Understanding Baptism

Okay, if you have your Bible, and I hope you do, turn to Matthew chapter three
this morning, we are pausing a series that we've been doing here this summer on the
Psalms, and we're going to look this morning at what the Bible has to say about
the subject of baptism. And the reason we're doing this, if you were here in May,
you remember we talked about what the Bible says about communion. We looked at what
Jesus meant when he said, "This is my body. This is my blood, how do we rightly
understand communion? And I said in that message that I had wanted to also talk
about baptism since these are the two ordinances of the church, baptism and
communion, but we ran out of time. I said, I'll come back and revisit that later,
maybe later this summer, and because this morning we're going to be celebrating a
baptism, I thought this is the appropriate time to just pause the Psalms and let's
look at what the Bible says about baptism. And we're gonna begin this morning by
looking at the account in Matthew chapter three of Jesus being baptized by his
cousin, John the Baptist. He came to him and said, "I want you to baptize me."
This is at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, his public ministry. It's before
he's tempted in the wilderness. It's before he begins preaching to anybody. First
thing is he comes to John the Baptist and says, "I want to be baptized," and we're
going to look at what that means and then look at other scriptures for how we
understand the ongoing implications, not just of Jesus' baptism, but of baptism as an
ordinance for the church. So we'll read the account in Matthew 3. Let me pray again
before we read God's word. Father, we need your spirit to be the one who speaks to
us today. We need the illumination of your spirit in our lives and pray that you
would light the path before us and give us Ears to hear minds to understand and
hearts to obey your word. We ask it in Jesus name Amen Matthew 3 beginning at
verse 13 This is the word of God for the people of God the Bible says then Jesus
came from Galilee To the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.
John would have prevented him saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you
come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented.
And when Jesus was baptized immediately, he went up from the water and behold, the
heavens were open to him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and
coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved
son, with whom I am well pleased." Amen. May God bless this reading of his word,
the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of our God will stand forever. Let
me give you a roadmap for where we're gonna go this morning as we look at baptism
and not just this text but other texts. I want us to look at the context in which
Jesus was baptized, the practice of baptism in and among the Jews prior to the
ministry of Jesus. Then I want us to look at why Jesus chose to begin his ministry
by being baptized, what was going on when he was baptized. Then we'll look at the
ongoing practice of baptism through the life of the early church as it was ordained
by Jesus and it was practiced by his disciples. Finally we're going to look at what
the Bible has to say about the ongoing practice of baptism throughout the history of
the church in our day as well. We're going to look specifically at why we baptize
people, who should be baptized, and there's disagreement among Bible -believing,
God -gospel -loving Christians about that question, And then we're going to look at
what isn't happening when we baptize somebody, as we get ready to celebrate baptism
this morning. So let's look first at the context for the baptism of Jesus. The
practice of baptism is not something that you read about in the Old Testament. It's
not highlighted in the Old Testament. It was not regularly practiced in the Old
Testament. It was not commanded to be practiced in the Old Testament. There were
some ceremonial or ritual cleansing ceremonies that were a part of Jewish life that
were in some way maybe a shadow or a precursor to some elements of Christian
baptism. Let me just show you one. In Exodus chapter 30, God is giving instruction
to the people of Israel for temple practices. And in verse 17 of Exodus 30,
the Lord said to Moses, "You shall also make a basin of bronze with its stand of
bronze for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar. You
shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and
their feet when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near to the
altar to minister to burn a food offering to the Lord. They shall wash with water
so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet so that they
may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his
offspring throughout their generations." Now this is not baptism that's taking place,
this basin of water and this cleansing of the hands and the feet. It's a
purification right for the priests, a ceremonial They were not going to die because
they had dust on their hands. This was a ceremony to acknowledge that they come
into the temple with a sin -stained soul that needs to be cleansed.
If you're going to approach and engage with the living God, God is saying, "You
need to come clean. You need to arrive. You don't bring impurity with you into the
presence of God in the house of God. You cleanse yourself before you come. And this
was not for the priests a one -time or inaugural cleansing like baptism is.
This was something that the priest repeated on an ongoing basis any time they would
come before God. They were acknowledging that God is holy, that they are not,
they're stained with sin, they need to be cleansed to be in His presence. Now
Outside of what we find in the Old Testament, which again only talks about some of
these cleansing rites, we do know that in the years between the return of Israel,
so Israel at one point in their history, was exiled in Babylon. They were under
captivity to the Babylonians. God set them free in 539 BC.
They went back and migrated into Jerusalem and resettled there, and there was about
500 years from the resettlement to the time of Jesus. In that 500 year period,
there was a common practice among Jews that if a Gentile wanted to convert to
Judaism, they would baptize that Gentile before they would bring them in.
This was not in the Bible, but this was the practice of the Jews to baptized a
Gentile as a way of signifying that his old life was gone and his new life as a
Jew was beginning. It was both cleansing but beyond cleansing it was identification.
So this practice was designed as a symbolic way of washing away the old and
cleansing them with what is new. This was a one -time inaugural cleansing ceremony
for a Gentile who was converting to Judaism. And when you get to Jesus' day,
there was one sect of Jews, a sect known as the Essenes, the Dead Sea Scrolls,
these people who lived in the caves. They separated themselves from society and tried
to live pure lives. These Essenes would ceremonially wash themselves daily.
They would baptize themselves every day. Like you take a bath or a shower, except
it wasn't for physical cleansing. They were acknowledging every day as they got up,
"I need to be cleansed again, because impurity is in my soul." So it was a regular
practice. Again, not biblically ordained, it's something that they did as a matter of
conscience. That's the context we have in which John, Jesus' cousin,
John the Baptist is at the Jordan River and he's preaching and he is instituting
this ceremony of baptism as he preaches. John's spiritual diagnosis of the day in
which he was living was that there was a lot of empty ritualism, formalism,
ceremonialism, legalism going on among the Jews. The Jewish leaders,
the Pharisees, the scribes, they were going through the spiritual motions, but their
hearts needed to be cleansed. That was John's diagnosis. And beyond the spiritual
leaders, if you were a Jew and you weren't a Pharisee, you'd pretty much given up
on trying to be right with God 'cause you couldn't meet the Pharisee's standards.
And you said, why even try? So you did your best a little bit here and a little
bit there, but you felt pretty hopeless. And your only hope was, I'm a Jew,
and I guess being a Jew, maybe that's my hope to get into heaven. John the Baptist
is saying, you're not gonna go to heaven and be with God because you're a Jew, and
you're not gonna go to heaven and be with God because you're keeping the ceremonies
and the rituals. You need to be cleansed, you need to be washed, you need to be,
you need to die to the old life and you need to be raised again. John's baptism,
the Bible tells us, was a baptism of repentance. He was calling people to repent to
turn and to be cleansed from the old and renewed start again He's saying the fact
that you're a Jew isn't gonna make it. In fact, you're no better than the Gentiles
You know how we baptize Gentiles to bring them into the Jewish you need to be
baptized just like they do Following God is more about the condition of your heart
than it is about keeping all the rules the Pharisees have laid down And he's saying
that in order to get right with God, you need to get right with God now, now's an
urgent time because he says the kingdom of God is coming. John knows it's been
revealed to him by God that something extraordinary is about to happen. He doesn't
have all the pieces put together, but the kingdom is coming and that's why he is
the forerunner, he's in the wilderness saying you need to get ready, the kingdom is
coming. So that's this baptism or repentance, this symbolic act to say,
"I want to be right with God, and I want to be ready for the kingdom to come."
Now, the Pharisees were not happy with John's baptism happening out in the desert,
because it was subverting and undermining their control and authority over the people.
It was saying they were wrong, nobody likes to be told they're wrong, and he was
drawing people away and pointing them to the need for spiritual regeneration, and he
was not exalting their 613 laws that Jews needed to keep. So it's in that context
that Jesus comes out to the Jordan River, sees his cousin John, and he says, "I
want you to baptize me." And of course the question is, if Jesus is sinless and he
is, why does he need to be baptized? What does he need to repent of? What does he
need to be cleansed from? And John the Baptist recognizes this because when he sees
Jesus coming and Jesus says, "I need to be baptized," John says, "No, you should be
baptizing me, not me baptizing you." John recognizes that his cousin was morally,
spiritually superior to him. I don't know how much contact they had when they were
growing up together, cousins, I don't know if they lived nearby, but somehow John
knew, "Yeah, Jesus is in a different class than me. So he's aware of that.
He doesn't yet understand that Jesus is the Messiah. I mean, when he sees Jesus
coming, he says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
That's the spirit of God quickening something in him to make him say that. But
later, John would say, when he's in prison, he sends his messenger, he says, "Go to
Jesus and say, 'Are you the one or should we be looking for somebody else?'" He's
still putting the pieces together. But he recognizes I shouldn't be baptizing you.
You should be baptizing me and He doesn't have it all figured out, but Jesus in
verse 15 in Matthew 3. This is key. He said let it be so for now It is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness. Why did Jesus get baptized to fulfill all
righteousness? Now what does that mean? I think there's a lot going on here in the
baptism of Jesus, and I think we see shadows of Jesus signaling that he is stepping
into his ministry. He's becoming the great high priest, so in some ways there's an
echo back to the cleansing that the high priest did before they came before God.
He's aligning himself with John's ministry. He's contra the Pharisees and saying,
"Listen to this guy, I'm going to be baptized by him, because what he's telling you
is true, what they're telling you is not. And he's also foreshadowing his death
here. When he is baptized, it's a living picture of what is coming for him,
his own death. He's going to be put to death and he's going to be raised again.
The baptism is a symbolic picture of what is ahead at the conclusion of his
ministry. His statement, though, that he's doing it to fulfill all righteousness.
Righteousness is a word that just means living right. A righteous person is somebody
who lives the right way. Right way according to who? Right way according to God. A
person who says, I'm gonna live, I'm gonna make my choices, I'm gonna do what I'm
supposed to do according to how God lays it out. That's a person who's walking in
righteousness. And Jesus says, As I start my public ministry, I'm myself as a human
being, I'm going to do what God would want me to do, what he expects of all who
will follow him. I'm going to be baptized in some ways as an example to everyone
who would follow him, but also as identification with us as human beings.
He's not coming to be cleansed, but he's coming to say God wants His followers to
begin their journey with Him through baptism. And I'm going to be baptized to
fulfill, that's right, that's righteous. I'm going to be baptized to fulfill all
righteousness. This is the inauguration of what will become Christian baptism,
what we still practice today. Jesus is saying by being baptized, being baptized at
the beginning is the right thing to do. This is what God expects. And of course at
the end of his ministry, the bookend Matthew 28, when Jesus is giving his followers
the great commission, what does he tell them and us? The assignment is go therefore
and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you
and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." Making disciples,
the first thing you do is you baptize them. Then you teach them to observe all
that I've commanded you. By God's design, the bookend of Jesus' ministry starts with
his being baptized, the end of his ministry starts with him commissioning us to go
and make disciples and baptize them. He's telling us that baptism is an essential
element of how we make disciples. It's the first step for a follower of Christ to
take when you turn from self and you decide to follow Jesus and you say Okay,
I'm gonna follow Jesus. What should I do now? The next answer is you should be
baptized That's step one and that's what became the practice in the early church.
In fact, let's look at this Follow this with me in Acts chapter 2 On the day of
Pentecost. So this is baptism in the early church. Acts 2, the day of Pentecost.
When Peter preaches and calls people to repent and turn to Jesus, they're cut to
their heart and they say, "What should we do?" And Peter says, "Repent and be
baptized." Every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of
your sins and you'll receive the Holy Spirit.
Later in the book of Acts, When Philip is preaching the gospel in Samaria,
people are responding to the gospel and Acts 812 says when they believed Philip as
he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they
were baptized men and women. Later in the same chapter, Philip is walking along the
path. He comes across an Ethiopian who's a eunuch who's been to Israel.
He's been to Jerusalem for a feast. He's on his way back to go to Ethiopia, to
Africa. He's reading a scroll of Isaiah and he encounters Philip and he says,
"Can you explain this to me?" And Philip explains to him that the suffering servant
in Isaiah is Jesus who was just crucified and raised again. And verse 35 says
Philip opened his mouth and beginning with the scripture. He told him the good news
about Jesus And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and
the eunuch said, "See, here is water, what prevents me from being baptized?" He
commanded the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water, Philip and the
eunuch, and he baptized him. You see, the first thing you do after you believe,
you get baptized. In Acts chapter 10, Peter was called into Macedonia.
He gets the Macedonian call. He's in Gentile territory now. He goes to the house of
Cornelius. He preaches the Gospel. Verse 44 says, "When Peter was still saying these
things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard, and the believers from among the
circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit
was poured out even on the Gentiles. Then Peter declared, 'Can anyone withhold water
for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have, and
he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. We could go on, but
you get the point. In the early church, when someone responded, "Believe the gospel,"
the first impulse of the apostles was, "We need to get these people baptized." And
what we see happening in the book of Acts is a picture of what then becomes the
normal practice in the church for the decades that follow the resurrection of Jesus.
And with that came clarity about what baptism means. So why do we baptize people
today? What does the Bible tell us about why we baptize? Well first, the reason we
baptize is because Jesus commanded us to. If we didn't know anything more about
baptism or what it means, the fact that Jesus commands it in the Great Commissions
as go and make disciples and baptize them, if you say, "Well, I don't understand."
That's okay. You don't have to understand. Just do it. That's the command of Jesus
is sufficient. But the Bible gives us more clarity than that about what's happening
with baptism. Christian baptism is a visual symbolic demonstration of a spiritual
reality that has already taken place in somebody's life. In Romans 6,
The Bible tells us that when we come to faith in Christ, we are united with him.
We are brought into the family of God We are united with him by being buried with
him Through baptism into his death That means that when we what what Jesus
accomplished for us in his death on the cross the payment for our sins when we
surrendered to him When we trust And when we follow him, we become recipients of
that payment. The debt is paid. That's what Rick was talking about this morning when
he talked about justification. The benefits of Jesus' death are applied to us.
We have full identification. And when we go under the water in baptism, we're
saying, "This is what's happened in my life. I have died with Jesus and the
benefits of his death are now mine." And so then when we come up out of the water
in baptism, we are picturing and declaring that we are also recipients not just a
forgiveness of sins but of new life, resurrection life. We are raised from death to
life. And coming up out of the water is a picture of that resurrection for us.
Jesus was raised from the dead. With him we will be raised from death as well.
This is what Romans 6 is saying. So it says in verse 4, "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." So when
somebody's baptized, he or she is publicly declaring that this is what is now true
about them. They are saying, "I'm making it clear to all of you that I am
identifying my life with the life of Jesus. I'm going to follow him from now on.
I've received the benefits of his death and resurrection. I am united to him.
This, by the way, is one of the reasons why we think that the right way to
baptize someone is by immersing them, not sprinkling them. If you're trying to get a
picture of burial and resurrection, sprinkling is going to do it. Sprinkling might
picture cleansing, and that's part of it. But going under the water and coming back
out is death and resurrection. A few drops on the forehead does not do that. And
that, of course, brings us to the question of who ought to be baptized. And this
is where, as I said, there's a divergence. Good, gospel -loving people, people who
believe the authority of Scripture, have come to different conclusions about who
should be baptized. And we don't have the time, nor is it my purpose this morning
to do an extensive study of the difference between the two views. That would be
profitable to do at a later date. But let me just kind of quickly explain the two
views. So the two views are known as pedo -baptism and credo -baptism.
Those are the theological words. "Pedo" means "baby." So "pedo baptism is baby
baptism. Credo means belief, so it's baptizing a believer. Do you baptize babies or
do you baptize those who have believed? Generally, the paido -baptist view is the
view that is held by the Roman Catholic Church, and it's also held by Anglicans,
by Presbyterians, by Lutherans, by the Eastern Orthodox. They would have differences.
Protestants have differences with Catholics about how they understand baptism, but they
affirm paido -baptism, baptizing babies. Credo -baptism is held by Baptists and many
non -denominational Christians, Assemblies of God, others who practice credo -baptism.
And our paido -baptist friends, our baby -baptizing friends like Presbyterians and
Anglicans, with whom we share a common understanding of the Gospel, they believe that
Baptism is a sign and a seal of the Covenant. Now we believe that too, but their
emphasis is on Covenant continuity Part of the reason that they practice infant
baptism is because they see a connection between the Old Testament practice of
circumcision of Babies and the New Testament practice of baptism of babies.
They they emphasize and stress covenant continuity from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, and they say circumcision was replaced by baptism, and that's one reason
why they baptize babies. They would say when a baby is born and God places that
baby into a family with a believing mom and a believing dad, God is already showing
a measure of grace to that child just by the fact that He's placed that child in
a believing family.
There's some special favor already being shown, and they would say when we baptize
that child, we're just acknowledging that we see God's favor at work in the life of
that child. That's what we're declaring. In fact, Kevin D. Young, who is somebody I
have great respect for, he's a Presbyterian pastor, he says when he does a baptism
of babies in their church. Here's what he tells his congregation before he performs
a baptism. He says, "We do not believe that there's anything magical about the water
that we apply to the child. The water does not wash away original sin or save the
child. We do not presume that this child is regenerate, though he may be,
nor do we believe that every child who gets baptized will automatically go to
heaven." He says, "We baptize infants not out of superstition or tradition or because
we like cute babies. We baptize infants because they are covenant children and they
should receive the sign of the covenant. So he's saying because God put them in the
same way that if you were born a Jew, you were put into the family of the Jews.
If you're born in a Christian family, God is showing that you're part of the
covenant family. And their key scripture for this is in Colossians chapter 2.
Let me show you this. Colossians 2 verse 11 says, "In him," Paul talking to the
Colossians in Christ, "also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without
hands." I'll just stop there and say, he's saying, "In the Old Testament we
circumcised the flesh, but in Christ the circumcision is a different circumcision.
It's without hands. It's a circumcision of the heart, putting off the body of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Verse 12, "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." So they would run to this passage
and say, "See here, baptism and circumcision are linked together, they're parallels.
I don't see it that way. I see Paul using two different metaphors. Circumcision of
the heart and baptism has two separate things. He's tying them together, but the
fact that he says them in the same paragraph doesn't mean he's saying they're the
same. I mix my metaphors all the time. You've heard me do it. I think Paul is
putting both of these together. Circumcision in the Old Testament was not intended or
was intended by God to picture the need for heart circumcision.
The whole reason for cutting away the foreskin of a male was to say this is a
picture of what's going to need to happen in your heart. The flesh is going to
need to be cut away in order for you to be able to serve God. That's why all
circumcised children were not true Israelites. They were not spiritual Israel.
They may have been a part of the physical family of Israel, but they had not
experienced heart circumcision. Paul makes this clear in Romans chapter 2. But these
verses and Colossians are pointing not to physical circumcision or physical baptism,
but to spiritual circumcision and spiritual baptism, which is the point.
This is not about uniting somebody with a covenant family. This is about uniting
them with Christ and uniting them with regeneration. It's less about the family
dynamic and more about what's going on with the individual. And the key to all of
this, look back at verse 12, the two words through faith. Can we put verse 12 back
up there? "Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised
with him through faith. The powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
A baby can't be raised to walk with Christ through faith. John Piper says this is
not something infants experience. He says faith is a conscious experience of the
heart yielding to the work of God. Infants are not capable of this therefore infants
are not fit subjects for baptism, which is through faith.
So, based on how we understand the meaning of baptism, along with the biblical
record for how baptism was practiced in the early years of the church, what we
believe is that the right way to understand this matter is to see baptism as the
important first step of obedience made by a new follower of Christ who wants to
publicly declare and demonstrate his identification with, his or her identification
with Jesus through his death and resurrection. They want to say what Jesus did,
he's done for me, I identify with this, I receive these benefits and that's what we
practice as a church when we celebrate baptism. We joyfully celebrate this as an
ordinance of the church with all who come ready to publicly declare through baptism
their union with Christ. We're going to do it here in a few minutes. Let me wrap
up this morning by making sure we all understand a few things that baptism isn't
What is not happening when somebody's baptized? Nobody is getting saved when they are
baptized
Baptism is not a saving act
Baptism doesn't save anyone. This is what already saved people do in response to
what Jesus has done for them.
Second, we don't want anyone to see baptism as a ritual or a formality,
some hoop you have to jump through in order for God to be pleased or in order to
be united with him. Think of it like a wedding. You don't have to have a big
wedding ceremony to get married. A wedding ceremony is not some hoop you jump
through in order to qualify for marriage. Just as a wedding ceremony is a joyful
celebration of what God is doing when He makes two into one, so a baptism is a
joyful celebration of what God has already done in someone's life when they have
been joined to Him.
And third, we should not see baptism as optional.
In our day, There has been a tendency, I think, in reaction to some who have over
-emphasized baptism to kind of pull back and make it a little more optional. It is
not necessary, hear me clearly, it's not necessary for someone to be baptized in
order for that person to be saved. Think about the thief on the cross. He was not
baptized. Jesus said, "This day you will be with me in paradise." It's not
requirement, but for someone to say, "I have decided to follow Jesus," and then
Jesus says, "Great, first step is baptism," and that person says, "Yeah, I'm still
thinking about that." Well, we have to go, "Wait, I thought you said you decided to
follow Jesus." Yeah, first step is baptism. "Well, I'm still thinking about what else
are you gonna think about along the way?" What other things that Jesus is commanding
or calling you do, you're putting yourself back in the place of saying, I'm not
following Jesus, I will evaluate what Jesus is saying and decide if I think it's
right for me. For someone to say I'm a follower of Christ and I've chosen not to
submit myself to the ordinance of baptism, we got a problem there. We don't want to
overstate or overemphasize what baptism is any more than what the Bible says it is,
but we also don't want to undervalue or underestimate what the Bible says, understate
what the Bible says this is. And my hope this morning is that by looking at this
subject of baptism, here at our church, along with the practice of baptism in the
early church, the minister, what Jesus was doing, what the church was doing, what we
do today, I hope this has clarified some things, maybe answered some questions for
you. And as I was thinking about, okay, what's an application for this? The
application is, if you haven't been baptized, you need to be baptized, and if you
are discipling somebody and they come to Christ, you need to encourage them to be
baptized. That's what comes next. We should embrace fully what the Bible teaches
about baptism. My hope is that what we've talked about this morning will help you
celebrate more fully what's taking place when we practice baptism here in just a few
minutes, but I hope that it clarifies for you and causes you to reprioritize where
baptism should fit into your life as a believer and into the life of local church.
I was baptized when I was a college student in Keystone Lake in Oklahoma. Our
church didn't have a baptistry, so we went out to the lake for a picnic day and
that's where I was baptized. I'd been baptized as a baby when I was, I don't
remember it, in a dinah, Minnesota, in a little church that I'd never been to. My
parents took me to be baptized, but when I came to faith, I thought, "I need to
follow what the Lord says in baptism." And that's why I was baptized then. It would
be, I don't know how many of your friends know your baptism story. I don't know
what you remember about your baptism story, but Share your baptism stories with one
another and find encouragement in that. And it's just a part of God's work and His
grace. And let me just say this as well.
Some people will call baptism an ordinance, others will call it a sacrament. I've
stuck with ordinance primarily because I think there can be a wrong understanding of
the idea of sacrament. In Roman Catholic sacramental theology, They believe that when
you baptize somebody, whether that person means anything, that they believe that the
act has, that there is grace that is conferred in the act, whether anybody means
anything or not. So you drag somebody in and get them baptized and they go through
the ritual, they say, God gives grace to that person. That's why they call it a
sacrament. It's a giving of grace. I don't think that's right, but I do think that
when What we're going to experience this morning, there is grace that is given to
those who follow in obedience and there's special grace that comes in the time of
baptism. So this is not just a memorial ceremony where we're putting out a play. We
are coming into God's presence and honoring Him and He will give grace in this
moment in the life of those who are being baptized. It's more than just a public
demonstration, God is gonna be here conferring grace on the one who is being
baptized. Now before we celebrate baptism, we're gonna celebrate the other ordinance
of the church this morning, that's communion. Baptism, as we've said, is a one -time
activity that starts your spiritual journey. It can be compared to your justification
that Rick talked about this morning. it's once and at the beginning, communion is
ongoing, like your sanctification. It's regular. We practice it over and over again.
It's a repeated activity, where we're demonstrating that our strength, our life,
everything we need comes from Jesus. And so we come and we receive bread and juice
to say, "Jesus, you are my life, you are my strength, you are my vitality." And in
that sense, we should note that since communion pictures sanctification and baptism
pictures our justification, the right order is that you should be baptized prior to
being taken communion. Now, there may be occasions where that gets out of order.
I don't want to be picky about that, but in general sense, someone should declare
their faith before they participate in the sanctifying grace of communion. [BLANK
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