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  ONE BAPTISM
  by Tim Conway
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the unifying reality of being baptized
into one body, highlighting the importance of being fully immersed into
the realm of Christ and His people. The speaker delves into the
significance of spiritual gifts, individual roles within the church, and
the responsibility to build up the body in love. The imagery of baptism
into the body of Christ is portrayed as a powerful and unifying concept
that calls for active participation and engagement within the community
of believers.

Topics: "Unity in Christ", "Spiritual Gifts and Community Engagement"
Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 4:4, Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the unifying reality of being baptized into one
body, highlighting the importance of being fully immersed into the realm
of Christ and His people. The speaker delves into the significance of
spiritual gifts, individual roles within the church, and the
responsibility to build up the body in love. The imagery of baptism into
the body of Christ is portrayed as a powerful and unifying concept that
calls for active participation and engagement within the community of
believers.

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CONTENT
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Let's pray. Father, I pray that You would make our brother David
Butterbaugh a blessing to the church down there in Corpus. Father, I'm
thankful not only has one of the elders from Corpus gone to Lebanon, but
the other is constantly providing oversight to Reynosa.

We pray that You'd, Lord, use our brother Mark there, our brother Diego.
Pray for that church in Reynosa. And may You strengthen them and grow
them and may they be a lively witness there along that north border of
Mexico.

Lord, we think of our sister Bethany as she's overdue in birth, and I
just pray, Lord, that Your hand would be upon her and may this birth go
well and may You strengthen her, give her endurance through this. Bring
the baby soon. Father, we pray now that Your hand would be upon all of
us as the Word is opened up.

I pray that as I try to form words with my mouth and proclaim them and
give utterance, I pray that Your Spirit would grant me utterance and
grant us something profitable and good for us. I pray in Christ's name,
Amen. Okay, Ephesians 4. Verse 1, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been
called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one
another in love.

This really, verse 3, summarizes all the way down to verse 16 what the
primary focus is of the Apostle. Eager to maintain the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. And then here are the building blocks, if
we could put it that way, of this unity.

Maybe the foundation blocks for this unity. This is upon what our unity
is built. There's one body.

Our unity is not separate from theological realities and doctrinal
realities, but it's built on them. One body and one Spirit just as you
were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and
through all and in all.

But grace was given to each one of us. Now notice that. What I want you
to see here is that unity is built on these doctrinal realities.

One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
God and Father of all. It's built on that, but notice where he's going.
But it almost seems like if you just dive in right here, it almost seems
disjointed.

Verse 7, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure
of Christ's gift. Well, where did that come from? But here's the thing,
this is precisely the same thing Paul is dealing with over in 1
Corinthians 12. I don't want you to turn there right now, but we're
going to go there eventually.

You see, unity and gifts are connected in Paul's thinking. Why? Because
gifts vary. We're different.

We're not clones. And the Spirit hasn't made us clones. The Spirit has
designed us with different gifts, different strengths, but we are all in
one body.

And so even though there's differences, those differences, he's calling
for the unity of the Spirit for us to be eager to maintain that. So it's
not a strange thing that all of a sudden we would get hit by this. Grace
was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

You see, spiritual gifts is what's on the table here. Therefore it says,
when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to
men. Now, what I want to deal with today is one baptism.

Yeah, I was really tempted to include that with one God and Father of
all, or maybe even more than that and just kind of shoo it on. But
here's the thing, the term baptism is a powerful word. I think of that
word a lot because it's used in Scripture and it conjures imagery.

The meaning behind it is really a strong one. And so I just want to take
a little bit of time and deal with that today. One baptism.

Now, it would be really interesting to ask you all separately to tell me
what you think that is. And the reality is controversy abounds. We might
think that Paul would say that if we're eager to cause division in the
church, then just insist on the fact that there's one baptism.

Because baptism is a highly volatile thing. If ever there was anything
that has a tendency to divide people, even in this church, people have
left over the issue of baptism. And I'm not just talking about some of
the most recent situations, but we've had different issues with baptism.

Even some ongoing presently in our church, there's questions and
discussion. One baptism. What is this? Look, if you look back
historically, the salvation army, and I'm not talking just about what we
think about it today.

I'm talking about back in the days of William Booth when it really was a
salvation army. They ignored baptism altogether. Quakers.

And I'm not talking about the guy on the oatmeal thing. There was a day
when Quakers, they were probably good and godly. But you know what? They
didn't baptize.

And then, on the other hand, you get the reformers, and what did they
do? They basically did not reform at this point. They held on to the
Catholic practice of sprinkling unsaved infants. The church of Christ,
Catholicism, Mormonism, they all have a sort of baptism.

That's what they call it. And they somehow attach this reality that it's
an essential component of our salvation. When I say reality, it's a
reality to them.

Many embrace what's called baptismal regeneration. And we might include
the Catholics there. But Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, there's
basically this mindset that baptism regenerates.

So you've got that. Some immerse. Some sprinkle.

Some pour. Some do things that are in between somewhere. The Mormons
baptize for the dead.

Some people have this idea. We come across this on a regular basis. Some
people have the idea that because they're coming from somewhere else,
they're coming from another denomination, that somehow maybe their
baptism isn't good or valid.

And some people have that mindset. Well, you need to be baptized in the
circles that you're a part of. Some believe baptism is only for the
saved.

Some believe that it includes our covenant children even if they're not
saved. So would say Congregationalists and Presbyterians. EVFrees, they
kind of go both ways.

There's toleration for Baptists and non-Baptists. You know this, if you
look at the Charismatic circles, they insist on baptizing in whose name?
The name of Jesus. And then you get other people, oh, you have to
baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

I have a book at home on my shelf by Conrad Murrell. He believes that
there are four baptisms. He believes that there is a baptism into
Christ, baptism into water, a baptism into the Spirit, and a baptism in
fire.

Other good men disagree with his take. Is he right? Is he wrong? Who's
right? Who's wrong? And in the midst of all of it, what in the world is
the one baptism? Because that sounds like there's a whole lot of
different ones. Now I recognize in some of those circles, you may say,
well, we don't even put them in the category of orthodox Christianity.

Okay, that's right. We would agree. They don't even have the Gospel.

So let alone do they have the one baptism, but among people who we would
consider orthodox, there's all manner of opinions and ideas. But here's
Paul in Ephesians 4-5. And I can just see him.

So cool. So certain. So confident and collected.

And he just says it. There's one baptism. I wish he was preaching this
sermon, not me.

I mean, I'd be sitting on the edge of my seat. Wouldn't you? I'm hoping
I can be just as truth-delivering as he would be. Because the truth is,
we do have what God wants us to know Paul taught preserved for us in
here.

And so somewhere in here, there must be the key that unlocks this. If I
have it on good authority, inspired authority, that this book is
sufficient to equip the man of God, and I believe it is. I believe that
every answer we need to living our spiritual lives is to be found in
this book.

God left us with a complete guide. We don't always feel that. I mean,
I'm constantly saying, Lord, more light, more light, more light, help.

You know what most people do? They do the same thing with one baptism
that they do with one faith. I was talking to a sister last week after
the service, and she was telling me about her dad. And I said, you know,
what everybody does is they basically take what they believe and say
that's the one faith.

And she said, yes, that's exactly what my dad does. And you know, a lot
of people do that with baptism too. What's the one baptism? Well,
certainly, it's what I believe it is.

And then the next guy says the same thing, and he believes something
different, and then this thing isn't unifying. You've got your idea.
I've got my idea.

I remember watching something. I think it was that movie called The
Radicals, and it was about the Anabaptists. And you know, the Amish and
the Mennonites and those kind of folks put this thing together, and at
the end there when they're breaking away from Catholicism, they've got
them kneeling in the river and they're dumping water on their head.

I'm thinking, no! It's immersion. Why are they doing that? These are
supposed to be the descendants of the Anabaptists. Everybody's got their
ideas.

Whoever made that has their idea about what's the baptism? What's
appropriate? Well, so much controversy. I know this. There's no way I
can preach on this subject without somebody taking issue with me.

Brethren, hear me. I remember back when we were at Hackberry, and I
don't remember what compelled me to do this, but I'm just trying to lay
some of the foundational things in place for the church back in those
early days. I preached on the Sabbath.

And you know what? I had listened to messages. I had listened to the
most prominent series that Reformed Baptists had done on the Sabbath.
Because I thought, well, I just haven't come across the proof for the
Christian Sabbath yet, but these guys, they certainly know where it is.

So I'm going to listen to all of them and I'll find it. They know lots
more than I do. But you know what? I found that they conflicted with
each other.

I found that their arguments were not strong on many points. And you
know what? I was convinced, when I stand up before this church, I am
accountable to God. And I am not accountable to denomination.

I am not accountable to any man. And when I preach on the Sabbath, I am
going to say what I can clearly find in Scripture. And if it's not
clearly in Scripture, I'm not going to say it.

And you know what's not in Scripture? That the Sabbath went from being
on the seventh day to the first day. That text doesn't exist. And so, I
couldn't stand up and preach that.

It's kind of the same thing with baptism. I'm going to tell you what is
in this book that I can see. Now I recognize there are things in this
book that I can't see.

But what do you expect me to do? I can't preach on what I don't see. All
I can do is preach on what I see. But I want you to see it in Scripture
as well.

I mean, that's where I'm at. That's the safe place to stand. So let's
start with the definition of baptism.

We can't even define the word without entering the realm of some
emotionally charged controversy. And here's why. Here's one of the
reasons.

The word baptism was purposely left untranslated in our Bibles.
Translators chose to do something that wasn't translation. They chose to
do something called transliteration.

All that means is that the translators took the Greek word baptizo. In
English, that basically is B-A-P-T-I-Z-O. Baptizo.

You know what they did? Well, just remove the O, slap an E on the end,
and voila! We got baptized. That's what they did. That's
transliteration.

They basically anglicized the word. They Englishized the word. They
didn't translate the word.

And there's reasons why they do that. I think all that begs the
question, why would a translator do that? Why would they ever get a word
and decide not to translate it and instead just tweak it a little bit
and make it sound English? Listen, it wasn't because no one knew what
baptizo meant. I mean, listen, listen to even John Calvin.

And the only reason I bring him up is because if anybody is the classic
reformer, John Calvin, listen to what he said. The word baptizo means to
immerse. Yeah, I'm thankful he's so honest.

Because he didn't baptize by immersion, by the way. He baptized like the
rest of the reformers, which isn't a baptism at all. It's just they
sprinkled little babies with water.

Listen to what he says. Not only does Calvin say the word baptizo means
to immerse, he says this, and it is clear that the rite of immersion was
observed in the ancient church. He doesn't even argue that.

It's like you scratch your head like, well, Calvin, why then did you not
conform to Scripture? According to the lexicons, Greek lexicons, all of
them say, I'm sure you can find one somewhere, but all the ones I looked
at, all the prominent ones, baptizo means to immerse. But here's the
thing, the reason they didn't translate it that way is because there
were all manner of political and religious ramifications in the days
when those early English translations were being translated. You know
who most of the guys were? Very seldom did you find a Baptist among
them.

Or even Presbyterians. By and large, they were Anglican. And those
Anglican scholars who translated the King James Version as well as the
scholars behind many of the other early English translations, you know
what their practice was? Their practice was sprinkling unsaved children
with water.

And so, you know what happens when you're assigned to translate
Scripture? They were presented with three options. One, translate it
what it is. Immerse.

But then you see their problem. All manner of problem. Because suddenly,
they're confronted by their own translation that they are wrong.

And not only they themselves, they're confronting their whole
denomination. They're confronting the whole church of England. Two, you
could mistranslate it and say, well, we're just going to call it
sprinkle.

But then you're not being faithful to God's Word. Or third, we can avoid
both of those two problems altogether by just simply not translating it.
So, they avoided all the political and religious turmoil they would have
caused by actually translating the Word.

Listen to this. One of the classic lexicons is the Thayer's Greek
Lexicon. Just very simply.

What does it mean? Immersion, submersion. That's it. They didn't need
lengthy description.

The Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich Lexicon says this, Baptizo
primarily means to immerse. You say, oh, there it is. There's an
exception, right? No.

Listen to what they say. Baptizo primarily means to immerse. It can also
be translated to dip, to wash, or plunge.

But in all instances, the result is full immersion. Vine's Dictionary
adds this. It actually holds the meaning of to overwhelm with.

And I like that. Overwhelm. And it's got to do with whether the object
is placed in something or whether the something comes down and covers.

Overwhelm. I like that. And here's the thing, the word for pour is found
in Scripture and it gets translated, but never baptizo.

The word sprinkle, it's found in Scripture and it never gets translated
from baptizo. You see, there were different words for pour and there
were different words for sprinkle. So, it's not like the words for
sprinkle or pour weren't available to the original authors.

They were very much. There's no confusion. It's not like, well, in
Greek, there's one word that means all those things.

Uh-uh, that's not the case at all. And here's the problem. By not
translating the word, you know what happens? The reader is left to
basically define baptizo any way he wants to because it never got
translated.

You can say, well, I think it means this. Somebody else can say, well, I
think it means this. And it never got translated.

And here's the problem, once they did that with regards to water
baptism, they were backed into a corner. Now, every time the word shows
up, even when it's got spiritual implications, even when it's not
talking about water baptism, they were locked into transliterating it.
Because you don't go translate it immersed somewhere else and leave it
baptized over here.

Somebody's going to say, well, it obviously means that. See, they give
themselves away. Once they did it in one place, they had to do it in
every place.

And you say, well, is that significant? Well, it is when you think about
how it's used in some other places. Let me just give you one example.
Jesus said this, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is
My distress until it is accomplished.

Can you imagine somebody thinking I have a sprinkling to be sprinkled
with? Brethren, this touches the cross. This touches the sufferings and
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, when He says I have a
baptism to be baptized with, remember the word means immerse or to
overwhelm.

This is the idea of the overwhelming afflictions and judgments to which
the Lord was voluntarily submitting Himself to on that cross. It's a
shame they're not able to express that. Only a baptism to be baptized
with, we understand the word, but I'll tell you this, if you don't make
that Christ being totally swallowed up by these sufferings, if you make
it sprinkling, if you make it something less than being immersed and
overwhelmed with, you cheapen the cross.

See, there's consequences when you don't translate this word and then
you leave it for people to basically define however they want to.
Because whatever you say it means in one place, you better say it means
everywhere. And we could look at other places.

But let's talk very quickly about baptisms that we find in Scripture.
You probably, your minds can think of some. You've got John's baptism.

But remember this, John said, I baptize you with water, but there's One
coming after Me who is before Me whose sandals I'm not worthy to touch
or to unlatch. And what did he say? What did John say that Jesus Christ
would do? He's going to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. So when you
start looking at Scripture, you've got John's baptism.

You have Jesus' baptism, which He's going to baptize us with the Holy
Spirit and fire. See, that's one place where there's lots of
controversy. Conrad Merrill would say, well, that's a total separate...
Spurgeon would disagree with that.

Jameson Fawcett Brown. I tend to believe that that's the fiery
operations of the Spirit on the soul. I think it's synonymous.

Being baptized with the Holy Spirit, being baptized with fire. That it's
not something separate. But then you have Jesus' disciples were
baptizing with water.

So you have Jesus' water baptism, which we might say is Christian
baptism, which when we go to all the nations and we make disciples,
we're to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. You've got that water baptism. That water baptism is
clearly different than John's baptism because remember what happened
when Paul found some disciples there at Ephesus? He said, how are you
baptized? Well, we only know John's baptism.

Well, he re-baptized them in the name of Jesus. So you've got Jesus'
water baptism. You've got John's water baptism.

You've got Jesus' spiritual baptism with the Holy Spirit. But we heard
about Jesus. Jesus had a baptism to be baptized with.

What else? Have you ever read there in 1 Corinthians 10 that it talks
about the people in the wilderness were baptized into Moses? So we've
got the baptism into Moses. What else? But then you've got the spiritual
realities that seem to be portrayed in water baptism. We are baptized
into Jesus Christ.

Right? That's Romans 6 and Galatians 3.27. Baptized into Christ. In
Romans 6, it talks about being baptized into His death. And then in 1
Corinthians 12, you know what you have? You have the Spirit baptizing us
into one body.

And the Word shows up in a lot of different ways throughout Scripture.
Okay, so in light of all that, which one is the one? Which is it? What
do we do? Flip a coin? Before I tell you what I believe Paul is talking
about here, let's just think about baptism for a second. There are three
essential components to baptism.

Think about this. When we do what we would consider Christian baptism
here in this church, we've got water out there, right? We've got water.
And then we've got the person who's being baptized.

What should we call them? Baptizee? And we've got the baptizer, right?
Typically, two of the elders do the baptizing. You have the individual
being baptized. The active persons are the ones doing the baptizing.

If you are baptized, that is a passive verb. The action is happening to
you. And then there's a medium into which the individual is placed.

Now those three components are important any time we're talking about
baptism because we want to think about who is doing the baptizing, who
is receiving the baptism, and into what medium are they being and this
is where the meaning of the word is important, immersed into or
overwhelmed with. So you think about it. John's baptism.

John is the Baptist. He's the baptizer. The individuals that were coming
out to him, they're the ones being baptized.

The medium is water. Now when Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit, Jesus
is the baptizer. We are the ones being baptized.

And we're being immersed into the Spirit. Remember, you know what the
argument is of 1 Corinthians 10? The argument is this. Don't be so bold,
Christian, to think that just because you were baptized and just because
you're part and parcel with the people of God and meet in the same place
and cart around the Bible, that it's going to go okay with you if you're
sitting down at the table with demons and you're still involved in
idolatry and the idolatrous practices.

Because here's his argument. He said, you know what? Those people that
were out there in the wilderness, that's for your instruction. Us, upon
whom the ends of the world has come.

That's for our instruction. And he said, you know what? You've been
baptized, but they were baptized too. They were baptized into Moses in
the cloud and in the sea.

What does that mean? Baptized into Moses. It means that the medium into
which they were placed was Moses. You say, what does that mean? Think
about what it means to go into water.

When you go into the water, the water takes you in. You go into the
sphere of the water. You go into the realm where the water is over you.

It covers you. You're immersed into that. You see, the idea here is if
you're immersed into Moses, it means you're submerged into that realm
where He's leading, He's guiding.

It's the realm of Moses. You're identifying with Him. And this is what
he's saying.

They identified with Moses. And yet, they went out there. They had all
these benefits.

They ate the manna. They walked behind that pillar. Cloud and fire.

God took them through the Red Sea. But he says in the end, they all
perished. And he's saying, just because you were baptized and just
because all these things happened to be and you sit down at the Lord's
Supper, don't think you can provoke the Lord.

Anyways, that's what's behind all of that kind of talk. But what I'm
talking about right now is these three essential components. And I'm
wanting to hit on the influence of the medium because that's so
important.

What we're being baptized into. Sometimes in water baptism, it signifies
something. It's portraying something.

But typically in these baptisms, there's a reality. There's something
that is not just being portrayed. There's something that is actually
taking place.

The medium is the sphere of influence into which you're being submersed.
It's where you're identifying. You think about the person.

When you lower them down into the water, what happened? They're going
from the place they were before, which was where? Out of the water. And
you're taking them, you're separating from that place of being out of
the water and separating them into another realm. It's the idea of
influence, realm, sphere.

That's the idea behind all of this. It's literally to yield yourself up
to or to be given up to the water. The water takes you.

I mean, this is one of the reasons why I don't like to leave any part,
not even their hair, outside of the water. Because I want to capture the
picture. And when we're putting them down, we force them under there,
into the water.

We want them to be swallowed up by the water because that captures the
picture. This is what's behind. Look, if you're not even straight on the
definition of baptism, then you can't capture what is actually happening
in baptism.

It is a strong word. It is an engulfing word. It consumes the person.

It swallows them up. They are plunged in there. They are submersed.

They are immersed. Overwhelmed with. That's the idea.

And I'll tell you, we've got to move beyond the water baptism because
the realities behind it are most glorious. Spiritually speaking, you
think about Jesus saying that I have a baptism to be baptized with.
Think about that.

Who's the baptizer? Well, He talks there about a cup. At the same time,
He's talking about that baptism. And He says something about drinking
that cup.

Well, what was in that cup? We talk about the wrath of God being in that
cup. Who is the one that is baptizing Jesus? We read in Scripture that
God gave Him up. God His Father is the baptizer.

Jesus is the baptizee. And what is He being immersed into? Sorrow, pain,
suffering, wrath. Death.

It's a strong word. It swallowed Him up. He was in distress until He
accomplished it.

You read Psalm 22. This thing overtook Him. His soul was poured out.

This was no sprinkling. To even think that way is to so misrepresent
this word. Think about this.

Spiritually speaking, we are said to be baptized into Christ. That's
Romans 6.3, Galatians 3.27. We're the baptized. Christ is that into
which we are immersed.

Who is the baptizer? You know, in those places where that's found, we're
not told specifically in the context in Romans 6 or in Galatians 3 who
the baptizer is. Perhaps the Father. Maybe more likely the Spirit.

Christ is that into which we are immersed. What does that mean? You see,
when you go in the water, you come under the influence of the water. I
tell you, you can't breathe under there.

You're under the influence of the water. Oh, in Christ, you can breathe.
The air is good there.

But think about to be immersed into Christ. The idea is we come under
His influence. We come into His sphere.

We come out of that realm of darkness and we are immersed. We are
contained in. We are swallowed up.

We're overwhelmed. Would you want to leave part of your body out? I
mean, this is the picture when we baptize. Would you want to leave part
out? No, this is totally coming into that sphere and realm.

Okay, but now think with me here. In 1 Corinthians 12, what it seems
like is the Spirit baptizes us into one body. The Spirit is the
baptizer.

We are the baptized. The medium is the body. The church.

Okay, so Paul says there's one baptism that unites all of us as
Christians. Which of these is he talking about? I can confidently say
that he is talking about the last one that I mentioned. Now, look with
me at 1 Corinthians 12.

Leave your finger there in Ephesians 4 because we're going to go back to
it. Leave your finger in Ephesians 4. Go to 1 Corinthians 12. I want you
to see this.

I want you to feel the parallels between Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians
12. 1 Corinthians 12.13 Now, if you've got the ESV, it reads this way.
For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body.

Jews are great, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one
Spirit. There's some discussion as to which preposition is best. Though
the ESV does not demonstrate this, the majority of English translations
are in agreement that this should be read by one Spirit, not in one
Spirit.

Most English translations put, by. But, whether you put in there or
whether you put by, you can't get away from this reality that in the
original, this reads this way. By one Spirit or in one Spirit, we all
into one body were baptized.

In the original, that's the order of the words. Into one body, we were
baptized. How can I be so certain that this is what Paul has in mind?
Well, think with me here.

Just notice the parallels. In Ephesians 4.3, he talks about being eager
to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. When you come
over to 1 Corinthians 12.25, that there may be no division in the body.

He's talking about no division. He's talking about unity. That's his
concern.

That's why he's writing. In Ephesians 4.7-8, grace was given to each one
of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. It's talking about
spiritual gifts.

It's talking about the fact that each one, notice, each one of us has
the grace that is according to the measure of Christ's gift towards each
of us. He gave gifts to men. In 1 Corinthians 12.11, all these different
gift types are empowered by one and the same Spirit.

I recognize in Ephesians, Christ is shown as being behind the gift. Over
in 1 Corinthians 12, the Spirit is the one who apportions to each one
individually as He wills. But in both of them, it's each one of us
according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Each one of us apportioned as the Spirit wills. This unity idea and
spiritual gifts is the same reality in both places. You have the same
emphasis.

Notice Ephesians 4.4-6. You get one Spirit. You get one Lord. You get
one God.

When you go to 1 Corinthians 12.4-6, varieties of gifts, same Spirit.
Varieties of service, same Lord. Varieties of activities, the same God.

You see, he's talking in the same terms here. Oh, it's different. I
recognize.

But it's the same if you've got eyes to see. Ephesians 4-6... excuse me,
let's look at Ephesians 4.11. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. These are some of the distinct
gifts that Christ gave to men.

1 Corinthians 12.28, God is appointed in the church. First, apostles.
Second, prophets.

Third, teachers. You see, same thing. Not exactly the same, but
definitely similar enough that we feel the thrust here that Paul's going
down the same path.

In Ephesians 4.4-6, there's one body and one Spirit. And in v. 5,
there's one baptism. Well, when you go to 1 Corinthians 12.13, there you
see one Spirit, one body, all baptized.

Yes, no, he doesn't call it one baptism there, but he's saying what the
baptism is. This is the most defining statement in all of Scripture
concerning a proper interpretation of Ephesians 4. You're not going to
find clearer. So, 1 Corinthians 12.13, by one Spirit, we were all
baptized into one body.

And then he gives the same thrust that I was focusing on last week. All
of these things in Paul's mind really have to do with bringing Jew and
Gentile together. And that's what he says.

Baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks. Slaves or free.

All were made to drink of one Spirit. Now, this is all a passive verb.
We don't baptize ourselves.

It's done to us. Now, think with me here. We have these three components
of baptism.

You have the baptizer, the baptizee, and the medium into which we are
baptized. And when he talks about one Spirit, one body, and this
baptism, the Holy Spirit, most of the English translations are going to
take that preposition and make it by. If you make it by, He's the
baptizer.

Even if you said in one Spirit, into one body we are baptized, it may
not put the same kind of dogmatic focus on the Spirit being the
baptizer, but nevertheless, what is it we're baptized into? It's one
body. And you can't get away from that however you do the preposition
concerning the Spirit. You... see, the picture here is this.

The baptism that he has in mind is that you are being immersed into the
body of Christ. One body. That's the church.

God's people. That's the idea. Now, many would say being baptized into
one body is exactly the same thing as being baptized into Christ.

People say that. And you know, there's the text. Do you not know that
all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus? We're baptized into His
death? Galatians says for as many of you as were baptized into Christ
have put on Christ.

Colossians 2, having been buried with Him in baptism. Look, I certainly
won't fight with those who are dogmatic that all these spiritual
realities portrayed in water baptism are the true baptism and that is
the baptism that unites us all. It's the baptism into Christ.

But here's the thing, I know and I've read, there are a lot of guys that
say, oh, the baptism into the body is really just the same thing as
being baptized into Christ. Well, I would say this, if Paul's been
talking about being baptized into Christ, why say it differently?
Because here's the truth. The body of Christ does not equal Christ.

Now, the body of Christ is attached to Christ. The body of Christ is
united to Christ. And if you want to really argue for that, I'm not
going to fight against you.

Obviously, that's included in what it means to be baptized in the body.
You can't be baptized into the body without being baptized into Christ.
One body is the body of Christ.

But listen, the picture presented to the mind, that's what I want to hit
on. The picture presented to the mind is different. When you think about
being immersed into the sphere of Christ, the realm of Christ, if you
think about the person being baptized and you imagine them being
immersed into His death, you can see that.

If you think about being immersed into the realm of Christ and yielding
to Him, being overwhelmed by Him and His sphere and His presence, that
has a certain picture. But I think we all have to admit that when we say
somebody is baptized into the body, one body, now that's a different
picture in your mind. Though they may be, oh, so integrally connected,
but it's a different picture.

It brings a different picture into your head. Like you disappear into
the water. I mean, if you're baptizing into Christ, you disappear into
the water.

Your identity is lost in the water. You're baptized into Christ. Your
identity is lost in Him.

You're no longer separate from Him. You were separate outside of the
water before. But now you've entered into this realm.

The Christ realm. That's being baptized into Christ. But the body is
different than Christ.

Attached to Christ. Christ is the head. But think with me.

This is a sampling of the one body. The one body. All of Christ's
people.

But you think about that picture. You are submerged into the one body.
You are immersed into the one body.

What does that look like? You take yourself. You're the baptizee. What
is the medium? The medium into the church, into the water.

There's the picture there. It's the person being saved. The Spirit saves
the person.

The person regenerates them. And what happens? Yes, there is an
immersion into Christ. There's an immersion into His death, His burial,
crucified with Him, and His resurrection.

Listen, the way Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 12 is unique. In fact, the
only other place where you find that kind of similar talk is Ephesians
4. But it's the picture of you being submerged into the people of God.
Now think about that.

When you're immersed into the realm of Christ, it's like on every hand.
Above me and below me, beside me, around me. I am in this realm of
Christ now.

I have been translated into a new realm, a new sphere, a new identity.
But this idea is the water. The water.

The molecules of the water. The components of the water. This imagery is
different.

It's like look around. What do you see? I see a sea of God's saved
people. That's the imagery here.

I'm not a Lone Ranger. I'm not a maverick. I'm not solo in this thing.

I don't go it alone. Think of a person being baptized. They're being
immersed into.

Think of each new Christian like that. They're being plunged into our
midst. The midst of the people of God.

Into that realm. Into that identity. You don't lose your individuality.

It's not like taking a drop of water and throwing it in a lake to where
it's just gone. It's absorbed. No, we still are unique.

We still have our own personal identity. That's what Paul's dealing
with. We all have been apportioned differently.

The Spirit and Christ know us individually and apportion to us
individually and work with us individually and have an individual place
for us in the church, but it's in the church. It's immersed in. It's not
being separated from.

It's losing oneself into the realm of the people of God. Not losing
yourself so that you're not still you. And it's not being clones of each
other.

You are swallowed and overwhelmed into a body. Remember, Jew and
Gentile. Very diverse.

A diversity of the people of Christ. But you are in there. Now, what's
the significance? I'm trying to be honest with this text.

There might be people who want to take issue with this and who want to
say that they think the Spirit baptizing us into one body, the body
really isn't the medium. Christ is the medium. Okay, you can theorize
about that.

But in other places where it does plainly speak about being baptized
into Christ, it speaks just that way. Being baptized into Christ. To
change the imagery and say into the body, I mean, there's a difference.

And yes, Christ is the head of the body. But there's different pictures,
which means I believe there's a different emphasis, a different picture
that we should be conjuring. You've gone down into the waters of God's
people.

Like I said before, you know this idea, you go into the water. Oh no, I
can't breathe. I'm going to suffocate.

I'm going to drown. Well, you don't have to fear. You can breathe here.

How is the air good where Christ is? Christ is in the midst of His
people. There am I in the midst of you is what He said. You won't drown.

Just the opposite. But this is the realm of a people who stand just
outside the veil. We don't know yet what we'll be because it hasn't been
revealed to us, but we do know a lot.

We look in a glass as dimly. This is where Emmanuel dwells. He says
where two or three of you are gathered together, there am I in your
midst.

You see, it's the place of Christ's realm. There's no question about it.
But we have to think about this.

The Spirit submerging you into this realm for what reason? Well, because
listen, this has to do with gifts. This has to do with who you are and
how God has equipped you. And I just ask you this.

I met with one brother this week. We were talking about how he could be
used in the church. How he could use his home.

That's what we have to be thinking. This picture. One Spirit baptized
into one body.

Though you're gifted differently, apportioned differently, everyone has
your place to play. And even if you're like the most modest part of the
body, we give greater honor is what he goes on to say in 1 Corinthians
12. You have a place to play.

Look, this is essential. Get this picture into your head because this is
a great unifying reality. Whatever Paul means by one baptism, you know
this, it's meant to unify us.

And what more unifying than this picture that I am being plunged into
the people of Christ? Not just to operate out there all by myself. And
that doesn't just mean when we gather together in this place. Oh, when
we gather together like we are right now, we come close to one another.

There's close contact. But this is the idea of living our life day to
day, day in, day out. You have gifts.

You have that which God has given to you. You have financial resources.
You have homes.

You have abilities. You have abilities to serve, abilities to teach,
abilities to pour into others, abilities to lift up for the common good.
That's what this is all about.

Christ gave gifts to men. Why? To equip. The body builds itself up in
love.

That's where we're headed in Ephesians 4. You've been plunged into these
people. Don't live like you're still outside that realm. This is a
unifying reality.

Whatever you do with one baptism, you know, look, He's talking same
language as Ephesians 4. He's talking one body. There's one Spirit. This
is a reality.

There is one Spirit. There is one Lord. There is one Father.

But there's diversity of gifts. And in all of this diversity, there is a
oneness. Where are we going? Where are we headed? And every person has
to ask themselves, am I helping us get there? Am I doing what I can do?
Not just I float in here, I kind of smile at other people, and I float
out.

That's not the picture. When we talk about baptism, we're talking about
putting that person down in the water so that the water covers them.
They become part and parcel of that realm, that sphere.

That is not an accurate picture. That's more like sprinkling. You see
what you've done to the word baptize? Yeah, some people, that's what
their lives look like with regards to this realm into which they're
immersed.

They look like they're defining baptism as sprinkling. Their interaction
with the church is just a smattering. It's just a little few drops.

It's just like it's Catholic. But this is a strong word. This is a
powerful word.

Because it has everything to do with the realm of Christ, but the people
of Christ. Pouring, living in that realm of the people of God and doing
what you can do to keep everybody going, to keep everybody in the race.
Do you realize it's your responsibility to make sure that we're not
disciplining people out of the church and that people aren't falling out
of the race? Have you so bought into the idea of the sovereignty of God
that you've twisted that, distorted that? Into something that it's not?
Listen, is there any reality in Scripture that we help keep one another
going? What are you thinking of? Which says, ah, what a verse is that?
There is a responsibility that we keep each other going, that we keep
each other going to the end, that we all are helping and exhorting and
using our spiritual gifts, not burying them in the sand.

You've been given abilities. You've been given spiritual gifts. You've
been given wherewithal in this world.

And this is a reality. Baptized into one body. If you're a Christian,
that is a unifying reality.

You've been baptized into that body. That's not just if you become a
Baptist or you become a member of a church. This is a spiritual reality.

This doesn't have to do... Yes, there's portrayal in water baptism, but
that's not what's on the table here. This is a spiritual reality. And
you are the ones who have been immersed into one body.

It's like all the rest of us are the molecules of water. And we surround
you. And the idea is not to try to get out of there.

The idea is try to do everything that God has equipped you to do to help
build itself up in love. You see, that's a reality. It's loving one
another.

It's doing what you can do to further, to quicken, to exhort, to
encourage, to comfort. Do you know what that text says? That text does
not say that well, God is sovereign and so whether you exhort somebody
or don't exhort somebody, it doesn't matter. That is hyper-Calvinism and
the Scripture just simply doesn't work that way.

Scripture assumes that the way we interact with people... Listen, the
idea today where people float into churches and they float back out,
they come in, oh, they love the singing, they feel the emotion, they
listen to the 20-minute sermon, and out they go. And they basically have
no contact, no interaction with the church for the rest of the week.
Basically, their interaction is with their friends and family and lost
people and coworkers.

That's not the picture of Scripture. You're immersed into Christ. You're
immersed into the church.

You're immersed into the one body. You can fight. You can argue.

You can say I think you're wrong. But you've got to deal with 1
Corinthians 12 and with the fact that it is the greatest commentary in
our Bibles on Ephesians 4. It is the most parallel. It is the most
confirming.

It is the greatest commentary. And you have to wrestle with those like I
did. But look, you can't get away from that.

Baptized into one body. See yourself plunged into the people of God. And
all that that means, where are you? You see, you're not out there
anymore.

Even if you are out there because you're sick or you didn't come today
for some reason, if you're a child of God, you've been plunged into
these people. Plunged in. Immersed in order to grow the whole for the
common good.

You know one thing about this last thought. One thing about a person
being baptized. You don't try... well, you may, but if you really
understand the definition of baptism, you don't try to avoid contact
with the water.

Right? The very idea of being immersed in something is to be swallowed
up by it. It's not to try to avoid contact with it. I know in water
baptism, you may have people that are afraid.

Some people terrified of water. They don't like to put their face
underneath. But if you really understand what's being portrayed, you
recognize the last thing I want to portray is somebody that's not trying
to be totally engulfed.

Because the very picture of it is to be consumed by it. So I just say
this, take that imagery. Don't try as hard as you can to avoid contact
with the people in that body.

The idea of immersion. When you take a child, you immerse him in the
bathtub. You want contact with the water.

You take a cup, it's dirty. You put it in the water. You want contact
with it.

It's a desirable thing to get contact into the realm of Christ, being
baptized into Him, into His death, into His burial. That's desirable. I
want to be totally overwhelmed and consumed by that.

I don't want to try to get away from it. I don't want to try to get as
far away as possible and be as little affected as possible. I want to be
consumed.

I want the fullness of baptism overwhelmed with. Same thing. Same thing.

Peter, do you love Me? Feed My sheep. Peter, do you love Me? Isn't it
amazing when Jesus is talking about love for Him, what does it come back
to? Feed My sheep. As much as you do it unto one of the least of these,
you do it unto Me.

Peter, do you love Me? Feed My sheep. Don't try to be as little in
contact with the body as possible. That's missing the whole picture.

There's one baptism. You've been immersed, yes, into Christ. To be
immersed into Christ is to be immersed into His body.

Father, may these be living realities for the life and health and beauty
and glory of the church. Amen. You're dismissed.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/kxti7R41zq8.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/tim-conway/one-baptism/
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