Among the many final phrases of Jesus to the apostles earlier than He ascended to heaven was this fee: “Go subsequently and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them within the identify of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, educating them to look at all that I’ve commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20).
Jesus informed the apostles what He wished: that they might proclaim the Gospel of the dominion and so make disciples. They had been underneath a transparent command to baptize those that got here to imagine—and implicitly, those that got here to imagine had been underneath a command to be baptized.
Because the story of the early church continues within the e book of Acts, what we see is that the apostles obeyed the Lord’s specific command, and new disciples obeyed His implicit command. 4 totally different accounts in Acts present us that baptism is a immediate expression of the repentance and religion granted by means of listening to and believing the Gospel. It’s the applicable and obligatory response to new religion in Christ.
Baptism with Water on Pentecost
The primary account of water baptism in Acts comes on the day of Pentecost, when God the Father baptized the church with the Holy Spirit. As a crowd gathered to the sound of the speeding wind and was amazed by the sight of the disciples talking in every kind of languages, Peter stood as much as preach the Gospel: “Let all the home of Israel subsequently know for sure that God has made him each Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Within the following verses, the group responds:
Now once they heard this they had been lower to the center, and mentioned to Peter and the remainder of the apostles, “Brothers, what we could do?” And Peter mentioned to them, “Repent and be baptized each one in every of you within the identify of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you’ll obtain the present of the Holy Spirit.” … So those that acquired his phrase had been baptized, and there have been added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:37–38, 41)
Peter requires individuals to “repent.” The Greek phrase, metanoeō, means to vary one’s thoughts. Within the phrases of F. F. Bruce, repentance “entails a turning with contrition from sin to God.” To come across Jesus is to face a call both to embrace Jesus, the forgiveness of sins provided within the cross, and the brand new lifetime of righteousness within the Spirit or to proceed on the trail of sin and rebel from God.
Baptism is a immediate expression of the repentance and religion granted by means of listening to and believing the Gospel.
On the coronary heart of the Gospel message is the reality that we’re sinners. We’re within the improper with God, and we are able to’t put ourselves in the precise with God. The excellent news is that what we can not do for ourselves He has come and accomplished for us, dwelling the right life that we must always reside (however can’t) and dying in our place the dying that we deserve.
To turn into a disciple is to die to the previous life that you simply’ve been dwelling and reside a brand new life in Jesus by the ability of the Holy Spirit. This dying and resurrection is portrayed within the act of baptism. As Jesus was buried and raised to life, so we’re to be buried and raised in baptism (Rom. 6:4–5; Col. 2:12–13). It’s an expression of our whole break with our “former method of life” (Eph. 4:22) on the earth and an image of God’s resurrection energy at work in us.
So, after Peter preached, those that acquired the phrase and had been lower to the center didn’t delay. They believed, they repented, and having accomplished so, they instantly acquired water baptism because the outward show of their inward religion.
“See, Right here Is Water!”
By the e book of Acts, this immediate baptism demonstrating repentance in response to religion is the invariable follow of the early church. We see it subsequent in accounts about Philip the evangelist in Acts chapter 8, first as he preached in Samaria (v. 12) after which when the Holy Spirit led him to the chariot of the Ethiopian official.
This latter story particularly demonstrates the fast utility of baptism. As Philip rode alongside within the man’s chariot, he “informed him the excellent news about Jesus.” The person believed, and he took the initiative: “The eunuch mentioned, ‘See, right here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?’ And he commanded the chariot to cease, they usually each went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him” (Acts 8:35–36, 38).
How did the Ethiopian know he wanted baptism? Apparently, it was a part of the “excellent news about Jesus” that Philip had informed him. It wasn’t an addendum. It wasn’t an additional. Philip had mentioned, in impact, “In case you are enlisted within the military underneath the Commander, the Lord Jesus Christ, you put on the uniform. And a part of the uniform is being baptized.” So, having believed and set his coronary heart to observe Jesus, he was baptized.
Two New Believers
Two tales set within the metropolis of Philippi in Acts 16—occasions that occurred about twenty years after Christ’s ascension—will assist to conclude the purpose, although they won’t exhaust the story of baptism within the e book of Acts.
First, there was “a lady named Lydia, from the town of Thyatira, a vendor of purple items, who was a worshiper of God.” And we learn that “the Lord opened her coronary heart to concentrate to what was mentioned by Paul”—that’s, to the message of the Gospel. Whereas we aren’t given a transparent timeline, the verse that follows tells us that “she was baptized, and her family as effectively” (Acts 16:14–15).
With Lydia, there is no such thing as a falderal; it’s only a matter of truth. On account of the Gospel invading her life, she presumably mentioned, “Properly, I wish to do no matter it means to turn into a follower of Jesus Christ.” The reply, as Peter had mentioned in Acts 2, was to “repent and be baptized.” And so she did, professing her religion and illustrating what it means to die with Christ and be raised to newness of life.
Then there’s the Philippian jailer, who was ready to kill himself when an earthquake threw open the doorways of his jail. However underneath the management of Paul and Silas, the prisoners had not taken the chance to flee, and Paul stayed the jailer’s hand. Seemingly out of the blue, the jailer mentioned, “Sirs, what should I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). How he got here to this query we don’t know—however one thing in his life to that time, or maybe one thing he had heard to that evening as Paul and Silas sang their hymns (v. 25), had made him perceive that he wanted a Savior. A second of maximum misery and excessive aid had made him imagine it.
So Paul and Silas answered him:
They mentioned, “Imagine within the Lord Jesus, and you’ll be saved, you and your family.” They usually spoke the phrase of the Lord to him and to all who had been in his home. And he took them the identical hour of the evening and washed their wounds; and he was baptized without delay, he and all his household. (Acts 16:31–33)
Once more, we see the now-familiar sample: The jailer heard the Gospel, he modified his thoughts, and he expressed his newfound religion by means of baptism.
Baptizing Our Entire Life
A narrative is informed of a businessman in Yorkshire who arrived for his baptism in his finest go well with. The pastor tried to steer him to vary his garments earlier than he entered the pool. “No,” he mentioned. “I’ve lived my life utterly consumed with creating wealth, and this go well with represents all that I’ve ever aspired to. I wish to baptize this go well with unto the lordship of Jesus Christ.”
To inform that story is to not mandate a sure method of being dressed throughout baptism. It’s to remind us that when women and men come out of the pool, they arrive up having died to a former way of life and having devoted their lives to Jesus Christ. To undergo baptism is an act of obedience to the Lord’s command, and it is usually an expression of our dedication to obey Jesus in every thing.
If you happen to imagine in Jesus Christ and you haven’t been baptized, what’s conserving you? The Lord who forgave your sins has commanded you to do that, and He deserves at least your full self. And for many who have handed by means of the waters of baptism, let every day be an event for gratitude for the present of religion and the grace that referred to as you to Christ. Bear in mind your union with Him in dying and resurrection, and stroll day by day in newness of life, joyfully following the one who gave Himself for you.
This text was tailored from the sermon “Repent and Be Baptized” by Alistair Begg.
