WEBVTT 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:12.720 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:23.199 Thank you, Doug. 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:35.920 We will be celebrating, if I've counted correctly, ten baptisms a little later in our service. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:50.560 These are exciting and stimulating days in the life of the church, so I want to prepare us for what we will see and hear before these folks testify before us what Christ has done for them. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:01:01.759 As a church, we have spent November considering the lessons for the local church from New Testament letters to the churches. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:07.200 We've covered Galatians and Colossians and Philippians. 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:18.640 We don't have time this morning to cover an entire New Testament book as we have the last few weeks, but I don't want to depart entirely from that method this morning. 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:28.959 So I'd ask you to consider this morning with me God's design for baptism from the letter to the church in Ephesus. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:41.920 Ephesians is a well-known New Testament book among Christians, but there's a surprising amount that we don't know about the book of Ephesians. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:55.359 It's commonly referred to as a prison epistle because Ephesians chapter 3, verse 1, says that the apostle Paul was a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.519 In chapter 4, verse 1, he refers to himself as a prisoner of the Lord. 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:04.719 And again, in chapter 6, verse 20, he says that he was an ambassador in chains. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:14.080 So very clearly he was writing this letter to a local church while he was imprisoned for his faith. 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:20.719 But we don't know which community Paul was imprisoned in when he wrote this letter. 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:37.199 That little detail plays a big part in when this letter was written and sent, because Paul was imprisoned for long periods in different communities, at least twice, and maybe even as many as four times. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:42.080 There's another detail that factors into the date of this letter. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:49.840 You remember that the Apostle Paul went on three missionary journeys. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:53.439 His first one was the shortest and the quickest. 00:02:53.759 --> 00:03:00.560 Then he went on another one that expanded that territory, and then he went on a third one that was the longest. 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:07.520 The Apostle Paul stopped briefly in Ephesus during his second missionary journey. 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:19.680 Then, on his third missionary journey, he spent nearly three years in that city, ministering to the believers in Christ there, building up the church. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:26.159 And then it was after that third journey that he was later imprisoned in the city of Rome. 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:32.719 Now, you wonder, why do we need to know all of that on a baptism Sunday? 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:34.400 Let me show you. 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:40.719 Notice what the Apostle Paul says in chapter 1 of Ephesians verse 15. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:51.360 He says, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.520 Because I have heard of your faith. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:04:09.199 Now, if we flip over to chapter 3 and verse 2, it says, I'm assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:12.240 Do you see what's happening here? 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:22.959 The Apostle Paul is indicating that he does not have firsthand knowledge of their faith, but he's only heard of it. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:29.279 He's assuming that they have heard of him and his apostleship. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:37.519 So placing those statements after Paul's three-year ministry there doesn't add up very well. 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:43.680 So we can eliminate Paul being imprisoned in Rome after his third missionary journey. 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:49.680 It's not then, it's somehow before he spends three years in the city of Ephesus. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:05:06.560 Again, in chapter 4 and verse 20, he speaks of the way that they have learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:13.519 If he had spent time there already, Paul would have known what they were taught and what they were have already learned. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:22.800 So it appears that this letter is written in the early days, the early months, maybe in the early years of the church in Ephesus. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:34.000 As a church, as an assembly of believers, they're still an infancy in learning Christ, in knowing Christ, in following Christ. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:41.680 That means the church likely had the same struggles as all local churches. 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:47.920 Particularly in what it means to be a Christian. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:57.920 And then in what it means to know how to be a Christian in the church, in the community, and in the world. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:08.480 So many of the things in this letter address those exact details specifically for the people in that ancient city of Ephesus. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:17.040 Now we only have time to focus on one detail this morning, in chapter 4, verse 5. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:21.279 But I'd like to read, beginning in verse 1 of chapter 4. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:29.600 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:30.800 How? 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:41.279 With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:07:02.959 For there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:09.360 This is a statement of unity, which verse 3 makes clear. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:13.839 Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:25.199 You see, this young church is comprised of newer believers in Jesus who are being urged to live in a manner worthy of the calling of Christ. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:35.759 A manner of living that is distinctly different than the unchristian way of their city and of their world. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:46.879 As they live out their new life in Christ, they're to be eager to continue, to maintain, to keep up the unity that the Holy Spirit creates in the Lord's church. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:52.000 Why are they given that instruction? 00:07:53.920 --> 00:08:05.360 Because there is one body and one spirit and one hope and one Lord and one faith and one baptism and one God and Father overall. 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:21.680 See, the Lord powerfully joins people to one body when he calls them to himself by faith in his death, burial, and resurrection in power over death, sin, and the powers of darkness. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.920 This is a distinction of Christians. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:40.799 There is a distinct oneness among those who genuinely follow Jesus, whether in the church in Ephesus, the church in Laodicea, the church in Colossae, the churches in Galatia, or the church in Grand Forks. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:46.799 Now I want you to consider this one question briefly. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:56.240 What is the Apostle Paul saying to this infant church about baptism? 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:07.279 It seems clear that baptism plays a part in the church's unity as part of the unity created by the Holy Spirit. 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:12.000 But is the Apostle Paul talking about spirit baptism? 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:23.679 That work of the Holy Spirit that we don't see, by which he takes an unsaved person and recreates them and now places them, baptizes them into the body of Christ? 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:30.000 Or is he talking about water baptism, where we get wet with water? 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:38.720 In case you're wondering, it's not a frivolous question, as if it doesn't matter. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:40.720 It's an important question. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:54.320 But as sometimes happens with questions like that, it's easy to become trapped between those two options and maybe not consider a third option. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:10:05.440 See, I don't think that the Apostle Paul wrote specifically about spirit or water baptism in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 5. 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:11.120 I suggest that what he was writing about was what baptism represents. 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:14.080 What it represents. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:26.080 You see, in the smaller context of Ephesians 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, baptism points back to the calling to which you've been called. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:32.399 Baptism represents, it says, I have been called to a calling. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:35.519 It points back to a reality. 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:43.840 Christians have been called to Christ, by Christ, through the power of the Spirit, in the sovereignty of God the Father. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.240 That means they are called people. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:52.399 If you go back to Ephesians chapter 2, it makes it very clear. 00:10:55.279 --> 00:11:00.240 Ephesian Christians were called out from spiritual death in chapter 2, verse 1. 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:04.639 From spiritual slavery to the prince of the power of the air. 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:07.840 In verse 2. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:19.600 And from the passions of the flesh in verse 3, they were called out of separation from Christ to identification with Christ, beginning in verse 11. 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:26.320 He says, Remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision by Jewish people. 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:30.720 Remember, you were separated from Christ, verse 12, alienated. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:37.840 Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:54.879 Therefore, in verse 22 of chapter 2, in him in Christ, you also are being built together into a dwelling place by God, or for God, by the Spirit. 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:00.559 See, this entire letter, friends, can be summarized in two parts. 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:06.960 Two parts that are extremely important for every local church, every local assembly of God's people. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:18.879 First, the apostle Paul wrote to a young church of infants in Christ to instruct them and encourage them in their identification with Christ the Lord. 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:25.759 We belong to Him. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:43.759 As a Christian, your first and foremost identification is not with your family in this world, not with your job, not with your bank account, not with your retirement, not with your vehicles, not with your home, not with anything else, but with the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for you. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.480 That's what the book of Ephesians is about. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:53.200 Secondly, it's not just about their identification with Christ the Lord. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:13:04.159 It is so that, secondly, that they would be trained, motivated, and strengthened to live out that identification with Christ in the power of the Spirit in a sin-darkened world. 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:07.440 Let me show you. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:14.879 Two things identification with Christ and strengthened by the Spirit. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:19.200 Just walk with me through your book, through your Bible. 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:20.639 Ephesians chapter 1. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:22.720 Beginning in verse 3. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:35.440 In verses 1 and 2, these people are identified as the holy ones, the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful to Christ Jesus. 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.000 What does he say about them? 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:40.879 Now, verse 3. 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:46.799 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:47.759 Where? 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:50.240 In Christ. 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:53.919 With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:54.720 Where? 00:13:55.039 --> 00:14:00.480 In him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:11.360 In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:27.679 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:32.080 It's a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things. 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:32.639 Where? 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:35.200 In him, things in heaven and on earth. 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:37.360 In him we have obtained an inheritance. 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:39.600 Are you getting the gist here? 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:42.159 Verse 13. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:52.960 In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:59.039 Down at verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:04.960 Because I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:20.320 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know, know what? 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:22.639 What is the hope to which he has called you? 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:25.840 What are the riches of his glorious inheritance of the saints? 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:37.279 And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:41.919 It's all about in him. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:43.360 With him. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:52.240 There's this identification, this connection with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that he's emphasizing again and again and again and again. 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:54.639 Now flip over to chapter 3. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:58.480 Verse 6. 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:12.480 This mystery is that the Gentiles, the non-Jews, are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ through the gospel. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:17.440 So there's the unifying element, right, that brings this oneness, this unity about. 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:18.639 It's in the gospel. 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:26.320 It's faith in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the gospel is what is used to accomplish that. 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:28.399 Chapter 3, verse 16. 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:44.799 According to the riches of his glory, I'm praying that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend. 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:46.320 There's that word strength. 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:51.679 To comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.799 Do you ever think that it takes strength? 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:01.279 Strength to know how great God is. 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:14.480 And verse 19, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:19.119 Chapter 4. 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:22.079 Verse 20. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:32.400 Speaking of the way they should have learned Christ, he says, verse 21, I assume that you've heard about him, and you were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:34.400 Taught to do what? 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:48.000 To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:49.440 Chapter 5, verse 1. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:53.119 Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:54.960 Chapter 6, verse 10. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:59.279 Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:05.119 Now put all of that together with the statement about baptism in chapter 4. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:15.200 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you, beseech you, I'm begging you to walk worthy of the calling to which you've been called. 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:22.640 With all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another. 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:25.440 Yes, we have to put up with each other in love. 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:31.839 Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:32.480 Why? 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:37.440 Because there is one body and one spirit. 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:42.240 Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:48.720 There is one Lord, there is one faith, there is one baptism, and one God and Father of all. 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:55.519 What is the Apostle Paul saying about baptism to that church in Ephesus? 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:04.799 He's saying the exact same thing that he communicated to other local churches in the letters to the churches. 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:16.319 He's saying that the one baptism is this internal reality of having been identified with the one Lord by means of the one faith. 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:23.119 I'm no longer my own, for I've been bought with a price. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:24.799 Think about it. 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:28.000 He said it to the Galatian churches. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.519 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God. 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:32.079 How? 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:33.599 Through faith. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:39.119 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.839 You are all one in Christ. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:48.240 He's talking about baptism, not from the perspective of, is this something that the Spirit does or that we do with water? 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:51.039 He's not talking about those individual elements. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:55.279 He's talking about it as being identified with the person of Christ. 00:19:55.440 --> 00:20:08.160 He said the same thing to the church and Colossae, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:15.920 Philippians doesn't speak of baptism, but it does talk about identification with Christ. 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:24.079 Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, verse 12, Christ Jesus has made me his own. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:34.480 So, friends, what do we take away from this as we hear from individuals what Christ has done for them? 00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:54.640 The local church must comprehend that baptism demonstrates that by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, the individual who is baptized is first and foremost saying, Christ Jesus has made me his own. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:56.880 I belong to him. 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:01.039 And it's through faith that I have come to be his own. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:15.279 Then just as Paul talks to the Ephesians, they're saying, I'm now unified with you, the body of Christ, for the purpose of living out that faith in your midst. 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:19.119 You now become an encourager, a strengthener. 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:31.920 You bear with them in love, you lift them up and you strengthen them because as they're encouraged and strengthened, they begin to walk as children of light in a dark world. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:42.319 And to this infant church, the Apostle Paul brings all of that together and he says, Listen, remember who you are in Christ. 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:46.559 And remember what you do in Christ. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:49.519 You live as lights in a dark world. 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:57.200 That requires strengthening by the Holy Spirit and encouragement from the assembly of God's people. 00:21:57.599 --> 00:21:59.119 May we do that together this morning. 00:21:59.279 --> 00:21:59.920 Would you pray with me? 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.559 Lord Jesus, we give thanks to you. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:11.920 We give thanks to you for these individuals who are going to be declaring to all of us this morning that they believe in Jesus. 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:19.839 That they believe as they go down into that water, that they are being identified, connected with his death. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:28.720 That as they come back out, they are being identified with his resurrection because they believe that you raised him from the dead. 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:32.720 And so we go and we live a new life. 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:39.759 Lord bless them as they then seek to live out that life in a dark world. 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:45.440 May you encourage us to strengthen them and one another through our encouragement. 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:47.039 In Christ's name we pray. 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:48.000 Amen. 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:54.480 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:23:01.519 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:05.839 You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.