Beloved, this Lord's Day we have had the privilege of witnessing a baptism. I want to use this happy occasion as an opportunity to review the meaning and significance of this sacrament. This morning I want to look at the symbolism of the baptismal water coming down upon a person from above. And this evening, I want to look at the proper subjects of baptism. In other words, this morning I want to examine how we baptize, and this evening I want to examine whom we baptize.
So this morning we will look at the symbolism of baptism. To begin with, baptism does have a symbolism. Baptism does convey a message. Baptism is not some hocus pocus ritual which works automatically. Baptism is not some church wizardry which magically makes us into new and better people. No, baptism basically works the same way the preached word works. When the Word of God is preached, the sound waves of those preached words do not somehow magically and automatically change us. What God uses to change us is not the sound waves but the message carried by those sound waves. And it is the same way with baptism. The waters of baptism do not magically and automatically change us. What God uses in baptism is not the water itself as if it were some sort of magic cleanser. What God uses is the message symbolized and pictured by the application of that water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Well, if baptism with water symbolizes a message, what is that message? The answer is really rather simple and also rather obvious. Most basically, baptism with water symbolizes baptism with the Holy Spirit. The outward physical baptism is a symbol of the inward spiritual baptism.
Our Scripture reading today is found in Acts chapters 10 and 11. I chose this passage because I believe this is the passage which teaches most clearly this rather obvious but sometimes missed truth.
Acts chapters 10 and 11 record the first time uncircumcised Gentiles received Christian baptism and were thus received into membership in the Christian church. In these two chapters, we read about how God used the apostle Peter to take this revolutionary step which opened the church's door to uncircumcised Gentiles. Now Peter was a man of his times. Peter had the biases and prejudices against the uncircumcised Gentiles which characterized the Jews of his day. Because baptizing Cornelius and his household was such a big step in a direction Peter didn't want to go, God had to take Peter by the hand and lead him step by step.
First, God sent an angel to the Roman centurion Cornelius to instruct him to invite Peter to come to Cornelius' house.
Second, God sent a vision to Peter to prepare Peter the Jew to accept the invitation to visit the house of Cornelius the Gentile. In this vision, a great sheet filled with various creatures which the law of Moses proclaimed unclean descended to Peter from heaven with a voice saying, "Arise Peter and eat. ... What God has cleansed you must not call common." God sent this vision to Peter three times and then commanded Peter to accept the invitation to the house of Cornelius the uncircumcised Gentile. Accepting such an invitation was just as contrary to Jewish custom as eating food that wasn't kosher, but Peter understood the message of the vision and Peter obeyed God.
Third, after Peter went to Cornelius' house and while Peter was telling Cornelius about Jesus, God poured out the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his relatives and close friends who were there listening to Peter. The Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his companions just as He had fallen upon the Jewish Christians at Pentecost about seven years before. Here were these Gentiles standing before Peter praising God in languages they did not know through the power of the Holy Spirit. God was giving to these Gentiles the very same gift from above which God had already given to Peter and the other Jewish Christians. God was treating these Gentile believers the very same way He had treated the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. God was demonstrating to Peter that He is no respecter of persons, that He does not have Peter's biases and prejudices.
On the day of Pentecost, the miracle of tongues was associated with the preaching of the gospel to the Jews of the dispersion who spoke the languages of the Gentile nations. In Acts 10, the wider message of the apostolic gift of tongues became evident. It symbolized that the gospel would be preached not only to the Jews living in the Gentile nations but to the Gentiles living there as well. The full meaning of the divine words in Joel's prophecy, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh," became more obvious that day at the house of Cornelius.
Fourth, God brought to Peter's mind something that Jesus had said:
"John the Baptist indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."These words of Jesus show the close connection between baptism with water and baptism with the Holy Spirit.And then Peter made the connection. If God baptized these Gentiles with the Holy Spirit, how could Peter refuse to baptize them with water? If God gave these Gentiles the spiritual reality, how could Peter refuse them the physical sign and symbol of that reality? Peter asked the rhetorical question,
"Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" Acts 10:47The obvious answer is that if God gave these Gentiles the outpoured Holy Spirit, then neither Peter nor anyone else can rightfully forbid them the outpoured waters of baptism.This close connection between baptism with water and baptism with the Holy Spirit is consistent with what the Scriptures teach elsewhere. The Bible consistently describes baptism with the Holy Spirit as a pouring out from above. Through the prophecy of the prophet Joel, God said, "I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh." Peter on the day of Pentecost proclaimed that Joel's prophesy had been fulfilled and then said this about Jesus:
"Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear."Titus 3:5-6 says,"... not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to [God's] mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior ..."In these verses, the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit as being poured out from above.The Bible also uses water as a symbol for the Holy Spirit. Water cleanses our bodies, and the Holy Spirit cleanses our souls. Water gives life to our bodies, and the Holy Spirit gives life to our souls. Thus we read in Isaiah 44:3
"For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring."Thus we read in John 7:37-39:"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; ..."So here we have our first point. Baptism with water is symbolic of baptism with the Holy Spirit. And when the water of baptism come down upon a person from above, that is symbolic of God's pouring out His Holy Spirit upon His people as a cleansing and life-giving flow.
Now let's take this a step further by asking, What does baptism with the Holy Spirit accomplish? What does it do to us?
Before I answer that question, I need to remind you of the most basic concrete meaning of the word baptize. The word baptize is simply the anglicized form of the Greek word baptizo, and the most basic concrete meaning of baptizo is to immerse. The most essential meaning of baptizo is to put something down into a liquid or into a state or a condition. In ancient Greek literature, the word baptizo is used several times to speak of shipwrecks and drownings, situations where immersion down into water is more or less permanent. In a few cases, the word baptizo is used to speak of the soul as immersed in the body. The soul's immersion into the body is definitely a permanent immersion. The word baptizo is also used to speak of immersions not only into literal liquids but of figurative immersions into states or conditions such as drunkenness or sleep.
Now with that background, let's ask the question, Does the Bible ever speak of our being baptized into anything? Yes, it does, and in a number of places. Let's begin with Galatians 3:27, which says,
"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."Our immersion into Christ is not a temporary dipping into Christ. It is a permanent immersion like unto the immersion of a shipwreck or the immersion of the soul into the body. Also, this is not an immersion into a literal liquid but an immersion into a new condition like unto the immersion into drunkenness or sleep.Do you see the picture that is emerging? When God saves us from our sin, He pours out His Holy Spirit upon us, and the Holy Spirit baptizes us into Christ, immerses us into Christ, puts us into covenant union with Christ. Over and over, the New Testament talks about the Christian as "in Christ." Theologians call this "the mystical union." In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul compares our union with Christ to the special oneness of a husband and wife, and then says, "This is a great mystery." This verse in Ephesians 5 is where theologians get the concept that our union with Christ is a mystical union. In Colossians 1:18, Paul says that Jesus "is the head of the body, the church." There Paul compares the mystical union to the relationship of a head to a body.
We are in union with Christ like a husband is one with his wife. We are in union with Christ like a person's head is one with that person's body. And here is how we got into this position: God put us there through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Listen to 1 Corinthians 12:12-13:
"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free -- and have all been made to drink into one Spirit."All of us who are "in Christ" are collectively referred to as the Body of Christ. When God baptizes us into Christ through the Holy Spirit, He also baptizes us into Christ's mystical Body, which is the invisible Church, the blessed company of all God's true people.God pours out His Holy Spirit upon us and thus baptizes us into Christ. Now this is significant enough. Remember who Christ is. He is that unique individual who is fully human and also fully divine. He is the Son of God, the brightness of God's glory, the express image of God's person. He is the Son of man who partook of flesh and blood and became our brother, our fellow human. He is the one Mediator between God and man. And we His people are in a mystical covenant union with Him.
That in and of itself is wonderful enough. But the Bible goes on to teach that if we are in a mystical covenant union with the Person of Jesus, then we also are in a mystical covenant union with His saving work. Romans 6:3 says,
"Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?"Jesus in all His spotless innocence died the painful and shameful death of the cross. And He did this as a payment for the sins of all His people. If you are one of God's true people, then God has poured out His Holy Spirit upon you, and the Holy Spirit has put you into union with Christ, and union with Christ means union with His death upon the cross. Christ's death upon the cross is yours as your payment for your sins before God. You have been "buried with Him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4).Romans 6:5 goes on to say,
"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection."Jesus died because He accepted our sins as His responsibility before God. And then Jesus so completely paid for those sins through His suffering upon the cross that the grave could not hold Him. Jesus overcame death and the grave. If you are one of God's true people, then God has poured out His Holy Spirit upon you, and the Holy Spirit has put you into union with Christ, and union with Christ means union with His resurrection from the grave. Christ's victory over the grave is yours, and you will one day be resurrected and live forever in a glorified body.You see, union with Christ means union with His saving work, and union with His saving work means salvation.
What does baptism with the Holy Spirit accomplish? Salvation! What does it do to us? It saves us from our sins! Baptism with the Holy Spirit cleanses our soul, washing away our guilt just as water washes the body. Baptist with the Holy Spirit renews our soul, bringing it to life just as water brings life to parched ground.
Baptism with water doesn't do this. Baptism with water can only picture this and visually testify to this. Baptism with water is a picture of the Holy Spirit coming down upon a person from above and putting him into saving union with Jesus and thus washing his soul and giving his soul spiritual life. Baptism with water puts a person not into the invisible Church but into the visible church here on earth, into the blessed company of those who profess to be God's true people and their children.
Now that you understand the message of baptism, is God using it to speak to your heart? Is God causing you to cry out, "My soul is filthy with the guilt of my sins, and I want to be washed!" Is God causing you to cry out, "My soul is dead with the deadness of sin, and I want to be given spiritual life!" If you want this inner cleansing and this inner spiritual life, you must look to Jesus. You must give up all hope in any other solution and look to Jesus alone. Pray to Him to pour out His Holy Spirit upon you and apply to your heart the power of Jesus' death so that your sins will be washed away. Pray to Him to pour out His Holy Spirit upon you and apply to your heart the power of Jesus' resurrection so that your soul will be made spiritually alive in Christ Jesus.
Look to Jesus, and "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18). Look to Jesus, and He will save you "through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). Look to Jesus, and the water He will give you will become in you a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).