The local church, part 2/5

At the Lord’s Supper the wine is a participation in Christ’s blood, the bread a participation in his body. Water baptism too is a participation in Jesus — a participation in his death, burial, and resurrection. We know that a person first dies and only then is buried — and of course wholly, not only in part. According to this principle a person first dies to self — comes to faith — and only after that enters the grave of baptism so that that burial in water is complete, not only partial.

God does not need to see a person’s deeds in order to know what their heart is like. God sees straight into a person’s heart. God knows what a person thinks in their heart and how deeply they are committed to following Jesus. A person, on the other hand, sees only another person’s outward actions, on the basis of which we can know only imperfectly, yet still something, of one another’s heart condition. We therefore need concrete expressions around the faith of the heart in order to understand whether a person is committed to following Jesus.

Alongside what has been said above, going through baptism is a sign of a genuine desire to commit — and to set oneself apart — as a follower of Jesus and thereby as part of the local church. And so Jesus’ first disciples were baptized right after coming to faith as a sign that they had decided to follow Jesus, whatever the cost. When we look at the Acts of the Apostles, the order repeats clearly from one event and situation to another: People heard the word of God, received it, and were baptized. Below a few cases listed:

1. Those who on the day of Pentecost “received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.”

2. The evangelist Philip preached to the Ethiopian eunuch “Jesus. And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” And so Philip baptized him.

3. The apostle Peter proclaimed the gospel of Jesus in Cornelius’s house. The hearers received the word, for “while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word.” And when they were seen to have come to faith, Peter “commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”

4. The apostle Paul proclaimed the gospel in the city of Philippi, “and a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one that worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul.” And so she and her household were baptized.

5. After wonderful events in the prison at Philippi, Paul and Silas showed the jailer the way of salvation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. And they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house.” And soon he and his household were baptized.

6. When the apostle Paul met in Ephesus certain disciples who had been baptized with John’s baptism, they were baptized again, this time “into the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Scripture does not open in detail what these people did after being baptized, but in the light of the rest of Scripture I am fully convinced that in general all sought a local church to join. So much is told in the Bible about the way an individual church acts and influences that it would be strange if these instructions had not had — and did not have — concrete use.

The apostle Paul instructed Timothy about the ministries of the church and wrote in that connection: “These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

– Acts 2, 8, 10, 16, 19; Rom 6; 1 Cor 10; 1 Tim 3 –

Scripture:

Acts 2, 8, 10, 16, 19 Rom 6 1 Cor 10 1 Tim 3