God's Promise To Our Children

Well, good morning, I say to you again,

welcome to Church of the Advent,

especially if you're joining us for the first time.

We are delighted that you're here.

This is a wonderful Sunday

because we have an opportunity to celebrate baptism.

We'll have a couple of people baptized

a little bit later in the service,

and that's very appropriate for this time of year.

We're in the season of epiphany,

and that's one of the themes of epiphany is baptism.

And so I thought it would be appropriate

to spend some time this morning

before we actually do these baptisms

to talk about baptism.

It's something that I've preached on a few times,

but I've never actually preached specifically

on infant baptism

and why we would do the practice of infant baptism.

So that's what I wanna look at this morning in particular.

All Christians, virtually all Christians in the world

agree that we should baptize people

once they come to faith in Jesus.

So that's not really up for debate.

But there is a disagreement

over the children of believers.

What should we do there?

Some people believe we should baptize them,

and some do not.

Why would we baptize a baby

before they are old enough to come to faith

to choose to follow Jesus for themselves?

So that's what we're gonna be talking about this morning.

Now, a couple of caveats

that we have to hit right up front.

Caveat number one,

in our church,

we have people on both sides of the issue.

It's one of the great things about our church,

one of the things I love about our church.

A lot of people in our church

have not come from an Anglican background

or come from a background

where this was the case.

And so this is an area

where people in our church disagree.

And this is an area

where faithful Bible-believing Christians can disagree.

So the good news is,

everybody's welcome here.

As an Anglican church,

infant baptism is normative for us.

But there is freedom for those who disagree.

So ultimately, we encourage parents,

we leave it up to parents

to decide before the Lord

how to raise their children in the faith

and the role that baptism plays.

But I do think that this is something

that we all need to understand.

And there are probably people here

who have always agreed with infant baptism

but never really understood why.

Or maybe they agree with it for the wrong reasons.

And so I think it's important to spend time on it.

That's caveat number one.

Caveat number two,

this sounds like a super niche topic

that only applies to Christian parents of kids.

It is, in a sense.

But it's also something that I think,

hopefully you will agree

after we spend some time on it,

applies to every single person in this room.

And in fact, it's something that applies

to every single person in the world.

Because the fact is,

if you understand baptism,

you begin to understand the heart of God.

The purpose of baptism is to put on display

for the world to see the very heart of God.

The fact that God loves you

and the lengths to which God will go

that you might belong to him

as a member of his family.

And so my hope is that

wherever you are in your journey,

if you're a Christian parent

about to have a baby

trying to figure out what to do,

or if you're somebody

who just walked in off the street

and you're not a Christian

and you're like,

I think I picked the wrong Sunday.

Regardless of where you are,

my hope and prayer is that this,

by the end,

you will see why this is relevant to all of us.

So what we're gonna look at,

essentially, in a nutshell,

is that all of this is about a promise.

It's about a promise.

It's about a promise given by God to Abraham,

signified in Israel by circumcision,

and signified in the church by baptism.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word

and as always,

we come with our own hopes and expectations,

needs and distractions.

If our hope only rests in our wisdom

and our strategy

and our highest thoughts,

then Lord, we are lost.

But our hope rests in the truth

that we just celebrated at Christmas,

that you are Emmanuel.

You're the God who is with us,

a God who speaks to us,

a God whose word is living and active,

a God who desires to renew our hearts.

And we pray that through your word this morning,

you would do what only you can do.

In the power of your spirit,

in the name of Jesus, amen.

All right, so the first piece of this

is to understand

that all of this begins with a promise

that is given by God to Abraham.

In order to understand baptism,

we have to understand the origins

of the gospel itself,

which is the core hope of Christianity

and the thing that really sets Christianity apart

from all of the other religions and philosophies,

ancient and modern,

that attempt to offer hope to the world.

Because other religions say

that the only way to have a relationship with God,

the only way to gain the blessing of God,

is to earn it.

You have to prove through your obedience

and your devotion

that you are worthy of the blessing of the divine.

Only the best get blessed.

That's the message.

But in the book of Genesis,

we meet a man named Abram.

And Abram is just like us.

He's flawed.

He's a sinner.

He messes up all the time.

And yet he's able to have the kind of relationship

with God that we all want.

He is loved by God.

He is extraordinarily blessed by God.

And it raises the question of,

how is such a thing possible

for such an obviously flawed individual?

And the answer is found in Genesis chapter 15.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

God comes to Abram

and he announces his plan

to redeem and restore the world

through Abram's offspring.

I'm gonna build a community

as numerous as the stars.

And in Genesis 15 verse six,

it says this,

and Abram believed the Lord

and he counted it to him as righteousness.

And we cannot overestimate

the world-changing importance

of this statement.

God credits Abram's faith to him

as righteousness.

In other words, God says this,

even though that you're sinful

and even though nothing that you do

will ever make up for the degree

to which you have rebelled against me

and rejected me,

you'll never make up for that.

Even still,

if you're willing to trust me,

if you're willing to trust my promises

and believe them,

then I will cover your sin

and I will welcome you

into relationship with me

and I will give you all of the privileges

that would come with being

a fully righteous person.

I will treat you as though you were righteous.

And we say,

well how could God just overlook sin?

We'll get there.

So God offers Abram a relationship

based on faith,

not good works,

and he says,

I will,

if you have faith in me,

I will credit this to you

as righteousness.

So this is now,

for the first time in the world,

a relationship with God

that nobody has ever seen before.

You mean,

I don't have to earn it

through obedience and devotion,

but God wants your devotion.

God delights in your good works.

But your relationship

is now based on your faith in him.

It changes everything.

But it does raise a question.

Is this something

that only applies to Abram?

Or is this something

that God intends to do

for other people?

And at this point in the story,

we don't know yet.

What we then see

is that God makes

an eternal promise

to Abram

that he will do this

for anyone

and everyone

who comes to him in faith.

In Genesis chapter 17,

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

two chapters later,

God makes a covenant,

which is a formal agreement

with Abram.

And he essentially says this,

for all eternity,

from here forward

for all eternity,

when the conditions

of the covenant are met,

i.e. when you have faith in me,

that's your end of the covenant,

when the conditions

of the covenant are met,

meaning faith,

God promises

that he will forgive their sin

and credit their faith

to them as righteousness.

So God is saying,

my plan to renew

and restore the world

is going to be built

on this kind of relationship.

Your side of the covenant

is to believe in me,

to have faith in me,

and I will forgive

and welcome you

into my family.

And then God renames him Abraham

because he says,

as a result of this,

I've made you the father

of a multitude of nations.

Not just your descendants,

but a multitude of nations

are going to be blessed by this.

Because God's going to do it

not just for the blood relatives,

but for any foreigner

who wants to have

this kind of relationship

with God,

any non-Jewish person,

this is going to be open

to them as well.

And then,

God gives

an outward,

invisible sign

of this promise.

How are people

going to know this?

How are they going to remember it?

What's the way

that we're going to

stay focused

on this promise?

God says,

I'm going to give you

a visible mark.

I'm going to seal

this promise

so that you'll always know

that I keep my word.

And he gives them

the symbol,

the sign of circumcision.

And we say,

well, why circumcision?

That sounds kind of odd.

It's a bit barbaric.

It is barbaric.

In circumcision,

there is a shedding of blood.

Some blood is shed.

And this points forward

2,000 years into the future

when Jesus Christ would come

and when Jesus would shed

his blood on the cross,

which is infinitely more barbaric,

in order to pay the price for sin.

And you say,

well, that's how God is able

to cover and forgive

the sin of someone like Abraham.

Because God knows

that one day

he's going to send

his own son

to pay the price

for all of that sin.

And so,

even though they didn't know it

at the time,

those who were circumcised

for 2,000 years,

they were ultimately

putting their faith in Jesus.

They didn't know it.

As I shed a little bit of blood,

I'm putting my faith

in the ultimate shedding of blood.

So God tells Abraham

to be circumcised

and to circumcise

his entire household.

Every male in Abraham's house

and in every future generation.

So Abraham gets circumcised.

He's 99.

That's one of the reasons

we recommend doing it

a lot earlier.

He's 99.

And he circumcises his son Isaac

when he's 8 days old.

And again, we ask,

well, so why does he circumcise Isaac

when he's only 8 days old?

He can't possibly understand

the shedding of blood

and everything we just said.

When Abraham circumcised Isaac,

he's saying this to him.

I'm gonna raise you

and I'm gonna teach you

all about the love

and the truth of God.

And God has promised

to do for you, Isaac,

what he has done for me.

When you come to faith,

God has promised

that he's going to forgive your sin

and he's gonna credit your faith

to you as righteousness

just like he did for me.

And he's gonna adopt you

and make you his son

just like he did for me.

And how are you going to know this,

Isaac, as you grow up?

Your circumcision is a sign

and a seal of God's promise.

So don't just take my word for it.

God wanted you to have this sign

as a guarantee

that God will do this for you

when you come to faith.

Right, so for 2,000 years,

the sign of the covenant

was given to believing adults

and to their children,

the children of believing parents.

Did this save Isaac?

No.

No.

Did this guarantee

that Isaac would be saved?

No.

It is simply God's promise

that if and when Isaac comes to faith,

God promises that he will do for him

what he did for Abraham.

I will forgive your sin

and I will welcome you into relationship

on the basis of your faith alone.

That's the promise.

So circumcision was a visible sign

given to the people of Israel

of God's pledge

to forgive the sins of the people

who put their faith in him.

And we say,

okay, well that's great,

nice Old Testament lesson.

What does that have to do

with today and the church?

After 2,000 years of waiting,

Jesus Christ comes into the world.

And he comes as a part of,

he enters into a family

descended from the line of Abraham.

Abraham, and he comes to fulfill everything

that God had spoken to Abraham,

everything that had been declared.

And he sheds his blood,

and he brings God's blessing to the nations.

And then after his death and resurrection,

Jesus stands with his disciples

before his ascension,

and he gives them their final commissioning.

Here's your life mission.

All authority in heaven and on earth

has been given to me,

Jesus says.

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 that I have commanded you.

And behold, I'm with you

to the end of the age.

And not long after,

after Jesus then ascends,

the Holy Spirit comes,

and there's a massive outpouring

of God's blessing.

And the apostle Peter

stands up in the power of the Holy Spirit,

and he preaches to the multitudes,

and he tells the story of Jesus.

And they're all cut to the heart,

and they say,

what should we do?

What do we do?

And for the most part,

these are circumcised Jews

from various places.

And they say,

what should we do?

And Peter says this,

repent and be baptized,

every one of you,

in the name of Jesus Christ,

for the forgiveness of your sins,

and you will receive

the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Be baptized in the name of Jesus

for the forgiveness of sins.

And the same promise

that God made to Abraham

is extended to the church.

They say, okay,

repent and be baptized.

Why should we be baptized?

Here's what Peter says.

For the promise

is for you,

and for your children,

and for all who are far off,

everyone whom the Lord,

our God,

calls to himself.

The same promise

that God made to Abraham,

that God made to Isaac,

that God made to all

of those generations of families,

all for 2,000 years,

Peter then says,

that promise is for you,

and it's for your children,

and it's for anyone

that the Lord would call to himself.

But the sign of the promise

will no longer be circumcision.

From the birth of the church on,

there is a new sign.

Same promise,

new sign.

The sign of the promise

will no longer be circumcision.

From now on,

baptism will be the sign

of God's promise.

After Jesus comes,

baptism takes the place

of circumcision

as the sign of God's promise.

Same promise,

new sign.

So believing parents

were now called

to put the mark

of God's pledge

on their children,

not in the form of circumcision,

but now in the form of baptism.

Does it save them?

No.

Does it guarantee

their salvation?

No.

What does it do?

The same thing

that it's done

for 2,000 years.

It's a mark

of God's pledge

that when that child

comes to faith,

God will forgive their sin

and claim them as his own,

and they will receive

all of the blessings

of the covenant.

It's a sign

of God's promise.

And you say,

well, are we sure?

What's the connection

between circumcision

and baptism?

How do we know?

This is something

that Paul,

the Apostle Paul,

explicitly addresses

in Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

He's writing to Christians

who have been baptized,

but they've not been circumcised.

And there's a big question

in the church.

Well, should we also

get circumcised?

And if you really mean it,

should you get both?

Should you be circumcised

and then baptized?

And how does that work?

And here's how

the Apostle Paul answers this.

He says,

you don't need

to get circumcised.

Why not?

Because you're already circumcised.

You're already circumcised.

And they're like,

I'm pretty sure I'm not.

And he says,

no,

you bear the mark

of God's promise

through your baptism.

You've been circumcised

with a circumcision

made without hands

in your baptism.

And you say,

well,

why would God change the mark?

Why a new sign?

Well,

because Jesus has come.

Right?

For 2,000 years,

circumcision looked forward

to what would need to happen

as we shed blood.

We know that one day

blood will need to be shed

in an ultimate sense

for all of the world.

So we're looking forward.

Right?

Baptism looks back

and it says,

this is the result

of the fact

that Jesus' blood was shed.

The focus is not on the fact

that it's going to happen.

The focus is on

the effects of that.

The washing away of sin

through the shedding

of Jesus' blood.

Right?

The death to the old life

and the sin nature

and the raising to life again

of people in Christ

and the filling

of the Holy Spirit,

the fulfilling

of all of the covenant blessings.

So circumcision looked forward,

baptism looks back

and says,

because of this,

all of these blessings

are now ours

to enjoy.

So to pull all of this together,

all of this,

as I said at the beginning,

is about God's promise

that when someone expresses faith,

he will forgive sin

and claim them as his own.

This is a promise

that was given to Abraham.

It's signified in Israel

by circumcision

and it is now signified

in the church by baptism.

Same promise,

new sign.

Now I know some people hear this

and very understandably,

people say,

well, you know,

if this is true,

then why do we not have

any examples

of an infant being baptized

in the New Testament?

And I would say,

yeah, while it's true

that there's no specific reference

to an infant being baptized,

curiously,

every single adult baptism

that is described

in the New Testament

explicitly states

that they were baptized

along with their entire household.

So somebody comes to faith,

Lydia,

or Cornelius,

or Crispus,

or the Philippian jailer,

they come to faith

and it says immediately

they were baptized

along with their entire household.

In each case,

the adult comes to faith

and they're baptized

along with everybody

who lives in their home.

The only exception to this

is, of course,

the Ethiopian eunuch

who, for obvious reasons,

does not have a household,

does not have a wife

or children

because he's a eunuch.

Another question

that people will ask,

and again,

very honest question,

where's the verse

in the Bible

that tells us

we should baptize babies?

And I would say

there's not one.

There's not an explicit verse

that says,

you shall do this.

But I would also say this,

for 2,000 years,

God's people

put the mark

of God's promise

on their children.

For 2,000 years,

they put the mark

of his promise

on their children.

And then when we look

at church history,

the early church fathers

write about infant baptism

with the assumption

that it is a normative practice.

Origen actually writes explicitly

that the church received

from the apostles

the tradition

of giving baptism

to infants.

We have a liturgy,

a baptismal rite

from the second century

that includes

and assumes

the inclusion

of children

and infants

in the rite.

And then we see

that infant baptism

is universally practiced

everywhere in the church

through all of church history

up until after

the Protestant Reformation.

The magisterial reformers

not only upheld it,

but they actually

defended infant baptism

with a kind of

renewed biblical vigor.

So in light of all of that,

we would actually ask

the opposite question.

You know,

I would tend to think,

where is the verse

that tells us

we should not

baptize infants.

The theological position

that rejects infant baptism

is called

credo-baptism.

And it's the idea

that you should only

baptize people

after they come to faith.

And this arose

in the 17th century

as a part of

the English Reformation.

This is where

the origins

of this theology

really are found.

And this led

to the formation

of certain denominations

that remain

in our society today

and societies

all around the world.

And again,

I want to say,

I've sort of made

the argument for you,

but I just want to reaffirm

to all the brothers

and sisters

who hold to this position,

tremendous respect

for you

and for this position.

And this is an area

where faithful Christians

can disagree.

And in our church,

you're free

to hold either view

and we celebrate both.

because regardless

of your position on this,

we all share

the same motivation.

We take very seriously

our commitment

to raise children

to know the love of Jesus

and to follow Him faithfully.

That is the thing

that we all agree on.

Right?

And either view

can become distorted

if we're not very careful.

Right?

For people who believe

in the baptism of infants,

paedo-baptists,

there's a danger

for people

who practice infant baptism

to make the mistake

of believing

that baptism

saves our children,

that there is something

about the water

that saves them.

Or to make the mistake

of believing

that because they've been baptized,

it guarantees their salvation

at some point.

This is not only not

seen at all

in Scripture,

but it can actually lead

to a very laissez-faire attitude

when it comes

to raising

our children

in the faith.

It becomes a kind

of box that we check.

And that's incredibly dangerous.

It's dangerous

for the spiritual

well-being

of our children.

The responsibility

of parents

is crucial

for us

to have a right

understanding

of baptism.

The Bible teaches

that God works

through believing parents

to bring children

to faith.

1 Corinthians 7

has always mystified me.

Paul is writing,

imagine a scenario

where you have

a single parent

who has come to faith.

Their spouse

is an unbeliever

and they're looking

at their young baby

and they're thinking,

what is possibly

going to happen?

What hope do I have?

I'm the only Christian

in my household.

So Paul writes

to those people

and he says this,

because of your faith,

your children

are holy.

Does he mean

they're saved?

No,

but what does he mean?

They are set apart.

They are to be treated

as members

of the covenant community.

Your faith

covers them.

Right?

Your faith

covers,

and the sanctifying work

that God is doing

in your life

is flowing

into their lives.

So he's saying,

God will work

in their lives

through your faith.

And your faith

will cover them

until they're old enough

to express faith

for themselves.

And so when an infant

is baptized,

the parents

do two things.

And they're both,

you're going to see this

in just a moment.

First,

they make the baptismal vows

on behalf

of their children

because their faith

covers their children.

As the Apostle Paul writes.

And then,

they promise

to teach the faith

to their children,

to devote themselves

to the formation

of their children

until the child

is able to embrace

the faith for themselves.

And only then

are they saved.

And there's a prayer

in the liturgy

where we say,

we can only use water.

God has to baptize

with the Holy Spirit.

Only God can bring

this child

to saving faith.

And that's what

we pray for.

Right?

So the role of parents

is crucial.

There's likewise

some dangers

that come with people

who hold to a

believers-only

baptism position

or what we would call

credo-baptists.

There's a danger

in this view,

a danger of distortion.

It doesn't apply

to everybody,

but for some people,

there can be

an emphasizing

of the experience

of the baptism,

of focusing on

a desire for the child

to have the experience

and the memory

of it.

There can also be

a kind of

focusing on

the fact that

baptism,

because it's something

that we do

after we come to faith,

then the focus

of baptism

really becomes

our individual choice

and commitment

to God.

It's ultimately

a way for us

to pledge ourselves

to God.

And I've seen

the way this can

sometimes lead

to fear

and anxiety.

Do I really mean it?

You know,

when I got baptized

at summer camp

as a sixth grader,

I really felt it.

But now,

as a sophomore

in college,

I'm really struggling.

And I don't know

if I mean it anymore.

And what does that

mean for me?

Do I need to get

baptized again?

And so some people

over the course

of their lives

will periodically

rededicate themselves

to God

because they feel

like they have

fallen away,

that they used

to mean it,

but they're not sure

what they think anymore.

And their Christian life

becomes a place

of anxiety.

Their baptism

becomes a symbol

of that anxiety

and fear

of how much

can I really

pledge myself

to God.

And I would say

if we understand

what we've seen

here this morning,

baptism is not

ultimately about

the promises

that we make

to God.

And that's good news

because we tend

to be really good

at breaking promises.

Baptism is not

about the promises

that we make

to God.

Baptism is about

the promises

that God

makes to us.

and God

never breaks

his promises

ever.

So for a child

who has been

baptized as an infant,

parents may be sad

but they may say

well they're never

going to remember

this.

They may not remember

when it happened

but they are going

to grow up

knowing that God

has put his mark

on them.

That God

has already

made a promise

to them before

they were even

conscious.

He's already

made a promise

to them

that he stands

ready to receive

them.

And so every time

children are called

to remember

their baptisms

what are they

remembering?

They're remembering

the fact that

God's posture

toward them

is this.

I'm ready

to receive you.

All you have

to do is ask

and I will wrap

my arms around you

and there's nothing

that you can do

that will put

that in jeopardy

because I've

already promised

that all you have

to do is come

to me and ask

and you're mine.

And I think

that's incredibly

powerful

for our children

to be reminded

of again

and again

and again.

Every time we do

a baptism

we encourage

all parents

of baptized kids

help them

remember their

baptism.

Tell them the

story of it.

Light the candle

that we give you

and tell them

all the details

of who was there

and what was it

like

and how did

you feel

and did you cry

and knock the

water over

and how

whatever happened

remind them

that story

and remind them

of God's promise.

The point

that I want

to leave

everybody with

I told you

if you're here

you walked in

off the street

you think

you made

a huge mistake

there's going

to be something

here for you.

Here's the point.

This applies

to everyone

here.

To understand

baptism

is to understand

the very heart

of God.

We can often

think that God

is sort of

standing back

vaguely

or even

significantly

disappointed in us

I gave you so much

and look what

you've done

with it

and that God

is kind of

waiting for us

to get it right

waiting for us

to get our act

together

waiting for us

to finally get

serious about our

faith

waiting for us

to finally

stop doing

all that junk

that is tearing

us down

and that God

is just kind

of waiting

kind of like

a frustrated

disappointed

parent

about ready

to give up

or maybe you

think that God

has completely

given up

baptism is

meant to be

a visible sign

and witness

to the world

of God's heart

it is meant

to be a public

symbol

it's not just

for our assurance

it's something

that puts the

gospel on display

for the world

to see

that God

wants you

to come to him

in faith

that God

stands ready

to receive you

with open arms

that there's

nothing that can

stand in the way

of that

if you're willing

to put your faith

in him

you can

and will

belong to him

for all eternity

it's an invitation

to the world

it's an invitation

that we have

the opportunity

to respond to

even in this

very moment

and I pray

that some of you

who are feeling

distant and

disconnected from God

will do just that

let's pray

Lord we thank you

for your grace

may your grace

and your promises

pervade our time

here

may your words

that are true

sink deeply

into our hearts

as we remember

our own baptism

and as we celebrate

the baptisms

this morning

use these

as a sign

of assurance

assure us

of your love

for us

and that we belong

to you

those of us

who are struggling

who are deconstructing

who are filled

with doubt

who are hopeless

or filled with despair

use baptism

to shore us

up

that it's okay

to fall apart

because we

are held firmly

by your grasp

and you'll never

let us go

we pray this

in your son's

holy name

amen

to you

you