The importance of baptism

In light of all that we have been talking about holiness, consecration of life, surrender to the Lord, being a set apart people, identifying with the holiness of Jesus and the God we serve, baptism is one of those Christian rituals, and I use the word in the exalted sense of that ritual term. Rituals have their place, by the way, in the Christian life, we have lost a lot of it and I think we must rescue them.

It is a ritual that speaks precisely about a new life, a consecrated life, a life that identifies with Jesus, a life of death to the world and to sin and resurrection to a life delivered to the Lord of holiness, different from the rest. of the world.

And that's why it's so important and many of you are new to the faith and others may have never had a specific presentation of what baptism is, what baptism means, why we practice it, why it's so important, what are its origins, what are its connotations.

And there's someone who says, well, that's a nice act. Amen. One of these days maybe I will, but we are going to see its importance and its meaning now through this presentation. And I want you to join me, I want to talk about the importance of baptism. And I want to start, we have many Scriptures, I will be reading them as we go through our exposition.

The first thing we have to say is that baptism is an essential part of the conversion experience and Christian life. It is not something as I said before, optional, or simply something random, secondary, tertiary of the Christian life, we are going to see that it is an essential part. Many people underestimate the importance of baptism, perhaps others give it too much importance. We want to make a balanced presentation.

We see in Scripture that the Bible, Jesus, the Apostles assign a very important role to it, along with the confession of Jesus as savior, along with conversion, and the experience of confession of Christ as savior, we see that many times in the same sentence there was also the idea of baptism.

Let's go, for example, to Mark chapter 16, let's go through some passages quickly. Mark 16 verse 15 and 16, the Lord Jesus Christ said:

“…Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, whoever believes ─ and looks at this ─ and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned…”

Now, let me tell you right away, I'm going to point it out to you later, baptism doesn't save. If you converted and didn't get baptized for one reason or another, you're not going to hell, so relax, don't worry about it. Let's clear this up, but notice the close association in many passages.

If one were to take them like this, strictly literally, and not put them in the rest of the context of other passages of Scripture, one could conclude that one must convert and confess Christ as Lord, and be baptized to be saved. But what I want you to see is the intimate, close connection between those two things. It is not something as secondary, as I said, in the minds of the writers of the Bible there was a close connection between the experience of salvation and the experience of baptism.

Look at Matthew 28, in one of the last statements of Jesus that Matthew records in verse 19 and 20, Matthew 28, he says:

“…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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…”

One of the last statements and commandments of Jesus, teach the word to the peoples and baptize and disciple them. There you have a nice progression, confess Christ, get baptized and then enter a teaching that teaches us our rights and responsibilities and shapes our sensitivity according to the values and the word of the Gospel, discipleship.

For the Lord Jesus it was something very important to be baptized together with the conversion experience. Let's go, for example, also to Acts, chapter 2, as you can see in the minds of the writers of the word and especially for these first believers, it was something tremendously important. Once you were converted, you had to be baptized. And I could give you many texts, we don't have time to exhaust this teaching, because I don't want to get lost in so many things, but it is very beautiful. And I want this to mark you for the rest of your life. Acts 2, 38 to 41, we see here it says that:

“…Peter said to them, “repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…”

Here in Peter's mind there is something else too, that I don't want to complicate your life too much, but it is repentance, baptism in water and baptism in the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Look here too, it is that many times we have diluted and sometimes distorted these things that are so closely united in the word of the Lord. Here we have baptism in water but also baptism in the Holy Spirit as experiences that are closely linked to the experience of a healthy Christian, a Christian who has gone through the important facets of the Christian life.

Along with the water baptism that John practiced, there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which distinguished Jesus as Messiah. John said, "I baptize in water but someone is coming who will baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire." What a nice additional lesson.

Finally in Acts chapter 22, there is another teaching in that direction. I want here to point out the close relationship for Scripture between the experience of salvation and baptism. Acts 22:16, Paul is recounting his conversion experience and the Lord Jesus Christ sent this prophet Ananias to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and in verse 16 he says:

“…Now then, why are you stopping? ─ This is Ananias speaking to Saul who has just experienced salvation through Jesus Christ ─ …Now then, why are you stopping? ─ That is a good question for you. If you have spent time in the Gospel, if you have converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, it is clear that you love Jesus and that you have committed yourself to him, why do you stop? Wow! I hope you're not prophesying to someone. Don't go away, don't be scared, it's a loving question, why are you stopping?

“…Get up then, why are you stopping? Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins by calling on his name…”

Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins. I notice here another little implication about water and the forgiveness of sins. The Bible speaks of washing by the water of the spirit and the water of the word. There is a metaphorical but also very real association, water is a symbol of immersing ourselves in the water, charged with faith and spiritual symbolism, there is also a washing experience that could be interpreted very strongly or symbolically, but as it is a very narrow thing .

Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins by calling on his name. So, notice again, the close association between an actual conversion experience and the baptismal experience. This is important.

Now many other things can be optional, that's what I want to emphasize to you. There are many that in the Bible, well maybe it is done, maybe it is not done: keeping the Sabbath, for example, keeping purification feasts and other rituals of Scripture, but in the Christian experience baptism does not seem to be one of them. This is something very important, something key. It is possible that irreplaceable, inescapable experience of a mature and obedient Christian.

Now, I am going to enter here in another very important point. Over the years I have read different things about the Jews and their practices here in the United States and in Israel and in other parts of the world. For Jews one of the very important things, wherever there is a Jewish community there must be, what is called, a micfah. Micfah means like flowing waters. It is important to every Jewish community in the world that where there are a certain number of Jews, usually male, but wherever there are a certain number of Jewish males, there should be a micfah. That is to say, it is a place, it is like a pool, like a pool where men generally, I don't know now with reformed Judaism and all this, I imagine women too, but where they can go to purify themselves and celebrate certain rites of washing and ritual baths.

This is something that dates back to the Old Testament. At some point this idea of the ritualistic washing of man, of the Jewish believer, was developed. So, one can see, everyone who has studied all these things knows, there is a close relationship between the baptism that Jesus practiced and the disciples and that Jewish practice of micfah, of ritual washing.

And reading about this, it became so apparent to me why it's important to understand the ancestors of baptism, before Jesus. Because what the Christians did was take this Jewish ritual practice and transfer it, as was done with so many different things, the sacrament and other things that date back to Passover, the Jewish Passover, and transfer it to Christian symbolism, and adapt it for the purposes and the spiritual principles of Christianity. But actually, Christians do not invent baptism. Baptism already existed, just not with the connotations that Christians give it, in Judaism at the time of Jesus.

Then, once that relationship is established, when we see how it was practiced and what it symbolized for the Jews and that it was transferred to the Christians, we can see even more clearly the meanings of baptism.

For example, how do we know what was practiced before? Before Jesus even begins to preach, John is already practicing baptism. The Lord submits to that ritual. The Essenes and other Jewish sects practiced ritual bathing and some of them did it daily. It was a ritual purification, a symbol of washing away sin and impurity.

So, we see John the Baptist practicing baptism and we see Jesus undergoing this ritual. Juan, when he sees him coming to be baptized with him, tells him, "I'm not worthy, you should be baptizing me." Jesus tells him, "No, no, it is necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled." And he is baptized in water.

Important here about obedience, there is a connotation there that I am going to teach a little bit later. We are baptized in obedience. It is not how I feel, if I want to or not, if I like it or not, it is an obedience. But we already see that before Jesus began his ministry, baptism already existed as a Jewish practice.

What did the micfah look like? That ritual washing of the Jews, what did it mean? It was first a total immersion. There is much controversy among Christians who practice baptism by sprinkling, by immersion, some baptize children, holy water, milk on the forehead or something like that. But let's see something interesting about this.

Remember, baptism stems from a Jewish ritual. That Jewish ritual, how was it practiced? It was a total immersion, to the point that no one could touch the initiate, who was going to be baptized, because there was supposed to be total contact of the whole body. It was practiced in the nude, brothers and sisters thank the Lord that this did not carry over into Christian practice. But they were nude because there was supposed to be full contact of the baptized person with the water. You couldn't even get your hands on it because that could interfere with full immersion. Those Jewish obsessions.

First, great importance was attached to total immersion and total washing of the body. Secondly, it was an act of purification, of washing the person. Third, it was interestingly an initiation into a new life as is the case with Christian baptism as well. When a person converted to Judaism, he had to immediately go to the micfah and take a ritual bath. This was something important, as we also see in Scripture.

And it was like an impartation of a new identity. That person was leaving the place now with a new identity. Now he was a Jew, a member of the tribe of Israel, of the family of Israel. He was no longer a Gentile. Now he had a new identity as a human being, like us too in a sense, we will see later, we experienced something similar through baptism.

It was a new birth after conversion. It was a confirmation after conversion to Judaism of what that person had experienced in his spiritual life. By being baptized he gave public expression of what had happened in his life. Another thing was extremely important. This was a sinequanon, it was an absolute must of the conversion experience for Jews who practiced micfah.

It was not optional. It was so serious, so key that, for example, the person could not leave the same way they entered. I had to get out the other way so as not to contaminate the water, just in case. If he purified himself here, he entered here impure, he left here pure and many things were repeated. There had to be witnesses, a number of things, very serious and people who officially confirmed it, members of the Sanhedrin even in the origins. It was something very, very important. And it was a spiritual washing.

All these things we find later in Christianity, which tells me that to be trustworthy to that spirit that was transferred and that was practiced in the Scriptures there must be very similar elements. And there are in Scripture.

Christianity took the micfah and applied it to its own purposes and symbolism as with other rituals taken from the Old Testament, such as the Lord's Supper as I was saying, which is nothing like the experience of the Jews when they left Egypt at Passover.

Now, what are some of the connotations of baptism? I have already said them in an initial way. Firstly it is an act of obedience. We already saw in Matthew 3:14, 15, how the Lord said, it is not necessary for the Scripture to be fulfilled. Juan, it doesn't matter what you think, your emotions here don't count for anything, it doesn't even matter my condition and my ontological position as Son of God. It is important that if this is commanded in Scripture, if this is a commandment and it is a ritual of our Jewish customs that I submit because I have come to fulfill the law. The Lord fulfilled the law, he submitted.

And I believe that obedient Christians should also be baptized. There are many things that I wonder about baptism and perhaps you too, but if you obey the word of the Lord and submit to this Christian tradition and those laws of the word of the Lord, you are going to be baptized because it is something that is associated subject to the authority of Scripture.

In another sense, it is also a symbol of the unity of the body of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 4 and 5, we see here that it says:

“…A body and a spirit ─ he says in verse 3 inclusive, ─ eager to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one spirit, as you were also called in the same hope of your vocation, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all..."

Notice that in all that experience that unifies the people of God, in all these things that are part of our unity, one faith, one same Lord, one same experience of salvation, is baptism. Baptism sort of unifies you with that great family of faith through the ages and in your own time, and in your own community. It's like a sealing experience, just like the sacrament too. when we take the sacrament we do it at the same moment, with the same mind, with a total solemnity, that bonds us, unites us, unifies us in a powerful way. So it is a symbol of unity of the Christian life.

It also identifies us with the death of Jesus. If you look in Romans, chapter 6, verses 2-5, we see something similar here as well, by the way, hopefully soon we will be able to put these up ─ I don't have the time to put them into the presentation, but It is very important that they also see these texts on the screen. In Romans chapter 6 verses 2 and 5, one of the longest expositions in Scripture of the meaning of baptism, it says here:

"...In no way, because those of us who have died to sin how will we still live in it, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death..."

Notice that the Apostle Paul is thinking here, first of not living in sin. We have died to sin. So cutting is the relationship with sin of a genuinely Christian person who is already dead to sin. They unplugged all connections to sin. And we identify ourselves with death to sin, as Christ also dies.

We have been baptized into the death of Jesus in every sense of the word "...for we are buried, says verse 4, together with him into death through baptism, so that as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father so we also walk in new life..."

Death and new life. And baptism is a very eloquent expression of that trajectory. Baptism when we enter the water and lose ourselves for an instant in the world, when we submerge ourselves in the water, at that moment when we are there, we do not hear anything, because we are immersed in the water, it is like a symbol of immersion in the death of the Mister. It symbolically disconnects us with sin and with everything that has to do with this impure life.

But it also identifies us with the resurrection of Jesus. Right there in Romans 6:4 we read:

"...In order that as Christ rose from the dead, by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in new life..."

I always say, remember that holiness is not only to destroy, to separate from, but also to build and prepare for, it is to bless, strengthen, prepare, enable, not only not to touch, not to do, not to stop, not to think. It is a very constructive thing.

We die to sin but rise to new life. We die to a number of things that we like, but we are also given a number of privileges that the resurrection exemplifies, power, authority, victory over death, victory over sin, victory over the devil and his works, victory over sickness, all of that is exemplified in baptism, so it's not just bad things but very good things as well.

Amen. I'm glad you guys are meeting with me on that. It is a new life, a behavior, a new behavior. Physically, then, we see that entering, coming out of the water, represents death, represents burial and rising from the grave to a new life in Christ Jesus. All those things are symbolized in baptism. Glory to God.

They put it in the water, they take it out, you go out there to a life. What a pretty thing! What a beautiful symbol of the different spiritual elements of the Christian life. Besides that, it is not only physical death, resurrection, act of obedience, it is also a public expression of what has been given within us in the spirit.

By the way, in the celebration of the Jewish micfah, for example, a mother or father was not allowed to take their child to be baptized. He couldn't be baptized alone, he couldn't do a private ceremony, there had to be witnesses. That doesn't seem interesting to him, one gets married, there are witnesses, one graduates, there are witnesses, it was so important that there were supposed to be witnesses to confirm, so that you could affirm your decision. That is why it is so beautiful when we are baptized and have our community around us. What's happening? When things are done publicly we are strengthened, it gives it weight, it gives it importance, it gives it permanent meaning, something communal. That helps us move forward.

That is, a washing of our sins that has already been given. The water of baptism does not wash away your sins, although let me tell you, there is a whole sacramental interpretation, but I don't want to get into that mess right now. There is a whole sector of Christianity that believes that baptism has a real effect on the spirit, on the spiritual ontology of the person, not just something symbolic, but that it confers grace, it confers an effect on the life of the person and there is a whole branch, large branches of Christianity, all the Greek Orthodox, Catholic and even Episcopal branches and other groups believe, we will see a little more about that later. There is a sacramental interpretation of baptism.

We Baptists, many modern evangelical groups do not see that aspect of one thing that truly changes you in a radical way, your ontology, but rather we see it as an expression of something that has already occurred within you.

The fact is that you express it publicly. Another thing is that it is connected with the forgiveness of sins. In Scripture, for example, look at a random passage, we're going to go to Peter, we haven't used it, so you don't feel rejected either. Peter, chapter 3, verse 21, says:

“…The baptism that corresponds to this now saves us, that is why many people have interpreted these things as something sacramental, something that truly changes your life and works in you and assigns you salvation, ─ the baptism that corresponds to this now He saves us... ─ now, interestingly, he says, ─ …not by removing the filth from the flesh but as the aspiration of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…”

In other words, there is a complexity there. It saves us but it is not that it removes the impurities from the flesh when you get into the water, but rather it is an expression, an aspiration, something that you desire, something that you believe and declare symbolically with your mouth, and you affirm yourself in it through baptism.

But there are definitely several passages, which I am not going to dwell on in the others, that speak of being baptized for the forgiveness of sins. And that's why it's so important. Many believers, through the centuries, have interpreted this as something truly real. Perhaps we are not going to reach that point, but at least, listen to me, be afraid and tremble, at least acknowledge, as there is a somewhat strange connection here and it is better not to play with it.

If he tells me to get baptized, look, let me be smart and I'll get baptized just in case. So if I leave, I leave with all the stamps in my passport and no one can tell me up there, oops, wait, you're missing something here. So I prefer to err on the side of being wrong. What do you think? Yes or no? If you are a wise and understanding person, won't you do the same?

Now, we don't fully know, I'm not going to say, but there is a very close connection between the forgiveness of sins and being baptized. Let this be clear, baptism does not save. The thief on the cross was not baptized, however he went straight to Paradise. I think there is a sign there that saves is grace.

If someone tells me that you have to be baptized to be saved, then you haven't read Galatians, for example, where circumcision, which was the most sacred thing for the Jews, Paul says, hey, if you add circumcision to Christ for be saved, then you are voiding salvation by grace. Salvation is by grace, do you understand me?

That is why it is so important, brothers, one to read all the passages of Scripture, so that together they fight with each other and one sees them there and they fight because they are white and they understand each other. In the end I'm going to see what happens.

We have to look at Scripture in all dimensions. Take those tickets, put them together, put them on the floor, sit down and watch what they do together. So, definitely, although there are those suggestions of baptism as something absolutely essential for salvation and the forgiveness of sin, we know on the other hand that the Bible says, that salvation is by grace not by works, so that no one can boast. Nothing that you can do physically, symbolically, whatever, assigns you salvation, only Christ, confession of sins.

Now, there is an essential importance that you should also look at both things, and ask the Lord, Lord, help me understand these two passages and put them to live within my soul with each other, in all their tension and complexity.

It does not save but it is a strong symbol of the experience of forgiveness and washing away of sins. There is a very close connection between the two that we will be wise to retain and keep and not underestimate.

As I said before, baptism is not optional. I don't see that. Although it is something that does not save you, but you must practice it, out of obedience, prudence, respect for the word, identification with so many other Christians throughout history and you are no better than them. So all this pushes us inevitably towards the experience of baptism.

It is a requirement of the Christian experience. It should be practiced as much as possible. Look at Galatians 3:26. Galatians is the book of grace and of the secondary of works and rituals, in light of the grace that Christ unleashed by his death on the cross. But there in Galatians inclusive, Galatians 3:26 and 27 we are told:

"...For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ..."

Look how interesting in the mind of the Apostle Paul says, all who are baptized into Christ are clothed with Christ. Again, it would be misleading. Thank God that in Galatians, in its context, he's not going to contradict himself in such an obvious way by saying, well, you have to be baptized to be clothed in Christ. But in the mind of the Apostle Paul there is something so narrow that it is difficult for him to see the apparent contradiction into which he is putting us.

If you have been baptized into Christ, you are clothed with him. It is something that should be practiced as much as possible because the connection in the Bible is so clear.

Baptism must be by immersion. That's what I think. Now let's refine that a bit. You have already seen how the ancestor of baptism, micfah, was immersion and at a very delicate level. We, as Christians, add other nuances to it. But I definitely believe that baptism should be by immersion whenever possible. Because? Because given its connections to the ancient Jewish rite of ceremonial bathing, second, all Biblical references we have to baptismal experiences suggest immersion. Some would still say, well, the matter of the Philippian jailer who was baptized in the night. Where did they find water? Pablo looked for a tray there and, limping from all the lashes they gave him, baptized the poor man, and put him there. Or maybe there was one of those micfah pools in the neighborhood and he was baptized there. I don't know, but there's no looking for 5 legs for the cat.

In all the experiences, there was the eunuch who passed by, he converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, he saw a body of water, look there is water, why don't we baptize? Amen. If you have faith, do it. They baptized him there.

All the Biblical experiences that we have here suggest baptism by immersion. There are none that I know of, except for the one that when you want to look for him grabbing something from the Philippian jailer, you can perhaps say something. But no, they are usually references by immersion.

And by the meaning of the word itself, baptizo or baptisma, which is the subject of baptism, means immersion. Immersion, saturation of something. That is to say, everything in the Bible suggests that it was by immersion, not by sprinkling or some other kind of… and it was not children but adults who were baptized.

But I'm going to qualify that a bit. So, baptism I say, should be practiced primarily by adult believers, by immersion and not by sprinkling or some other method.

What I mean by this is that, look, if baptism can be practiced at all, it must be practiced this way. Now, if there were to be some exceptional situation, which there may be, then our faith, our trust in grace, our trust in the transforming power of faith to take a symbol and bring it to life when practiced in faith, even if it is only a core of what that symbol was initially, also gives us freedom to play a little with the matter.

For example, years ago, one of the most beautiful moments of my experience as a pastor was, and at that time I was younger and crazy, I went to visit a person in the hospital, he had AIDS and he was already declared dead. I couldn't get out of the hospital. And this was a young man who had turned to the Lord in a powerful experience after a life of drugs, and that man called us saying "I want, I need, to be baptized before I die."

Well, I took this person, we got her out of her bed, making sure there wasn't a doctor around, and we took her to the bathroom and there we helped put her head back and I turned on the faucet in the sink and we poured water down the head and for me, I know that that boy left with everything and shoes for heaven, happy. And he considered himself baptized.

I have no doubt that at that moment that was what the grace of the Lord allowed us to do, the freedom we have in Christ and the power of faith. So, I don't have a problem with that, but I say that if it can be done that way at all, I would say that the normative way to practice baptism should be by immersion, an adult person who believes in Jesus Christ.

Now I'm going to tell you why too. Am I clear? I'm not being legalistic or self-righteous or anything. Baptism, one of the things about baptism, as we've already seen, is strongly associated with believing in Jesus Christ as something conscious and deliberate. If you are going to baptize because you have believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and you want to express that through the act of baptism, it is assumed that you have believed. And if you have believed it means that you have consciously, intellectually considered the claims of Jesus and then you have said, yes, to those claims. Yes or no? Am I being too complicated? If not, lower the volume a bit.

That is to say, believing presupposes an intellectual act, an intellectual process of consideration and affirmation of the will to what you have considered. That is what baptism presupposes. When you are baptized it is assumed that this process has already taken place in your mind.

An infant, a baby, unless it is a genius, cannot go through that process of belief, affirmation, consideration of alternatives, and then a final option in favor of. A baby cannot go through that process, so there is a problem that if baptism is an expression of an experience of belief and affirmation, then something is missing.

We, for example, presented a baby this morning. We believe in that, in consecrating, confirming, declaring a blessing, sealing, I believe that this act has power, brothers, let me tell you, that's why we practice it here. The faith of those parents. Because that is something else too, which is very important. The sacramental world believes that it is not the faith of the baby that makes baptism important, but the faith of the parents.

Now, that gets me into another mess and I'm not even going to get too into it. But look how important this is, brothers, that I always tell brothers who present babies, in a sense they are not only presenting their baby, but they are also presenting themselves, because that baby needs a home where it can live. love Christ, where the word of God germinates and grows and abounds, where there are good examples, good teachings, Christians who love the Lord above all things.

So, it's not like we come here and put the burden on the pastor. Take care of my baby here, bless me and sanctify me and all and one stays. No, the father, the mother, the godparents are united to that baby in a sense, we promise to be a blessing to this creature and raise her up in the fear of God. Yes or no?

So through the centuries Christians who have believed in infant baptism say, well, it's not that the child believes, it's that the parent's surrogate faith is assigned to the child and by the parent's faith the child is assigned. is saved or baptized. That is another complex thing.

After that, in fact, the Catholic Church, seeing the little problem that this has, has created the rite of confirmation. Confirmation comes later. But I say, why complicate life so much? Why add yet another ritual? One is enough. Get baptized in the time of adulthood and present the children as we do, and then we cover ourselves on all sides.

That is why I also want that baptism should be for adults who are baptized by immersion. For all that historical trajectory that baptism has.

However, I want to clarify that the external methodology, forgive the use of big profanity, that the external methodology of baptism does not have absolute power either, as it happens with the Lord's Supper, which we only practice in a very symbolic and basic way.

What I mean by this? The holy supper that we practice here, is not the same agape that the first Christians practiced, a total meal, pork leg, rice with pigeon peas, puposa, everything, maybe not pork if it was a Jewish context, but at least a stewed meat or something . It was a complete meal where the Christians brought their food and spent it together in the harmony and love of Christ, they shared their food, unity.

Today, what do we do? We've narrowed it down to a tiny little thing, a little bit of Welsh grape juice. Sometimes I've wanted to practice a little with a little wine, even if it's to brighten up, but I say no, no, there's too much out there, so it's better not to give the devil paws or anything, let's leave him alone.

But note that we have no problem with eating a little piece of wonderbread, cut with a little grape juice, and we consider it as a completion of the act of sacrament. Because faith is what matters in this case. Whether it's a whole loaf or a little piece, it doesn't matter because faith transforms it.

I do not believe, for example, that ultimately, for me if a person is baptized by sprinkling and his faith leads him to believe that his whole body was covered, glory to God, according to your faith it will be done to you.

I am not being absolutely rigid either. That is what kills Christianity, that rigidity, that then we want to trap those who do not believe like us in a shirt of 11 rods and put them there, since you did not do it like me, then you are outside the family. Neither. So you have to see the complexity, the breadth of the Gospel.

The fact that we do it absolutely by immersion, naked, in shorts, only with pants and shirt, with whatever, a white, yellow, light blue coat, does not matter in the last instance, what matters is the faith of the person, their consecration to the Lord, his conviction that Christ is my Lord and savior, so what? So they stand there and give public witness to what has gone on inside of them. Nor can we be rigid about it.

But having said everything else, we also keep that caveat. Baptism was strongly associated with salvation as a sacrament, in the minds of the early Christians. I believe that the reason why this began to be practiced, personally, I am not an anthropologist or anything like that, but I believe that the reason why the baptism of children began to be practiced is because the first Christians had this strong association of salvation with baptism. They had a mind still sacramental, magical a little bit, if you will, a troublesome word.

But I believe that those first Christians taken from a world totally immersed in a symbolic universe, where rituals had power, magic, witchcraft, all these things where the world opened up to the eternal operations of men, words, gestures, things That mentality made it easier for them to see what we see here, that close association between baptism and a direct operation on the ontology of the individual, their identity. So they said, well, if baptism really has to do with salvation and something else, in that world children died much more easily. Many children died. Infant mortality was very high. So, those children, the parents stayed… he died very young, baby, will he have been saved or not? So what's up? Well, we're going to put water in it until it breaks, to make sure that if it dies, at least it goes to heaven.

So I think that's where the baptizing of children began too. Because of that close association of baptism with salvation. And then later it continued in the Catholic sacramental world, when Protestantism came in, which broke with a number of things, they stayed with that ritual, the baptism by sprinkling and all that, and the baptism of children, and there the complexity entered, however. for Baptists and other Christian groups, and there the Pandora's box was opened, of the diversity of the Christian world.

But originally I think it was due to that issue of children dying, sometimes early, we are going to make sure that they go with God, if salvation is acquired through baptism or is something that is truly linked to it, then we are going to baptize them, and then over the centuries that was so strongly asserted that it became very difficult for a whole segment of Christianity to get rid of that idea. I owe that to him right there. I am not going to charge you for that teaching.

Brethren, baptism is an important aspect. The conclusion of all this, brothers, take this home. Baptism is an important aspect of the Christian experience. I would say an essential, extraordinarily important aspect. Secondly, it must be taken very seriously and practiced as soon as possible after believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, as much as possible, my brothers.

I know that there are brothers who have a complex life, have difficult circumstances in their lives, and sometimes they ask me, Pastor, should I get baptized? I tell those people, bathing myself in the blood of Jesus, I tell them, look, if you have believed in Jesus, as Lord and savior, if you love him with your heart, if you have entrusted yourself to the grace of Sir, and if you have said I won't go back, no matter what, look, I'm going to plunge you three times, not once, but three, with complete freedom of conscience.

It is like receiving Christ as Lord and savior, with everything and your sins, because he meets you where you are, I believe it also has to be with baptism as well. Now, not that I take it lightly either, you know. If you are there between two waters, well, maybe I'll convert, maybe not, maybe, well, but if so-and-so tells me yes, then I'm going to leave the church. No, if you're into it, stay out of the water. But if you have faith, you love the Lord, you have accepted him, you are surrendered to him, then entrust yourself to the grace of the Lord and go forward, and the Lord will guide you... sometimes baptism can even be a source of power and of conviction that it will help him get ahead in other things. And I believe that baptism has, yes, there is something special, there is a parting of grace and power. I believe in that aspect sacramentally, yes.

I think there is something going on. It is not purely symbolic. There is a special grace by faith that we activate when those waters touch us and become something that penetrates us and bathes us and seals us. See it like this when you are going to be baptized, if you are going to be baptized. It is a very important thing. It should be practiced as much as possible.

It does not save but the Bible suggests that it is strongly connected to maturity and spiritual vitality. If you have not been baptized and have been in the Gospel for a long time, I think you are missing something and you should do it as soon as possible. You must do it in the name of the Lord because it is connected to maturity, to spiritual vitality.

Finally, it is an eloquent public declaration of spiritual belief and consecration. So, brothers, let's thank the Lord for how profound this act is and thank God that we can participate in it through Jesus Christ.

Stand up for a moment. Let's thank the Lord for this word. We are going to receive it in our hearts, we are going to seal it within us. I ardently hope that every day the number of people who know Jesus as Lord and savior and who also pass through the waters of baptism and say, I am not going back, I am not going back, grows. Amen.

Glory to the name of the Lord. Father, thank you, thank you for your beautiful word, thank you for your teachings, thank you for those lives that are going to be baptized this afternoon. Thank you for making us partakers of symbols and truths that even the angels would long to partake of them as we partake of them. Thank you because you have given us a delicacy that no one else in creation has, Lord, only your family redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Thank you for allowing us one day to enter the baptismal waters and bless my brothers who are still in that process and seal them with this sense of commitment, Father.

Thank you, we adore you, we bless you. Brothers, say yes to this truth from the Lord and whatever else you have received there. We want to give an opportunity even though time passes, but if there is someone who has not yet received Jesus as Lord and savior, listen to me, if you have not received Christ yet, before you are baptized you have to go through that act of obedience. Don't think too much, what if this, what if that. No. The word says that if you confess the Lord with your mouth, if you believe in your heart that Christ raised from the dead, then you are saved. You have to go through that act of confession and believe in Jesus.