Summary: <p>Baptism is not only a picture of what Jesus has done for u in the past but a picture of the life u are going to live in the future resulting ultimately in resurrection life in the very presence of God. <br><br>Baptism captures 4 meanings:<br>Repentance and Salvation from Sin (Matthew 3:11; 1 Peter 3:21)<br>Association with the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 6:1–4)<br>Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. <br>Becoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:28)<br>It Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live (Gospel Narratives).<br><br>Different Christian groups tend to focus on one of these elements to the neglect of the others like the blind men describing the elephant.<br><br>Repentance and Salvation from Sin - Catholics, Lutherans, and Church of Christ<br>Association with the death and resurrection of Jesus - Baptists & Reformers<br>Becoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God - Opposite of the 20th century American church<br>It Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live - Pentecostals <br><br>So we see we need every aspect to have a biblical view otherwise we end up confused and divided as a universal church.<br><br>TRANSITION: So lets pick up where we left off last week looking at the community aspect of Baptism.<br><br>Baptism: Baptized into the one body, the Church<br>1 Corinthians 12:13 But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share (and we were all made to drink, NASB) the same Spirit. <br>1 Corinthians 12:13 refers back to 1 Corinthians 10:1–4:<br>1 Corinthians 10:1–4 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.<br>The double use of water in this passage – the water of the Red Sea through which the Israelites passed and the water which flowed from the rock for them to drink in the desert – is easily the best explanation for the otherwise initially puzzling double reference in chapter 12 (we were all baptized … and given one spirit to drink). The Messiah’s people, for Paul, are thus the new-exodus people, formed as was ancient Israel into ‘a people’ by the redeeming action of the one God on their behalf and by the sovereign and holy presence of the one God in their midst, leading them in the pillar of cloud and fire and sustaining them on their journey. And baptism, it here becomes clear, is indeed (to use the old theological language) the ‘outward and visible’ sign of entry into the Messiah’s people, defining them just as surely as the crossing of the Red Sea defined the people whom Abraham’s God brought out of Egypt.<br><br>Baptism invokes the gift and the presence of the spirit, just like it was in the exodus when the living presence of YHWH accompanied the people out of Egypt and came to dwell in the tabernacle, the forerunner of the Jerusalem Temple.<br><br>The baptism of John the Baptist is the beginning of God recreating the Exodus centered around the person of Jesus. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will now dwell with His people the way that Yahweh did in the OT beginning at the Red Sea.<br><br>John the Baptist is recreating the Exodus narrative. He calls people to pass through the water with the result of receiving salvation, not from the Egyptians, but from sin and receiving the presence of the the one true and living God who will actively dwell with His people.<br>Having heard this, now listen to Galatians 3:26–29 afresh:<br>Galatians 3:26–29 26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. <br><br>TRANSITION: Let’s now look at a problem passage considering all we have said to this point. 1 Peter 3:21 is really Peter’s short hand way of including all 4 elements included in baptism.<br><br>1 Peter 3:21 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. <br>With this text the Catholics have taught that along with… water baptism actually does save you, and the Reformers, Luther and Calvin and all the rest reacted to this false view and ended up with a similar view in the maintaining of the practice of infants but in fact this is Peter’s short-hand way of saying the very things we have said already. So consider 1 Peter 3:21 equivalent to Paul’s Galatians 3:28.<br>1 Peter 4:1- repentance aspect<br>1 Peter 4:8–9- gospel community aspect<br>1 Peter 4:10–11- Spirit empowered ministry aspect<br>1 Peter 4:12- time of testing following baptism aspect<br><br>(So its like the pattern ultimately gets switched in its practical application within the church, and Bible interpreters have anachronistically made this switch backwards compatible resulting in so many denominations having differing views on baptism like the 6 blind men each describing the elephant, each denomination focusing on a few texts and applying those few texts to the many texts instead of letting all the texts stand on their own in all the Bible’s progressive revelation so we can see the whole elephant.)<br><br><br>Communion<br>Even the word communion has led to a reductionist view. It isn’t just communion with God, but communion with each other.<br><br>1 Corinthians 10:16 16 When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? 17 And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.<br>1 Corinthians 11:27–30 27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. <br><br><br>Conclusion:<br>Let’s have a moment of contemplation to see if we are living out the 4 elements in our own lives?<br><br>Repentance and Salvation from Sin <br>Association with the death and resurrection of Jesus <br>Becoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God <br>It Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live</p>
