Baptism: Saved

Psalm 118:5-6 (Opening) 5  Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. 6  The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? Introduction Welcome to September. Temperatures are getting a little cooler. Kids and teachers have gone back to school. I noticed about a week ago or so that some of the leaves on some maple trees have begun to change color. And pumpkin spice is everywhere. I remember when I was in school, every year we’d start up in math class and review for the first few weeks. And they’d always start out with set theory. Remember set theory? You start with a rectangle, and they call that the Universe. Then they say we have a set of these things, call it A, which is a subset of the Universe, and another set of another thing, call it B, which is a subset of the Universe, too. And set A and set B have things in common, called an intersection, which is a subset of both A and B. Have your eyes glazed over yet? I think I made my point. Sometimes, we may need to review some of the basics that we think we understand, so we can better understand the basics before we move on to some things that are more complicated. I heard a story about a couple who were on vacation and went to a church they hadn’t visited before. They went in, and were greeted by some of the members and made to feel very welcome. They found a place to sit and were getting comfortable when someone came up behind them. “I’m sorry, but this seat’s saved,” they were told. “Wow! That’s great! So are we!” I tell you that story for a few reasons. First, it’s funny, and I like funny stories. Second, because it demonstrates the point that sometimes people understand something different than others do. People have different interpretations of what something means. The members of that congregation used the meaning of “saved” as in reserved. Someone else usually sat there, and they wanted to make sure that the visitors understood that fact. The visitors, however, turned the table on the members by using a more church-oriented definition of the word. Saved That begs the question, what exactly does it mean to be saved? We can start by looking at the Ancient Greek word that is translated as “saved”. That word is sozo. Like saved, sozo has many different definitions. It can mean to be rescued, like from a sinking ship. In Matthew chapter 8, after Jesus healed Peter’s mother in law and many other people, the next day He went down to the Sea of Galilee and got into a boat. Matthew 8:23-26 23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. From the point of view of His disciples, Jesus saved their lives, rescuing them from the terrifying wind and waves. Not that they were probably in any real danger, because God had a plan, and it was going to happen. There was no way that boat was going to sink. But, like Jesus said, His disciples had little faith, and feared for their lives. Sozo can also mean to make well or healthy. It’s used several times when people are healed by Jesus or by someone else. In one instance that Matthew tells us about, Jesus is approached by a man who says his daughter has died and asks Jesus to come and lay His hands on her so that she could live. Matthew 9:20-22 20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. Along the same lines as this example, another possible translation of the word sozo is healed. I know, healed and made well are similar concepts, and depending on the translation you’re reading from, sometimes sozo is translated as “made well” in one translation and “healed” in another. In my experience, healed is used more when talking about an injury, like a broken leg, or something physically wrong. Someone is made well when they recover from an illness. But that’s not always the case. For Peter, though, when he was on trial before the Sanhedrin for helping a 40-year-old man who had been crippled from birth. He was begging at the Beautiful Gate at the Temple. Peter and John saw him and told him they didn’t have any money, but would give him what they had, and told him to get up and walk, which he did, to everyone’s amazement. Everyone who went into the Temple through that gate must have known this man, and when he was seen in the Temple, people were amazed. The man was praising God in the Temple for the first time in his life, because a crippled man was not allowed to enter the Temple. But Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin because they were causing problems and preaching about Jesus. Peter had a response for the Sanhedrin. Acts 4:8-12 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Peter takes advantage of the double meaning of sozo as healed and saved in the church-oriented definition of the word. We can sort of see the play on words in English, but it really stands out in Greek. From what? With that understanding or the Greek word sozo, what are we to be saved from? Well, lots of things, really. To follow the definition of sozo as “to make well”, that’s what Jesus did; He made people healthy. He healed people. When Jesus was healing people in Capernaum, including Peter’s mother-in-law, Matthew tells us Jesus’ healing ministry had a purpose. Matthew 8:14-17 14 And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” Jesus physically saved people from illness, disease, and cast out evil spirits. But He used this healing the same way Peter and John did with the 40-year-old cripple: save them from something physical to lead them to a different kind of saving. Instead of making people physically healthy or protecting them from physical harm, this saving has more of a “long-term” view. When Peter spoke to the group on the day of Pentecost, he told them about the prophecy about Jesus, then he told them Jesus was the Messiah, and they killed Him. Then, when they asked what to do, he said they needed to repent of their sin and be immersed to be forgiven. But he didn’t stop there. Acts 2:40 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” He had told them what to do to save themselves, to repent and be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ. 3000 of them did that, but not all of them who heard him responded to what he said. Jesus was a common name for Jews in the first century. Almost as common as the name Mary was for women. When Joseph found out that Mary was going to have a baby, he was going to divorce her, or back out of the marriage, since they were betrothed and not officially married by today’s standards. For the Jews of that day, and for centuries before, getting out of a betrothal required a divorce. But Joseph had a visitor who told him not to worry about the baby. An angel spoke to him about it. Matthew 1:21 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means Yahweh Saves, or Yahweh is Salvation. The angel was reinforcing to Joseph the importance of this child in view of all of eternity. And that’s the ultimate thing we need to be saved from, our sins. Jesus was the only man who lived a sinless life. He lived the example life for us. We all sin, so we need to be saved from that, because sin, or lawlessness, requires punishment and the only punishment for disobeying God is death. How? So, how does this work? How does one get saved? Well, looking at what Peter said to the Sanhedrin, it’s something about Jesus. Acts 4:12 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” His name actually said salvation. Where else would you go? Throughout the book of Acts, we see several of the disciples and apostles going around throughout Judea, Samaria, and the rest of the Roman world, telling people the good news about Jesus, how they can be saved from the consequences of their sins. When Paul and Silas were in Philippi, they got themselves into a bit of trouble. Actually, it would have been unusual for them not to find themselves in trouble or being persecuted for some reason. Paul and Silas were being followed by a slave girl who had a “spirit of divination” that kept yelling that Paul and Silas were “servants of the Most High God, proclaiming the way of salvation.” After several days of dealing with this, Paul finally cast the spirit out of her, but that upset her owner, because he lost his potential for earning money by fortune telling. So the owner took them before the magistrate. The magistrate had them flogged and thrown in prison. That night, near midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns, and there was an earthquake. All the prison doors opened, and the chains fell off the prisoners. When the jailor learned what had happened, he was going to commit suicide because if any escaped, his life would have been forfeit. But Paul yelled to him and stopped him. Acts 16:30-33 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Paul told the man to believe in Jesus as Lord, and he would be saved. So Paul told the jailor about Jesus. We don’t know how long they talked, but it wasn’t long. Maybe the jailor had been listening to the singing and praying like the other prisoners had been. But when Paul finished explaining about Jesus, the jailor washed Paul and Silas’ wounds, and then the jailor and his family were immersed. Luke doesn’t tell us that Paul told them they had to be immersed, but we see it happening. In fact, not just the jailor, but his entire family was immersed. Some have used this as support for infant baptism, but you can’t make an honest and defendable argument from silence. It doesn’t say how old the members of his household were, so we can’t say one way or the other. We can say that Paul told him that he had to believe. Believing requires understanding who Jesus is and what He came to do. If you can’t do that, and I would argue that an infant can’t do that, then you can’t be saved. Or rather, I would say you don’t have to be saved. If you can’t understand who Jesus is, it’s likely you can’t understand what sin is, so you can’t be held accountable for your sins. When Paul, or actually Saul, was in Damascus after his encounter with Jesus on the road, he spent three days fasting and praying while he was blind, waiting, because Jesus told him to do it. When Ananias came to him, he healed his blindness, and then he said Acts 22:16 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’ Saul was to be immersed, calling on the name of Jesus, that is, in Jesus’ name, to wash away his sins. He would be forgiven of the sins he had committed, including the murders of all the Christians he had persecuted and had brought before the Sanhedrin for trial. Paul called himself the worst of sinners, because he persecuted the Church, and Jesus Himself said Saul was persecuting Him. Before Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at God’s right hand, He gave final instructions to His apostles, who would remain behind to be His representatives on the earth. Mark 16:15-16 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God, and is Lord, and is immersed into His name, will be saved. Saved from what? Saved from the consequences of their sin. Remember, sin is disobedience toward God, and that is punishable by death. There is no other option. Either obey God or die in your sins. Being immersed into Jesus’ name pays the penalty for those sins. Since Jesus lived a sinless life and died, His death is a sacrifice, an appeasement to God, if you will, for those of us who are sinful. But to be covered by His blood, you need to be a part of His death. To do that, you need to be immersed into His name. Conclusion Immersed into His name, or as Paul put it Romans 6:3-4 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. If we died as sinners, in Christ’s death, then when we come up out of the water, our sins have been washed away, and we are a new person, reborn, starting over again, but now we’re forgiven. We’re saved from the penalty for the sins we’d committed. We’re no longer held responsible for them. Not everyone will be saved. Not everyone has the desire to be saved. But we need to make sure as many as possible hear about Jesus and have the opportunity to make that decision for themselves. That’s our job as Christians. We’re supposed to “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.” That’s what Jesus said to do. The key to that gospel is the understanding that our sins can be forgiven, if we believe and accept that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and have faith that by obeying the gospel we can be saved. How do you obey the gospel? Well, Paul says that he preached the gospel everywhere he went, and that all he preached was Christ and Him crucified. So, obeying the gospel would be believing in Christ as Lord and Savior, and being immersed, reenacting His death, burial, and resurrection as a demonstration of that faith. Does being immersed in water save you? Only if you believe and have faith in Him. Otherwise you’re just getting wet. Like Jesus said, “whoever believes and is immersed will be saved.” If that doesn’t describe you, if you haven’t obeyed Him, we should talk about it. Galatians 3:27-29 (Closing) 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Bible Study 1 Peter 3:18-22 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.