Why Should I be Baptized by Immersion?

Romans 6:1-10

     An old Southern Baptist minister preached every Sunday on baptism by immersion.  His folks agreed with his doctrine, but they were tired of hearing the same subject every week.

     The deacons undertook to solve the problem through diplomatic means.  They complimented him but suggested that he was such a natural preacher that they wanted to try an experiment.  They wanted to hand him a piece of paper with a scripture on it just before he stepped into the pulpit.  “We believe you’re so good,” they said, “that you can preach a great sermon with no preparation at all ― just that slip of paper.”  So, the deacons got busy searching the Scriptures for a text which was totally unrelated to baptism.  They selected the opening verse of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth.”  There was absolutely nothing in that text that had anything to do with baptism.  When they handed the text to him, the old preacher read it aloud three times.  Finally, he turned to the congregation and said, “If I remember geography right, the earth is one-fourth land and three-fourths water.  Water brings me to my subject for the day: Baptism by immersion.”

     Do I have to be baptized to be a Christian?  Is immersion the only scriptural form of baptism valid to God?  Should babies be baptized?  Are those who are not baptized lost?  At what point does a person actually become a Christian, when he believes or when he is baptized?  For hundreds of years, Christians have argued about the necessity of baptism for salvation, and its form. 

        1.  Let’s learn an Old Testament lesson about obedience.

Remember the story of the battle of Jericho in Joshua 6?  God said to march around the city wall once every day for 6 days.  On the seventh day march around the wall seven times, with the priest blowing trumpets.  Joshua 6:5 - “when you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse.”  Verse 20 - “When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.”

     Over and over again throughout the Old Testament, when the people obeyed, God blessed.  When they didn’t obey, God withheld His blessing.

Another example is that of Naaman in II Kings.  Naaman was a captain in the Syrian army, which would be the equivalent of a four star general.  Outwardly he was impressive, but under his slick uniform, Naaman was hiding leprosy.  He had a terminal skin disease.  Naaman did what any of us would do in a situation like that.  He desperately searched for a cure.  There was an Israelite   housemaid, who told him there was a prophet in Israel who reportedly could heal people.  So Naaman took expensive gifts and large entourage and he headed for Samaria, asking Elisha to heal him.  But when he arrived, Elisha just sent word saying, “Go dip yourself seven times in the Jordan River.”  That didn’t make sense.  Naaman was offended.  “That’s ridiculous.  That’s beneath my dignity.  If water could cleanse my leprosy, I would have been cleansed a long time ago, because I bathe regularly.  Besides, the Jordan River is muddy.  If I’m going to dip in a stream, I’ll go to Damascus where the water is better and purer than this.”  So Naaman rode off in a huff.  He headed back home.  He still had his pride, still had his dignity, and he still had his leprosy.  One of his soldiers came to him as they rode off and said, “Naaman, if the prophet had asked you to do some spectacular thing, you would have done it.  Why don’t you try obeying this simple command?”  Naaman said, “You’ve got a point.”  So he swallowed his pride, went down to the Jordan River, took off his clothing, exposing his leprous flesh.  He dipped six times and nothing happened.  But II Kings 5:14 says, “When he dipped himself the seventh time, his flesh became like that of a child.”  It didn’t make sense, but it worked because that’s what God  required.  God was teaching the necessity of humility.  Maybe Naaman’s washing was kind of an introduction to baptism.

            2. Let’s look carefully at the New Testament instruction about baptism. 

Let’s review the history of baptism.  Let’s scan a few references about baptism to get an overview.  John 3:23: “Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized.”  The New Testament was written in Greek.  The word baptized is the “baptizo.”  This ancient word simply meant to immerse in water.  John was immersing people in the Jordan as an indication of their repentance for sin.  People were constantly coming to him to be  baptized; so much so they nicknamed him “John the Baptized.”

      Matthew 3:13-15: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  But John tried to deter him saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”  Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”  Then John consented.

      Jesus was baptized not as a symbol of  repentance, because He had no sin.  He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness, to set an example for us.  He didn’t want anybody  saying, “Well, I’m not going to be baptized because I follow Jesus and He wasn’t       baptized.”

    Matthew 3:16-17; “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water.  At that moment heaven was opened, and He   saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him.  And a voice from heaven said, ’This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’”  When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit came upon Him and we’ll see later that when we are

baptized, the Holy Spirit comes upon us. Now when we turn to Acts 2, we discover that’s exactly what the early Christians did.  Remember Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are four books about the life of Christ.  They are like witnesses in a courtroom, telling about the life of Christ.  Then Acts tells us about the church.

     In Acts 2 the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus dies, the disciples went into the streets of Jerusalem telling about Jesus. Peter stood up and preached.  Verse 37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said, to Peter, what shall we do?”  Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, so that your sins may be forgiven and you’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are afar off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.”  Verse 41 says, “Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.”  What shall we do?  Peter said to do two things: repent and be baptized. And there are two promises: forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

     In Acts 8:26-39, - Philip encountered an Ethiopian man.  When he gave his life to Christ, his response was, “I want to be baptized into him.”  He was baptized by immersion. Sprinkling a baby was introduced much later.  In fact, it wasn’t approved by the church until the council at Ravenna in 1311 A.D. when they decided it was more convenient to sprinkle.  Acts 8:36-39, “As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunich said, “Look, here is water.  Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”  And he gave orders to stop the chariot.  Then both Philip and the eunich went down into the water and Philip baptized him.  When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunich did not see him again, but went on his way

rejoicing.”

   There may have been only two people present.  We do not require you to be baptized in front of the church.  We recommend that there be a witness, but if there are health problems, or women who are expecting a child, or someone is afraid of  water, or it would be much more meaningful to them in a private service, then we arrange for that.  We don’t want to require any more or any less than the scripture does. Sometimes people who are members of  other churches that don’t practice immersion, come and ask to be baptized.  They want to remain in their church, but they are convicted that they should be immersed.  We  arrange that, because we aren’t baptizing into the church, but into Christ.  The Ethiopian was baptized in the middle of the day, but in Acts 16, the Philippian jailer was baptized in the middle of the night.

  When the Ethiopian was baptized, he wasn’t joining a church out in the wilderness, he was obeying Christ.  He went on his way rejoicing.

   Romans 6:3-4: “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.”

            2. Let’s make some applications about immersion that apply to us.

a. Baptism by immersion is obedient baptism.

     People say, “Are you saying if I’m not baptized, I’m lost?  Are you saying that my

godly grandmother who was sprinkled is not in heaven?”  No, God judges every person.

He knows our heart.  He knows our opportunity.  He knows our responses. There are people who’ve been baptized byimmersion who’ve gone on to live like the devil, and people who have been sprinkled who demonstrate Christian character.  Each of us ought to respond to God’s truth as we understand it.

     Let’s say you own a grocery store, inherited from your parents, who inherited from your

grandparents.  They were as honest as they could be, but the state inspector comes in one day and says, “Do you know your scales are off? You say you’re giving people a pound of

meat but you really give them 15 ounces.” Is he calling your parents and grandparents

crooks?  Are you grandparents and parents dishonest?  No, but you would be if you

didn't change.  The Bible says, “To him who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it

is sin.”

   The owner of a factory set his watch every day by the clock in the jewelry store window so he could ring the noon whistle at the right time.  Then one day the owner of the factory listened to the radio and realized he was 10 minutes slow.  He stopped to tell the jeweler his clock was off.  The jeweler said, “Oh, it can’t be.  I set it every day by the noon whistle at the factory.”  We should not measure God’s truth by a human  standard.

b. Baptism by immersion is a demonstration of humility. 

Jesus said, “Unless you humble yourself and become as a little child, you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven.”

c. Baptism by immersion is essential for assurance of salvation.

From time to  time we meet people who don’t know

whether they’re Christians.  “I think I’m a Christian because my parents had me christened,” or “I have a certificate”, or “I was confirmed and my name is on the roll,” but God has provided baptism as a source of assurance.  I know I’m a Christian.  I

surrendered to Him.  I was obedient to His command.

d.  Baptism is a source of unity. 

1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.”  Notice the connection

between baptism and unity among God’s people.   A lady once took a boat ride onLake Michigan.  It was a stormy night.  As she saw the jagged lightning streak across the sky, heard the claps of thunder, and saw the hazardous  rocks jutting out of the wind-tossed lake,   she got scared.  She went to the captain of  the boat and said, “Do you know where all  of  the rocks are in this lake?”  No lady, I  don’t,” explained the captain.  “But I do know the safe course.”

We shouldn’t see how far we can drift from God’s teaching and still go to heaven, but we should know the safe course.