Peter Tsukahira - Water Baptism

Christian baptism, along with the Lord's Supper, is one of the two most important sacraments of the Christian faith. It's an act that marks spiritual purification, it's an entry point into the Christian community, and it's a public declaration of faith in Christ. Baptism comes from the New Testament word, Greek word, baptizo, which means to dip, to immerse, or to totally soak something in water or some other liquid. It means to be to be completely underneath, but also to be filled. There are three types of baptism actually spoken about in the New Testament, and the first of course is baptism in water, and we're going to be speaking just about baptism in water, but just for your information, there's also a baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire or a baptism of suffering that's also spoken about in the New Testament. Now the origins of Christian water baptism have their roots in the Jewish practice of ritual immersions, and in the Jewish faith this is known by the Hebrew word of mikveh, and there were purifications for men and for women written about in the Bible, and it was a traditional practice for the Jews of the period of Jesus. In many of the archaeological restorations that you see in Israel, you'll see these ritual baths that have been hewn out of rock, and they're called mikvehot, that would be the plural of the mikveh, and it was a common practice in Israel in the days of Jesus and in the New Testament era before going up to the temple to worship, for example. The men would be required to walk through the ritual bath, but in the New Testament you have this figure of John the Baptist who becomes like a bridge figure because he takes the Jewish traditional and biblical understanding of ritual bathing, he takes it to a baptism of repentance, and so he was John the Baptist emerged as a forerunner of the Christ Jesus, and he would encourage people, he was a fiery preacher, he was encouraging people to repent of their sins, and their sign of repentance was to be immersed in water. And then we have his baptism of repentance, it leads into the Christian baptism of the entry into the new life. When Jesus came on the scene as the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel, he submitted himself to the baptism of John, and I think it's an important point to start

our biblical understanding of water baptism here in Matthew chapter 3 beginning in verse 13. It says this, then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him, but John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and you coming to me? Verse 15, but Jesus answered and said to him, permitted at this time for in this way it's fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness, then he permitted him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him, and behold a voice out of heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And so this submission of Jesus to the baptism of John, I think what it shows is the humanity of Jesus, that he came from heaven to live a life as a human, and he really, really moves into this baptism of repentance that's being offered by his forerunner, by his predecessor John the Baptist, and in the last two verses of this section that we just read, you have the three persons of the Godhead in these short verses. You have Jesus himself, the Son of God, you have the Holy Spirit lighting upon him in the form of a dove, and then the voice of the Father from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son. And this is an important part, and it's really the starting point of the message of Jesus, the gospel going forth into the world. So from New Testament times, it was understood this is not only a symbolic act of purification, but it's also an act of faith and obedience to Christ and an impartation of God's grace to the individual being baptized. Baptism signifies the identification of the one being baptized with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what it means is when you agree and when you submit to baptism, you're identifying with this dying of Jesus and the dying of our old self, spiritually offering our own bodies as living sacrifices,

and then being born again anew as a new creation in Christ. So you have the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. And in baptism, what we're saying is I identify with that. When he died, my old life died. When he was buried, my old life was buried in the ground. When he was raised from the dead, I'm now raised to newness of life. That's the act, it's not just symbolic, it's a spiritual impartation, and really, for many of us, the first statement we make, the first confession in terms of public, making a behavioral act and a statement to the world around us that now I've begun to live a new life. Look with me in Romans chapter six, and let's read from verse three to verse 11. Here's what the Apostle Paul writes, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Or do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be

in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over him, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So this baptism is that identification with the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus, and it was meant to be the first act of faith as a Christian believer. So the early church believed strongly that salvation required both a saving faith in Jesus and the Christian behavior that would follow from it. In the Hebrew mind, and the writers of the scriptures were from the people of Israel, in the Hebrew mind, there's no separation. There can be no separation between what we believe and what we do. They are one and the same, and so we believe and we're baptized as an outward expression, it's a behavior, it's something that people see, it's a public expression of our faith.

You know, there are some cultures that are hostile to the gospel, and there's persecution on people who are believers, and in some of those cultures that I'm familiar with, the hostility doesn't begin until you're baptized. You can say what you believe all you want, but it's when you're baptized that things begin to change around us. Here's a pattern that we follow in the New Testament. Turn to Mark chapter 16, verses 15 and 16. Here's what Jesus said. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. In this one verse in the New Testament, in the gospel of Mark, you have that two together, belief and baptism, and it's an essential part of the early faith in Christ that we want to see, of course, restored in our time. It's a pattern for those of us who follow Jesus. You see this also in the book of Acts. Let's look at the ministry of the apostle Philip in Samaria. Acts chapter eight, verse 12. But when they believed, Philip's preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. They believed and they were baptized. Let's go on to the ministry of the apostle Paul in Corinth

in Acts chapter 18, verse eight. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all of his household and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized. And so here we see that baptism is part of our Christian tradition that has ancient roots and that are biblical and it's part of restoring, recapturing the ancient faith of our fathers and of the apostles, the disciples who followed Jesus. Belief and baptism, part of the believing life and it's vital for us today to recapture that central truth. My prayer is that everyone who considers believing in Jesus and living a life that is pleasing to him, finding God's perfection, finding the perfection of his will in our life and walking according to his purposes, that all of us will begin our believing life at some point by agreeing to be baptized, to be immersed in water, but that it be more than a Christian ritual or just a religious ceremony. It would be an identification with the death, the burial and the resurrection of the Lord who has saved us, who will be our eternal king. And it will be a public statement that from this time on, not only what we believe in our mind

and what we hold to be true in our hearts, but our behavior, the acts of our body and the words of our mouth will be consistent with the calling that God has upon us, not only to be believers, but to be his disciples and to believe unto our own salvation, but also to live lives that are spiritually fruitful. I'd like to pray with you for just a minute. I know many of you are considering taking that step. Lord, I pray that all of us who believe that Jesus is Lord and have given our lives to him will follow the Lord's example in baptism and that for us, it will be a spiritual and a real, a personal identification with your life, with your death, with your burial and your resurrection to eternal life. May we follow you in this and know that our lives are pleasing to you and that we're going to hear you say, well done, good and faithful servant.