Baptism
 
We hold to believer's baptism, which means we believe baptism is a profound declaration and illustration of one's conversion. We do not baptize infants. 
 
Why do we baptize?

	We baptize because Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Mt.28:18-20)

What is Baptism?

Baptism is when you announce to the world your conversion by having someone immerse you into the water, and bring you back up.  
	We immerse, because that is our biblical model.  
1. The word “baptize” in the New Testament means “to immerse.”  It never means pour or sprinkle.
2. Jesus was immersed.  Mk.1:9-10  Jesus…was baptized by John into the Jordan.  As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open...
3. The early Church used immersion.  Ac.8:38-39 Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.  When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away.
4. John even selected a location for ministry based on whether there was enough water.  Jn.3:23 John also was baptizing at Aenon…because there was plenty of water.	

Historical Background 
	In the Old Testament world, baptism was connected with rites of cleansing. It was a rite of initiation or a rite of passage symbolizing the fact that a person was standing at the threshold of a new phase of life.
	Just before Jesus’ time, the Jews had the practice of baptizing converts to Judaism.  The idea was that Gentiles are unclean and contaminated, and when they were converted they needed to be cleansed spiritually.  Baptism, in the ancient world, was that it was an act of conversion illustrating a spiritual cleansing upon entering a new life.
	Then came John the Baptist with his baptism of repentance that applied even to the Jews.  It was not the same as Christian baptism, but we can learn something about the nature of baptism from it.
	Acts 10:37 talks about the baptism that John preached. 
We may have expected, "performed" rather than "preached."
	A baptism is not just something you do. There is an action involved, but it involves a spiritual reality that must
be preached.  The physical act without the spiritual reality in the heart is worthless.  
	John's baptism was a statement of turning to God.  But after the death of Christ, that wasn't enough.  It had to be more specific.  Ac.19:3-5  Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied.  Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus."  On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
	To be baptized "into" someone means to become a follower of that person, and to identify closely with what that person represents.  It's fine to be a follower of the forerunner - UNTIL the Messiah comes.  Then you must become a follower of the Messiah.
	So Christian baptism is a an act of conversion - a decision to break with the old life, and a decisions to become a follower of Jesus Christ.  
	A person becomes a Christian when he believes, and entrusts himself to Christ.  But as physical beings, when something that profound happens on the inside we need an external expression.   And so God gave us baptism as a physical expression of that inner activity of the heart.  
	What happens to a person when he is born again is so profound and so real – yet totally imperceptible to the senses.  So God gave us an illustration that can’t be missed by any of the senses to illustrate the dramatic reality of what happened spiritually.  When you go under the water, every nerve ending in your body feels it.  
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	So in the New Testament, whenever a person became a Christian, he got baptized. Sadly, in our day many have replaced baptism with a prayer as the expression of a decision to follow Christ. Instead of saying, "Repent and be baptized" they started saying, "just quietly invite Jesus into your heart.  No one has to know."  
	But that's not how it was in the New Testament.  In the very first call to salvation after the ascension Peter commanded, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins... Those who accepted his message were baptized. (Acts 2:38-41)  See also Acts 8:12-13,36-39, 22:16-18, 10:47-48, 16:14-15, 31-33)
A Picture of union with Christ
	Conversion always involved baptism, because when you become a Christian, there is a spiritual baptism that takes place that is illustrated in the physical baptism.
	Every Christian has been baptized by the Spirit.  1 Cor.12:13 We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free.
	When you became a Christian, God the Holy Spirit baptized (immersed) you into the Body of Christ – the Family of God.  That’s something that actually happens in reality, but you can’t see it.  Water baptism is a powerful illustration of what happened spiritually that you can see and feel.  
	So there is a physical element to baptism, and a spiritual one.  The physical baptism involves being immersed in water, the spiritual baptism involves actually being placed spiritually into Christ.

It's a pledge

1 Peter 3:20-21  In [the ark] only a few people, eight in all, were saved through [by means of] water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also.
	To understand this verse, it is essential that we pay careful attention to the context.  Peter is in the middle of a point that started in verse eight.  This entire section is intended to encourage Christians in the midst of a hostile, evil world that is inflicting suffering and persecution.  Peter is teaching them how to react, and encouraging them.
	How are we to react to this world's persecution?  With a clean conscience. (v.16)
	Peter then illustrates.  Noah's ark is the story of the most dramatic illustration imaginable of a godly few being rescued from a hostile world.  Peter says that the water that rescued them is similar to the water of baptism that now rescues you from an evil world.
	That’s why it says Noah was saved by means of water.  The point isn’t that the ark saved them from the God’s judgment.  It says the water saved [rescued] them from the evil world.  That godly family was in the midst of the most decadent, evil situation that has ever existed on this planet, and God saved them from that evil world by sending the flood to wash it clean.  
	So how does baptism save you?  It rescues you from the hostility of this evil world.  How does it accomplish that?  Is it the ritual itself?  Salvation through faith plus ritual? Is it at the moment of being submerged that my heart is washed clean?  
	Not at all.  Peter explains in v.21 - not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.
	Grammatically, the contrast is between the words body and conscience.  The whole point is not something that happens to the body.  It is something that involves the conscience.  
	You were rescued from this evil world on that day you got baptized - not because you went down into some water – but because on that day you made a pledge.
	When is the exact moment of salvation? Was it the water or the pledge?  Peter makes it clear: it was the pledge!
	What is it that you pledge to God at baptism?  It's very simple: the pledge of a good conscience toward God. (v.21) 	It’s the heart of faith that says, “From now on I want to live with an awareness of God.  I want my conscience to be clear before God.  For the rest of my life, each time I find out something that is pleasing to God, or not pleasing, I desire to have a clear conscience in that area.”
	This is not talking about getting your act together before coming to God.  It is simply a statement that from now on you want the direction and orientation of your life to change.  You want the deciding factor of your behavior to be what God wants, to the best of your knowledge.    
	It's significant that it's a pledge of good conscience rather than a pledge of obedience.  The idea is that the sinner is sick of his dirty heart, sick of his sin, sick of not being right with God.  He is tired of his accusing conscience.  He wants to be free from the burden of sin.  He wants to be delivered from the guilt of sin, and the crushing, intimidating fearful anticipation of the punishment he deserves on judgment day.  He wants to have a clear conscience before God.
	In short, baptism is a decision to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Gal.3:27 all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 
	So what is it that saves you when you are baptized?  It is not a ritual.  It is that conversion that takes place in the heart as a result of true faith- a turning from the old life toward God.
	"What if I was baptized before I made that pledge - as an infant or an unbeliever?"  That is meaningless.  It just means you got wet – nothing more.  Baptism involves a response of the heart.
	Suppose at 9:00 you believe the Gospel, repent and turn your life over to Christ, and acknowledge Him as the sovereign King of your life, and then you say, "I want to express this decision publicly," and at 9:30 you get baptized.  What is your situation between 9:00 and 9:30?  Peter says you are saved.
	That's why the thief on the cross went to heaven even though he didn't get baptized.  You are saved from the moment of the pledge - and that always comes before baptism, because baptism before the pledge would be meaningless.
	Baptism is a formal announcement to the world that you intend to make a clean break with your old life, and pursue a life of a good conscience before God.

It involves a clean break 
Romans 6:1 Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

	What does it mean to die to sin?  Paul is using the analogy of death here simply to signify a clean break.  When you die, you are done with this life.  You leave it and move on to the next life.  
	Why not live in sin?  Paul reasons - because when you were baptized, remember what that was?  It was an announcement to the world that you were making a clean break from the old life, that you were severing your ties with the world and were turning your back on the old life of sin.  So how can you live in sin now after making a public announcement and a pledge to God like that?
	Being baptized actually helps you live the Christian life, because the ability to think back to that clean, decisive break  with the old life – that pledge – remembering that tends to motivate you.  So those who have been baptized have a great advantage over those Christians who have not. – just because of the memory of that experience.
	Ro.6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 
	Being buried with Christ is part of the illustration of baptism.  When you go down into the water, that is a picture of being buried with Christ.  When you come back up, you can think of that as picturing you rising with Christ - goodbye to the old life, hello to the new.
		This is another reason why immersion is important.  It’s the best illustration of being buried and raised.  Col.2:12 In Christ you put off of the sinful nature having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 

It is a picture of washing
	Before you were a believer, your heart was contaminated and dirty on the inside, and there is no way humanly possible to clean it.  It's a very disconcerting feeling to be dirty on the inside.  Guilt is an awful feeling.  So people have developed a belief that you can cancel out past bad deeds by doing enough good deeds.
	But Jesus taught that that method is worthless, because it doesn't bring any cleansing the corruption on the inside.  All it does is spruce up the outside.
	Mt.23:25-28  "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee!… Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

	Only God can cleanse a person’s heart. When Jesus and John the Baptist came along, the only baptism the people knew was proselyte baptism which was self administered.  There was no such thing as a baptism that someone else does.  Yet the New Testament never talks about anyone baptizing himself.  We are baptized by someone else as an illustration of the fact that you can't clean yourself.
	That cleansing only happens when a person is born again (regenerated).  Tit.3:3-5  At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (we were filthy on the inside) But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done (we didn't clean ourselves with our own efforts), but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
	Baptism serves as a physical illustration of that inner cleansing that takes place.  Ac 22:16  what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.  Again, immersion is the best illustration of total cleansing. 

Is it important?
 	Someone may say, “If you don't have to be baptized to go to heaven, baptism must not be all that important.”  
	Not important?  Why do you suppose in the first century, new converts were so anxious to get baptized knowing it could cost them their lives?
	Don't you want to announce to the world your intention to give your life to the Lord, and make a clean break with the world?  Don't you want everyone to know that you have decided to pursue a clean conscience toward God?  Aren't you excited about the imagery that God designed to illustrate His saving work in your heart?  Don't you want to go through that experience that unites all Christians (Eph.4 - one baptism that we have in common)?  Don't you want Romans 6 to apply to you?  Don't you want that powerful motivation for holy living?  Aren't you interested in going under the water and realizing in a vivid way the reality of being buried with Christ?  Don't you want to come rising up out of that water as a dramatic picture to everyone that you are raised with Christ to newness of life?
	"But it's been years since I was saved,” you may say.  So you have delayed making the formal announcement.  Maybe you were ashamed, maybe you just didn't know.  But now you do, so now's the time.