What We Believe & Why - Chapter Four

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What We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Copyright - Lester Hutson - 1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.

Chapter Four
John's Baptism

INTRODUCTION: TEXT: Acts 19:3

For a variety of reasons, baptism is controversial issue with many. This lesson is not an attempt to answer every question on the subject, but it will shed light on several often misunderstood points.

John, who is called the Baptist, was the first to baptize. Much is said in scriptures about John's baptism. A more careful analysis of it will particularly show you why we believe it was a Baptist baptism, and why only believers are eligible to receive it.

I. FIRST, LET US CONSIDER THE MAN CALLED JOHN.

A. He was sent directly from God.

1. John 1:6 clearly says, "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John."

2. John was not a "self-styled" prophet or dreamer. he was not "doing his own thing." He was not an impostor, claiming to be on a divine mission, when God was not in it. Whatever John was doing, he had the commission and authority of the God of heaven to do it.

3. Thus, John was legitimate and official, and what he did becomes, in many ways, a showcase example for us.

B. John had the divine mission of making "ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:17) To accomplish this mission, John was faced with a two-fold task.

1. He was to first make disciples.

2. Secondly, he was to baptize disciples.

3. "Jesus (1) made and (2) baptized more disciples than John," (John 4:1) which proves John was also (1) making and, (2) baptizing disciples.

C. With this mission in mind, John consistently presented Jesus Christ as the exclusive means of salvation and baptized those who received Jesus as Savior.

1. John declared Jesus to be the explicit fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming Messiah, the exclusive one "which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)

2. John was specifically sent of God as a divine witness, whose main job was to identify and bear witness of the Messiah, the Light, who is Christ. (John 9:5) John was sent from God, "the same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him might believe." (John 1: 6-7) This officially commissioned witness "bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy ghost. And I saw, and bear record that this is the Son of God." (John 1:32-34)

3. John made unmistakably clear the Christ is the means of salvation (how disciples are made) when he was being questioned in John 3:23-26. His answer was, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. " (verse 36)

4. John very carefully pointed out that people should "believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." (Acts 19:4)

D. John was very careful to point out that he was not the Christ (thus the maker of disciples), but that Jesus was.

1. He confessed, "I am not he Christ." (John 1:20)

2. He said he was not "Elias" or "that prophet" prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15. (John 1:21)

3. He knew he must "decrease," (John 3:30) and that he was not "the bridegroom" but only a "friend of the bridegroom." (John 3:29)

E. In truth, John's validity is unquestionable.

1. He was God's special agent doing what God instructed him to do.

2. To question the validity of John's baptism is to question the integrity of the God who commissioned and sent him.

II. THE BAPTISM JOHN PRACTICED WAS A BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE.

A. John preached Jesus as the means of salvation, and he knew no one was eligible for baptism until he had first received the salvation of Jesus.

1. Remember that John identified Jesus as the Light of the world (God's Lamb, Messiah or Savior), (John 1:29-34) and said that men are saved by believing on Him. (John 3:35-36)

2. John insisted that men turn (repent) to God by faith (believe) prior to baptism. In fact, only after "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," (Acts 20:21) is a person eligible for water baptism.

a. Thus John said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance." (Matthew 3:11) The preposition "unto" is used in the sense of "because of," or "as a result of." John is saying he baptized converts as a result of their repentance.

b. The context of Matthew 3 established that fact conclusively. When John began to preach near Jericho, people from all the surrounding regions began to flock to him for baptism. Among these were Pharisees and Sadducees, most of whom rejected Jesus Christ. In them was no repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, they were not saved. The result was a refusal by John to baptize them. "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance," (Matthew 3:8) "Let me see that you are really saved, then I'll baptize you. If you are not saved, then you cannot be baptized."

c. As far as John was concerned baptism without repentance or faith in the Savior was out of the question. To be baptized without a personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ by faith was, and is, mockery and invalid. When Jesus spoke of John's baptism, He said, "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." When Paul preached Christ in Antioch of Pisidia, (Acts 13:14-41) he said that John had preached His coming and baptized those who repented. Again we are reminded of Paul's statement of John's baptism, "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." (Acts 19:4)

3. The type of baptism John practiced is not complicated.

a. He just insisted that men be saved first, then baptized.

b. That position was not popular in John's day, and it hasn't been since. It knocks the props right out from under all infant baptism, and rules invalid baptisms however and by whomever administered, prior to salvation. That means all people who are saved at some point after baptism, which is consequently invalid, need to be baptized, since their first baptism was invalid. Only the baptism which follows salvation and is administered by the authority of a New Testament church by immersion constitutes a true, valid baptism. Those baptized as babies, before salvation, or by some denomination founded too late to identify with the church Jesus built while on earth, (Matthew 16:18) do not like it when they are told their baptism is invalid. We who insist on this truth were once called "Anabaptists" as a term of scorn by other professing Christians. "Ana" means "re" and "Baptists" means baptizers." Thus, we were branded "rebaptizers" by those who rejected this truth.

B. The case in Acts 19:1-5 illustrated John's baptism to be one of repentance.

1. On his third missionary journey, Paul encountered those people in Ephesus who claimed John's baptism. (Verses 1-3)

2. When Paul asked them about the Holy Ghost, they had never heard of Him. (verse 3)

3. The preaching of John dealt with Jesus and with the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 3:11-12, Mark 1:8, and John 1:32-33)

4. It was obvious to Paul that those people had missed the whole point of John's preaching which was that Jesus is the Savior and baptism only follows faith in Him. Paul preached Jesus to them in verse 4.

5. Upon hearing that truth, they believed in Jesus and were baptized as believers.

6. The fact that they were re baptized in no way implies there was something wrong with John's baptism. There was something wrong with the candidates. They were not saved. Baptism administered even by proper authority, in a proper manner, to an improper candidate, is invalid. The same is still true.

7. As John established once and for all, in the beginning of baptism, it was to follow repentance as a visible testimonial of true repentance. Until that repentance occurs, baptism is forbidden.

III. JOHN'S BAPTISM WAS ALSO A BAPTIST BAPTISM.

A. John was a Baptist.

1. Matthew 3:1 says John was a Baptist preacher. This is the word of the divinely inspired scriptures.

2. Jesus Himself called John a Baptist. (Matthew 11:11-12) John's disciples referred to him as "John Baptist." (Luke 7:20)

3. "Baptist" was not John's name; it denoted what he was doing. The Bible is as clear as day as to his name. His father (Luke 1:63) and his mother (Luke 1:60) said so. John's father named him John because an angel of God instructed him to do so. (Luke 1:13, John 1:6) It seems that the Holy Spirit labored the point, lest someone later would come along and think "Baptist" was his last name. To denote John's family identification, one would refer to him as John, the son of Zechariah. The word "Baptist" means "baptizer," and that is what John was doing. He was baptizing his converts in the Jordan River. (Matthew 3:1,6)

4. John was a Baptist and was scripturally identified as such.

B. Being a Baptist preacher, John could only practice one kind of baptism.

1. At that time, John was the only preacher on earth who had divine authority to baptize converts. (John 1:33)

2. That authority of John to administer baptism was "from heaven," from God Himself. (Luke 20:4, John 1:33)

3. It follows that John's disciples were Baptist disciples, with a Baptist baptism, for there was no other baptism at that time. Only John had authority to baptize, and he was a Baptist. Thus, the converts John baptized were Baptist converts.

4. Jesus Christ Himself expressed His confidence in John's baptism by coming to him at Jordan for baptism. (Matthew 3:13-17)

5. The original apostles were also all baptized of John. (Acts 1:13,22)

6. Who could argue with John's baptism and his Baptist converts? No one on earth at that time, besides John, had authority to baptize. It was good enough for Jesus, and it was good enough for the apostles.

7. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that John's baptism was not a "Christian" baptism. "Christian" is a name later applied to believers in mockery. (Acts 11:26) John's baptism was a Baptist baptism, sanctified and sanctioned of God.

C. The church which Jesus built from the materials prepared by John was, of necessity, a Baptist church.

1. John was to "prepare ye the way of the Lord." (Matthew 3:3) John prepared the materials from which Jesus built His church.

2. Everyone of the original apostles were baptized of John (Acts 1:13,22), thus were Baptist disciples.

3. Jesus called the twelve (Luke 6:13) and set them in His church first. (I Corinthians 12:28)

4. That very first church which met in Jerusalem and is discussed extensively in the first chapters of Acts was of necessity a Baptist church. It was made up of Baptist converts.

5. Jesus Christ Himself, who is the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23) secured membership in this church by a Baptist baptism, mainly the baptism of John.

D. After Jesus established His church, He then gave it authority to baptize. (Matthew 28:19-20)

1. Here was a Baptist church (the one at Jerusalem, made up of Baptist disciples) being given the same authority to baptize that John, the Baptist preacher was given. From then on until now, there has been a continuous (unbroken) line of Baptist churches, baptizing converts with Baptist baptism, like John's.

2. We believe this to be the only kind of church God recognizes. We cannot accept baptism of any other sort. Under divine inspiration, Paul said there is "one baptism." (Ephesians 4:5) We believe there is only one kind of baptism which is valid, and that is a baptism of repentance, administered by a Baptist church, which is the kind which Jesus built of John's prepared materials and of which He is the head member.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"