John the Baptist:
The Baptism of John

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Dr. Richard L. Strauss
April 27, 1980

 

The subject tonight is a controversial one. There are a lot of different viewpoints on it. But anything that's mentioned 76 times in the New Testament deserves our consideration whether it's controversial or not. The message tonight begins with John's baptism but it goes beyond that because the Lord Jesus commanded that we be baptized and we need to see what the meaning of that is in relationship to the meaning of John's baptism. So I'd like to ask and try to answer from God's Word three questions tonight:

Because the answers to those three questions are all different. As you know from previous discussions of this subject, there is a technical meaning of the word baptized. It's the English equivalent of a Greek word baptizo which means to dip or to submerge or to immerse. But meanings of words are derived by usage and this word came to have a non-technical meaning through its usage: basically, bringing something under the influence of something else—something new; identifying one thing with another thing.

It's used of dipping something in water. The item became identified with the water. It was used of dipping a piece of cloth in dye. The cloth became identified with the dye; it took on the same color. So baptism came to mean basically, association with something or identification. Association is the easier word, since we've been talking about words tonight and what they mean. Identification means association.

Now baptism didn't begin with John. The Greeks baptized people into their mystery cults. It was an initiation rite and it meant that this individual was associating himself with this particular cult—this religious organization known as a mystery cult.

Unknown to many Christians, the Jews baptized as well. They baptized proselytes to Judaism. It was different. The candidate would go down into the water by himself and there would be some further explanation given to him and some further commands from the Law of Moses, and then he would plunge head first into the water by himself. And by that act he would be indicating to those who were watching that he was fully identifying himself with Judaism. That, along with circumcision and sacrifices, made him—even though he was not born a Jew—it made him a member of this Jewish religion. It made him a Jew. It was accomplished by immersion—the technical use of the term. And it was a picture of his identification with Judaism, which is the non-technical use of the term.

1. Why Did John Baptize?

Here comes a man named John the Baptist, preaching the message God had delivered to him and commanded him to preach. They call him the "baptist" or the "baptizer." Questions have been asked why he was known as the baptizer since baptism was nothing new; it was known to the Jews. Many people feel he was called the baptizer because he was the first one, at least to the Jews' knowledge, who actually baptized somebody else. Up to this point people would plunge into the water themselves, but now this man was doing it. He was actually immersing them in the water. They called him John the baptizer.

In the first chapter of the gospel of Mark, we read:

"The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: 'I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way—a voice of one calling in the wilderness, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him."' And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:1-4).

He preached the baptism of repentance for the remission or forgiveness of sins. Does that mean baptism brought forgiveness of sins?

I'd like you to turn back in your Bible to Matthew because it helps us understand really what was occurring here. It's the same story.

"People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River" (Matthew 3:5-6).

It wasn't the baptism that brought remission or forgiveness; it was the confession of sins. John said:

"I baptize you with water for repentance" (Matthew 5:11a).

"For repentance," where for is the same word we saw in Mark 1:4 that said John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

It wasn't the baptism that brought remission or forgiveness. The baptism didn't make anybody repent. John didn't hold those people over the water and say, "Now you repent or I'm going to drown you." I mean, he didn't say that. It wasn't a baptism for repentance. That Greek word means "because of" as well as "for." It can mean "for" but it also means "because of." Obviously they were baptized because they had repented.

When we read in Mark 1:4 of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, it means the same thing. They were baptized because their sins had been forgiven.

How did they get forgiven? Well, they repented and they acknowledged their sin and they trusted God's grace and they were forgiven. But look at John's message. In Mark 1:2, he was saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." His message was, "The kingdom is here; get ready for it. The king is present. He's about to establish His kingdom."

But there's a condition for His kingdom: it is repentance and faith in Him. It's a change of life—a change of mind that's revealed in a changed life. Get ready for the king. There's a spiritual condition necessary for entering His kingdom and those who came forward and said, "I want to be baptized, John. I repent of my sins. I acknowledge that I'm a sinner. I want my life to be changed. I want to stand with this righteous group of people who are looking for the Messiah and ready for His kingdom."

We want to be spiritually prepared for the Messiah's kingdom. That was the meaning of John's baptism.

I've read Baptist manuals—and I have to be careful because I'm not really criticizing anyone. I was ordained in a Baptist church. I'm Baptistic by doctrine. I could probably pastor the average Baptist church—some Baptist churches, let me put it that way. Others I couldn't. But I have read Baptist manuals that trace their baptism back to John the Baptist. As we read the Scripture, we understand that really has nothing to do with Christian baptism. That looked forward to a kingdom and the establishment of that kingdom. Christian baptism looks back to the cross where we were identified with Jesus Christ in his death to sin.

When Paul met some disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus, he asked them under whose baptism they were baptized and they said John. So he said you need to be baptized again because Jesus has come and He's died for our sins and you need to be identified with Him (Acts 19:4-5). You need to trust Him as your Savior and then give evidence of it by baptism.

So there are similarities. There is an immersion in both. There's an identification in both. There's a repentance necessary in both. But there the similarities end. We are not following John's baptism tonight. He was preparing a righteous remnant for the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom.

2. Why Did John Baptize Jesus?

Why did John baptize Jesus is the second question we want to try to answer tonight.

"Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter Him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?'" (Matthew 3:13-14).

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance because of the remission of sins. Jesus was perfect. He didn't have any sins. He didn't need to repent. He didn't have anything to confess. John knew there was a difference. He balked at the idea of baptizing Jesus. He said, "I shouldn't baptize You; You ought to baptize me." Whatever reason there was for Christ's baptism, it certainly was different from everybody else John was baptizing. What is that reason? Well, I think there are three reasons given in Scripture.

a. Why Did Jesus Get Baptized? To Identify Jesus as the Messiah

"'I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.' Then John gave this testimony: 'I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. And I myself did not know Him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, "The Man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." I have seen and I testify that this is God's Chosen One'" (John 1:31-34).

There is reason number 1. John baptized Jesus to identify Him as the Messiah.

God said to John, "When you're baptizing, the One on whom the Spirit comes He's the One." That's why John pointed to Him:

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).

John is saying, "I know He's the Lamb of God because the Father told me that. It was revealed to me at the time of His baptism."

b. Why Did Jesus Get Baptized? To Fulfill All Righteousness

"Jesus replied, 'Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.' Then John consented." (Matthew 3:15).

Reason number 2 for Jesus' baptism is to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean?

It was Christ's intent to fulfill all the righteous demands of the Law. So, He need not die for His own sins but being free from sin, perfect in all things, He could die for our sins, for the sins of the nation Israel, and for the sins of the world. So He was circumcised; He was presented in the temple on the 40th day; He visited Jerusalem for the feast days. He grew up under the Law. He kept the Law perfectly. And now under John, God is calling sinful men to repent. To be baptized is a testimony to their repentance and to stand with this Godly remnant awaiting Christ's kingdom. Jesus doesn't need to repent but just as He submitted to every other divinely revealed command, so He submitted to this as well. He identified Himself with this Godly remnant awaiting the kingdom, to fulfill all righteousness. But there's something else here, too. That's not all.

Jesus Christ came to provide eternal righteousness for sinful men, and that, too, I believe is meant by "fulfilling all righteousness." What must He do to fulfill all righteousness?

He had to become a man like us (Hebrews 2:14, 17).

He didn't become a sinful man. Paul told the Romans that He was made like unto sinful men (Romans 8:3). He looked like every other man—every other sinful man. But He was not a sinful man. He was a man, human in every sense of that term. But in order to let it be known He was a human being in every sense of that term, and identify Himself with sinful men so that He could die for their sins as their representative—die in their place and share with them His own divine righteousness—He here takes His place with sinners, identifying Himself with them—even though He was sinless—that He might fulfill all righteousness.

So fulfilling all righteousness means really two things:

c. Why Did Jesus Get Baptized? To Inaugurate Jesus into His Messianic Ministry

I believe there's one more purpose for Jesus' baptism.

"As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased'" (Matthew 3:16-17).

It was on this occasion that the Spirit of God came visibly upon Jesus Christ. Now, obviously the Holy Spirit had been upon Christ in His life up to this point. So this must have been something special, something unique, something for a particular purpose.

The Lord Jesus actually told us what that purpose was on another occasion when He was speaking in a synagogue in Nazareth. He quoted from the Old Testament from Isaiah 61, and He quoted a passage of Scripture that talked about the Spirit of God anointing Him so He may go about and heal the sick and do good (Luke 4:16-21). It was His inauguration into His Messianic ministry. That was the meaning of this visible manifestation of God's Spirit coming upon Him.

While Jesus was aware of His Messiahship from His youth, the coming of the Holy Spirit in this unique and visible way was His anointing for service and His induction into the Messianic office—the beginning of His ministry as the Messiah. He was identified by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit with power to do the will of the Father.

The apostles understood exactly what this was all about. When Peter was preaching in the house of Cornelius, he pointed back to that day as the time God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit so that He could enter into His ministry.

"You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him" (Acts 10:37-38).

I believe this baptism of Jesus was His inauguration into His earthly ministry. And God the Father lends His authoritative voice of confirmation to that solemn occasion by indicating to all who heard that this indeed was His beloved Son the Messiah, the One who came to deliver Israel and the world from the bondage of sin, the One in whom the Father delights.

Now that's different from our baptism; that has nothing to do with our baptism. I often hear people say they are following the Lord in baptism. I don't use that term—you may have noticed that if you're observant. I don't use it because I think it can be misunderstood. If by "following the Lord in baptism" we mean obeying Him in baptism, I agree with that terminology. If it means being baptized as Jesus was baptized, that's the furthest thing from Christian baptism, because we're not baptized that we might be pointed out to the nation Israel as the Messiah, or to fulfill all righteousness, or to inaugurate us into our Messianic ministry. That has nothing to do with our baptism.

3. Why Are Believers in our Day Baptized?

Why, then, are believers baptized? What does it mean? What is the proper mode? Why must I be baptized or you be baptized?

Well, Christian baptism has the same idea of all these baptisms thus far: identification. It is identification just as it was the identification of Greeks with their mystery cults, and the identification with Jews with Judaism, and the identification of John's converts with the righteous remnant waiting for the kingdom, and the identification of Jesus with sinful men so He could redeem them. So Christian baptism is our identification with Jesus Christ with His message of salvation, with the new life He's come to offer us, and with other believers who've accepted His gift of life and forgiveness. I guess nowhere is it better explained than in Romans chapter 6.

"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His" (Romans 6:3-5).

I don't think there's any water here but I do think baptism was in the back of Paul's mind because it pictures what he is describing or teaching. We've been identified with Jesus Christ in His death to sin. When He died on that cross as it was as if He were putting us to death so that sin would have no more control over us.

Sin can't tempt a corpse and symbolically and spiritually Jesus Christ put us to death. We are dead to sin, to that sin nature that dwells within us and seeks to dominate our lives. It's there but we're dead to it. We do not need to obey it. It's been stripped of its authority over us. We've been buried with Jesus Christ and we've been raised with Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life. That all happened when the Spirit of God placed us in union with Jesus Christ.

"For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink" (1 Corinthians 12:13).

There's no water here; the Spirit of God does it. But water baptism pictures what happens when He does. We are identified with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. And the Spirit of God places us in union with Christ, places us in the body of Christ, and it happens the moment we're saved.

There are some teaching today that baptism actually saves us. We're not placed in the body of Christ by water baptism. We just read in 1 Corinthians that we're placed in the body of Christ by Spirit baptism. There doesn't need to be any water involved. We are not cleansed from our sins with physical water. We're cleansed from our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:5).

Of course, those who say that baptism saves say that baptism is part of the gospel. But the Apostle Paul said I came not to baptize but to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17). He distinguished those two things.

On one end of the spectrum are those who say baptism saves. Get on the pendulum and swing over to the other side and you have people who espouse a theological position that says baptism has no place in the church of Jesus Christ today. They believe that that the church actually began with Paul's ministry and that there was a transitional church composed purely of Jews, and baptism was for them but not for the church, the body of Christ, which they say began with Paul's ministry. Yet the Apostle Paul taught baptism. He told those disciples of John at Ephesus that they ought to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:4-5). He himself baptized people, though not many. He still did because it was part of the commission and command of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was an act of obedience for him as an evangelist to baptize those who came to know Christ through his ministry.

What's the proper mode of baptism? I don't believe I could be drawn into a heated debate or argument on this, but the technical meaning of the word baptizo is to immerse or submerge or dip. The fact that it has a non-technical use which means "to identify" does not affect the technical meaning of the term. There were perfectly good words in the Greek language for pour and sprinkle, but the Spirit of God chose one that meant "to dip."

I would presume He did it for a purpose. Baptisms through history, in whatever sect or organization they were associated with, were historically accomplished by immersion. The Greeks baptized by immersion. The Jews baptized by immersion. I would think there was no difference when the Christians began to baptize. Immersion is obviously the best picture of our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus Christ. When baptisms are described in the Bible, it talks about going down into the water and coming up out of the water. Those terms would seem to be meaningless if they were not baptizing by immersion. I'm not going to quibble with you if you were not immersed.

I will quibble with you about something else though. Every time a person is baptized in the New Testament, it is after he has come to know Jesus Christ as a Savior from sin. If you feel that your christening as an infant is a baptism, that does not tally with the word of God. It is inconsistent with what the Scripture teaches. Baptism is a believer's baptism. Believer's baptism does not occur when one is an infant, before he can consciously and understandingly put his faith in Jesus Christ as a Savior from sin. That christening may have been a beautiful ceremony but it was not Christian baptism. That always occurs after salvation.

Why must I be baptized? Simply because the Lord Jesus commanded it. It was part of the Great Commission:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20a).

Making disciples involves two things:

You say, "But that's not a command to be baptized, that's a command to baptize." Well I think that's quibbling with words. If you refuse to allow someone to do something to you that God has commanded them to do, then you are really disobeying God, not man. If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, then God has called upon you to give public testimony to that by means of water baptism. If you have not done that since your salvation then you have not obeyed the clear command of God's Word. You're living in disobedience to God's Word.

I would recommend that you submit to the command of the Word of God because I don't see how you can be really joyful in the Lord and blessed of God living in conscious disobedience to His Word. I can't say it will dramatically or radically alter your life. I don't know that. In some cases it does, in other cases it doesn't seem to make any difference at all. I can promise you this: There will be the satisfaction of knowing you have obeyed the Lord. That would be enough as far as I'm concerned. But I would also think giving public testimony to the fact that you understand this doctrine in Romans 6—that your sin nature does not have authority over you, you do not need to obey it any longer you died with Christ, you were buried with Him and you rose to walk in newness of life, and it's your desire to live for Jesus Christ and glorify Him by the way you live, and live a life that's separated unto Him, set apart to His glory (Godly and holy and righteous in Christ Jesus)—to stand up there and give testimony to these people that that's your desire, ought to make a difference in the way you live. I would think to give testimony to it would be a tremendous encouragement and motivation to go from the waters of baptism to live for Jesus Christ like you have never lived for Him before.

That's the challenge to those who are being baptized tonight. They're giving testimony to their faith in Jesus Christ, to their understanding that their sin nature does not need to rule them any longer, and to their desire to walk in newness of life. We as a congregation need to pray for them and encourage them to do—to follow through and do—what they're committing themselves this evening to do.