'Baptism, the new birth and children in Communion' [John 3:1-8]

Steve Paynter, Sunday 18 November 2007

Introduction

On Easter Day next year, for the first time in a very long time, children who are baptised members of St. Mary’s will be able to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion along with their parents. This is a big change from the current discipline of delaying communion for children until after Confirmation. So, as we prepare for this change, and as parents prayerfully seek God’s guidance on the matter, two sermons. First this week “What is the meaning of Christian Baptism and how should it be practised?” And then next week Michael will tackle the same questions for Holy Communion. I do commend both sermons to all members of the church.

They are being recorded for those who cannot be present for either one or both.

What does Christian Baptism mean?

The answer to this question in one sentence is this: Christian Baptism is the sign and seal of the new birth, which gloriously occurs within us when we turn to Christ in faith and trust.  Therefore we must focus for a moment on the ‘what, who and how’ of this ‘new birth.

What is the new birth?  Who is the new birth for? And how does it take place?

The new birth occurs in that moment when we perceive our need of God’s gracious mercy in our life, and, Christ’s ability to meet that need, through his atoning death on the cross for us. Its that moment when we decide to act on this realisation, turning our wills away from self justification, self reliance and selfish living, to a complete trust and faith in Jesus Christ as the way the truth and the life. When we turn to Christ in this way, God pours his Holy Spirit upon us, making us new people, with a new heart, a new nature and a new power to live for him. He also gives us a new family the church - into eternity.

Who is the new birth for?  - answer- everyone.

Jesus tells Nicodemus in verse 3 & 4 “no one can see (or enter) the kingdom of God without being born from above…or of water and the Spirit”

Nicodemus was astonished.  V7 As a person he was religious, moral, educated, respectable, and courteous. He even believed in the divine origin of Jesus - that Jesus was from God because of the unsurpassed signs that Jesus was doing.

But all this was not enough. He still needed to be born from above - as do all people, as do we. For we too have fallen short of God’s perfect love in our lives.

How does this new birth take place?

From one point of view it is entirely God’s work. Christ has done everything necessary to bring us into his kingdom. The Holy Spirit does everything necessary to bring us to Christ. Salvation is a free gift of God’s love - but it is a gift we need to receive. From our side we need to repent and believe in order to enter into all that God has won for us on the cross. To repent is to turn aside from what we know is wrong and contrary to God’s love, and to believe is to put our active faith and trust in Christ as the way the truth and life. When we do that, God gloriously comes into our lives to make his home with us by his Holy Spirit. This is to be born of water, which represents repentance, and the Spirit, which is God’s work in our lives to bring us to Christ, and to empower us to live for him. This then constitutes the new birth, or being born from above as Jesus tells it to Nicodemus. It is this new birth which is symbolised in Christian baptism. Peter preaching his first sermon in Jerusalem said “Repent and be baptised every one of you …so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Baptism is then the sign, or sacrament, of the new birth. It is a visible, public dramatization of the new birth. It is the outward and physical sign of an inward and spiritual re-birth.

For the waters of Baptism symbolises this new birth in four ways:

1. The creation of the earth took place through water in Gen 1 and each of us was born through water - when our mothers waters broke.

Water is a symbol of life without it nothing lives. It is the symbol of new life.

2. The people of Israel were brought into being as God’s covenant people by deliverance through the waters of the red sea.

3. Water signifies the washing and cleansing of repentance and forgiveness.

4. Water symbolises our dying with Christ to our old life, ruled by self will - as well as our rising with him to our new life in him, empowered by his love.  Romans 6.

It symbolises death and resurrection.

So baptism is administered to anyone who has come to a place of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ from what ever back ground they may come. It is a watershed which marks their passage from death to life, from darkness to God’s light, judgement to mercy. This is agreed by all the churches and is quite uncontroversial.

However, what should be done for the babies and children of baptised believing parents?

There are two ways forward:

Baptists, among others say, baptism should be delayed until repentance and faith has occurred as a conscious adult. However, most Christians denomination, through history have and do administer infant baptism to the children of believing, baptised parents.

The reasons are, in brief:

1.Circumcision, the sign of belonging to God’s people Israel under the old covenant was administered to children at 8 days old.  No new instructions given on this in NT.

2. The practise of the early church appears to have been the baptism of whole households, which implies children also. Acts 16:33

3. We believe God is at work in children from their earliest years, to wash them and give them the Spirit. Jesus says in Matthew 18:3 that they are the model of how to enter the Kingdom.  Paul also affirms that the children of Christian parents are holy. 1Cor 7:14.

4. Peter says in his first sermon in Jerusalem in acts 2:39 “the promise of salvation is for you, for your children and for all who are far away…..”

5. It is important, that as children grow they develop a good self understanding, as well as an awareness and knowledge of God’s love for them. This is achieved through the experience of belonging, as full members to the body of Christ, which they are, with their parents.

So the children of believing baptised parents who are baptised are full members of the Kingdom of God - they are not tomorrow's church but an essential part of today’s church. This means that they are eligible to take Holy Communion as members of God’s family in their own right. They need to come to his table too, to receive strength and grace to live for God. Yes, they need to grow up into the faith in which they find themselves and they are free to leave it at any time, as adults are. But it is time for us to realise that children too are covered by God’s grace when they are within the household of faith. They need the grace available to them in holy communion to help them develop into believing adults, who have been born from above. There is much evidence that this is how the church viewed and treated children from the very first. Therefore the Anglican Church today, among others, believe that we must correct this confused situation of requiring Confirmation before admitting children to communion. It is important to be clear and consistent about our journey into faith in Christ, as well as the place of children in the church.

Confirmation will remain as the opportunity for those who been baptised as infants to publicly declare and own for themselves their baptismal faith, and receive the prayers of the Church through the laying on of hands of the Bishop, for the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in their lives - his equipping for service.

However, Baptism alone, is the sign and seal of the new birth. True, we mustn’t confuse the sign with what it signifies. The sign in itself, without faith and the new birth, is a sign waiting for fulfilment. But when faith is present, in ourselves, or when we are very young, in our parents, then it is a glorious sign to us from God, that he loves us, forgives us and has made us his own, eternally. Regularly receiving holy communion deepens and strengthen the awareness and out working of these great truth in our lives and immediate experience. All baptised disciples of Jesus, regardless of age, need to be regularly communicant in order to help them grow, and continue, as disciples of Jesus. For Jesus said to all his followers: “Do this in remembrance of me.” There is one bread and one body and all who belong to Jesus are invited to his table to receive the benefits of his saving death on the cross for the sins of the world. It is time for us to embody these foundational truths in all we do.   Amen.