When I woke up on December 10, 2023, I went through my normal Sunday morning routine – I ran a few miles with the dog (dogs are not required to shabbat^[?]), I had some yogurt for breakfast, and put on some coffee so it would be ready when my wife woke up. We had no idea that within a few hours, we were going to be baptized!

Worship was great as always, we sang, we praised, I felt like I was on key that day. Then a woman came out and gave her testimony. We have something called Redemption Groups at our church. It’s where you go when you’ve tasted everything else in life, and proved that none of it could satisfy you. From there you learn to trade it all in for Jesus and then you write poetically about it and share it with the entire church. It was so beautiful I cried one big old tear on the right side, followed at the end of her story by a big old tear on the left side. At this point, I had two options. I could wipe the tears away, or while it’s just the one in each eye you do have the option of leaving them and your eyes will take care of draining them.

Then a young man gave his testimony, about his addiction to pornography and his redemption from it. I’d been telling a very similar testimony about myself for the past five years at that point. I know what it’s like to feel hopeless, lost, shameful, dirty, and unfit, and then watch Jesus blow that prison cell to pieces, releasing me into freedom. That was tear number three for those counting – getting to the point where I should probably start looking around for a Kleenex(™).

They said today’s a Baptism Sunday. They had a tank of water on the stage, they had people who had prepared for this, but there were also extra towels and shorts and T-shirts for anyone who decided that day to get baptized. Well, we had already talked about it several times and decided we were gonna get baptized, but it was always “when we’re ready. Later”. That day we looked at each other and decided that today was the day.

Let Me Tell You About the Path That Lead Us to Baptism

Normally I sit in the 7th row because 7 is a better number than 8, but a friend was in row 8 so we sat by him (red hexagon). We were close to the center aisle (ADHD tip right there, gotta be in the action.  Never sit in the back of church). So we walked down the center aisle, we came up the stage, talked to a guy, he brought us to that side stage hallway where people go before they get on stage, asked about our belief and our story real quick once.  We picked out sizes for shorts and T-shirts and headed for the bathrooms, which were in the back of the church! The orange line is us walking the length of church as fast as you’re allowed to walk in church.  I was pulling the tags off the shorts and T-shirts as we walked. We split up to change.  My wife left her clothes in her bathroom but I had a wallet, keys, and phone with me, so I “checked” my belongings behind the counter by the front. 

Now wearing new clothes but carrying our shoes, me adidas she crocs, we followed that green line back up to the front of church.  By this point the crowd was singing and super pumped up because people were already being baptized. We got baptized, grabbed a towel, and from there the blue line shows everywhere we went barefoot and wet, with towels wrapped around our waist.  We were giving people wet hugs, we had to go back up to the front to get our shoes.  Oh yeah, we dripped baptism water ALL over that church.  I tried to warn people about the wet floor like you’re supposed to, but everyone who saw us was smiling and happy for us and congratulating us.  I didn’t even change before I left, I just walked back to the car in damp shorts in December because I wanted to remember that day forever.

That’s two baptisms right there, but I promised you four, so I’m just gonna copy and paste the previous header:

Let Me Tell You About the Path That Led Us to Baptism

This was not our first rodeo.  I had been baptized when I was a month old, because that’s how Lutherans roll.  My wife was four years old and she got baptized so her parents could join that particular Lutheran church.  She couldn’t attend their school unless they were members of the church and to be a member you had to be baptized.  The story of my first baptism is that there is no story.  Like I said, I was a month old so I don’t remember it. I didn’t choose it or participate in any way.  I doubt anyone told me ahead of time that it was coming.  I don’t have any photos of it because farmers did not have cameras in 1983.  But I imagine it looked a lot my daughters’ baptism.

Now looking at these photos, it’s clear that I have a preference, but I’m not here to settle disputes about the “correct” way to perform baptism.  Jesus settled it quite succinctly when He said:

 “Anyone who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  

And then he rose into the air, and vanished from sight.  From that point forward, nobody was able to ask follow on questions.  If Jesus had any strong feelings about the manner in which we performed the ritual of baptism, he could have stuck around an extra five minutes, like “Hey guys, don’t use this one particular method of baptism, because then you’re also condemned.”  No, the man only asked us for two things. 

 “Anyone who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  

If you’ve done those two things, then you’re saved.  Take a second to praise God if that’s you! I mean it, stop reading for five seconds and rejoice in your salvation.  If you haven’t believed in Jesus and been baptized, I say go for it.  He’s asking for two things, and one of them is easy.

All the Baptisms in the Bible

The first mention of baptism in the bible is [bradtip text=”John baptizing the crowds” tooltip=”In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” class=”bradtip-gold”].  He continued this until [bradtip text=”his imprisonment” tooltip=”Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.” class=”bradtip-gold”] [bradtip text=”in late 27 or early 28″ tooltip=”this is shortly after Jesus cleared the temple, claimed he could rebuild it in three days, and his haters were like ‘it took Herod 46 years to rebuild the temple.’, which he started in the 18th year of his reign, which was 20 B.C., always keeping in mind there is no year zero.”].  For the remainder of the Bible, the order of believing and being baptized doesn’t seem to matter all that much.  The book of Acts begins with Jesus in His resurrected body, saying “John baptized you with water; I’m gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit, just like I promised.”

 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.  And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with  the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

“Not many days” ended up being 10, and He didn’t mention the fire part ahead of time. Probably better not mention the fire part ahead of time. Now, God Almighty creator of the universe, wearing a human body that is now made death-proof and capable of teleportation, that God is standing in front of you, saying “I am going to give you my Spirit” – that’s such an amazing thing to say for so many reasons but for now we’re just looking at the order of events. Some of the disciples were followers of John the Baptizer before they ever met Jesus (Simon, Andrew, and John for sure).  Others were called by Jesus [bradtip text=”well after John was in prison” tooltip=”my logic is as follows: Herod arrested John, then in John 4:35 Jesus says there’s four months until the harvest, then when harvest is ready he gets in trouble for eating wheat on Shabbat, and after that is when he goes up a mountain to call 12 disciples to be apostles”.] 

In Acts 2, the crowd in Jerusalem gathered up to figure out why it sounded so windy and if these babbling men were on fire. Peter gave his big sermon that ended in “you just killed Meschiach, the chosen of Yahweh”. Verse 37:

 and the people were cut to the heart.  They asked what must we do to be saved, and Peter said “Repent and be baptized and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

In this case, it’s all three at once – repent, baptized, Holy Spirit. That’s what you must do to be saved.

Acts 8, Simon the Sorcerer, and many others, believed and were baptized.  This was in Samaria, so Peter and John left Jerusalem to check it out, verse 15 “who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  So in this case it’s belief, then baptism, but no Holy Spirit until Peter and John prayed and asked for it.  This was to fulfill the command of Jesus in chapter one, first to the Jews, then to Judea and Samaria, then to the ends of the world.

Next baptism was from Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch.  He wanted to believe but didn’t understand the Hebrew scriptures so Philip, a Jew, explained it to him and he believed and was baptized at the same time.

Then you’ve got the big guy, Saul of Tarsus!  He definitely did not believe in Jesus until Jesus blinded him and said why are you persecuting me?: “But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”  Jesus then tells Ananias, go to Straight Street, find the house owned by a guy named Judas, you’ll find a man I just blinded.  You’re going to heal his eyesight.  Ananias heals him and baptizes him, he stays there a few more days, and then goes into the synagogues to declare Jesus is the Son of God.  Baptized before he was a believer? One of the more famous baptisms in scripture goes baptism first, then belief.  It’s starting to seem like the order doesn’t matter all that much.

Moving on to Acts 10, Peter starts hanging around with Greeks and Romans (he would have gone by name Cephas when traveling that area, which also means the Rock).  The Holy Spirit descended on a bunch of Gentiles and Cephas said in verse 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”  So here it’s not a baptism to receive the Holy Spirit, it’s “these guys obviously have the Holy Spirit, so we should baptize them”.

Acts 16, Lydia is already a believer when she’s baptized.  Later in that chapter is the Phillipian jailer, he believes and is baptized all at once, but that was probably because he was about to be executed by his Roman commanders for bringing prisoners to his house and letting them free.

There’s an interesting case in Acts 19 where Paul (still named Saul but went by Paul in Gentile regions) showed up in Ephesus and asked them in verse 2: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in  the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.”

Interesting because it’s the first mention in the Bible of people being baptized with water more than once.  Paul says it’s all the same baptism. John’s was for the forgiveness of sins through Jesus; that’s why we all get baptized. For these twelve men he did it a second time anyways. They received the Holy Spirit, at which point they began prophesying and speaking in different languages. So if you feel unsure about whether you were truly baptized of your own decision, it’s okay to have a baptism where you declare in front of friends and family the name of Jesus, and then you go underwater to feel that feeling like you’ve died with him and rose back to life in Him.

Conclusion

I think the final word on the baptism debate is this:  it’s not supposed to be a debate.  Ever.  Jesus didn’t baptize us because we Pharisees needed more to argue about.  He didn’t send us out primarily to baptize, he sent us out first to go and make disciples.  And Paul agrees with me.  

 I appeal to you, brothers,by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.   -1 Cor 1:10-17

Gotta love Paul’s ADHD there where he forgets who he all baptized, so he writes that part down in parentheses.

There is one baptism.  My wife and I are two people, but we were baptized into one Spirit, so it’s really just the one baptism.  If I got baptized in 1983 and also in 2023 it’s still the one baptism.  We made the decision in 2023 to be baptized because we wanted to freely choose to accept it.  We wanted to experience it, and we wanted witnesses.   We wanted the chance to look death in the face and laugh because none of the charges can stick to us (Zechariah 3).  We’re reborn and we’re entering into the Kingdom of God with clean clothes.  Which the church let us keep by the way.  Who doesn’t like free stuff?  If you haven’t received the free stuff of Jesus, I recommend you do.  Believe and be baptized. It truly is free.