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And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age. Amen." — Matthew 28:18–20

What baptism is, how it's done, and why every believer should go down into the water.

A One-Week Detour and Some Encouraging News

We've been studying through the book of Hebrews since about February, and we're going to take a one-week detour because of some good and important happenings. If you've been part of Cross Connection Church for a year or more, you know we are an independent Bible church associated with a larger family of churches. For the last 32 years we've been associated with Calvary Chapel, which has had a strong history here in Southern California and a great impact on the American Christian church over the last 50 years. There are about 1,700 Calvary Chapel churches, and I count it a blessing to be part of that family.

A couple of years ago we added a second affiliation. We entered into a dual affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention. As I got to know other Southern Baptist pastors in our area, I realized these brothers and sisters have a doctrine of faith almost identical to Calvary Chapel, the same philosophical perspective, and the same desire to reach people for Jesus and fulfill the Great Commission. There are 45,000 Southern Baptist congregations nationwide—the largest evangelical denomination in the United States—and God is doing amazing things.

When we did this a couple years ago, it was pretty unique. I didn't know of any other Calvary Chapels with a similar affiliation. I reached out to my friend Brian Brodersen and my friend David Guzik, and they saw no problem with it. I'll be honest, I lost some good friends in the process—people who really had an issue with it. But after we entered in, quite a few Calvary Chapel pastors reached out to learn more. Then last Monday, Greg Laurie—one of the most well-known Christian evangelists in our nation besides Billy Graham—announced his church is also entering into a dual affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention. This is big news. We feel like we were a little ahead of the curve.

A Post-Denominational Moment

Why is this happening? As Christian churches and pastors look at the landscape of our culture, they recognize that we, as the big-C church, are not doing as good of a job reaching our Western culture as we should be. One reason is that we don't work together very well. About five years ago, praying about this very thing led us to change our name from Calvary Chapel of Escondido to Cross Connection Church. We have nothing against the name Calvary Chapel; we simply felt it would help us reach across the lines and link arms with brothers and sisters who aren't Calvary Chapel.

More and more churches are saying, "You believe almost identically to us. You may not play the same songs or use the same instruments, and you may do things differently, but we want to reach people with the gospel, so we'll join arms." I think you're going to see this a lot more. We're moving into what I'd call a post-denominational time in Christian history, and I believe God will bless it. Please pray for Pastor Greg Laurie—he's receiving significant kickback over this decision.

Why Teach on Baptism

This Wednesday we have a baptism, and because I get two or three questions about baptism nearly every month, I thought it would be helpful to share much of what I share at baptisms—something I've never actually taught for the whole church. We're in the book of Hebrews, and Hebrews 8 begins to talk about the issue of covenants. Covenants are a big deal in the Bible. In our modern vernacular we don't use that terminology much unless you're a lawyer, working with contracts, or buying a house with an HOA, where they hand you a stack of papers called CC&Rs—Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions. That's a covenant, and suddenly you find out you can't paint your house.

In the Old Testament there are many covenants—the Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Aaronic or Priestly, and Davidic covenants. Don't worry, there's no pop quiz. Each has conditions and restrictions associated with it. Most of the first 39 books of the Bible center around the Mosaic Covenant, the covenant between God and the nation of Israel, mediated by Moses beginning at Exodus 19 at Mount Sinai. The conditions and restrictions of that covenant are called the Law of God or the Law of Moses. Incidentally, the word testament is another word for covenant. So the Old Testament is the old covenant, and the New Testament is the new covenant.

The Two Protestant Sacraments

Within each covenant there are also things called sacraments—ceremonies or religious rites associated with that covenant. Under the old covenant the sacraments included the observance of Passover, circumcision, and the various offerings at the temple. Those were ceremonies observed to fulfill the requirements of that covenant.

If you came from a Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox background, the word sacrament is not foreign to you. The Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments. But we're Protestants, and within Protestant churches there are really only two. Why only two? Because of the founding principle of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago this year—sola scriptura, Scripture alone. When we look at the Scriptures, there are only two new covenant sacraments that Jesus explicitly instituted and that the early church expressly practiced: baptism and communion.

Communion: Remembering the Body and Blood

Jesus instituted communion on the very night that He, with His disciples, was observing the Passover under the old covenant. In the upper room in Jerusalem, on the night He would be betrayed, He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples saying, "Take, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." So on a regular basis we partake of the bread, remembering His body broken for us. Then He took the cup, blessed it, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is My blood, the blood of the new covenant. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

The covenant is intangible—you can't see it—but it is illustrated and symbolized in the bread and the cup. We partake every seven weeks here at Cross Connection. Some ask why every seven weeks, and the honest answer is, that's just how we do it; there's no deeper reason. Some churches do it weekly, some the first Sunday of the month, some once a year. The frequency can change, but the regularity is important. "As often as you do this," Jesus says, "do it in remembrance of Me." We get into these traditions and then create denominations, and then say, "Those people—bad; we—good." But the sacrament is simply an outward ceremony that is a visible sign of the inward divine transformation of grace that has taken place.

Baptism: An Outward Expression of an Inward Transformation

The second sacrament is baptism. What is baptism? It is an outward expression of an inward transformation or commitment. That definition implies something important: the inward transformation precedes the outward expression. Something happens in us first before we commit to baptism. It is an activity that individual followers of Jesus engage in to visibly display their faith and commitment to Him.

Some use the illustration of a wedding ring. My ring is an external expression of a covenant relationship I have with my wife, Andrea. It is not the relationship itself. If I lost it, I would not lose the covenant—the relationship is still there. The ring merely shows others that I am in that covenant. Baptism works in a similar way.

How is one baptized? The word itself gives insight. Baptism comes from the Greek word baptizo, which means to immerse or dip something in liquid for the purpose of washing or purification. The first appearance of the word in the New Testament relates to John the Baptist—a wild character who ate locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel-hair clothing, preaching repentance in the wilderness of Judea near the Jordan River. People went down into the water, confessed their sins, and he immersed them. So we believe one is baptized when fully immersed in water, just as John immersed people. The Greek is clear, and when Jesus was baptized He "came up out of the water," which implies immersion.

Why We Baptize: In Obedience to Christ's Command

Why do we do this? I teach three primary reasons. First, we baptize in obedience to Christ's command. This is found at the end of Matthew's Gospel:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. — Matthew 28:18–20

This is the Great Commission. A few years ago the Southern Baptist Convention considered changing its name to "Great Commission Baptists," because they are committed to this commission—as we in Calvary Chapel are too. Every faithful Christian is committed to it. We don't discriminate or segregate against anybody; we want all people to come to faith and the forgiveness of sins through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Part of discipling them is baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In Identification with Christ's Baptism

Second, we baptize in identification with Christ's baptism.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." — Matthew 3:13–17

Jesus, the Son of God, came to John, just a man, to be baptized. John resisted—in another Gospel he says he wasn't even worthy to unlatch Jesus' sandal. Yet Jesus was baptized by full immersion in the Jordan, an act pleasing to the Father. In the same way, we baptize because we identify ourselves with Christ in His baptism, and I believe this is pleasing to our Father in heaven.

In Association with Christ's Death, Burial, and Resurrection

Third, we baptize in association with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. — Romans 6:3–4

When you put your trust in Jesus, there is an invisible born-again experience in that instant. Jesus spoke of this with Nicodemus in John 3: "You must be born again." Nicodemus couldn't compute it, and Jesus said it is a supernatural act of the Spirit—you can't see it with your eyes. When you trust in Jesus, you are baptized, immersed, into Christ spiritually. We symbolically show this through the physical act of baptism: going into the water associates us with His death, being under the water with His burial, and coming up with His resurrection to walk in newness of life. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and everything has become new.

When Should One Be Baptized?

When should a person be baptized? Turn to Acts 8. There a great evangelist named Philip was preaching the gospel near Jerusalem, and God impressed upon him to walk the road between Jerusalem and Gaza—two names still in our vocabulary today. On the way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, clearly a wealthy man, part of the royal court of Ethiopia, riding in a chariot and reading from the scroll of Isaiah, which was about 11 feet long—not a pocket edition.

God impressed Philip to attach himself to the chariot, so he ran up and asked, "Do you understand what you're reading?" The man said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" It just so happened he was reading Isaiah 53, written 700 years before Jesus came—"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities... by His stripes we are healed." Philip got up on the chariot and preached the gospel to him.

Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." — Acts 8:36–37

If you have a newer version, that statement may not be in your text because some ancient manuscripts omit it, but it appears in many. "I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God"—that is the bedrock of our faith. In Matthew 16, when Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," and Jesus said, "On this rock I will build My church." The rock is not Peter; it's that confession.

So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. — Acts 8:38–39

That probably won't happen Wednesday—Philip just vanished. The eunuch was amazed, and he went on his way rejoicing. There's still an ancient Christian witness in Ethiopia to this day. I wonder if this man was not the first evangelist to Ethiopia—hearing the gospel from Philip's mouth and being baptized along that road.

Baptism as the First Act of Christian Obedience

So we baptize believers as a first act of Christian obedience. On the very first day of the church in Acts 2, Peter preached the gospel to thousands. When they heard it, they were cut to the heart and said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter said, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized." If you've never been baptized and you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who died on the cross for your sins, you should be baptized. Come out this Wednesday to Cardiff State Beach in the late afternoon—the information is in your bulletin—whether to be baptized yourself or to rejoice with those who are.

Frequently Asked Questions

What about infant baptism? A number of you were baptized as infants in the Presbyterian, Episcopal, or Catholic church. There are very good Christian brothers and sisters who baptize infants. We don't, because of sola scriptura—we don't see that practice in the Scriptures. We have something similar in our baby dedications, but we believe in believer's baptism, or credo baptism: as you put your trust in Jesus, you are baptized as a sign of your faith, just like the Ethiopian eunuch.

What about baptism for the dead? Some coming out of the Mormon Church know of a practice called baptism for the dead, or baptism by proxy—one reason the Mormon Church is so interested in genealogies. This is heretical and not taught in Scripture. You cannot believe for someone else, so you cannot be baptized by proxy. As much as you'd like to believe for your kids, you can't.

Is baptism essential for salvation? No. The greatest illustration is the thief on the cross next to Jesus, who had a deathbed conversion and said, "Remember me when You come into Your kingdom." Jesus replied, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise." There was no coming down off the cross, no sprinkling, no baptism—yet he was saved. Baptism is an outward expression of the transformation that takes place on the inside. If baptism were essential for salvation, Scripture would explicitly say so.

What about "Jesus only" baptism? A circle of people question your baptism unless it was done specifically in Jesus' name, and some even say you're not a Christian otherwise. They draw this from four passages in Acts where people are baptized in the name of Jesus. But Jesus said to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. If you were baptized that way because of your faith in Jesus, that's right. If you were baptized in the name of Jesus, praise the Lord—as long as your trust is in Jesus for salvation. Those who hold to "Jesus only" baptism usually have a strange, almost Unitarian view of the triune nature of God, and they have bigger doctrinal issues than baptism. If you were baptized as a believer at another church, praise the Lord—you don't need to be re-baptized.

So baptism is an outward expression of an inward transformation, whereby an individual is immersed in water in obedience to Christ's command, in identification with Jesus' baptism, and in association with His death, burial, and resurrection—for those who have put their trust in Jesus for salvation. If that's you, you should be baptized.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You for the clear teaching of the Scriptures You've given us, that we might know how we ought to seek, serve, and follow You. I pray that You would help us be faithful in our trust of You. Thank You that You have given us tangible sacraments—the bread and the cup, to remember Your body broken for us and Your blood shed for us, and the act of baptism, going down into the water to show forth in a tangible way what took place invisibly when we put our trust in You. Thank You for these things that fuel and give passion to our faith. I pray this church would have a passionate, on-fire faith for You, seen in our lives.

It may be that not only have you not been baptized, but you've never put your trust in Jesus for salvation. If after hearing this you're saying, "I want to be baptized," but you've not yet put your trust in Jesus or confessed Him as Lord, I want to give you a chance to do that. If that's you this morning, would you lift up your hand? Praise God. Lord, we thank You for the work of grace You're doing in our midst, and we pray You'd continue to amplify that work, for Your name's sake, that Your light might shine in the darkness of this world. We praise You and thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.