CEFC Sermons
Portrait of Grace
Oh, okay, you're there, good. We say that the baptismal is after the service. Baptismal is part of the service this morning. So you are encouraged just to continue the service as we go down to the lower level later on this morning. And I want to thank Joe and Jane Asu. They bought me warm socks for the baptismal this morning. They're a little bag of warm socks. So my feet will be warm. And our hearts will be warmed as we see the baptismal this morning. We'll be baptizing two individuals, Joe Esposito and George Sanducci. Both men will be sharing a snippet of their testimony with us. And I strongly urge you to continue the service downstairs following our worship time. Let's stand together for the reading of God's word from Matthew 28 in Romans, chapter six. Matthew 28, Jesus said to them, "All authority and heaven and earth has been given to me. As you go, make disciples of all ethnos, 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 to the end of the age." And then Romans six, verse four, which is not deal with water baptism, but has the baptismal picture in it. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. In order that justice Christ has raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. May his blessing be upon his word. Please be seated. Our message this morning is portraits of grace. The theme is baptism. And the message is for Joe and for George. The message is for those who have not been yet baptized, but are considering or should be considering water baptism. The message is for those of us who have been baptized to remind us of our commitment in baptism to follow Jesus. And the message is for those who have not found Christ yet, who need to hear the glorious message of the gospel. To know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior makes us portraits of grace. Christians participate in two God-ordained ceremonies that mark what God has done for us. One ceremony we celebrate on the first Sunday of each month. It's communion, and we're to do it 'til Jesus comes again. The other ceremony we're going to participate in this morning will be conducting a water baptismal service is a one-time event in the life of a believer. Jesus left two commands to partake of the Lord's Supper and baptism. Both are symbols, object lessons, representations of spiritual realities that describe and define who we are in Christ, neither of which save us. But they identify us as God's people and God's people together. No scholar can fully appreciate what this moment, this baptismal moment will mean in heaven. Any words on baptism will be weak to understand this holy event. Our danger is to swing to one of two extremes with baptism today. Either we go to one extreme and we deify it, or we trivialize it. One person says, "I'm saved because I've been baptized." Another person says, "I'm saved. "I don't have to be baptized." Well, I'll tell you the truth lies in the middle of those two at the foot of the cross. We are not saved because we are baptized, but we are baptized because we are saved and we're being obedient. And baptism is kind of like a precious jewel, and you just turn it different ways, and you see different facets of light through that jewel. We see the death of the old life. Coming into new life, public testimony, identification, obedience. So many beautiful pictures of who we are in Christ are seen in baptism. So baptism is a step of obedience by one who has confessed their sin and declared his faith to others. So important was this step in the New Testament. As far as we know, every single believer in the New Testament was baptized with one exception, the thief on the cross. We know of no exceptions in the New Testament. What did they understand on the day of Pentecost? Well, the Holy Spirit came and Peter was preaching, and God, Peter said, "God has made Jesus "this man who you put on the cross." Who put Jesus on the cross? Sometimes we say it was this group of people or that group of people, we put Jesus on the cross. This man that you put Jesus on the cross, God has made him both Lord and Christ. And how did the crowd respond that day? Verse 41 of Acts 2, "Those who accepted the message "were baptized about 3,000 people "were added to the number of believers that day." Can you imagine a baptismal service with 3,000 believers? Marvelous. But every work of the grace of God is marvelous. It's wonderful when one believer or two or three get baptized as well. How about Philip talking to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter eight? There they are in the desert. The Ethiopian eunuch is reading from Isaiah 53. Philip appears on the scene and interprets Isaiah 53. And Philip began to speak and told the good news about Jesus. And the Ethiopian officer said, "Look, here is water. "What is stopping me from being baptized?" And both Philip and the officer went down into the water and he baptized him. Go over to Acts chapter nine. The Apostle Paul, who's called Saul in those days, was on the road to Damascus. He's knocked off his horse, he's blind it. And then Ius comes to him, preaches the gospel to him. Saul hasn't eaten for days, he's blind. Now he can see. And the first thing he says is, I need to be baptized. I don't need a big Mac. I need to be baptized. And immediately he was baptized. And then he ate and was strengthened. Paul and Silas at midnight in jail, singing. The Philippian jailers, hard is turned. And Paul and Silas said to him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." How did he respond? At that hour of the night, the jailer took Paul and Silas, washed their wounds and he was baptized immediately. Baptism is a service in which a person is immersed in water. The old word used to be dunked. They were dunked. And the people who did this were called dunkers. And during the Reformation, many hundreds of Christians were treated cruelly because they got saved. They were baptized as babies. Now they were being baptized as adults upon professional faith. And these people were called anabaptist. There's two verbs in the New Testament. We put them in your worship folder this morning. They are the verb bapto, which is used four times in the New Testament. And it means to immerse or to dip. You would take a piece of cloth and you would dip it entirely so that the cloth was totally submerged and to come out fully died. And you know what you call people who did that? Diars. (congregation laughing) You are listening. But to be totally submerged as if they were to be died. There's an intensified form, bapto or baptizo used many times in the New Testament to dip completely. The noun baptisma is always used in the book of Acts. And it means to dip, to immerse somebody. So we really should call John the Baptist 'cause we didn't have baptists back then or Presbyterians or Evangelical Free. He should be called John the Immerser. That's a better term for him. So whether we're talking about the nouns or the verbs, all of them refer to complete immersing in water. The word became a technical term for immersion and it is transliterated rather than translated. Other words that are transliterated like be Christ or Deacon, angel, apostly, evangelist, a number of words in the New Testament just transliterated, taken from the Greek bought into our language. So everywhere, bapto or baptizo appears, it could have been translated immersed. And it became a technical term. It's interesting to note that the terms bapto and baptizo are never used in a passive sense. What does that mean? Water is never baptized upon somebody but a person is baptized in the water. If you go back to Matthew chapter three, John the Immerser is there, immersing people in the Jordan River. Jesus is among them and there we read, after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately out of the water. He came out of the water. You go to John chapter three, the same thing. We get insight into John, the Immerser who's baptizing people and he was baptizing people in Anon near Salem because, and the Bible says this because there was much water there. You need enough water to baptize and I checked the pool this morning and we have enough water so we're all set. So these are figurative uses of baptizo. It's also used in other terms such as in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Let me read that for you, verse 13. For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free, all baptized into one body. So the whole idea of being immersed into the body of Christ. When you come to Jesus Christ, you are immersed in Jesus Christ. Water of baptism is a picture, it's an object lesson, it's a symbol, it's a physical analogy of a great profound truth, a spiritual reality. It's the way God wants to teach us something about the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the individual as well. It's a salvation reality. God teaches spiritual truths using symbols. There are many symbols used throughout the Old Testament, illustrations, analogies, symbols that God used. And often people say, what does this mean? Or when your children ask what does this mean, you'll tell them what these symbols mean. This is what it means. This is what baptism means. But is baptism something new or is it old? Was it just introduced in the New Testament times? It's very old. It goes back long before the New Testament to be a visual commitment to God. If a non-Jew, if a Gentile, wanted to follow the Jewish religion, wanted to become identified with the Jews, with the people of God, but he was not born Jewish, they would go through a ritual. See, the Jews were chosen not to be an end, but a means to an end. They were to be evangelistic. And by the way, I believe that's why the Jewish people very often are very successful financially, so they could use their funds for evangelism. They haven't done that, but that was the purpose that God wanted to use the Jews to evangelize the world, to the ends of the world, calling a nation to worship the one true God, the living God, to abandon their false deities. So when a Gentile wanted to become Jewish, a proselytite, a worshiper of Jehovah, a worshiper of the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the true and living God, the Creator, the Redeemer, he would go through a three-stage ceremony. The first was circumcision, the unique sign of the people of God, to demonstrate their identification with the people of God. And demonstration of circumcision meant that you're sinful, it was identifying their sinfulness. And you know what? We are all sinful. And we pass on to the next generation, sinfulness, and they pass on to the next generation, sinfulness as well. But circumcision demonstrated that you are part of the people of God, that you're so needed cleansing at the deepest level. The second ceremony was immersion in water. It was to demonstrate that they were dead to their old lives. It was kind of a burial. We're burying you, we're burying the old life, you're old ways, you're Gentile ways, and you're following the true and the living God. They knew that apart from God's truth, from God's word, God's promises, the old life was buried, and they were coming alive to a new family and a new relationship. And then there was the third part, there was the core band, which was the animal sacrifice. We don't have that anymore, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, who has become our sacrifice, our substitute for us. So there was proselytite baptism, very familiar to the people in Jerusalem and Judea when John the Immerser came along. It wasn't something new, what's John doing out there, dunking people in the water. They knew it meant death to the old life, resurrection to a new life. They connected it with worship, they connected it with repentance, they connected it with leaving the old behind him, moving ahead. And John was saying, get ready, the king is coming, get ready, the Messiah is here, and we need to be ready, and we need to get that word out, that the king is coming again, the Messiah is coming, and we need to be ready for his return. So a ministry calling for baptism. And it's amazing because hundreds of people, in fact the words is all the people were going out to hear John the Baptizer, the Immerser, masses of people were getting ready for the Messiah to come. You need to be prepared. John preached repentance of sin, a call for righteousness, be ready. If you go back to Matthew three, you see they were confessing their sins as they came into the baptismal service. The whole point of John's baptism was the confession of sins. That's not the point of our baptism. These who are being baptized today have already confessed their sins. They've gotten right with God through Jesus Christ. But the baptism of John marked a turning point of public proclamation that they were sinful and they needed a new life. So we know the meaning of submerging someone in water. That's clear because the New Testament teaches it. When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, there's a spiritual reality. And I just want to share a few verses from Romans chapter six. Do you not know that as many of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? That's pictured going down in the water. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death. Justice Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For we have been united together in the likeness of the death. Certainly we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. That's the picture that Paul tells us of baptism. Paul tells us elsewhere that the people of Israel were baptized into Moses. That is, they were immersed in Moses. They went through an immersion with Moses. They became one with Moses with their leader. So when you come to faith, you're redeemed, you're saved, and you are immersed in Christ. You've been buried with Him. And then united with Him dying with Christ. In Galatians chapter two, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. You see, salvation is not just adding Jesus to your life. Here's me, and now I add Jesus to my life. It's becoming immersed in Christ, becoming one with Christ, Christ in me. We sing it, Christ in me, the hope of glory. Christ gave Himself for me. I have been crucified with Christ, dead with Him, submerged, and I come out a new person, a new individual. Galatians two, 12, having been buried with Him in baptism. The baptism into His death. You were raised up with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Before we come to Christ, we are dead. In Christ, we are alive. He has made you alive together and forgiven all of our transgressions, Colossians two. So what's the relationship of immersion to salvation? It doesn't save. It's important, but it doesn't save. Paul says in 1 Corinthians one, "I thank God I baptized none of you, except Christmas and Gaius." Now let me tell you something. If Paul believed that baptism saved people, he would have gone around baptizing people. I think right and left is, oh, there you are, let me baptize him, you'll be saved. He didn't do that. Salvation is by grace through faith and any doctrinal treatment of salvation makes it clear that salvation does not depend upon water. However, obedience goes through the water of baptism. Listen to the words of Matthew 10. "Whoever confesses me before men," Jesus said, "I'll confess him before my father who is in heaven. Whoever denies me before men, I'll deny him before my father who is in heaven. An open public confession of faith in Jesus Christ is evidence of one's true conversion and your willingness to go on public record, having abandoned your former life and embraced Jesus Christ. Now if you're looking for some kind of benefit from baptism, it's the same benefit you get from any active obedience, any active obedience. Baptism produces nothing but the blessing of obedience. It's not designed to make you more holy. It's not designed to make you more secure 'cause as believers, we're totally secure in Jesus Christ. It doesn't save you, but it's a public step of obedience and confession. It exists for the purpose of showing in the symbol the reality of what's happened inwardly. As we do with the Lord's Supper, we do with baptism. And abandonment of the old life, embracing of the new life in Christ. Calvary evangelical free believes that baptism is an ordinance, a command of the Lord, by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection by being immersed in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people and emblem of our death and our new life. We believe that baptism is an ordinance. When we say ordinance, don't get afraid of the word. It just means a command. It's a command of Christ. Something we're supposed to do with God has purpose for his church, an ongoing practice of the church, much like communion. Baptism is to be done until he comes again. Baptism expresses our union with Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection. And we read that over in Romans, chapter six, how we are buried with Christ, raised with Christ, coming into a new life in Christ. United with him in his death, his burial, his resurrection. It dramatically portrays what happens spiritually when we receive Christ. And it should be a reminder to each of us who have been baptized, who have new life in Christ. What happened when we found Christ? Our old self, unbelief, and rebellion, and idolatry died, and we have a new faith, a new obedience, a new treasury of Christ. That's what we confess to the world in our baptism. It's performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And someone asked this morning, in a pre-service prayer time, Adonai is plural. Does that imply there's a trinity? I suspect it does. I had to think about that for a while, but I suspect it does. There's a God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptized in all three names. And then Matthew 28 says, "As you go into the world," often we place the emphasis on going into the world, but it says, "As you go into the world for each of us, "we will go into the world," will we leave here? We'll go into the world on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the week. "As you go into the world, make disciples be a witness." Be a testimony. The defining participles there are baptizing them and teaching them. That's our duty as a church to disciple, to baptize and to teach. Making disciples of all ethnos, of all peoples, all people groups. And then Jesus said, "The timeframe for that is, "I am with you to the end of the age." It doesn't end till Jesus comes again. What we live in, maybe we call it the church age or the age of grace, we are to continue this practice till Jesus comes again. The age of grace. Can we welcome back the king? Baptism is a command. It's an ordinance of Jesus to be formed in the making of disciples to the end of the age. There's a holy appeal to God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, to be present in that act, to make it sure and true. And the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all involved in our redemption. The Father planted, the Son provided it, and the Holy Spirit mediates it, gives it to us. There is no salvation without the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we call upon their name and depend upon them, and we honor them in this act. And we do baptism because of them. We do baptism through them, and we do baptism for them. It's an expression of faith, and therefore it's only for believers. Our understanding of the New Testament is that the meaning of baptism includes the fact that it's an expression of faith in the one being baptized. We will be conducting the baptismal service in a few minutes. Have you noticed I'm a little bit shorter this morning? Because I believe the baptismal service is part of the service. Baptism is both an individual and not finished. It's an individual and corporate act. The individual receives baptism at the hands of someone else. You really can't baptize yourself. I suppose if you're on a desert island, you know it was the end, and you hadn't been baptized, you could probably baptize yourself. But the New Testament pattern is people baptize people. You can't baptize yourself. And it's an ordinance for the church, entrusted to the local church that goes into the world and makes disciples. Those being baptized today are being baptized upon their profession of faith. They will be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. An elder and I will be baptized in these candidates. It is a co-baptism. We don't want anybody leaving here saying, "So and so baptized me." You were baptized by the local church, not an individual. It's an act of the local church, a responsibility that we have as a local church. Co-baptism recognizes the biblical pattern of plurality of elders, those who shepherd together, the local believers. It's a consistent pattern throughout the New Testament. Each local body of believers is shepherding others. With that plurality of elders of men, these is the only pattern for New Testament, leadership given, and these group of men have a unique responsibility for overseeing the care of believers in the local church. So, Elder John Merely and I will baptize the candidates in this glorious act. It's a legal testimony. You need two to give testimony. Two will be baptizing in a way that the scripture recognizes. It also pictures that these individuals are placing themselves in our hands. They're going to take them down, and they're going to trust us to bring them back up again. So, it's a picture of trusting of the care of the local church. Now, they're saved by Christ alone, but we need each other. That's what communion says. That's what baptism says. It's a picture of how much we need each other in the body of Christ, how we depend upon each other, trusting Christ alone, but also the unity of the Spirit, picturing for us the need for one another. So, in just a few minutes, we're going to go downstairs. We're going to sing the old rugged cross. Rameen is going to give a benediction up here. That doesn't mean it's over. That means you can just go downstairs to fellowship hall joins. We're going to sing one or two songs down there. Joe and George are going to give a word of testimony, and then we will baptize them. It is a solemn occasion. Generally, we don't applaud people who are on the platform. Musical or speaking, because they're doing it for the glory of God. But I do believe applause will be appropriate during the baptismal service. When we bring them up, encourage them. Your presence there will encourage these men in their walk with Jesus Christ, and encourage us together as the body that we are one, that we need. One another God has called us together to be the body of Christ. Look around here this morning, and you see portraits of grace because of the old rugged cross. (audience applauding) If you're able