Today we continue the message from Dr. MacArthur ---

Now, I want to explain baptism to you and I want to see if I can’t motivate you to be obedient for the glory of the Lord and for your own blessing. I guess the best way to do this…somebody said this morning that I wasn’t in much of a preaching mode and that’s probably true…this is more of a teaching time, this is more of sort of sorting out the issues with regard to baptism in a way that is teaching you the principles and the truths, but I’ll try to yell occasionally just so you don’t feel cheated.

1. Question number one: What is baptism?

What are we talking about here when we talk about baptism? Simply, here’s a definition: it is a ceremony by which a person is immersed into water. That’s what it is. It’s a ceremony by which a person is immersed into water or "dunked," they used to say, in fact, there were people who baptized this way were called "dunkers." So, this is simply a ceremony by which people are immersed in water; that’s it. And, right behind me here and under the floor, there’s a pool of water where that is done every Sunday evening.

Now, we do this because it’s instructed in the New Testament—we’ve already commented on the fact that the Great Commission’s all tell us to baptize and Peter, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, told those who heard and believed, to be baptized. Let me go to the Word so we give you an understanding of this. There are two Greek verbs that are used in the New Testament with regard to baptism—they are translated "baptism": bapto and baptizo—bapto is the less common, used only four times in the New Testament and it means "to dip into." "To dip," "to dip into," in fact, it was used for "dyeing" when you immerse something in a dye. It’s the word "immerse"…bapto.

Baptizo is an intensified form of bapto—the Greeks had ways of sticking in a few extra letters and intensifying a word. Baptizo is used many, many times in the New Testament; many, many times. It means "to dip completely" and it’s the Greek word for "drowning"; that shows you how complete the dipping is, potentially. It’s the word "to submerse" or "immerse"—in fact, the Latin equivalent is immersio (sp.) or submersio (sp.). The noun "baptism"—baptismas—is used always in the book of Acts to refer to a Christian being immersed in water…it’s always used to refer to a Christian being immersed in water. So, that is what baptism is: it’s a ceremony by which a person believes the gospel and is then immersed into water.

In fact, the terms bapto and baptizo, the verb, and baptismas, the noun, could have been translated "immerse" and probably would have solved a lot of problems, but the translators chose to transliterate the Greek baptizo into "baptise." They transliterated it rather than translate it because it had become such a technical term for "immersion." So, they just transliterated it across, but that doesn’t change the meaning—it means "to immerse."

In fact, the Greeks had a different word for "sprinkling" and that word rhantisanti is used of "sprinkling or splattering with water"—it’s a different word altogether. We’re not talking about "sprinkling"—there’s no such thing as a ceremony of sprinkling in the Bible, or pouring or any application of water to the individual. Whenever you find "baptism" in the Bible, it is the word "immerse" or "submerse" and it means "putting the person under the water." Every New Testament use these terms, requires or permits the idea of immersion. This is so obvious that even John Calvin, who basically came down on the side of infant sprinkling or infant baptism, says this, he writes, "The word ‘baptize’ means ‘to immerse.’" No linguist can come up with anything else. Calvin says, "The word ‘baptize’ means ‘to immerse’; it is certain that immersion was the practice of the early church." There really is no argument, there’s no debate at that point.

The verbs—bapto, baptizo—are never used in the passive. That is to say, water is never said to be baptized on someone such as sprinkling or pouring or touching with water which is done in a great, great portion of the church today. They sprinkle, they pour, or they dip and just touch the water to the forehead or to some other part of the head. Never are those verbs used in the passive sense of water being placed on someone. They’re always used in the sense of someone being placed in water. Whenever you read in the New Testament about a baptism—an actual occasion of baptism—immersion is the only possible meaning.

Matthew 3—look at it…or just listen to it—Matthew 3:6, John the Baptist, "They were being baptized by him in the Jordan River." They were being baptized in the Jordan River. They came down into the river and they were baptized there. The river was not taken to them; they were taken to the river. Matthew 3:16, "After being baptized, Jesus," having been baptized, "went up immediately," literally, "out of the water." Jesus went down into the water…came up out of the water. Again, that clearly indicates that He went down into the water in order that He might be placed into that water and that’s the use of the word baptism…means immersed in that water.

In John 3…when John the Baptist was doing this baptism, he picked a place at the Jordan River that was deep. It says in verse 23 of John 3, "John was baptizing in Anon, near Salem." Of all the spots you could stop along the Jordan River, he picked that one because "there was much water there" which is simply another way of saying the water was deep. There was enough water there to get people under it—that was the whole point. In Mark, chapter 1, verse 5, same thing, "All the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem, they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River"…"in the Jordan River." You remember in Acts, chapter 8, when Philip came across the Ethiopian eunuch, you remember the statement in verse 36, "Look; water! What prevents me from being baptized," verse 38, "he ordered the chariot to stop, they both went down into the water, and he immersed him."

Now, that is what baptism is. That’s what baptizo means. Baptism is a ceremony by which a person is immersed into water. That is the only kind of baptism the New Testament knows anything about—it doesn’t know anything about sprinkling, pouring, touching with water, and particularly doesn’t know anything about baptizing infants. I’m going to address that issue because it is an important issue and some of you will remember I made a presentation of that at a past Ligoneer (sp.) conference—there is one here this week, by the way, and that was completely coincidental that, in my preaching schedule, that this issue came up at this time. Many of the people who will be at the conference, of course, would affirm the things that I am teaching. Next Sunday morning, I think, I may do it next Sunday—I may postpone it a week, I’m not sure yet—I want to address the issue of infant baptism from a biblical perspective. You’ll find a very, very fascinating discussion.