Baptism: Take Your Stand

Take Your Stand

Tangible Faith, part 1

I. Baptism: Is the

• GK: “Baptizo” “Wash” “Dip” “Dunk” “Submerge.”
• Normal world. (Religious today.) Greek used:

–Signify dyeing garment. Immerse dye.

–Ship sunk battle. / Plato: I am immersed w/ questions.

II. How did we get Baptism?

• On the day of atonement the High Priest washed himself. (Leviticus 16:4-24)
• Between he Testaments it became a sign of repentance.
• Jesus made Baptism the identifying marker of being His Follower.

The Early Church practiced water Baptism:

• Peter called for first converts to be baptized. Acts 2:38-41
• Ethiopian Eunuch. Acts 8:35
• Samaritans. Acts 8:12
• Gentiles. Acts 10:48
• Saul/Paul. Acts 9:18
• Lydia and family. Acts 16:15
• Philippian Jailer and family. Acts 16:33
• Corinth. Acts 18:8
• Ephesus. Acts 19:5

III. Baptism is a definite statement:

1. I stand with

Romans 6:3 all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

2. I stand with Jesus

• Acts 2:41
• Galatians 3:26-28
• Dr. M.R. DeHaan: “In the early days of the church, baptism was a declaration that the believer was definitely identifying himself with that group of people who were called Christians and were despised and hated. To be a Christian meant something. To identify yourself with those who were called Christians meant persecution, maybe death; it meant being ostracized from your family, shunned by friends. And the one act which was the final declaration of this identification was BAPTISM. As long as a man gathered with Christians, he was tolerated, but when once he submitted to baptism, he declared to all the world, I BELONG TO THIS DESPISED GROUP, and immediately he was persecuted, hated, and despised. In baptism, therefore, the believer entered into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. A person might be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and thus avoid unpleasantness and suffering, but once he submitted to public baptism he had burned his bridges behind him. . .” (Pamphlet, Water Baptism, p. 27).

3. I stand with a great

• Public way to identify.
• There are some people who will be more interested in your story and baptism than anything a preacher says.

4. I stand against the

• Acts 8:8-12, the baptism of the people stirred Simon with the realization that people were standing against him, and for Christ.
• Simon wanted to buy the Holy Spirit in order to do magic. But Peter saw right through him.

–Like declaration war! (Jesus Baptism, Satan came)