Christ Has Commanded the Church to Baptize

Is This Just A Ceremony?

We generally define ceremony as a scripted out series of acts performed according ritual, protocol, or convention. We also view ceremonial events as routine acts performed with elaborate pomp… performed only formally with no deep significance in and of themselves.

Our generation takes pride in our unconventional behavior… considering ourselves so real and in touch on a deeper level that we see through the emptiness of ceremony… and proudly say we don’t need it.

The Church of God does not have a lot of ceremonies… a great deal of the ceremony found in the OT was associated with the sacrificial system and the priesthood… both of which have been replaced by the reality of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and the His taking on the office of High Priest.

Baptism is a ceremony

The Baptism ceremony is a short series of specific acts we are instructed in God’s word to perform. If we want to we can do it without giving it much thought… it could be no more that a quick dunking under water and a quick towel down. BUT baptism is an outward sign of an inward change of heart and mind… a spiritual redirection that is taking place within us. Going down into and coming up out of a body of sufficiently deep water is a type of death, burial, and resurrection. So it is worthy of discussion.

Is it a real death? …A real burial? …A real resurrection? …Or, just a performance? Are you dead for a nano-second and then instantly resurrected back to life? I suppose with God all things are possible but you would be hard pressed to convince a skeptic that’s what’s going on. We could monitor the brainwaves to see if there is some instant of interruption… but I don’t know what you’d see or prove.

What Do We Know?

What we do know is that through faith and submission to God’s instruction you allow another human being… a minister of God… to put you under water. You have faith and confidence that the person performing the baptism will let you back up. But if they don’t let you back up you’ll drown… in that sense you’re as good as dead until (or unless) they let bring you back up out of the water.

What’s the point of considering yourself dead? Its because you are now dead to sin… you don’t want to live that way anymore… coming up out of the water you are now alive again… alive to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit which will guide  you in the way of God and into the righteousness of God.

Some people argue that baptism is unnecessary… all they need is the faith… that submitting to baptism is trying to substitute the performance of some ritual for faith… saying all that matters is the spiritual renewal that is taking place in them… just the substance… no meaningless performance.

Matthew 3:13-17 The fact that Jesus allowed Himself to be baptized is significant… by faith He also submitted himself to baptism… He went through the ritual act… WHY? He had no sin to wash away and leave behind

 He did it because it was the right thing to do to fulfill all righteousness… and as an example to all who would come after Him… BOTTOM LINE – it is something every follower of Jesus Christ does.

How Do You Prepare For baptism?

God’s word gives only two basic requirements for baptism:

·        Repentance – “repent and be baptized”

·        Belief – “believe and be baptized”

Sometimes people feel they should not seek baptism until they are good enough… that first they need to overcome their sins… master all doctrine etc. That’s a misunderstanding of what repentance and belief are. The belief and repentance leading to baptism are a change in attitude… orientation… intent. Baptism is not a stamp of completion… it’s a mark of beginning. The beginning of a new way of looking at life and the world we live in.

You do not have to be perfectly good before baptism… you don’t need to be a bible scholar with all knowledge. Its baptism and the laying on of hands that enables and empowers you to grow in Godly righteousness and knowledge by the power of the Holy Spirit God gives you after baptism.

Baptism actually marks both an begining AND a end. It marks the end of your old life and the beginning of your new life. The end of the old person you were… a person you have come to see falls woefully short of the glory God intends for you...  and the beginning of the new person you can become… a goal you have come to see in the character and fullness of Christ and the life He lived and is lives.

Colossians 3:1-17

Discussing Baptism With A Minister

Question: If knowledge is not a requirement for baptism… why then do ministers like me ask people wanting to be baptized to go over certain verses in scripture and read core doctrinal booklets written by the church?

Answer: IT IS NOT A TEST. Asking you questions and ensuring you have looked into the basic teaching of the bible and their implications is so you can understand the nature of the commitment you are making to God…  let no one say “I was never told it would be like this” and turn back from their commitment to God.

Luke 9:62

What About Re-Baptism?

Sometimes people come to us who have been baptized in a very different church with very different teachings from what the scriptures actually record. Should that person be baptized or re-baptised? In many cases I think the answer will be yes. Here’s why:

Acts 19:1-7 the apostle re-baptized people whose previous baptism was incomplete… in this case the people’s  baptism did not contain proper instruction on some key items (they only had the repentance part). The apostle filled in the blanks and re-baptized them.

Each case is different but I would ask questions like these:

1. Did the baptism contain all the essential elements? Repentance/belief (also what exactly was the person repenting of… what were they believing?)
2. Did the baptism include a laying on of hands and prayer for receipt of the Holy Spirit
3. Was the baptism entered into willingly with complete knowledge… or as a child?
4. If you are a candidate for re-baptism let me know…

What About the Laying on of Hands?

Hebrews 6:1 The laying on of hands so you may receive the Holy Spirit is a foundational  teachings of Christ.

The Holy Spirit comes from God not from human hands… BUT this work of is executed through God’s human representatives. Showing God works through human instruments… and in the same way that you submit to having another person put you under water, hold you there, and bring you back up… you also submit yourselves to an appointed human representative of God laying hands upon you so you may receive the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:12-17

The important point for us today is that they were baptized but they needed something more. They needed the laying on of hands so they could receive the Holy Spirit.

Also, not just anyone can lay hands upon your head such that you actually receive the Holy Spirit of God. The examples we have from scripture indicate the laying on of hands was performed by someone who themselves had been appointed as a “representative” of God.

Who are those authorized representatives? The ministry of the Church of God… the body of Christ.

Who are the Church of God… who is the body of Christ? You will know them by their fruits and what they teach.

Jesus Has Commanded the Church to Baptize

Matt 28:19-20

Our task is to transform people into disciples or followers in the discipline of Christ, lead them to baptism, lay hands upon them so they may receive the Holy Spirit, and that power of the Holy Spirit in them helps them understand and live by every word of God.

To accomplish this ongoing task the Church must teach and preach God’s commands… including the consequences of ignoring them… helping people understand God’s standards and see how they miss the mark. It is God through the power of His Spirit which will convince and convict them to seek meaningful change. Change we all need if we want to have any hope of life beyond our allotted days in the flesh.

The Church must also explain justification by the death of Christ… the means by which you can start anew with a clean slate…  we teach about the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit that leads and guides you into the fullness of Christ… and which is the power of permanent life which can be in them as a gift of God… WHY? So that when people understand what it is and what it does… they will want to have it.

All this is bound up in the simple… short… joyful… serious… necessary… ceremony called baptism.

Baptism is not the end of your spiritual journey. Baptism is the beginning. After baptism there is still so much to your walk with God. So much to learn… so much to experience… and yes even some things we must do.

But all that lays ahead is so much better… so filled with purpose… so filled with hope… why would you pass it by?