II. Who is to be baptized and who should baptize?

A. Who is to be baptized?

The answer to who is to be baptized is also found here in Romans 6:1-11, and it is found in the words of first person plural – such as we, us, and our. And just in this eleven verses Paul used the first person plural pronouns 14 times! So here’s an important question: who are we, us, and our referring to? Answer: Christians! To be more specific, look at some textual examples that are found in the surrounding context as to what this entails.

1. Those that have the saving knowledge (cf. Romans 6:5-6).

· ^NAU Romans 6:5 ¶ For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

The phrase “knowing this” in verse 6 in Greek means understanding and comprehension.[1] This same Greek verb is also found in Ephesians 5:5, where it speaks of understanding with certainty.

· ^NAU Ephesians 5:5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

2. Those that have the saving faith (Romans 5:2).

· ^NAU Romans 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction (our access) by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

3. Those that confessed sins (Matthew 3:6).

There is undividable connection between baptism with repentance and confession of sins. This is also true of other places:

· ^NAU Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

· ^NAU Mark 16:16 “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

In other words, there cannot be true baptism without genuine repentance and confession of sins. John Calvin said, “Otherwise the whole performance would be nothing but an idle mockery.”[2]

The verb “confessed,”[3] especially in Matthew 3:6 is means to “agree, consent, admit, acknowledge.” The question is, agreeing with what or acknowledging what? To confess means that you come under God’s standard and you agree to his term. You do not go about repentance by your own term or your own standard. And once you see God’s righteous standard that is revealed in Scripture, you’ll realize (hopefully by God’s grace) that you have failed to meet that perfect standard; hence you acknowledge your shortcomings and sins. And such cognitive understanding is a must and a sign of true confession. That is why historically in churches pastors did not rush someone to baptism if there was absence of such important understanding or acknowledging of one’s sin. Again to quote the words of Calvin, “Otherwise the whole performance would be nothing but an idle mockery.”

Based on those textual examples alone, “we” cannot refer to infants. Do infants possess the ability to comprehend the saving knowledge and exercise faith? Can infants confess their sins and believe? Even Jesus in his infancy did not receive baptism. All that is to say, the answer to who is to be baptized is none other than those that have the saving knowledge and exercise the saving faith since that is what a Christian is. Hence we as Sovereign Grace Bible Church we affirm and practice what is rightfully called the believer’s baptism (also known as the creedal baptism), as oppose to infant baptism (or paedo-baptism).

B. Who should baptize?

Now as to who should baptize – meaning, who should administer baptism, the answer is found in the word administer, namely, the minister. To be specific, the officially recognized church ruling title. For example, Paul said:

· ^NAU 1 Corinthians 1:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius.

He stated that as an apostle, the officially recognized ruling title in the church at that time. Once the original apostles passed away, such administration was given for the pastors. I was digging through some early church documents and found this historical writing by Ignatius, one of the early church leaders, in his letter Epistle to the Smyrnaeans (circa A.D. 112):

It is not permitted either to baptize or hold a love-feast apart from the bishop (evpiskoph/j, where we get the word Episcopal, which means overseer or pastor). But whatever he may approve, that is well-pleasing to God, that everything which you do may be sound and valid.[4]

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[1] tou/to ginw,skontej (present active participle) from ginw,skw.

[2] John Calvin, “Harmony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John 1-11” translated by William Pringle in Calvin’s Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 184.

[3] evxomologou,menoi (present middle participle) from evxomologe,w.

[4] Henry Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 63-64.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful privilege of baptizing two individuals at our church after the worship service. Since this is our first baptism as a church-plant I gave a message on the subject. I approached the subject by raising the fundamental questions of what, who, when, where, how, and why. In other words, what is baptism? Who is to be baptized and who should baptize? When should I be baptized? Where should I be baptized? How should I be baptized? And finally, why should I be baptized?

The following are some of the highlighted points from yesterday’s message.

I. What is Baptism?

You will not find a clear and explicit definition of what baptism is in the Bible though there are many descriptions found in the Bible. This is because the writers, especially, of the NT, assume that the readers would already know what baptism is. But for the sake of defining what it is, I would like for you to turn to Romans 6:1-11.

Let me make two critical observations here. First of all, according to Paul there is undeniable connection between baptism with the death and resurrection of Christ. That is very obvious here. Secondly, all throughout this section Paul makes several indicative statements – meaning, statements that are already assumed fact, that Christians are already dead and alive.

Now here’s an important question: In what sense are Christians already dead and alive? The answer to that question is already given here. According to Paul, Christians are already dead and alive through his/her baptism. To be more specific, believer’s baptism signifies union with Christ in his death and union with Christ in his resurrection. In other words, baptism signifies union with Christ in who he is and union with Christ in what he did, namely, his death and resurrection.[1]

Therefore, baptism is a “powerful form of proclamation of the truth of what Christ has done; it is a ‘word in water’ testifying to the believer’s participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is a symbol rather than merely a sign, for it is a graphic picture of the truth it conveys.”[2]

Stay tune for the rest.

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[1] John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 214.

[2] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 1110.

I was so dumbfounded when I saw the headline “Is Spanish team photo racist toward Chinese?” Trying to regain some composure after seeing the article and taking a long walk to cool down, here are my afterthoughts:

1. There needs to be a correction made on the news headline. This photo does not only offend Chinese but all Asians. If anyone would think that such photo is offensive only to Chinese is a sign of pure ignorance. And it would only prove that we still have a long way to go in addressing and educating racial issues in this country. Although I am not Chinese (though I am a Korean-American) such racial and degrading picture is simply unacceptable regardless of what Asian ethnicity you are.

2. For a team to represent their country front of the whole world to see, Spanish Men’s Basketball Team really blew it. And they ought to feel their shame. When an athlete or a team is playing at the Olympic he/they not only display their athletic abilities but a sense of dignity and ambassadorship of their country.

3. Because of their stupidity are we to think that people in Spain are also racists and ignorant to racial issues? I hope not because that too is racial stereotype and generalization, which is a form of racism. I want to believe that there are better people in Spain than ones that have represented by their men’s basketball team.

4. Racism of any sort is due to sin and sinfulness of man. It only reminds me that every man needs the gospel. And only then can a racist be transformed to love all races for whom Christ died. The biblical gospel is culturally and racially transcendent. But more importantly, it transforms all of God’s people to love all of God’s people.

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14 ESV).

Are hermeneutics and curriculum for children’s ministry important? You would think so, right? Unfortunately, that is not the reality in many churches. In fact, this principle does not only pertain to children’s ministry. It also applies to Sunday School curriculum for all levels - including youth and adults.

Churches need to discern, especially, for elders - that just because a big and popular church down the street use it does not qualify that you should use it.

I would highly recommend you read this valuable observation by Dr. John Walton. This is something that many of us have been saying for years.

My wife and I are currently vacationing in Alaska. If you want to check out some of our pics you can click here.

What did God command us to pray for?

Everything we need, spiritually and physically, as embraced in the prayer Christ our Lord Himself taught us - The Heidelberg Catechism, #118

How does God want us to pray so that He will listen to us?

First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, who has revealed Himself in His Word, asking for everything He has commanded us to ask for.

Second, we must acknowledge our need and misery, hiding nothing, and humble ourselves in His majestic presence.

Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. That is what He promised us in His Word (The Heidelberg Catechism #117).

Throughout the history of the church the greatest preachers have been those who have recognized that they have no authority in themselves and have seen their task as being to explain the words of Scripture and apply them clearly to the lives of their hearers. Their preaching has drawn its power not from the proclamation of their own Christian experiences or the experiences of others, nor from their own opinions, creative ideas, or rhetorical skills, but from God’s powerful words – Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 82.

Pastors, preach the Word!

Why do Christians need to pray?

Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And also because God gives His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking Him for them (The Heiderberg Catechism, #116).

PROFILE OF A PASTOR

Selected Scripture

When you hear words like “profile” or “profiling,” what comes to your mind?

The words like profile or profiling has to do with representation, characteristic, or distinction. And sometimes those words have negative connotations. For instance, we sometimes hear in the news about:

· Profile on a serial killer

· Profile of the terrorists

· Racial profiling by the police (it really happened to me several years ago)

However, this evening I want to use the word profile in a positive sense, namely profile of a pastor. In other words, what does a pastor look like? I raise this question because of twofold reasons: 1) although many people have their own ideas about what a pastor should do, average churchgoers are not biblically informed as to what a pastor is called to do, 2) for every one of you to be equipped and/or reminded so that you can keep your pastor accountable for the glory of God.

At the onset of this message I just want to say that this message is not a self-serving message. No pastor in his right mind would uphold the biblical truths which you are about to hear as a means to serve himself. If anything it could be the minister’s self-judging message than self-serving message.

With that in mind, I would like to begin this message with this statement: you can see what a pastor looks like by what he does and what he does not do.

In our expositions from Acts 6 we’ve learned that the functions of deacons are to be the support-team for the elders in the church, meaning they are responsible for freeing up the elders not to be entangled with anything that would hinder them to do their primary God-given duties, namely being devoted to prayer and ministry of the word. Hence deacons are responsible for administration, maintenance, and physical care for the members in the church (also known as mercy ministry - e.g., food distributions for the widows, etc).

But what about the pastors and elders? What are they responsible? In other words, what are the pastor/elders called to do? I have already hinted that pastors are responsible for being devoted to prayer and ministry of the word. But what does that look like exactly? How does that flesh-out exactly? That is a million dollar question that requires understanding on both parties – i.e., the pastors/elders and the members of the church. Not only the pastors/elders need to know the answer for this question (unfortunately many don’t), but also the members of the church because how are the members of the church going to hold the pastors/elders accountable and responsible if the church members do not know what the pastors/elders’ job descriptions are?

Another way to put it, how are the church members going to measure whether the pastors/elders are really fulfilling their biblical duties if they don’t want know what to measure with? To know the answer for this question is so crucial for the life and health of the church and the effectiveness of the leadership in the church.

But before we tackle this million dollar question, I would like to begin with reading 2 Timothy 3:16-17 to set the tone for this message and also to lay down the foundation. It says:

· ^NAU 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God (or in ESV “breathed out by God”) and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

This passage teaches not only a high view of Scripture and the authority of Scripture but also the sufficiency of Scripture, especially, in formulating ministry plans and ministry priorities. It demands that we must begin with God and His Word (the Bible) in determining what a church is called to do, especially, the role of her pastor. All that is to say, we don’t determine what a church should do or what pastors/elders should do. No! The only one who determines what a church should be or what pastors/elders should do is God, and the answers are clearly found in His Word. To put it another way, our opinions do not count very much when compare to God’s word. The church cannot make decisions based on people’s opinions or likes or dislikes or the latest polls of what people want. We take direct orders from our Great Shepherd when it comes to primary essence.

This evening I would like for us to look at the pastor’s primary duties from three major New Testament sections. First, I would like for us to briefly look at First and Second Thessalonians. To me, if there is one church in the Bible I would like for us to emulate, it would be the church of the Thessalonians. Secondly, I would like for us to briefly visit the Pastoral Epistles. And lastly, I would like to visit briefly Peter’s letters. After all, he was the leader of the Twelve and it is profitable to read what he has to say about what a pastor is called to do since he had the greatest opportunity to learn from the best.

I. Pastor’s Primary Duties from I and II Thessalonians[1]

1. Praying faithfully (1 Thes. 1:2-3; 3:9-13)

If you have any leadership responsibility in the church (whether teaching a children’s class, managing finance, leading music, etc.), your responsibility also includes praying. If a person cannot faithfully pray for the people he or she ministers to, then such person is not qualified to lead. Interceding faithfully and regularly for other’s spiritual wellbeing is a basic responsibility for a spiritual leader.

Furthermore, this principle goes beyond just a leader but also includes their spouses. If you are married to a man who has any leadership responsibility in the church, you are also equally responsible for praying for your husband’s particular ministry, your ministry, and for your church generally. When you are married, you are no longer independent. You’re now a team. You’re now part of the ministry. Although you may not functionally and equally do what your spouse does, you are equally committed and as much part of the ministry as he is.

There is a popular view amongst many pastors’ wives (including church leaders’ wives) today that says, “I’m not the pastor, my husband is.” I fully understand what that means and what that implies. However, I do not believe that should excuse the wives to be prayerless and spiritually lazy. The biblical complementarian view teaches that there is a functional distinction between men and women in the church, but this does not negate the spiritual responsibility that applies equally to all men and women in the church, namely to pray. What better example for a complementarian view than when both husband and wife of leadership complement each other in their prayer life.

2. Preaching faithfully (1 Thes. 1:4-6; 2:1-9, 13)

3. Patterning faithfully (1 Thes. 1:5b-8; 2:10) – i.e., being a model

• “imitators” (mimhtai.) – “mimics” or “followers”

• It is a goal of a pastor to reproduce himself by making disciples. That means a pastor would pour out his life sacrificially to be a model for others to imitate.

A pastor would have a mixed emotion when others would say, “I want to be like my pastor” (happy in one sense and terrifying responsibility on the other).

4. Parenting faithfully (1 Thes. 2:7-8, 10-12)

· By God’s sovereign grace pastors often experience genuine spiritual regeneration or rebirths under their ministry. Hence they become a spiritual father to converts. This was true of Paul. For instance, in 1 Timothy 1:18 he refers to Timothy, his child; and 2 Timothy 1:2, “Timothy, my beloved son.”

· “exhortation” (parakalou/ntej) in verse 12 does not simply mean sweet-talking, rather it has a sense of urging and begging to do the right thing just as any loving parent would do. And you need to understand that when a pastor exhorts you biblically, you need to humbly, maturely, and biblically receive it with thanksgiving, and not with grief and self-defense. According to James 1:19, “Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

5. Pre-cautioning faithfully (1 Thes. 2:14-18; 3:4-5; 4:1-8; 5:1-6)

6. Protecting faithfully (2 Thes. 3:6-7, 14)

II. Pastor’s Primary Duties from the Pastoral Epistles

7. Providing faithfully – i.e., sound doctrine/God’s truth (1 Tim. 3:2 – “able to teach”; 4:11-13; 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:15, 24 – “able to teach”; 3:16-17; Titus 1:9; 2:1)

The wrong kind of preachers has created the wrong kind of Christians by declaring the wrong kind of messages, compelled by the wrong motives.[2]

Because the pastor is driven by providing God’s truth, he ought to be resourceful (books, preachers, churches, etc.).

8. Pointing-out faithfully – i.e., pointing out false teachers and/or unfaithful people (1 Tim. 1:19-20; 2 Tim. 1:15; 2:15-18; 4:13-15).

It’s amazing to see how many times Paul names the names. In other words, mark such individual(s) who may be harmful to the unity and purity of the church. In fact in 2 Timothy 3:5 he commands to be separated from such people (ESV and NAU “avoid” such people; NKJ “turn away”; NIV “have nothing to do with them”).

III. Pastor’s Primary Duties from the Peter’s Epistles

9. Pastoring faithfully – 1 Pet. 5:1-4

What does “shepherd the flock of God” in verse 2 mean? It means all eight points you have heard thus far. It refers to all of the above.

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[1] Adopted from Richard L. Mayhue, “Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry,” in Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, ed. by John MacArthur and The Master’s Seminary Faculty (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1995), 14-15.

[2] Warren Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, 61.