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What's this? A door. What if this door
was the door to our bedroom? Wouldn't you want to go
through and see what was on the other side - and see
whether I put my socks away, or whether Lorraine puts
her socks away? Imagine if this door said, "Dennis
Connor." The door to his Stars and Stripes racing
syndicate down at the Viaduct basin. Wouldn't you want
to go through and see what was on the other side -
their secret designs and racing strategies for the
America's Cup? What if this door said "The Oval
Office" - the door to the American President's office
in the White House, where decisions that shape world
history are being made? Wouldn't you want to go
through and see what was on the other side? We all
pass through lots of doors in life. Some are more
important than others. There are doors that say
"birthday" or "graduation" or "wedding" or
"anniversary." Important doors that mark special
occasions, changes in our journey through life.
There's one door more important than
all the rest. What is it? The door marked "salvation."
Imagine if this was the door of salvation. You'd want
to go through it, wouldn't you? I would. What do you
have to do to go through this door? Ever asked that
question? "What must I do to be saved?" People have
asked that question all through history. What's the
answer? Let's go right back to the day of Pentecost.
The day that God poured out his Spirit on all of
Jesus' followers. The birthday of the church. Peter
had just explained to a huge crowd that Jesus is the
Son of God, the Saviour of the world, that he came to
earth - lived, died and rose again - to bring every
single one of us back to God. Let's pick up the story
at Acts 2:36-41.
Right from the beginning of the church,
if you turned to God and put your faith in Jesus, you
got baptised. You went through the baptism door. Now
you may have been baptised. You may have heard all
about baptism. But I think it's time we did a
refresher course. What is baptism? What does it
signify? What are the implications for those who get
baptised? Let's answer some of these questions.
1. What is
baptism? Burial, Bath or Birth?
Baptism is a doorway. Like cutting a
birthday cake, or receiving a certificate at a
graduation ceremony, or exchanging rings at a wedding,
baptism is a public rite of passage that marks a
significant personal transition or decision - a
decision to follow Jesus. So you could say this door
should be marked "burial," because baptism is a way of
saying, "I believe Jesus died for me and I am choosing
with his help to bury my old way of life and to live
for God and others." Those first believers were
baptised because they were choosing to "repent" (Acts
2:38). But you could say that this door should also be
marked "bath" - those first believers were being
baptised "for the forgiveness of [their] sins" (Acts
2:38). They were saying publicly, "I believe that God
has washed my guilt away because of what Jesus did on
the cross for me." But this door should also be marked
with one other word: "birth." By being baptised, those
first believers were saying in a concrete, public way,
"I am trusting that just as Jesus rose again from the
grave and is alive today, he will give me power
through his Spirit to live a new life with him now and
forever" (Acts 2:38).
So baptism is a doorway symbolising our
commitment to follow Jesus and identify with him. But
it's more than that. Baptism also marks our formal
entry into Christ's body, the church. Those who were
baptised were "added" to the body of believers (Acts
2:41). They became part of God's family with instant
brothers and sisters - "just add water"!
But apart from baptism, there are
plenty of other ways to express our faith in Jesus and
our commitment to his people, aren't there? So that
raises the question:
2. Why be
baptised? Sign or Seal?
Apart from the fact that Jesus commands
his followers to be baptised (Matthew 28:19-20) what
good does it do?
As a public ceremony, it's a powerful
sign to those who witness it. I remember the day when
I was baptised. I was fifteen and I stood up on a
platform like this. I wanted desperately to tell
people why I was passing through this doorway but
instead I just burst into tears. The kindly minister
waited until I had regained my composure but, as I
started to speak again, I broke down once more. I was
so embarrassed. But as I was leaving, one of my
cousins - a man in his twenties - came up to me. He
had tears in his eyes. God had touched his heart.
But baptism is more than a sign that
expresses to others our decision to follow Jesus. It
also seals our decision. God does something in us when
we pass through that door in faith and repentance.
Lorraine and I went to an open home the other weekend.
Our friends were selling it and we thought we'd just
take a nosy. There was no one else there and the real
estate agent was so excited to see us. We felt like
frauds - we weren't looking to buy. We were like those
customers on a car yard who just kick tyres but aren't
really intending to buy. Baptism separates the tyre
kickers from the real buyers. It's one thing to be a
"closet Christian" and say in the privacy of your own
heart that you're a sinner and need a Saviour. It's
quite another thing to pass through that door, step
out of the shadows, and stand before a hundred plus
people to demonstrate that you are trusting Jesus, and
are going to live for him for the rest of your life.
Once you go public, once you pass through the door,
it's hard to turn back. Just like the public
declaration of the vows at a marriage ceremony
strengthens a married couple to live in faithfulness
to each other, God's Spirit can use baptism to
strengthen us in our faith - and to reassure us that
we are God's children, that we that we have passed
through into his kingdom.
3. How should
you get baptised? Sprinkling or Soaking?
Some churches sprinkle water on the
forehead. Others soak people - saturate them entirely
by sinking them right under water - full immersion.
Which is right? The word "baptise" itself comes from
the word, "baptizo" meaning to dunk or dip or drench -
to immerse. Descriptions of baptism in the New
Testament suggest that people were immersed in water.
Matthew says that when Jesus was baptised, for
example, "he went up out of the water" (Matthew 3:16).
And symbolically, immersion most closely depicts what
the Bible says baptism is meant to signify: a dying
and rising and washing away of sin. So that's probably
the mode of baptising that the early church used. And
it's the way we baptise.
But although immersion may be the most
appropriate form of baptism, is it the only valid form
of baptism? Guess what? The earliest Baptists didn't
practise immersion. The history of the church reveals
that the form of baptism is not crucial. What counts
is the presence of faith, not the quantity of water.
4. Who should be baptised? Babies
or Believers?
Today lots of churches - such as
Anglicans and Catholics - baptise babies. But can
babies pass through this door? As far as we know, the
early church did not baptise babies - not until the
fourth century. And in the New Testament there is not
a single clear reference to babies being baptised.
Instead, the Bible draws a clear connection between
baptism on the one hand and faith and repentance on
the other. It was "those who accepted [Peter's]
message" - those who believed the good news about
Jesus and repented of their sin - that were baptised
(Acts 2:41). Little babies can't do that? Baptism is
for those who are old enough to recognise their
sinfulness before God, mature enough to understand
that Jesus died on the cross for them, responsible
enough to make the decision to follow Jesus for the
rest of their life.
So how old, how mature, do you have to
be to pass through this door? That brings us to the
last question.
5. When should
we get baptised?
I used to live in a house with a long,
twisting flight of steps up to the front door. Baptism
is not a door at the top of a long flight of steps
that you have to climb up by lots of effort over a
period of time. The baptism door is at the bottom. As
soon as you can understand that you are at the bottom
of the steps, and that you could never be good enough
or know enough to climb to the top of the steps, you
can pass through. What counts is not what you know, or
how you behave, but who you trust. That's why in the
biblical stories baptism immediately followed
conversion: "Those who accepted his message were
baptized, and about three thousand were added to their
number that day" (Acts 2.41). Peter had barely
got through his sermon and pronounced the blessing and
three thousand people were lining up to take a bath,
to walk through this door. When the apostle Paul
decided to follow Jesus, the person who prayed with
him, Ananias, said: "Now what are you waiting for? Get
up, be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on
the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16).
But there's one more question, isn't
there? Do you have to be baptised to be saved? Some
churches say you do - that's why they baptise babies.
Others - like the Salvation Army - say you don't have
to be baptised in water to be saved. And they're
right, of course. We're saved by God's grace through
faith in what Jesus has done for every single one of
us (Ephesians 2:8-9). I know some wonderful people who
trust and obey Jesus but have never been baptised. You
probably know some people like that, too. Maybe they
were christened as a baby and for them their act of
confirmation as an adult was equivalent to baptism as
a believer. Maybe they've never quite understood what
God's word teaches about baptism. But what about you?
Do you believe in Jesus? Have you chosen to follow
Jesus for the rest of your life? If so, will you obey
his command to go through that door, and be baptised?
C.T. Studd was an Englishman born into
the lap of comfort and luxury in the 19th century. He
was educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he played
cricket and captained their first eleven. He was a
natural athlete and ultimately played cricket for
England. As a young man - heir to a huge fortune, a
celebrated athlete - the world lay at his feet, a
world of fame, wealth, and ease. But then one of his
brothers became seriously ill, and it brought Charles
Studd face to face with eternal realities.
Understanding who Jesus was, and what Jesus had done
for him, he decided to give away his entire fortune.
And then in 1885, along with six other immensely
talented young students from Cambridge University, he
caused a stir by leaving his life in England and
sailing to China to serve God there and in Africa,
where he later died in poverty. Why did he do it? He
said these famous words: "If Christ is God and died
for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to
make for him." Is God nudging you to make a sacrifice
for him? Is he calling you to be baptised? If Christ
is God and he died for you, is that too great a
sacrifice for you to make for him?
Study Questions
1. Have you been baptized? What are
your memories of that event?
2. Is the symbol of a "door" an
appropriate picture for baptism? Do you agree that
baptism can be pictured as a burial, bath and birth;
why? See Romans 6:1-11.
3. What else does baptism signify? Read
1 Corinthians 12:12-13.
4. How is baptism more than a sign? How
does it actually serve to seal your commitment to
follow Jesus and enter his church? See Luke 3:21-22
5. How important is the mode or form of
baptism - getting sprinkled or soaked? See John 3:23;
Matthew 3:16; Acts 8:39.
6. Who does the Bible indicate should
be baptized? See Acts 2:39.
7. What would you say to a friend who
asked your advice about when to be baptized? See Acts
2:41. What would you say if he or she asked you: Do I
have to be baptised to be saved?
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