Why We Are Baptized

Dr. Larry Thorson
1/07/07

Acts 8:14-17

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society

On the first Sunday of every month there is an invitation given to all baptized believers in Jesus Christ to partake of the table of our Lord. You may not have even noticed that we say “baptized believers”. We don’t say “baptized members” because one doesn’t have to be a member of a particular church to take communion with us but one has to be baptized.

I was baptized as an infant when I was two months and one day old. Later at age 16 when I came to know who Jesus was and accepted him as my savior, I tried to join a non-denominational church but they wouldn’t accept my infant baptism and I had to be baptized again, this time by immersion.

In college I began to attend a Presbyterian church where I met my wife. There I learned that to join a Presbyterian Church one has to make a public profession that Jesus Christ is your personal savior and indicate that you’ve been baptized sometime in your life or agree to be baptized there. We have a respect for our brothers and sisters in other churches unlike a lot of non-denominational churches like the one I once was involved in.

What’s the big deal about baptism? Jesus commanded us to be baptized and to baptize those we are making disciples of (Matthew 28:18). It’s a sign, a mark that God is at work in our life. Our Presbyterian Book of Order says that baptism and communion are “signs of the real presence and power of Christ in the Church, symbols of God’s action” (w-3.3601). God marks us for service in baptism.

It’s not that we chose God when we’re baptized but God chose us and marked us for service. One of the things I like about the picture infant baptism gives us is that an infant doesn’t choose to be baptized, believing parents choose to recognize their calling as believers and has their child baptized. That’s a picture of God. We don’t choose to open our mind and our heart to follow Jesus. God first draws us to himself through his Holy Spirit. We can fight that Holy Spirit off and go our own way but we can’t turn to Jesus unless God is drawing us. Infant baptism is that sign that God is drawing us to himself. The same is true with adult baptism but because adults normally make decisions for themselves we think that adults decide to be baptized instead of God calling them. But it’s no different for an adult.

When I was an infant my parents were totally unchurched. The only time they stepped inside a church was to get married but culturally they were taught that if their children weren’t baptized and something happened to them they’d go to the bad place. So I was baptized to keep me from going to the bad place. It was like fire insurance.

Baptism can’t save anyone. It’s only a sign that God has already saved you in Jesus Christ. That concept has been so misconstrued that some churches have done away with baptism and communion altogether. The Friends Church or Quakers of which Richard Nixon was one is an example of a church that doesn’t practice water baptism.

Quakers believe in a spiritual baptism but not a ritual with real water. In the same way they don’t use bread and juice when they remember Jesus’ death and resurrection for us in communion. Communion for them is a relationship between you and God.

Here we use real grape juice in communion. We use simple, American bread in communion. We use real water in baptism. People can confuse the grape juice for blood because it’s red. People can confuse the bread for flesh because it’s white. People can confuse the water in baptism as an actual shower that washes away their sins. All of that the Quakers wanted to avoid.

In our Bible story today the early believers in Jesus had been baptized as a sign that they now belonged to Christ. That’s what baptism does. But it doesn’t cleanse our sins away. It marks us as God’s.

At this point these Samaritan believers were like infants who had been baptized. They were marked as God’s own but they were helpless to change their behavior. What they didn’t know is that what comes next is a baptism of God’s Holy Spirit. That’s when God takes over your life. It’s the opposite of when someone commits a crime and evil takes over their life.

In verse 17 Peter and John, two of Jesus’ original disciples who received God’s Holy Spirit in the Upper Room on Pentecost laid hands upon these early believers in Samaria. In other words the Samaritans couldn’t receive the Holy Spirit on their own. Just like one can’t baptize himself on his own. God’s Holy Spirit is someone you receive, not something you take or earn. Again infant baptism is a beautiful example of this.

In the next six weeks we’re going to look at how God gives us specific spiritual gifts to enable us to do the tasks we’ve been called to do. Gifts like a prayer language called “tongues”. Gifts like the ability to pray with confidence for healing. Gifts like the ability to hear specific messages from God to his people. Gifts like the ability to interpret messages from God. Gifts like the ability to lead someone to Christ. Gifts that you couldn’t do naturally or couldn’t train yourself to do naturally. Those spiritual gifts only come from a filling of God’s Holy Spirit that comes after one is open to receive Christ.

So giving in to God’s nudging on your heart to follow him is the first step to becoming a Christian. Then the next step is following Christ in obedience by being baptized if you haven’t already been baptized. Then being prayed over to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit is the third step on the road to following Christ.

I want you right now to think back to the day you were baptized. If you were baptized as an infant try to imagine the scene, the place, your parents. If you were older and can remember the actual event, picture that in your mind right now. It was a critical mark in your life. It meant you were now God’s own, set apart to glorify him. Give thanks to God right now for that event. If you haven’t been baptized yet ask God right now to let you do that. Tell me about it and we’ll get the water ready.

But that’s just the beginning. Now comes the fun part; the filling of God’s Holy Spirit. This week as we prepare to look at the spiritual gifts ask yourself “are you satisfied with where you are spiritually?” Do you want God to use you in powerful ways? There’s a hurting world out there, I see them every day and sometimes get to talk with them who need what God wants to do in your life. That’s why you were baptized. This week pray this prayer every day “Lord God, I want to be filled with your Holy Spirit.” God is ready. Are you?