Introducing Baptism in Worship

An introduction I have used for Baptism in Worship:

This morning we have the great privilege, and the commanded duty, to admit ____ of our covenant children into the membership of this particular church and the whole visible church.

When we say “The visible Church” we mean the full number of those who profess faith in Jesus Christ and their children. This is distinct although greatly overlapping with what we call the invisible church which are the number of those who are regenerate, professing and possessing the true faith.

Admitting some to the visible church does not necessarily mean we confess that we know them to be members of the invisible church.

So how, this morning, do we admit our covenant children into the visible church?

The covenant God made with his people carries with it signs and seals. God first gave a command to apply the sign of the covenant to those who are members in Genesis 17, where the Lord declares:

Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Gen 17:10-12 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.

God established an everlasting covenant with his people. This everlasting covenant is decreed to last, eternally.

We are told this sign and seal was pointing to the author of the covenant and His righteousness he would give.

Romans 4:11 [says Abraham] received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Abraham first displayed faith and was given the sign. Isaac, his son was given the sign at eight days before observable faith. The same sign, pointing to the same thing, the righteousness that is available by faith, received from Christ who was righteous in our place, received by resting in his work.

Now you may have noticed today we are not bringing forward subjects for circumcision. Jesus, beginning his ministry, instituted Baptism by his example in coming to John the Baptist for Baptism.

When Peter gave his first sermon, telling Jewish believers, who had as their established practice circumcision and had brought their children for circumcision, were told what Christ had changed in the covenant by his coming, Peter instructed them in Acts 2:38-39: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children.” Echoing Genesis 17, and echoing the lesson he learned from Jesus that to children also belong the kingdom of God, and we are not to hinder them being brought to Jesus.

The Apostle Paul tells us we are still considered in a spiritual sense to be circumcised saying in Colossians 2:11-12 “In him [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism.” And we are also instructed in 1 Corinthians 7:14 that the children of believing parents are considered covenantally holy, set apart.

God instructed his people through Abraham to give the sign of the covenant to believers and their children under the sign of circumcision. Today, God retains his command to give the sign of the covenant to believers and their children under the sign of baptism. Paul tells us in Galatians that if we are in Christ we are sons of Abraham, heirs to the same promise in Genesis. God was not lying when he called it an everlasting covenant.

But just as we think back to Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael, both circumcised, but only one of the true faith. As we think of Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau, both circumcised but only one of true faith – we are instructed that there is nothing magical in the sign of the covenant.

The sign calls one to faith to receive the righteousness that is offered – a righteousness that is said by our Confession to include, and are pictured in baptism as:

1) Regeneration

2) Remission (or forgiveness) of sins

3) Newness of life

4) Ingrafting into Christ

Yet the sign points to a righteousness that must be received by faith. We know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, and just as one can sit under the preaching of the word and never be given faith, so one can be under the waters of baptism and not receive the benefits baptism signifies. So, when we bring children to the fount, we bring them with the solemn task ahead of us, of raising them in the nurture and admonition of the LORD. The parents take a pledge to do so, the congregation looking on also pledges to assist and remembers their own baptism, and the duties and benefits it signifies.

We collectively vow to involve ourselves in the raising up of faithful covenant children - to do so by godly example. We do so by instruction in God’s Word. We do so by regular prayer for their souls. We do so by surrounding them with the worship of God, corporately on the Lord’s Day every week and privately in our Family Worship and devotions.

As a wedding ring reminds us of the vows we made on our wedding day, so this baptism reminds us of the vows we make, ourselves or on behalf of children, who we pray will one day make the same profession and vows as their parents.

As we celebrate and observe the sacrament of baptism today, I invite you, the congregation, to think of two things, FIRST: your baptism. The great promises God holds out to you, that are to be received by faith, to be reminded of God’s pledge of faithfulness to you. And the Second, to acknowledge your responsibility as members of this congregation to assist in the teaching of the faith to the next generation, speaking often of the Lord, and his goodness towards you in the presence of these little ones as they grow.

To the Parents, this charge is given. That you

1) teach your child to read the Word of God;

2) You are charged to instruct your children in the principles of our holy religion, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, an excellent summary of which we have in the Confession of Faith, and in the Larger and Shorter Catechisms for your use in direction and assistance, in the discharge of this important duty;

3) You are charged to pray with and for your child;

4) And you are charged to set an example of piety and godliness before your child; and endeavor, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring up your child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Remember Acts 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

Joy and Sorrow

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)

My focus lately has been so much on our coming baby, but I'm reminded of the wisdom of Solomon: "It is better to go to a funeral than a feast. For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because sober reflection is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking." (Ecc 7:2-4)

My thoughts today are with a man I greatly admire and appreciate, my mentoring pastor, whose daughter would have been four today. He penned a sublime entry after his daughter went home.

Original Sin, Pastoral Care, and the Courage to Speak Truth

I've met a similar scene multiple times: I enter a room where a mother is holding a small, blanket-wrapped package. The room is thick with grief; the mother crying and the husband with a look of stress on his face. I am there to talk about what they want to do with the remains of their miscarried child. It was in those moments that some of the discussions I had earlier in some seminary classrooms came back to mind, much to my displeasure and a bit to my anger.

In two theology classes, two different professors brought up the subject of infant death and salvation. In both professors, the doctrine of Original Sin loomed large, sufficient to damn from the moment of birth. When asked about infants that die, one replied, “I know you won't like it, but you have to have the courage to say that they are sinful, without faith, and therefore, under any criteria we can measure, condemned.” The argument was that if you allow for one instance of salvation without faith, you are soon on the road to universalism, then atheism, all over the question of if infants that die are damned.

The question I asked then was about 2 Samuel 12, where David's son dies at seven days old (a day before circumcision). When informed of the death, David replies “Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:23) I was then informed that was a bad text to use, partly because the son died for David's sin and David was merely talking about the place of the dead, and judgment occurs later, where we would assume they will be parted again with David heading heavenward and the infant, towards damnation. The answer seemed at the time a poor one, for it seemed to dismiss rather than explain the reaction of David. Who would be happy to briefly see their child again before they are ushered off to hell? Was that David's relief?

Here, I stood before a woman and father who had just lost a child, even before seven days. They did not care to hear about my former professor's “courage” in declaring the probable damnation of their child or dismissal of David's source of hope. The pastoral comment I often told believers was, with that most inappropriate text rolling around my mind, was something along the lines of: "though he won't return to be with you, know you will go to meet him someday."

My first professor may not be happy that I used the very text he warned us not to use, but he wasn't in the room. I do remember the same discussion in another class with a bit of a different answer from my other professor. He said faith seems to be what the Scripture always tells us we ought to have to be assured of salvation. Yet, salvation also involves God's election/choice and his grace. This other professor ended the question by saying he wouldn't answer the question definitively, because it wasn't his decision to make. Original Sin is sufficient to damn, God's grace is sufficient to save.

The question seems not to be between “courage” and "weakness" but between presumption and humility. The second seems much more appropriate for pastoral care. It is also where the Westminster Confession comes out where in Ch 10.3 it states: “Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth:” No observable faith is mentioned and I don't think the Westminster Confession is an inclusivist document or on the road to universalism because it allows for salvation without observable faith. God needs no permission or logical justification from us to save whom he will, whether we see faith, or give the child the sign of the covenant.

Indeed, Jesus often seems to welcome children and especially the children of believers well before they have an observable faith by which to respond. Mothers bring, carry even, babies to Jesus to touch/bless (Luke 18:15-17). Fascinating to me is that Jesus did not reject these little heathens. He did not ask the mothers to delay until they had faith and could be proven disciples, but just blessed the babies as these mothers wanted. Would we wish to say that Jesus lacked the courage to correct these mothers in their ignorant theology which valued the children of believers as blessable and valuable, and as belonging to the kingdom of heaven?

David's words about going to his son were spoken before his son was circumcised, before his son had observable faith, and with a hope that was unexplainable if he thought his son to be damned. The same man who declared his culpability from conception (Psalm 51) also declares his hope for his son (2 Samuel 12). And when walking into a room of grieving parents, when being a pastor to those parents that lose children, I can't say that God saves all children. But I can't say God damns them either. I can say: David had a hope, Christ welcomed the children of believers and we are called to trust God's goodness and election. These together give me a strong inclination to share David's hope for the reunion of believers and their departed infant children.

The Faith of Moses

I was reading through the book of Hebrews again (it's my official favorite book of 2009) and came across a passage that upsets our categories:

Hebrews 11:23-26: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.


Two things the passage says we may have trouble with:

1) In the second "by faith," Moses had faith in Christ...hundreds of years before Christ came bodily.

2) in the first "by faith," the faith talked about by which Moses was saved from Pharaoh, was not Moses' faith, but the faith of his parents.

No Commentary. Just Observation.

Joshua 5: Preparation for Battle

Neil Nielson, President of Covenant College, preached on Joshua 5 at PCPC last week. I have nothing to post right now, so enjoy:

audio mp3

Joshua 5

Circumcising the Nation
5:1 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

First Passover in Canaan
10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

The Commander of the Lord's Army
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Reflection on Jesus and Children

Matthew 18:1-5: At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

19:13-15 - Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And he laid his hands on them and went away.

When the disciples ask a question about the greatest, Jesus uses a child as a model. Jesus uses a child to say “unless you turn/change/convert (all are valid translations of this word) and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Now Jesus did not mean act childish, the disciples were already good at this. “Who's the greatest?” already is a childish question. Paul says we grow up and put away childish things. It's almost as if it is like Jesus says: stop having the bad qualities of a child and get some of the good ones.

And Jesus gets a lot of mileage out of this example. The child offers an example for

1)Humility
2)How to welcome others
3)The responsibility we have to others (in the graveness of sin)

I once heard John Piper say that one of the traits he looks for in an elder is how they interact with children. Is the Christian Life a matter of one's individual piety and outward cleanliness? Or is it found in community and not the individual? For Piper, children were the ultimate test because they are needy, they can be annoying (as they were to the disciples later), and they can give you nothing back for the time you give them. They may, if an infant, sit there and look cute, but they will not return the favor. You don't take them out to lunch then they get the bill next time. A child may say thanks but then runs off to do his own thing.

So what I think Jesus is getting at in “becoming like one of these” is in rank and importance. It is not acting childish, though the innocent trust of the child is held up. It is humility, welcoming people like children who cannot give you something, and in not leading them into sin.

But as a side note before we get these traits in action in the rest of this chapter, I want to also show how this is a great argument for infant baptism. I'm serious. In other words, it is not entirely spiritualized that the kingdom community belongs to the children. In Matthew 19:13-15, the disciples may have only taken this as spiritual, and as people brought children to Jesus the disciples send them away. In Luke, it tells us that mothers carried babies to Jesus to touch. Children that could not come of their own accord, that had little knowledge of what was being done to them. The disciples did not see that children belonged in the new community that Jesus was making just as they belonged by circumcision in the community of Israel, as Jesus says that indeed they are members of the kingdom subject to his Kingship. Peter, I believe, gets it in Acts 2:38-39. When he invites the first Jews to new covenant obedience in receiving their Messiah and submitting to baptism, Peter says “for the promise is for you and your children.” Peter learned by this point children were included. Clement of Alexandria has a great line about this incident: “In Jesus' time mother brought their children to Jesus to touch, as they continue to do today in baptism.” There. My short case for infant baptism based on Matthew 18 and 19.

But I do think it is true. Having children as covenant members reminds us of the importance of community. We then see the dependence that child has on others. The community is not a social club where strong pious individuals, that are maintained by their individual personal piety come together. It is ground of the individual growing. Think of trees growing out of the building of the church, rather than trees growing out side of the church that stick a branch in the building. A child's dependence reminds us of our dependence. That a child is brought unable to help itself to have Christ touch reminds us of our helpless condition apart from being carried by the workings of the Spirit.

Matthew Henry on Covenant Children (Acts 2:39)

Matthew Henry on what Peter was telling the Jewish audience of his sermon, where he said "the promise is to you and to your children" (Acts 2:39):

(3.) “Your children shall still have, as they have had, an interest in the covenant, and a title to the external seal of it. Come over to Christ, to receive those inestimable benefits; for the promise of the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, is to you and to your children,” Act_2:39. It was very express (Isa_44:3): I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed. And (Isa_59:21), My Spirit and my word shall not depart from thy seed, and thy seed's seed. When God took Abraham into covenant, he said, I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed (Gen_17:7); and, accordingly, every Israelite had his son circumcised at eight days old.

Now it is proper for an Israelite, when he is by baptism to come into a new dispensation of this covenant, to ask, “What must be done with my children? Must they be thrown out, or taken in with me?”

“Taken in” (says Peter) “by all means; for the promise, that great promise of God's being to you a God, is as much to you and to your children now as ever it was.”

-Matthew Henry on Acts 2:39

Of Such is the Kingdom of God

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)

Our 20+ pastor penned a sublime entry after his daughter went home. I encourage you all to go read it.