Logos Review #8

Lesson 8: Baptism How?

This week, Pastor Anthony and Brother Larry Clark tackled the idea of baptism and its importance in our relationship with God.  What did they find out and what does it mean for us?  Read on to find out.

This week, Pastor and Larry Clark turned their focus to baptism and how it is essential for salvation.  While they used Search For Truth as base layer, the two teachers also took from other studies as well as their own knowledge of the Bible so as to craft the best explanation for what baptism is, why it's important and how we should be baptized. 

They opened up by letting everyone know that baptism was important to Jesus.  Jesus was baptized as a sign unto us and he proclaimed the importance of baptism both early on in his ministry (John 3:5) as well as near the end (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:16, Luke 24:47). 

They pointed out that while in Luke Christ doesn't use the word baptism to commission his followers, he does use a word later associated with baptism: remission.  Remission means removal, and it is this word that helps to identify baptism as the new testament circumcision of the heart.  They used this one word to show how while forgiveness is important and essential to salvation, it isn't the completion of salvation.  There must be removal of sin and only baptism is associated with the removal of sin, both by Jesus and the Apostle Peter (Acts 2:38-proclomation, 10:43-practice)

Beyond baptism's essential place in the plan of salvation, Pastor and Brother Larry showed why it is important to baptize in the Name of Jesus instead of the titles Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  They posited that though Christ said to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, he was referring to himself because he is all three.  They also showed that nowhere in the book of Acts or anywhere else moving forward in the Bible are people baptized or commanded to be baptized in any name but Jesus.  They took their time on this point to show that the people baptizing were either taught directly by Jesus or by those who walked directly with Him.  These men were deliberate in their actions and careful with their words.  For them to repeatedly use the name of Jesus as the utterance when baptizing shows they were committed to this as the only way to baptize and they believed that was what Christ meant when he said baptize in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Thus, we have to take these followers of Christ at their word and their word was that people were to be baptized in the Name of Jesus.

Quotes and Notes:

"Forgiveness doesn't remove the stain of sin." Pastor
"If Peter said it wrong in Acts 2, would God have sent an angel to commission him in Acts 10?" Pastor
"God notices good deeds and opens doors accordingly." Brother Larry

The two teachers did an excellent job also debunking the ideas of sprinkling and not using water at all in baptism with several scriptures that talked about immersing people in water and the apostles asking or talking about water when they discussed baptism.

The ladies had a great question about John's baptism and why it wasn't acceptable.  Pastor and Brother Larry both used Acts 19 to show that even though John's baptism was good, it didn't lead to salvation.  They also showed that while Paul explained the importance of Jesus Name baptism, he didn't run the disciples of John down for believing otherwise or not knowing.  We should take his approach to heart when we witness.



We hope you enjoyed this week's review of LOGOS.  If you missed watching the lesson, you can watch it here.  There's also a handout you can download on the same page. Email us your thoughts on the lesson.  We look forward to hearing from you and further sharing our thoughts on LOGOS.

LOGOS: A Bible Study Experience Lesson 8