Matthew 28:18-20,Why We Practice Believers' Baptism by John.

Why We Practice Believers' Baptism
Matthew 28:18-20

1. Notice in the text that we begin by making disciples and then we baptize them.
2. All Christian churches practice Baptism.
3. Our simplest reason for baptizing is that Jesus told us to baptize all believers in the name (not names) of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
4. Now, we could stop right there, and we would have said enough if it were not for all the different doctrines surrounding baptism.
5. Every church, and every Christian, has the right to translate the Scripture for themselves, and every individual has the right to interpret its meaning for himself.
6. I studied Greek and Hebrew in seminary in order to have a better understanding of what God told us.
7. I have no argument with anyone who sees things differently. They interpret the Scriptures by faith, and so do I.
8. Let's look at a few differences that have arisen and do arise among different groups of believers.

I. First, Let's Peek at the History of Baptism.

1. Many Christians think baptism started with Jesus, and of course, Christian baptism did, but baptism as a religious rite did not.
2. It's true that there is no mention of baptism in the Old Testament, but external history, history outside the Bible, tells us the Jews practiced baptism, and everyone knows the history of John the Baptist.
3. In reading about John the Baptist you may have noticed that no one expressed surprise, or questioned his motives or methods when he started baptizing people.
(1) The Pharisee spies asked him if he was the Messiah. He told them he was not.
(2) They asked him why he baptized then.
(3) Apparently, they thought only the Messiah was supposed to baptize, or perhaps they were just trying to build some kind of case against John.
4. John was the first baptizer mentioned in the Bible, but the Jews did practice baptism before John came on the human scene, or I believe they would have reacted strongly against John.
5. Infant baptism is not in the Bible at all, and I am aware of no record of a child or baby ever being baptized during the time the Canon of the Scripture was being formed. Only believers were baptized.
6. I've never seen any reason to change that.
7. Change did occur when ministers began teaching that people had to be baptized in water to be saved.
8. Sprinkling and pouring were the next natural steps in line with that teaching.
(1) Very old, sick, and seriously injured people could not be immersed in water without at least threatening their lives.
(2) Babies could choke and drown if put under water, and some thought baptism was required to get rid of original sin, so they sprinkled or poured.
(3) I know a few Baptists who teach that baptism in water gets rid of original sin.
a. Original sin is the sin of Adam and Eve passed down from parents to children according to some theologians.
b. Personally, I think we inherit a tendency to sin, but we are responsible only for our own sins!
c. Scripture that supports my belief, among others, is Ezekiel 18:2-4: God is speaking: "What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel; 'The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die."
(4) Apparently no one paid attention to that in the early years of Christianity because sprinkling and pouring began, and they have been around ever since.
(5) A glance at any English dictionary will tell you that baptism is a rite that may be carried out by immersion, effusion, or sprinkling.
6. The earliest church buildings, by the way, contained baptismal pools big enough for dipping.
(1) In my own early years, I was taught that the pastor and the candidate walked together down into the pool where the pastor scooped up water in his hand and trickled it over the head of the candidate.
(2) You can buy that story if you like, but I can't and never could.
(3) The Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:36 asked Phillip, "Why shouldn't I be baptized?"
(4) He was a brand new believer!
a. He wasn't asking to be baptized for "original sin" as far as we know.
b. The fact is, such a thing is never mentioned in the Bible!
c. What is mentioned is that the Eunuch believed in Jesus! And that's all that is needed.
d. When I was a Methodist, I baptized people by immersion.
e. A Baptist pastor told me the church gave him the authority to baptize and asked me where I got my
authority to "scripturally baptize" people?
f. I told him that I got it from God in the commission Jesus gave to all His apostles in Matthew 28:18-20.
g. It's an argument from silence, but nowhere is there a mention of Philip being ordained to baptize, nor is there any reference in Acts 8 to a church meeting where authority could be given.
(5) The NIV does not have Philip's answer to the Eunuch in 8:37. (If you have an NIV, you won't find v 37. They left it out because it is not contained in most early manuscripts.)
(6) I heard a minister explain that the eunuch reached under the seat of the carriage, pulled out a jug of water and said, "Here is water..." A friend of mine reminded him, "The King James says that Phillip and the Eunuch both went down into the water. How do you suppose the Eunuch and Phillip got down into that bottle?"

II. Let's look for a moment at the word "Baptize."

1. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all reported Jesus using the Greek word, baptidzo, which became "baptize" in English. King James suggested to the translators that they transliterate the word so that they could give any meaning to it they wanted it to have!
2. Jesus could have used "proschusis" or "rhantismos." Both are in the New Testament in Hebrews and I Peter, and mean "sprinkle" or "sprinkling."
3. An argument from silence is a poor argument, but I am not doing that here.
4. Jesus was not silent about baptism, and He used the word "baptidzo!" Even the most liberal scholars admit that it meant, and means, to immerse or to plunge under.
5. As a matter of fact, some form of "baptidzo" is used 114 times in the New Testament and translated into English as Baptist, Baptism, Baptisms, Baptized, and Baptizing.
6. The words "proschusis" and "rhantismos" are used and translated as they should be, "sprinkling," in Hebrews and I Peter.
7. Now let's get down to the real meaning of baptism.

III. Water Baptism symbolizes Spiritual Baptism.

1. Would you doubt something John the Baptist said? In John 1:33,34, John the Baptist said, "I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and testify that this is the Son of God."
2. Water baptism symbolizes what happens when we place our lives in the hands of Jesus.
(1) He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit!
(2) Paul, in Ephesians 1: 13,14, said, "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory."
(3) Again, in Ephesians 4:30, Paul wrote: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
3. By the way, being "sealed" with the Holy Spirit and being "filled" with the Holy Spirit are two different things.
(1) Being sealed is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. We are totally immersed in Him!
(2) Being filled with the Holy Spirit for most people happens when there is a special need to be filled, such as when Stephen was stoned to death, and when the apostles witnessed to all the people in Acts 2 on Pentecost.
(3) Some people may really live in the Spirit and perhaps they are filled with the Spirit all the time.
(1) One of those in the New Testament was Simeon who praised the Lord when he saw the baby Jesus in Luke 2:25.
(2) Another was the prophetess Anna the daughter of Phanuel in Luke 2:36.
(3) All of us should strive to live in the Spirit, but no one will tell you that it will be easy to do.
4. Before the resurrection of Jesus, God's Spirit was on very few people, but now all of God's people are immersed in the Holy Spirit, sealed to the day of redemption!

Conclusion:

1. We baptize believers only because the only ones baptized spiritually are those who believe in and follow Jesus! Mark 16:16 certainly is true when baptism is understood as spiritual, not physical.
2. If the sins of the fathers are not visited on the children, how can anyone accuse any of us of having the sin of Adam on us?
3. It's true, we like our fore-parents Adam and Eve, are sinners before we know what sin is, but there is
no indication that God judges us before we are convicted that we are sinners.
4. It is absolutely certain that all of us who trust Jesus and that includes committing our lives to
Him, were saved the moment we trusted Jesus, we are saved right now, and we will still be saved when we go to meet our Heavenly Father.
5. We have been spiritually baptized in the Holy Spirit of God. We are sealed to that day of redemption, and we will be completely ready to inherit the promise gift of heaven with our God!
6. Have you placed your life in the hands of our Lord Jesus? You can as we pray.

Emmanuel 4/15/2007

John 20:24,Stops We Need to Make, by John.

Stops we need to make.
John 20:24-29

1. Brother Red... was an evangelistic song leader in Arkansas and Missouri for many, many years.
2. We had two wonderful revivals with him, and I believe he was mainly responsible for the success of them.
3. He always had a children's choir that fired everyone up.
4. He had several little songs he used with them. One was "Stop and let me tell you what the Lord has done for me!" He had a wooden poster with "Stop" on one side and "Go" on the other. It clued the children in to what was coming next.
5. In the NIV, Jesus told Thomas, "Stop doubting and believe."
6. There are several stops we need to make.

I. Obviously, the first is to stop and listen to Jesus!

1. In Psalm 46:10, God said, "Be still, and know that I am God." "Be still" is another way to say stop what you are doing!
2. In our busy lives too often we will not take time to just stop, turn to God, and find out what we need, and what we need to be doing.
3. When we truly stop trying everything else in the world, then we are open to the voice of God's spirit and the good news about Jesus.
4. He's always willing to save us if we stop long enough to turn to Him. Jeremiah 29:13,14 says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord."

II. The second occasion where we need to stop is doubting!

1. Thomas doubted, and as far as I can tell, doubting is not a sin, but it is a lack of sufficient faith to please the Lord.
2. We can't stop doubting by simply saying, "I'm not going to doubt anymore!"
3. Thomas realized that, and he simply wanted for himself what the other disciples had already experienced. Remember in v. 20, Jesus showed them His hands and his side.
4. We will almost certainly never have the opportunity Thomas had, but there is a way to stop doubting.
(1) First, commit yourself to prayer.
(2) Second, read the Scripture in prayer.
(3) Third, learn to expect God to reveal Himself and his intention for your life to you.
5. Somewhere in that process, your doubts will just evaporate.
6. You doubt that? Well, remember the moment you trusted Jesus, God's Holy Spirit sealed you to the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30), and He will constantly teach you about God if you let Him! He probably won't do a lot against your will!
7. That means open yourself up to God. Ask Him to come into your heart and life. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you!

III. The third occasion is to stop sinning.

1. We just cannot belong to Jesus and live a life of sin!
(1) Jeremiah said, "Be sure your sins will find you out!"
2. These two ways of living are diametrically opposite to each other.
3. Jesus told His listeners in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (The Greek "mammonas" means money, but it has the extra meaning of greed!)
4. Greed is one of our great sins, but it personifies all sin!
5. We need to stop sinning so that we will be ready to know and serve the Lord!

IV. The fourth is Stop trying to do the Lord's work.

1. What I mean is, the Lord has given us work to do, and we should do it, but we should not try to do what He has kept for Himself to do.
2. We are to tell people about Jesus, and live a life that lost people can't find fault with without lying!
3. We need to stop trying to prove God to other people.
4. We need to stop trying to force anyone into a specific mold or form of living that we think is right.
5. Instead, we need to set them an example. If it is God's way for them, they will follow our example, but we cannot save anyone! Only God can do that! That's the work He set out for Himself!

Conclusion:

1. We are celebrating Easter because Jesus rose from the dead to give us new spiritual life.
2. We have that life as a gift of God the moment we commit our lives to Jesus.
3. We are always in danger of losing our personal relationship with God because the world around us, our own desires, and our tendency to go our own way gets us in trouble.
4. We begin to doubt. That makes it easy to fall into all sorts of sins. The old saying is, "God Word will keep you from sin, or sins will keep you from God's Word." Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."
5. When Jesus arose from the dead, He appeared three times to His disciples, and they still didn't have their lives tuned to God, but God did everything for them that needed to be done.
6. God has not changed. What He did for them, He will do for you!
7. Give yourself wholeheartedly to God, and you will be success now and all the way through eternity!

Emmanuel 4/8/2007

Exodus 32:01-35, Salvation from the Old and New Testaments by John.

Salvation from the Old and New Testaments
Exodus 32:01-35.

1. Most of us are quite familiar with the term "New Testament Christian," right?
2. There's nothing specifically wrong with calling yourself a NTC, but we must not forget a number of things.
3. One is God did not change between the Old and New Testaments. He is the same as He has always been. You can't improve on perfection! And He is perfect!
4. As NTCs, we must understand the Old Testament by the New.
5. As I read in Exodus this week, the Lord laid a number of things on my heart, and I'm going to share some of them this morning.
6. Everything I have to say is couched in New Testament Theology and Bible Study.

I. The Israelites were just like people are today!

1. They were not satisfied with God.
(1) They wanted god's they could hold in their hands. Why? So they could control them!
(2) You remember "I dream of Genie" on TV?
(3) It was funny, and people like to be entertained, but people also like to be in control of the power!
(4) We like to think we can force God to answer our prayers by saying, "In Jesus' Name, I pray!"
(5) Have we changed, or are we still like those Israelites who wanted gods they could control?
(6) "The Devil and Daniel Webster" is a classic tale of that same desire to have the whole world at our disposal regardless of the cost! We like it even better when the hero gets away without punishment!
2. There are always priests, ministers, or others who represent God, but who are as fallible as was Aaron.
(1) We shouldn't throw stones at him until we know we won't make the same mistakes! Amen?
(2) We may believe we are strong Christians, but we always discover Satan knows our weaknesses, and he will tempt us beyond our ability to stand unless God helps us! God will if we turn to Him. I Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
3. There are ministers like Moses, too.
(1) He interceded for the people.
(2) He refused to take God's great blessing at the expense of his kinfolk. (In 32:10, God told him to leave Him alone so that He could destroy all the people and make a great nation just from Moses' family!)
(3) Wouldn't that be a great temptation? It would to me! Those people were nothing but trouble from the beginning!
(4) After God relented, Moses went down the mountain to the people. He picked up Joshua who was waiting for him. They heard the noise, and Joshua thought they were at war! Moses told him he heard singing!
(5) They found the people frolicking about committing all sorts of sins. Promiscuous sex was generally practiced in idol worship.
4. This same Moses who interceded with God for the people is the same Moses who lost his temper with them!
(1) He dashed the stone tablets of the Law to stony ground, and they broke into pieces!
(2) He turned on Aaron! v. 21, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?"
(3) We know that the people led their leader Aaron into sin, don't we? And in a way, that's what Aaron said.
(4) He quoted them in v 23, "Make us gods who will go before us..."
(5) Then he tried to make the golden calf look miraculous. He said he just threw the gold in the fire and out jumped this calf!
5. At this point, we would have to say Aaron had already made sinful mistakes.
(1) His first one was his failure to stand up for God!
(2) His second one was to stop leading the people and to start following them.
(3) His third one in my estimation was to fabricate a lie about how that calf was made!
(4) It bothers me to realize, under the same circumstances, I might sing, "Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! Ye soldiers of the Cross!" And I might not do one bit better than Aaron did!
(5) I say that because I've seen other pastors do similar things, and I'm just another pastor, just a man...unless I am in the Spirit of God!
(6) Even so, every one of those Israelites could have been led by God's Spirit! They didn't want to be led! They wanted to lead themselves!
5. And we are just like they were! Our desires make it hard for us to follow Jesus!

II. I think God gave us Aaron so we could see ourselves as we are!

1. One of the great preachers of the past walking with a deacon saw a profligate man obviously drunk and staggering down the street. The deacon said, "Look at that man! Isn't he terrible?" The
preacher said, "But for the grace of God, there go I."
2. Aaron had seen the miracles of God!
3. Aaron stood before Pharaoh!
4. Aaron saw the army of Egypt perish in the waters of the Red Sea!
5. How could he have fallen so quickly? How could he have been so weak?
6. Satan knew Aaron's weakness, and he worked with his people to put pressure on Aaron where it hurt!
7. We ought to see ourselves in Aaron!

III. Let's look at how and where Aaron went wrong.

1. We've already seen how he caved in to the people's desire.
2. We've also seen how he colored the situation to keep from looking so bad to Moses.
3. I think to Aaron, God was up on the mountain instead of right there with the people. He probably did not realize that God knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it! That's a big mistake!
4. Another mistake was that he believed he could persuade his brother Moses that he hadn't done anything really wrong! Too many of us believe we will stand before God someday and persuade Him that we are really pretty good people. That's a big mistake! Romans 3:19 says, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God."
5. Aaron's next mistake was thinking God would leave him alone because he was an Israelite, one of God's chosen people. We have the same idea. We believe we are God's chosen people, amen? We are, but that doesn't mean God will let our sins just pass on by! He expects us to confess our sins when we commit them. Then He will forgive us. I John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

IV. Some of us are capable of great sacrifice. Moses was. v 32.

1. Moses offered to die for his people. That was a great magnanimous offer, but it would not work!
2. Some today are willing to die for their friends, maybe one or two of us are willing to even die for our enemies, but it will not work.
3. We are all sinners. We are all already under God's condemnation! There is nothing we can give in exchange for our own souls, much less someone else's.
4. God said no to Moses' offer, but He also made a statement that stands and is in effect right now.
5. V 33. "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book."
6. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
7. I can't die for your salvation, and you can't die for mine, but praise the Lord! Jesus died for all of us!

Conclusion:
1. The Gospel of Jesus is in both the Old and New Testaments. God hasn't changed. We are all saved the same way regardless of when we live!
2. The Old Testament people looked forward to God providing a sacrifice for their sins. He did it in Jesus.
3. Since the death of Jesus on the cross, we look back to His death, and we know He died for us!
4. Everyone makes mistakes. We all have weaknesses. None of us is righteous--Except in Jesus!
5. Are you in Jesus? You can give yourself to Him right now, and that will be settled for all eternity!

Emmanuel 4/1/2007