Best of 2020's - Why Infant Baptism is Good News for Believers

From Our Best of Series: 

We’ve been learning about why we baptize children of believers.  Today we are going to learn more about why Jesus was baptized.  We’ll also see how Baptism is good news for believers.  It’s an encouraging practice and assurance that God is welcoming his beloved children into his family and setting them apart.  

About John

John Fonville is Pastor of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Paramount Church is part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). 

The Him We Proclaim Podcast features the preaching and teaching ministry of Dr. John Fonville at Paramount Church. This resource aims to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people. The gospel cannot be assumed. An assumed gospel will, in time, become a denied gospel. Thus, each generation must rediscover the paramount truths of the gospel and apply the gospel's implications to their own day and age. Him we proclaim (Col. 1:28)!

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Original sermons from this series by Dr. John Fonville

https://www.paramountchurch.com/sermons/series/little-ones-to-him-belong

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Transcript

HWP Announcer  0:02  
Hi, you're listening to the Him We Proclaim podcast with John Fonville. We're in season six called Little ones to Him belong. We've been learning about why we baptized children are believers. And today, we're also going to learn about why Jesus was baptized, and also see how baptism is good news for believers. It's an encouraging practice and assurance that God is welcoming His beloved children into his family, and setting them apart. Here's John with the next message on baptism. It's appropriate

John Fonville  0:31  
on Trinity Sunday to actually have a baptismal service and to confess our belief in the Holy Trinity, because mabh Tizen is first and foremost Trinitarian. We need to recover the significance of what it means to be marked with the name of the Triune God. Because in baptism, we are all marked and set apart by the name of the Triune God and baptism and it is a momentous and significant event. I want us to look at baptism from the words of institution. And I want you to see this is that baptism is Trinitarian. In his administration, and in his full nature, baptism is explicitly Trinitarian innocent administration and its nature Jesus in the words of institution, he commands his church and listen carefully. He says to his visible church, make disciples of all nations by means of baptizing. This is how you make a disciple through baptism, make disciples of all nations by means of baptizing and here's how we are to administer the baptism, were to administer the baptism with water, and Jesus says it is to be in the name, that is singular. Listen, we are to administer baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the Triune God. So in these words of institution, Jesus not only prescribes how to make disciples, but he also tells us how to administer a valid baptism. To maintain the pure administration of the sacrament for a baptism to be valid, it must have water, right, because that is the sign water. And it must be administered in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit. The great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, he said nurse about the Trinitarian nature administration of baptism. He said this, he says, Let me take you to the baptismal font where believers put on the name of the Lord Jesus. And he says, In you shall hear me pronounce the solemn words I baptize thee in the name and he says, mark in the name not names. But I baptize thee and the name of the Father, and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who was baptized according to the true form laid down in Scripture must be Trinitarian. He says otherwise, his or her baptism is a farce, it is a lie, and he himself has found a deceiver and a hypocrite before God. I know those those words by this Baptist preacher sounds startling to us, but he is exactly right. Because Jesus has given to us in the words of institution, the manner in the administration of how baptism is to be given. So baptism Jesus teaches us takes place in the sphere of the revelation of the Triune God. And we have to take note of Jesus's careful note of Jesus's words of institution. Listen to what he says, Go therefore, and make disciples listen by means of baptizing them. In the name. This this word name, in the words of institution is singular, it's not names plural. This this word NAME denotes one God, which Jesus in the words of institution for baptism, identifies as three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, baptizing them in the name. And then he says, of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus says victorious declaration in Matthew 28, verse 18, which is part of the Great Commission, where he says, All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. He implies there that God is a trinity and what he implies in verse 18 becomes very clear in verse 19. He reveals to us Jesus reveals to us the triune God's full name. He tells us who God is He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is God's full name. He is one God, yet he exists in three persons, and God has so revealed Himself in His Word as Trinity, that these three distinct persons are the one true eternal God.

And so to speak of God's full name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit words which are so common to us. Listen very carefully. In the first century when this would have been uttered, it would have been blasphemous to the ears of Matthew's Jewish audience to whom he was writing. Matthew was writing his gospel to Jews, to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah, the offspring of David, the offspring of Abraham, the fulfillment of the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants, so that they were placed their faith in Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in anointed one sent by the Father, the full revelation of the Godhead, Jesus. And so to speak of God's full name of as being God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which would be so common to us to a first century Jewish audience, they would have said, That's blasphemous. Why is that because they had been taught their entire lives over 1000s of years, that Yahweh God's name is one. Israel's neighbors, we're all polytheistic. Israel's neighbors had gods for different seasons, they had gods for different wars, they had God, Gods of peace, they had gods of vegetation, they had gods or the elements, they had gods for money and gods for sex. They each of these gods would manage their this little corner of their universe. But in contrast, Israel was distinguished by his confession of one God, one Creator, one Lord, one Savior over heaven and earth. And so Israel's God, Yahweh was the sovereign God of nature, and of history and of redemption. He didn't have these little Junior apprentices like the polytheistic, gods of the Israel's neighbors. And so here Jesus reveals to last you always full name he was the one true eternal God, yet exist in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches us that we are baptized in the name of each person of the Trinity. Again, from a first century Jewish standpoint, the Shema, here, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is one. And this was ingrained in every Jewish household in every Jewish mind, the Lord is one. And now Jesus says Your way is one but three. But yet he's one. And Jesus says, we are baptized in the name of each person of the Trinity underscoring as the Athanasian Creed says a concept substantiality, that's a big word that means with with for the same substance of being, the three and the one essence of the Godhead. Christian baptism is a naming ceremony. The baptize person is given a name and it's not the name on a baptismal certificate. It is the name of the Triune God by which we are all marked as Christians. The mystery of God's being this, of this one essence and three persons, no human mind will ever fathom how many of you completely understand anything I've said. I don't either. But this is God's self revelation. And listen in though Listen, though God's been is a mystery, our Triune God has revealed Himself to us in His Word through Jesus perfectly. And we because of that, we can't know this Triune God, even though we may not be able to exhaust our knowledge of Him, we can know Him. And ultimately, God reveals to us himself to us as Trinity, not so that we can fully comprehend and wrap our brains around him, but rather as the words of the Athanasian Creed says, We confess this because this is what we have we worship Him. You see, the Athanasian Creed, if you read it carefully, was not just about this cold still theology. It was about worship

it says it twice throughout this, that this is the God that we worship. You see, it's all about worship. And so in the words of the Athanasian Creed, listen to what he says. We comprehend. We get it. We understand this. No, no listen, says we worship one God and Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. It's about worshipped as were marked with the name of the Triune God. There's one more little point that I want you to understand about baptism and the Trinity. The last time in Matthew's gospel that we actually heard about Trinitarian baptism, baptism is back in Matthew chapter three. If you have your Bibles, you can turn back there if you can just listen. But in Matthew chapter three, John the Baptist baptized as Jesus in the Jordan River. And Matthew wants his believer wants his readers in Matthew 28, in the Great Commission. He wants us to recall the baptism of Jesus in connection with our own baptism. So listen to what Matthew chapter three verses 17 and follow are verses 1617 says, when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan, in the Jordan River, Matthew tells us listen, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. In Jesus's baptism was his assurance of his sonship. Jesus is declared by the Father, to be the beloved son with whom the Father is well pleased. This is very significant because in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew reminds us in Matthew chapter two, verse 15, that God called Israel the nation, my son. In Hosea chapter 11, verse one, the prophet Hosea recalls how God faithfully brought Israel my son out of the Egyptian Exodus. In Matthew chapter two, verse 15, Matthew cite Hosea 11, verse one, and he applies it to Jesus. And what Matthew is telling us is that Matthew regards to Israel, the nation as a type of the Messiah, God's beloved son, but who was Israel as God's Son? The whole story of the Old Testament tells us that Israel was God's disobedient son. What did Israel do when they were brought out of the wilderness, they complained and sending griped and wandered in the wilderness and God wiped them out? And the whole history of Israel, what do we see Israel, God's son being unfaithful? But Matthew presents Jesus as the obedient son, he is the true Israel, He is showing his Jewish readers and he's showing us how Jesus, the obedient son, repeats the history of Israel, God's disobedient son, and does for Israel and for us, but we've never done once in our life. You see, John's baptism was not a Christian baptism. It was a baptism according to the Mosaic Covenant. It was a baptism of law. It was perfect turning repentance from sin. And Jesus, His baptism of repentance was not necessary because He was sinless. This is why Matthew writes in Matthew chapter three, verse 14 of John the Baptist, John, Jesus comes to John says, You must baptize me. And John says, John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And you come to me and Jesus, I'm the center. I need to repent of sin. You don't have anything to repent of your sinless. But as the father's obedient son, Jesus's request you undergo John's baptism of repentance of ferns Jesus's willingness to identify himself with every center that day at the Jordan river coming to John to be baptized, and to identify himself with my life where I've never once perfectly repented of my sin.

Jesus, by submitting to John's baptism, publicly identifies himself with centers is what Isaiah 53 Verse 12 says, Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. Jesus was entering the waters of baptism of John to be counted as a center to identify with sinners to be numbered with the transgressors. And as he enters the waters of judgment of John's baptism, Jesus enters confessing our sins, and repenting for us. By submitting to John's baptism, Jesus is affirming his willingness to take upon himself all our sins. And so here's Jesus, he's done no sin. And He is identifying himself with sinful men and women in the waters of baptism, as a picture of what he had come to do, and would do, years later worked out in blood and tears when he died on the cross. How do we know this? Because listen to Mark chapter 10, verse 39, Jesus calls his crucifixion, a baptism. Jesus's Cross was his baptism. And so immediately following his baptism, what happens? Listen, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and come into rest on Him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is My beloved Son, with whom I'm well pleased. And this is the good news. This is the gospel that Matthew was giving us where Israel had failed, where you and I, our entire life have failed. In our testing, Jesus prevailed, he was faithful. And because of that, he receives the father's full approval and delight. Jesus, and in other words, Matthew says, was baptized with God's wrath, so that by Matthew 28, we could be baptized with God's grace. And so what is behind every baptism that we're gonna see this morning behind your baptism behind every baptism is the baptism of Jesus. The baptism of Jesus, His death, and His burial and His resurrection, which opens up for us a new creation. And this is exactly what Paul says in Romans chapter six, verses one through four as he connects Jesus's death with our baptism. So what Jesus is by nature, the eternal Son, we are by grace of adoption, the beloved adopted sons of God. Jesus is unique Son of God, and we by Grace become his beloved adopted sons of God. And that's what baptism signifies. And seals. This is one of the most profound meanings of baptism. The apostle Paul says, In the fullness of time had come, God the Father sent forth his Son, born of woman born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption, as sons. And so baptism that we're about to witness signifies in sales to us the highest privilege of the gospel, and that is this. God the Father receives us as His beloved sons, and he speaks over our life and baptism. You are My beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. And that's really good news. So Father, we thank you for the wonderful truth of baptism. We thank you for his Trinitarian nature that we are marked forever by the triune, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that we are marked in such a way that we are received by grace as beloved sons of the Father. So I pray today that every person here as a witness this visible gospel would encounter your Holy Spirit and receive the assurance and confirmation that you're speaking over their life as they see the water. So let them see you speaking over their life. You are My beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. We asked this name the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

HWP Announcer  20:08  
Thanks for listening to the Him We Proclaim podcast with John Fonville. Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fonville of Paramount church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at Paramountchurch.com We look forward to next time.