a good job, you have to do certain things to get to that point.
To receive entrance into heaven. You know what you have to do? I can't do it. I can't do it on my own merit. I can't. And God says, exactly. That's what qualifies you to be baptized. Which symbolizes your eternal residence in heaven.
It is God's design that water baptism takes place upon a true profession of faith in Jesus. Baptism upon profession of faith is the clear method of baptism in the New Testament. Let's look at this. Acts 2 .41, Peter preached a sermon and the text says, those who received his word were baptized.
In Acts 8 .12, when Philip preached the gospel in Samaria, the text says that both men and women were baptized when they believed. In Acts 10, Peter preached the gospel to the household of Cornelius. And in verse 44 of that chapter, we learn that the Holy Spirit fell upon them.
The moment the Spirit fell upon them was the moment Cornelius and his household became born again. In verse 47, Peter responded to their request for reception of the gospel by saying, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?
Then the author Luke wrote in verse 48 that Peter commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Earlier I read the Great Commission, where Jesus says, preach the gospel and baptize people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The book of Acts comes right after that. This is the early church. They're going out. They're preaching the gospel. And what are they doing? People are believing, and then they go into the waters for baptism.
These three accounts I just explained to you present the clear pattern. People believe and they're baptized. And I already mentioned that infant baptism proponents argue that household baptisms support their view.
But in reality, each of these instances better supports the believer's baptism position. This is so because in each case, one person in the house is mentioned as believing. And then it says that each household was baptized.
The text focuses on faith. Okay, so in other words, if the focus is on faith in each of these texts, these people believing, then we are right to assume that everyone else who's baptized is what? Believing.
I mentioned Lydia above as an example that is used arguing infant baptism because the whole household was baptized. The clearest example of what is meant when whole households are baptized is Acts 16, verses 31 through 33.
In that text, the jailer and his whole family, as the text says, all heard the message and were baptized. So that text actually even says they all heard the message, which means they're what? Old enough.
The only way you can understand the message is if you're old enough. And that text has one of the most famous evangelistic verses in it. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. So it is right to assume that the people in these households were people who believed.
So as we have seen, the pattern of the New Testament is clear. People believed the gospel and people were immersed in water. Biblical baptism always comes after conversion. One needs to be old enough to believe, to experience this biblical baptism.
Now, there are some heretical movements out there. And when I say heretical, it means it denies the gospel, dangerous teachings, false teachings. There's some movements out there that say that one needs to be baptized in order to be saved.
All you gotta do is go to one verse to blow up this view. Thief on the cross. Was the thief on the cross baptized? Did it rain after he believed? And that counted? No, he was not baptized and he's in heaven.
So you don't, I mean, it's not like there's something magical in the waters. Like, okay, the Holy Spirit's gonna be given to you only when you go into the waters. No, that happens before, but still the Lord commands us to be baptized.
The Greek word baptizo literally means for one to be immersed in water. This is significant because of what it symbolizes. Baptism symbolizes what happens to a person spiritually when he or she believes.
One of my professors in seminary said it well. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. An outward sign of an inward reality. Infants cannot have this inward reality because they are not yet of age to believe.
Paul says in Galatians 3 .27 that as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Only those who have put on Christ, the saved, are to be baptized. Maybe the best passage that symbolizes what baptism represents is Romans 6, 3 -4.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 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.
Paul is describing that when one comes to faith in Christ, that person dies, is buried, and is raised with Christ. When you come to faith in Christ, a spiritual death happens. This is what's so interesting about the Bible, what's so interesting about the Christian faith, is that you actually, the only way to have true life is by dying.
The only way is through death. And what is this death? It's death to the old man. You're in Adam when you're born into this world. You're hell bound when you're into this world because you have a sinful nature and you always follow that sinful nature.
And the only way that you are changed from that sinful nature is if you're born again. It's if the Holy Spirit enters your life and gives you a new life in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 .17 says, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation.
The old has gone. The new has come. So you have to die to truly have life. Water baptism, as that Romans passage is saying, symbolizes Christ's victory over sin. And as we are buried and come alive with Him, we too are victorious.
That's what baptism symbolizes. You're going down, you're getting, you're buried with Christ, and then you come alive with Christ. Sin no longer has dominion over you, as Romans 6 .14 says. It doesn't.
You don't have to sin. For the first time in your life when you come to be with Christ, you don't have to sin. You can actually obey. You can follow the Lord. You can walk in that freedom. And what Jesus says in John 8, the truth will set you free and you will be free indeed.
That's what He's talking about. You're free not to sin. You're free to truly be happy. To truly live a blessed life. To truly be in God's good favor. To truly have His fellowship. This is what the Scripture is saying.
As one is baptized physically in the water, this spiritual reality is being shown. It's a picture. These two ordinances that God has given us. He's given us the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper symbolizes the Gospel.
The broken body of Christ as He was crucified. The blood He shed on the cross. And the other ordinance is baptism. That you die and are raised with Christ. It's symbolizing this spiritual reality. And this is why we are a Baptist church.
To be a Baptist church is to believe in this form of baptism. The Bible supports it. And Scripture is our sole authority. And as we think about baptism, my prayer and desire is that we would have a church full of baptized believers.
And that your baptism would be upon profession of faith. As I have showed you from Scripture, this is the biblical baptism that is represented. And once you come to faith in Christ, His plan is for you to do this.
To be baptized is designed as a first step of obedience for the Christian. Now you may be here today and have been a Christian for many years and you have never been baptized. For you then, baptism would not be a first step of faith, but rather a much later step.
But baptism is still something that Christ wants you to do. And so I encourage you to do that. To be baptized is a command in Scripture. Acts 2 .38, when the Apostle Paul preached, he said this, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus.
When Scripture makes a command, we are disobeying if we do not follow that command. So here is my friendly charge to our congregation. My encouragement is for you to be baptized if you have never gone into the waters.
To take part in this symbol of dying and rising with Christ. Once again, it may have been many years ago when you believed, maybe you were baptized as an infant, but were never baptized when you came to faith in Christ.
On the authority of Scripture, it is God's design and desire for you to be baptized. And when you are baptized, what you are telling everyone is God has saved me. He has made me a new creation. I have died to sin and I am alive in Christ.
That's what you're communicating when you are baptized. And it's supposed to be public, right? This is the thing about baptism is that we don't do private baptisms because the biblical way to do this is that you're proclaiming to the world that you are alive in Christ.
And it's a great model for the rest of your walk with Christ to say there's no such thing as a private Christian. Everybody should know we're Christians. And I remember once I was talking to Brian and I was in the workplace and I said, yeah, I want them to know that I'm a Christian.
And then he said something else. He said, but do they know the gospel? It's like, yeah, they should know that you're a Christian, but they also need to know the gospel. We should be public Christians.
Public with the message of salvation. And unashamed, as Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to those who believe. So water baptism is a public display by believers to show the reality of God's work in one's heart.
And next week after the service, we will head down to Twin Lake as the crow flies. It's about a mile. By the way, as the crow flies, that's new terminology for me. I didn't used to say that, but I guess I'm a country boy now.
So we're gonna head down to the boat launch there and we're gonna have a baptism. Right now we have three who are gonna be baptized, but if you would like to be baptized, you can talk to me, you can talk to Mark, and we would love to talk to you about that and hear your testimony and go forward with that.
It's very important to take part in this. Now next Sunday, we will look back in Matthew 20 as Jesus responds to a question from the mother of two of Jesus' disciples. And it's interesting, this question that they ask is that they desire to have the highest seats in the future kingdom of heaven.
And Jesus' response to that, and we will see his response to that, Lord willing, next Sunday. But as we close, bow your heads with me in prayer, please. Father in heaven, your message is so clear. Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Lord, we know that there's nothing magical about the waters of baptism. It is a super special day. The supernatural part happens before when one believes and receives the Holy Spirit. But the baptism represents what has happened to the person spiritually.
And so if someone is here who hasn't been baptized, I pray, Lord, that they would take that step with you. And if someone here has never believed in Christ, that today, that this would be the day of salvation, that that person would understand that he or she is a sinner, that Jesus is the only Savior, that he rose gloriously from the dead, and by believing in his name, that person will have eternal life.
And it's in his name we pray, Amen.