03-18-2018 – Water Baptism: Why It Is Important?

Bible Text: Matthew 3:1-2 | Pastor: Pastor Mike Hale | Due to technical difficulties there is a small part missing in the middle.

 

03-18-2018

Water Baptism: Why It Is Important?

Matthew 3:1-2

 

When a person is baptized, they confess Jesus as Lord and declare, by faith,
their trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins (past, present, future) and for
the salvation of their soul (for all of eternity).
Baptism is an external physical washing by men, symbolizing an internal
spiritual cleansing by God.
Matthew 3:1-2 John the Baptist came, preaching and saying, “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is near.” 6, “Confessing their sins, they were baptized [Gk.
baptizo = fully immersed] by him in the Jordan River.”
John called people to repent [Gk. metanoeo – this means a deliberate change in
direction of one’s mind and will; from wrong to right, sin to salvation, self to God]!
John called people to confess their sins, preparing them to accept God’s cure
for the penalty of sin. He isn’t asking them to just feel bad about their sinful
condition, but to be changed [converted] into a totally different life, a new life,
because God was coming in the body of Jesus!
There had been 400 years of silence with no new or direct communication from
God. The Word to be given is a message of warning and rebuke to Israel.
Matthew 3:11, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come
one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
John made it clear that there was One coming after him who would baptize not
with water, but with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John didn’t consider himself even
worthy to untie this Coming One’s sandals, i.e., not even worthy to be his slave.
John contrasts his own water baptism, a baptism of repentance [confessing
their sins, they were baptized by John], with that of the Coming One [He will
baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire].
Water symbolizes a cleansed conscience, as we repent of sin and express our
desire to do that which pleases God.
The Holy Spirit symbolizes rebirth by the Spirit of God, Who places us into the
eternal family of God.
Fire symbolizes the eternal judgment that will come to those who do not have the
Holy Spirit of God..
Water baptism is immersion into physical water, confessing your own sinfulness
and desire to change your behavior to align with what is acceptable to God.
New Testament water baptisms: Acts 8:26-40 (Ethiopian Eunuch); 10:1-48
(Cornelius’ Household); 16:11-15 (Lydia); 16:22-40 (Jailer’s Household).
Spiritual baptism is the purging and purifying presence of God Himself in the a
person, by which that person goes from death to life spiritually, being born again.
Death came through Adam, life comes through Jesus Christ, enabling us to be
born from above by God’s Spirit, Who indwells every true child of God.
John 1:12-13, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name,
He gave the right to become children of God– children born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
John 3:3, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is
born again.” 6-7, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You
should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”
Acts 2:21, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
38, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 6:3-5, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into His death? 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. If we have been united with Him
like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in his resurrection.”
Christ died for our sins, and when He died, He not only put to death the power
and influence of the old life we received from Adam, but He demonstrated the new
life we receive from God.
The baptism mentioned in Romans 6:3-4 is not water baptism, it is the
baptism of the Spirit, by which you are made a child of God; at the moment you
repent and believe, you are filled with the Holy Spirit, at the same time you are
placed in the Body of Christ, the Church, the Family of God
1Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body –
whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to
drink.”
1Peter 3:18-22, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the
unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive
by the Spirit, through whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison who
disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark
was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and
this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt
from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—
with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.”
Noah and his family were saved from drowning because they were in the ark;
they were saved from the curse of sin because they obeyed God and got into the
ark. Jesus is the ark of salvation for all who trust in Him; He alone can forgive sins
and bring us into heaven.
It was revealed to Paul, and therefor to us, that God’s desire was to live in us,
through God’s Spirit, made effectual by the death and resurrection of God’s Son.
Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ
lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me.”
Dead people can’t sin! Physical death separates a person from physical life,
baptism symbolizes putting to death the old life of sin, to live the new life in Christ.
2Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old
has gone, the new has come!” 21, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Water baptism is not essential for salvation, it is essential because of
salvation.
Water baptism declares that the change which has occurred inside the Believer,
through God’s Spirit, will now be clearly revealed in the life of the Believer, as he/
she continues to Love Christ by obeying God’s Word.
John 14:15-17, “If you love Me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the
Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of
truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.
But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. 21, “Whoever has My
commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be
loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him.” 23, “If anyone
loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make Our home with him.”

Pastor Mike
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