Were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:13)

This sermon was preached on 28/4/2013

It is obvious from a reading of 1 Corinthians that there were severe problems in the church in Corinth. One of the faults that marked them was the practice of some, if not all, of identifying themselves with prominent Christian leaders – Paul here mentions four claims that were common in Corinth. No doubt, there were various reasons for the people doing so. One reason was a preference for a particular style of preaching (Apollos seems to have been a powerful preacher) and another reason was closeness in time to the public ministry of Jesus (Cephas, or Peter, had been with Jesus from the onset of that period). Others followed Paul, no doubt because he had been instrumental in their conversion when he had planted and established a Christian church in the city (as described in Acts 18). Perhaps the group of believers we are most surprised at being corrected by Paul was those who claimed not to follow any human leader but instead said they followed Jesus. Of course, their claim was the worst of the lot because they were indicating that no-one else apart from them was doing so. All these different groups were contributing in one way or another to the disunity that marked the church in Corinth.

Paul responded to this problem with a series of three questions designed to enable his hearers to think about their situation. If we had been in his shoes, what questions would we have asked? Perhaps we would have asked the same three or maybe we would have omitted one or two of them. His first question concerned getting them to consider how Jesus treated his people – was he divided in the sense of preferring one group before another? The answer to that question is obvious. Jesus does not show this kind of favoritism. His second question led them to think about the cross – had Paul, or any Christian leader, contributed anything to the way in which their sins were dealt with? The answer to that question is also obvious. Only Jesus was worth following because only he had paid the penalty for the sins of all his people. Yet they would have to follow him together.

Paul’s third question focused on their baptism. Providentially, he had not baptized many of them, so they could not claim a link to Paul in this way (the implication is that some of them might have done so). Perhaps most of those who were converted during his original stay in Corinth had been baptized by his colleagues, Silas and Timothy – they had been his co-workers during that mission. His reference to baptism raised important questions for the Corinthians and it raises such matters for us as well.  There are at least six details that we can consider briefly.

Six features of baptism

First, baptism is a response connected to the gospel that was preached by Paul and his friends. While not everyone in the church in Corinth would have been converted through those preachers, clearly a large proportion of them were. Paul and his co-workers had come to Corinth with a specific message about the crucified Christ. The contents of the message involved who Jesus was and what had happened to him on the cross at Calvary. We can imagine a wide range of circumstances in which different people heard the gospel and responded to its message. As they heard about the message of free forgiveness and new life, with the further prospect of a home in heaven forever, they responded to it with great joy.

Second, baptism is the response that is required of everyone, whatever their ethnic background, social status, previous lifestyle or gender. How can saved sinners show that they have become disciples of Jesus? Many of them would never have been in contact with one another before; after all, some of them were Jews and others were Gentiles; some of them were slaves and others were free; some of them were educated and others were not. There had to be a method that would show clearly that they all now belonged to Jesus. That method was baptism. When a person was baptised, he or she was indicating that the past distinctions no longer had power over them. Indeed, baptism was a renunciation of their previous way of life. So there was a common way of indicating that one wanted to serve Jesus.

Third, baptism is the way of entrance into the visible church, but it is only the start of a life of discipleship. What happened once they were baptised? Their participation in this rite was not the final aspect of their response to Jesus. Instead it was like a door that both shuts out the past and opens up the future. Their future was now one of belonging to the community of sinners who wanted to live according to the teachings of the Word of God. In the case of the Corinthians, it meant that they would practice the teachings of the apostles because they had the authority of Jesus regarding what they taught.

Entrance into the visible church in Corinth also meant that the others in the church there were committed to help the spiritual state of one another. This commitment began at the moment the new member entered the visible church. Perhaps we are confused as to what is meant by the visible church. It is a term used to describe the aspects of the church that we can see – its structures, its services, its fellowship and its activities.

It is important to note that membership of the visible church does not guarantee membership of the invisible church. The invisible church is a term that describes aspects of the church that we cannot see – one another’s hearts, the genuineness of our prayer lives, our longings after holiness, the reality of our confession of sin. No human can put one into the invisible church and no human can put a believer out of the invisible church.

Fourth, baptism is a means of identification with God because we are baptized into his name. How do people identify one another? When someone asks me, Who are you?, I don’t reply, ‘I am a human with two legs and two arms.’ No, I say my name. If I go to the bank and merely say to the member of staff that I am an account holder, I will not get very far. They will need to know my name at least. After a person has been baptised, they have a new name as it were added to who they are. Before I was baptised, I was Malcolm Maclean (I had the surname of my parents which told others I was linked to them). After I was baptised, I could have been called ‘Malcolm baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ If I said that about myself, people would know how to identify me in a certain way.

Obviously, the actual rite of baptism only happens once. As we look back to it, we are liable to say, ‘I was baptised on ------------.’ Yet it is better to recall it and then say, ‘I am baptised.’ The reason why it is better to speak like this is because we always retain the status that baptism depicts. We cannot become unbaptized. This of course makes it very serous because it is possible for a baptised person to live as if he had not been baptised. But when a person does this, he is denying his identity and preventing others from seeing who he is. I suspect that most of us were baptised in the past. Are we living like baptised persons? For example, did I do something or say something last week that would have contradicted the name of the Trinity that is attached to my name? If I did something as a child that was not in line with my father’s character, a neighbour could say to me, ‘You don’t behave like your father!’ That would be embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as someone saying to me, ‘The Father, the Son and the Spirit would not have acted in the way you did a minute ago!’

Fifth, baptism is a family activity, as we can see from Paul’s reference to the household of Stephanos. Paul almost seems to throw in this piece of information as an additional fact. But it is a very important fact because it tells us that Paul and other Christians, as we can see from elsewhere in the New Testament, baptised households or families (the term ‘household’ could include every person who belonged to the father including the families of his slaves). It is inevitable that some of those belonging to the households would have been children. There is no need for us to be embarrassed about baptising our children – there is ample biblical support for the practice. And that is what we are doing here today.

Sixthly, and finally, baptism, in itself, does not guarantee sinless living. This is obvious from the church in Corinth itself. If we have the time to read through 1 and 2 Corinthians we might be surprised at some of the practices they engaged in. It is the case that they did things that are not often found among Christians. Nevertheless, reminding them of baptism would also have been comforting because they would have recalled that it signified cleansing from sin through the blood of Christ. And that I suspect is probably the main message most of us need to hear as we gather for this baptism. We gather as sinners needing cleansing to welcome into the church composed of sinners another sinner who is starting out on her life’s journey. And it is good that she is beginning it as part of the visible church.