Baptism: Who, What, When, Where, Why - Gerald Birky

Good morning, Christian greetings to all this morning. It's a

good day. It's a beautiful day. It's a good day

to be here, and it's a has been as has

been announced stated. We're not we're not, We're not fuzzy

on this point. It's it's kind of an extra special,

extra special service for us here today. And we are here.

We are here because of because of him? Who? Who

am I talking about? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, forever.

Those those words we find in Hebrews Hebrews thirteen, Jesus Christ,

and our relationship to him, and how we think about him,

what we what we believe about this man? So what

is what is the big deal about baptism? Stop and

think about that. I haven't preached very many baptismal services.

I think maybe one or two in the past. I'm

not even certain didn't didn't go back and look at

the records. But doesn't happen very often, these these services annually?

Maybe hardly that sometimes, But I hope to the fact

of the matter is, today is a very special day

for Halsey men night Church. Today is also a very

special and meaningful day to the Baptismal class. Those of

you sitting here, and I I, well, I remember fairly clearly.

I remember clearly the day and the feelings, my feelings

from the day I was baptized. And I wasn't I

wasn't as old as some of you here. I don't

know that I was younger than the two youngest here.

But's in there somewhere twelve years old, I think. And

so today the thoughts I have prepared, I've prepared for

for you. The balance of the congregation, they can they

can either take it or leave it. They can, they can,

they can listen or not. But today, for you, today

is a day of statements and commitments. Now, commitments are

something you say with your mouth. You know, I I

intend to do this statement when we when we, when

we use a term, you know, make a statement. You

can do that without words. You know, you can do

that by how you drive, by your body, body language, stance.

And so that's the interesting thing about this thing of

baptism is is you're making a statement by what you're

doing or allowing to be done. But you're also you're

making your baptism is the time of making a public

statement about a few different things. Actually, how you see yourself.

How you see God's plan of salvation Jesus, how that

fits together, how you see God's people the church special

day for the local church to be adding souls to

the visible local body of believers. And this one I would,

I would, This is where I'll direct just a thought,

a thought or two, not specifically to the baptismal class,

but as I was thinking about preparing studying this, and

maybe it's because well, Joel stated that men, as opposed

to women, men tend to want to build, event, invent, create,

get things started, a little less on the nurturing side.

But it heard to me as I was putting my

thoughts together that a baptismal class reminds me kind of

a house foundation. Now, the reality is those of us

that work in building, we know the amount of work

that goes into a house or a building like this,

the amount of work that happens below the ground. When

you go to build a house, I mean, the walls

have to set on a foundation. And before the foundation,

you you need to get you need to get the

ground prepared underneath it there it needs to be it

needs to be firm, it needs to be solid. You

need you need ditches and water and sewer and septic

and all of all of the things. And when you

when in building a house, when you get to the

foundation and you're ready to put up the walls, there

is a certain sense of accomplishment. It is it you've

you've you've completed a very important part of the house.

But there's more details. In other words, a truly finished

house is when you can sit inside and in the

rain by the fire and eat popcorn and not get

water dripping on your head. That's the completed house. And

I would say in your Christian life, especially those of

you who are young, baptism and coming to this point

is like getting getting the underground done, getting the foundation,

getting getting a proper preparation for your Christian life. Jesus

said this Matthew ten twenty two and twenty three, And

ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake,

But he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

That was Jesus talking to real people about I think

he was he was talking about some coming events within

their lifetimes, destruction of Jerusalem some of that, But it

also applies applies broader, so for the for the local church.

And this this this concept or this this special day

of adding adding people, adding souls to the to the

visible named local church. It's it's a good day. It's

it's special. But I also have had to think about

a statement that my father in Los Angelas made to

me more than one time. I'll try to quote him.

He's not here to correct me. But the only actual

success that a church can confidently point to, how does

a church measure it success? How do we how do

we tell a successful church from an unsuccessful church? But

the only actual, verifiable results that a church can confidently

point to is found in the cemetery. It's called buried saints.

Sounds a little morbid, but I think there's there's there's

there's some truth to that. Foundations are great, startings are good,

but we have to keep building. And so to you

the baptismal class here, as you think about baptism, turning

your Bibles with Matthew three, I'm going to we're gonna

read that that chapter, that story to it's actually kind

of two stories. But talk about this thing of baptism

and understand in the world over the last several thousand years,

these this questions surrounding baptism have been a point of

a lot of discussion. It there been there have been

church splits over it. There have been wars fought over

the correct definitions. And as I thought about these various questions,

my mind went to a little game that we we

played some You ever play the game? Do you know

what I'm talking about? Who? What? When? Where? Why? You

ever play that? I'll explain it just a little bit.

It's a good game for a family of children that

are that are in a car and now halfway between

Hood River and Pendleton, nothing to do but wait. So

take a piece of paper, make five lines who, what, when? Where? Why?

And the first first line you each write a name.

You fold the paper on and you pass it to

the next person, and then you write what or the

third line when or when? Where and why? So you

have this, you have a statement and then you read

them and they are completely ridiculous, entertaining it can the

it's something to do and something to laugh about. Then

the ridiculous part of that is, I mean, yeah, you

come up with a sentence that almost makes no sense

or can be ridiculous, you know, just it's it's random,

random things that make a sentence but we're gonna look

at those questions who, what, when, or why, and instead

of completely random answers, look for a Bible answer Bible

verses to answer these questions. So Toannard, that's that is

kind of where I plan to take you for the

next few minutes here. But to get our minds, we'll

go to the kind of the introduction of baptism to

the Christian Church Matthew, chapter three, verse one. In those

days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of

Judea and saying, repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven

is at hand. For this is he that was spoken

of by the prophet Isaiah, saying the voice of one

crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight. And the same John had his

raiment of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins,

and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went

out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the

region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan,

confessing their sins. But when he John saw many of

the Pharisees and sadducees come to his baptism. He said,

unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you

to flee from the wrath, to come bring forth therefore

fruits mea heat for repentance, or worthy of repentance, or

valid ones. And think not to say within yourselves we

have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you

that God is able of these stones to raise up children,

unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid under

the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth

not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into

the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.

But he that cometh after me is mightier than I,

whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall

baptize you with the Holy ghost and with fire, whose

fan is in his hand. And he will thoroughly purge

his floor and gather his wheat into the garner. But

he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then

cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan, unto John, to be

baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying I have

need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me,

Jesus answering, said unto him, suffer it to be so now,

for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then

he suffered, or allowed him to. And Jesus, when he

was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo,

the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the

Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him,

and lowie voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son,

in whom I'm well pleased. The story kind of splits

there in verse in verse thirteen says, then cometh Jesus

tells us of what John the Baptist was doing. John

the Baptist river Jordan. Now I haven't been to Israel.

Did just a little bit of checking, and apparently that

was a some distance from the Jordan River doesn't run

through Jerusalem, as I understand the geography, so it was

a place that needed to be traveled to where John

was preaching, and people went there. I don't think it

was a one day deal. I think he must have

spent some time there. It says there that that then

went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all

the region around about Jordan's so so people came from

multiple places to listen to preaching, to be told to repent,

and well, who has warned you to flee from the

wrath to come? Is what John said to the to

the to people coming who he apparently thought were insincere

or or weren't well. I think he was like, he

was almost like, what what what are you folks doing here?

You are You're the problem here in this equation, Bring

forth meat, fruits, meet for repentance. Let's see, let's see

some Let's see some results, not just not just not

just a not just a statement that I'm a bad guy,

and then continue being the bad guy. So, in that

context people arriving confessing sin being baptized, we have Jesus

also arrives from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized. And

John said, John, his cousin slightly older than Jesus, said no,

this is backwards. I should be baptized by you. And

Jesus said, no, just just stay the course, do what

you're doing. I also, I also plan to accept baptism,

identify with people, and wait and see what happens the

statement the voice from heaven that John and multiple people

must have heard, this is my beloved son. This man

who was baptized was declared from heaven God's son, my

son or the voice's son. This is my beloved son,

and whom I'm well pleased. Jesus did what his father

wanted him to do. At that point, a very a

very beautiful, beautiful picture. So now to the to these questions,

who who needs baptism? Well, historically, historically there's there there's baptism.

When when John was offering that, well, I actually I

read I read it both ways. Some said this is

this was an introduction. Nobody knew what this was. Others said, no,

actually it was a was a a practice. There there's

actually was religious groups called the Pagan the Pagan Mysteries.

There were groups of people who had gotten together with

with common goals and common interests. But it was a

mystery how you got into the group. Nobody could. You

can't say, yes, I'm part of that group. But how

did you get to be a part of that group? Well,

it was a mystery. They were called the Pagan Mysteries.

Found it intriguing that that song song we sang. That

ended up with saying we own the mystery. There was

no mystery. But apparently in these pagan mysteries religious groups

baptism or the use of a water ceremony was part

of was part of the equation. Others, looking looking into history,

we see, well that was that was the Pagans in

the in the Jewish law, if you read in Leviticus,

the giving of the law, the ceremonies, all of the

there was there was washings and what the priest had

to do. That was all those things. Some of those

were also referred to as bapti baptism when hm when

Paul I think it was. Paul wrote, there's somewhere he

uses the term divers washings, various washings. That's the same

Greek word that that is baptized. There were there were

there were so this word, this idea of using water

in water in religious ceremonies, that was around. That was

around since the time of Moses. John the Baptist said,

repent me baptized Jesus when he left, told the disciples

to baptize Saul on the on the road to Emmaeus, No,

not the road to Damascus. Saul was struck down. He

was a religious man, but he was told by anon

Iris Anonius, this church leader then Joel. Joel actually read

the verse in Acts twenty two, and it has the

word in it. Now, why Terry est thou quit fooling around,

be baptized, Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins,

calling on the name of the Lord. So what you

were going to need need to do? Brother Saul soon

to be or or now name changed to Paul, stand up,

get moving, be baptized, washing, washing away your sins, calling

on the name of the Lord. Acts two. Let's read.

Let's read some the clocks moving. The clock's moving on

for me acts to currently, who needs baptism? We gotta

find So the story here. If you look at the

beginning of the chapter Pentecost, the sound from heaven, rushing

mighty wind filled all the house. And in verse two

they were sitting there appeared cloven tongues of fire, like

as of fire, sat upon them. They were filled with

the holy ghosts. They began to speak with other tongues,

and there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out

of every nation under heaven. So it was a large

large and multicultural group, multiple nationalities, multiple nationalities, but Jews.

These were the people who were doing it right. These

were God's chosen people who were in the correct church.

They weren't in the pagan church. They were followers of Jehovah.

And then in verse fourteen, we have Peter standing up

and he starts preaching to them and says, ye, men

of Judea, all you that dwell at Jerusalem, be this

known to you, and hearken to my words, for these

are not drunken as you suppose, seeing it is third

hour of the day. But this is that which was

spoken by the prophet Joel. He said, no, this is

prophecy being fulfilled right now. This is what's happening. And

you guys have verse twenty nine. Men and brother, let

me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that

he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is

with us into this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and

knowing that God had sworn and os to him that

of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh,

he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He,

seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that

his soul was not left in hell, neither did his

flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof

we all are witness. He's preaching about this man that

they killed. Thirty six. Therefore, let all the house of

Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus,

whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Lord is

just the King, Christ is the Messiah the Savior verse

thirty seven. Now when they heard this, they were pricked

in their hearts and said into Peter and the rest

of the apostles men and brethren, what shall we do.

Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one

of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the

remission of sins, and you'll receive the Holy Ghost. For

the promise is unto you and to your children, and

to all that are afar off, even as many as

the Lord our God shall call, and with many other words,

that he testify and exhort, saying, save yourself from this

untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized,

and the same day they were added unto them about

three thousand souls, a very impressive thing. Three thousand, three

thousand is a number that I don't I haven't seen

a baptismal class of three thousand. But that was the

entire That was the entire group, I think, or at

least people and mass. But they were God's people. They

were people intent on serving God. And now they're getting

told that we that our people, that we made a mistake.

We killed Jesus, we killed the Christ. But now that

let's let's they can agree. Those three thousand people could

agree that Jesus Christ was the son of God. On

with who needs baptism? All men. That's what we're seeing

here from every nation under heaven, the Jews and the Gentiles.

Acts eight twelve another another time, I think it was

Philip there specifically said both men and women, not just

the men, even though that was a very oh, a

male dominant, a male dominant society, but men and women

both baptized. Moving on to what what is baptism. We

looked at the baptism of John. That was a baptism

calling people to repentance, the baptism that Jesus. Jesus told

the twelve Disciples on the Great Commission. He said, go teach,

make disciples, go teach, baptize, and that baptism very soon

came to mean what the person believes about Jesus Christ,

that Jesus Christ is the son of God. So what

is baptism? Joel gave us some of those definitions very correct.

It's the it's the it's the ceremony or ordinance where

we use water to help you make the public state. Previously,

it was a gateway to the Jewish faith in the

in the in the receiving of a proselyte into the

into the that was a non Jew into the into

the Jewish community. Before Christ, there was there was a

way to do that. The water was involved there as well.

Baptism is often called the gateway to the Christian Church. Baptism,

what is it? The outward sign of inward cleansing. Also

baptized into one body one Corinthians twelve. For by one spirit.

We are all baptized into one body, whether we be

Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, and have been all

made to drink into one spirit. So enough on what

when when is the right time for baptism. Well, it's

going to be different for every person. But the short answer.

The correct answer would be when that when the requirements

are met those verses and acts too, when was the

right time for them to be baptized? Peter said, be

baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, repent and be

baptized in that order post repentance. Demonstration of faith is

also another another marker acts thir at eight thirty four.

There's another one of these these. This is this was Philip,

Ethiopian eunuch. Philip opened his mouth, preached to him Jesus.

They were they were traveling, he was in a chariot,

and the eunuch said, verse thirty six, see here's water.

What doth hinder me to be baptized? And the requirement

that that Philip said is this. Philip said, if thou

believest with all thine heart, thou mayst so belief in Christ.

And he threw another element of another qualifier in there,

with all thy heart, in other thereds not a half

hearted not sincerity. Another requirement is willingness. If you don't,

if you're not willing to be baptized, then apparently now

is not the right time. Availability of water. That was

a that was that on this I mean traveling in

the desert. That would have been a a consideration one negative,

not not as an infant. I don't believe, I do

not believe that that there would be anything wrong or

sinful with getting water on an infant, baptizing an infant.

But you're not going to accomplish anything but clean up

the infant physically most of the time is needed. But

Jesus gave one more Matthew eighteen, one other requirement, not

necessarily for baptism, but for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus said this in Matthew eighteen. At the same time

came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, who is the greatest

in the Kingdom of Heaven. And Jesus called a little

child unto him and sent him in the midst of him,

and said, barely, I say to you, except you be

converted and become his little children, you shall not enter

into the Kingdom of Heaven. He told. He said that

not to heathen people, but to the disciples, to the

ones who believed that they were doing it right. Disciples

were following Jesus, but in need of conversion translation doing

a whole row of good deeds does not necessarily equal conversion.

Conversion is the laying down of one's opinions and selfishness

surrender version change. We think of the term metamorphosis, you know,

like the caterpillar to the butterfly. That's that's that's this,

this deep innerchange. Two truthan Is five seventeen says Therefore,

if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

When when the requirements are met? Where where should the

baptism take place? We have the examples we could go

into that. It happened in the Jordan River, It happened

twenty miles away in Jerusalem. It happened in houses. The

Philippian jailer in houses, in a house during the night.

That is an impressive story. Paul and Silas in jail earthquake.

The keeper of the jail thought they had left, the

thought the prisoners had escaped. He was in a bad situation.

They said, stop, we're still here. And he was so

impressed by that. He came to them, he says, and

he brought them out and said so. He he released

a couple of prisoners and said, sirs, what must I

do to be saved? And they said, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy

house Zach sixteen. And they spake unto him the word

of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night,

washed their stripes, and was baptized. He and all his straightway.

And when he had brought them into his house, he

set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with

all his house. So there was a baptism there. But

this man, this man cleaned them up and he was happy.

He had a good time. But he had just lost

his job. Most probably he was responsible to keep these

prisoners and he had them in his house. There's a

good chance he didn't survive very long. For sure, he

lost his job. He may have become the next prisoner.

But he was baptized in his house because of his belief.

This this this baptizer, this Philip said, where Paul said,

it'll be fine. You're you're meeting the conditions you believe,

you believe in who Jesus is to a level that

you're risking your life. Yes, you're baptized you're you are

one of us. That's why. That's where? Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Why do we do it? Christ commands it. Jesus left

us an example. He was baptized. It's been a custom.

It's been a custom of the Church since Jesus sent

the apostles out to do that. This next one here

I have to answer the question why. This is from

words of written by Daniel Coffin, Doctors of the Bible

Book as the foremost among church ordinances. It is a

most appropriate and impressive way of receiving converts into the

visible Church. It's a seal of our profession of faith

and acceptance. It's an act of obedience to the teachings

of the apostles, who were clearly directed by Jesus just

before his ascension to go teach. Baptize. But not not

any old baptism, not the baptism of the of the

not the mystery baptism of the Pagans, not the not

the ceremonial washings and and washing your hands correctly and

taking a full bath of the of the Jewish priests.

But you were to be baptized in the name of

the Father Son and the Holy Ghost. Get another quote

from Daniel Kaufin. It is an act of obedience, not

of cleansing. Nobody ever gets too good to be baptized.

Nobody is good enough for heaven as long as he

with stands a single one of God's commandments. And water

baptism is emphatically commanded. So that would be why I

added a few more questions to that list, the who, what, when, where, why, how,

and by whom? And that brings you into another whole discussion.

Immersion versus affusion versus aspersion. Three different types. Immersion putting

you completely underwater, Affusion, which is pouring water on top,

either by hand or out of a picture, or out

of a bowl or a cup. Aspersion is the sling

of water into the air to baptize a whole bunch

of people. It's an interesting thing, but Jesus, I believe,

was kind of intentionally vague exactly how you're going to

do this. He gave a command that needed to fit

all cultures over thousands of years. We don't all have

the same tools, we don't all have the same things.

But you've all got water and you can be baptized.

But another thing, on the how point, Just think about

this one for a little bit. Think about obeying God's commands.

Think about the Ten commandments. Thou shalt not and there's

lots of things that you are supposed to do or

supposed to not do. Think of the ten commandments. You know,

thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt

not committed aultery, all these things and you and you

can go out in the middle of one hundred and

sixty acre field, stand in the middle and complete the

Ten Commandments by yourself. But this commandment requires somebody else.

You can't baptize by yourself. There's no way to complete

this one by yourself. And I think that is just

a very intriguing point. But most conversions come in the

context of relationships. Most people are helped have questions, and

there are other humans involved in conversion. That's what preaching

is about. That's that's what one on one personal work is.

And if the person is truly converted and is willing

to see themselves as needy and in need of help

and encouragement to walk the Christian life, to finish building,

to finish completing the house, so to speak, he will

be in a frame of mind. He will be in

this frame of mind. Let me read you these verses

from me. Philippians too. He says this, and think about

this in the context of baptism and needing others to

needing someone else, needing other people to help you. Fulfill

that command Philippians too. This was not necessarily talking about baptism.

But listen to the concepts in these verses. Fulfill ye

my joy, that you be like minded, having the same love,

being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be

done through strife or vainglory, but in low holiness of mind,

let each esteem other better than themselves. Look, not every

man on his own things, but every man also on

the things of others. Let this mind be in you,

which was also in Christ. Jesus, who being in the

form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal

with God, but made himself of no reputation took upon

him the form of a servant, was made in the

likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man,

he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the

death of the cross. So Jesus, who did, who who

was baptized? Who God said, No, this is what I

wanted might want my son to do. God said, from heaven,

I'm pleased one Peter three. There's a phrase there the

like figure wherein to baptism also doth also now save us,

not putting away the filth of the flesh, but the

answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ. So baptism saves us by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ. If we have the answer of a

good conscience toward God, if the mind has been changed,

if the conscience is clear, the answer of a good

conscience would equal obedience and obedience without shame. Jesus said,

we are not to be ashamed of him. If we are,

he'll be ashamed of us later. And so to you,

the baptismal class, we think about these who, what, when, where, why,

and how. I'm happy. I'm happy that you have come

to this point. I'm happy that you are being willing

to be publicly vulnerable to participate in this ceremony. It's

a public act committing yourself to Christ in his church.

When Jesus was baptized, God said, I'm well pleased. And

this step also, you're doing it to get God's approval.

God has spiritual blessings to pour out on you because

of your obedience to this simple command and the familiar

verse the Word of faith, which we preach, that if

thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and

shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him

from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the

heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession

is made unto salvation. So I asked, I wish a

blessing on you as you make these statements and commitments.

May God richly bless you. Let's have posing solved