You may have seen the meme but if you have not seen it, you have certainly felt it at times. It comes in various forms, often with pictures intended to garner a knowing smirk, but its basic gist is this:

The first five days after the weekend are always the hardest.

Whenever I see this it always elicits a chuckle as I have experienced some really hard weeks in my adult life, knowing that the weekend was supposed to be the time to recover. Then I bought my first house. Suddenly weekends also meant lawn care and home repair and organizing the boxes of stuff in the basement and re-organizing the garage. I quickly learned the truth of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s observation about owning a home.

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life; he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

After working a long week, the meme suggests the weekend is supposed to be our reward, yet how many of us find ourselves working on the weekends for our homes? We don’t even get paid for working on our homes; doing so costs us money. Where is our rest? Where is our reward for our hard work all week long?

What if this is the wrong perspective? What if the weekend—days off, really—is not a reward for a job well done, but something else, something far more important? To understand the real import of the “weekend”, we have to look at its origin. We call it a weekend, but the truth is it is both the end of the week (Saturday) and the beginning of the week (Sunday) and herein lies a big clue as to the real purpose of rest.

Consider the creation story. In Genesis 1 the author describes God’s creative acts. On days one through five he created the universe and the planets, the earth and plants and all the creatures that live in the seas. Then on the sixth day God created land animals and, last of all, God created man. After each of the first five days God declared that his work was good. After creating man on the sixth day, however, Genesis tells us that “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good”. Then we come to day seven.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Genesis 2:1–3 ESV

One thing that is clear from the creation story is God created humans with the responsibility to work. Adam was directly tasked with working the garden and keeping it (Genesis 2:15). Eve was directly tasked with assisting Adam in his work, as the only creature among all God’s creatures equal to Adam, and therefore “fit for him” (Genesis 2:18).

If anyone were truly and properly rested, it would be the newly created Adam. Imagine him on his first full day in the garden of Eden. He had never worked a day in his life at that point. Nothing would have him drained of energy. No stress from, well, whatever working the garden and keeping the garden entailed, would have been weighing on him. His body was perfect. It functioned perfectly. His DNA was created directly by God and so had no errors in it. He was in every way a perfect human being with a perfectly functioning body. If anyone were ready for work, it was Adam on his first day—except Adam’s first day was God’s seventh day.

This means that God created Adam on Day Six and on Day Seven God rested with Adam. What on earth was Adam resting from? Adam wasn’t resting from something; he was resting for something. Rest is not a reward for a job well done. Rest is preparation for a job to be done. Did you hear that? Rest is not a reward for work that you have already done, but rest is preparation for work you have yet to do.

Adam rested with God on his very first full day in the garden, in anticipation of the job that lay ahead of him. By resting from his labors, God was demonstrating to Adam that Adam needed to rest for his labors. To say this another way, rest is supposed to come before work, not after.

We were created to work. I do not mean that work is what defines us. Far too many get their identities from their work, whether through a job title or an income or a sense of accomplishment. While the idea of a person sitting around all day and doing nothing is utterly contrary to the Scriptures, work is not the thing that defines us. This is part of the reason God had Adam rest on his first full day. Adam had a job to do, but his primary purpose in this world was to walk with God, and so God and Adam rested together.

This principle of rest is a necessary one for human health and productivity. Our lives ought not be measured merely in terms of what we produce, yet being made in God’s image requires that we engage in productive activities, whether in the workforce or in the home. These productive activities can be described as creating order out of disorder. This is what underlies God’s instructions to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). They were to take the raw materials of this world and improve them. We need to be fruitful in our endeavors.

The idea of rest in the Ancient Near Eastern context in which Genesis was written is that God ceases his work of bringing order out of disorder. On the first day he created the material universe and then brought order out of the formlessness and void of the raw planet (Genesis 1:2). By resting on the seventh day, God was disengaging from his work, indicating it was already accomplished. When Adam rested with God, there was the implicit trust that God had, indeed, brought order out of chaos and the entire cosmos remained firmly under his control, though he was resting from his “labors”. By resting before he even began his work of subduing the earth further, Adam was indicating he trusted in the ongoing stability of the world, which is to say he trusted God completely.

When we rest from our labors, we must do so in faith, trusting that the world will not actually fall apart without us. While there may be a bit of chaos in the office or in the shop when we’re gone—or worse, when we get back, the world will keep spinning. Day and night will continue to alternate. The Lord will remain in control. When we return from our rest we have to bring order out of a bit more chaos than there would have been without us resting, yet we must rest for doing so is our expression of faith in God who controls all things.

Rest should be an act of worship. We should regularly disengage from our labors so that we might be refreshed and prepared to engage in that labor again. By stepping away from our work, we express our faith in God. We demonstrate our complete reliance on him, for when we rest, the world will continue, just as it did on the seventh day when Adam and God rested together.

What this rest looks like is entirely dependent on the sort of work you do. I was given advice years ago to find a hobby that was completely unlike my ordinary work. If you dig ditches for a living, digging holes in your backyard probably won’t be restful. Maybe writing poetry or reading epic sci-fi / fantasy would be, as these are quite different activities from the back-breaking labor of digging ditches. If you write poetry for a living, digging holes—well, any activity that involves manual labor—may well be refreshing to you as it allows your mind to rest while giving your body much-needed physical activity.

This is why I love road cycling. Spending two or three hours spinning up and down hills is physically demanding. While I use a stand-up desk, spending hours praying and reading and studying and writing and meeting with folk is not exactly physically demanding. It can be very emotionally taxing. It can certainly be spiritually draining at times. I find, however, that when I engage in an activity that is unlike my “work”, I am refreshed emotionally and spiritually.

I think the most-difficult part of my work for the church is Saturday evenings. The weight I feel on Saturdays can be overwhelming. So often it really feels like trying to bring order out of absolute chaos! There are many times the sermon seems to be a complete mess and I am tempted to stay up all night rewriting it, yet going to sleep is an act of spiritual resistance. It is an act of militant faith, knowing that even as I sleep, the Lord remains in control, even of messy sermons. While I generally get fewer hours of sleep on Saturday nights, I am—poorly, perhaps—trusting the Lord to work in and through his gathered assembly the next morning.

Taking a break from the weight I feel on Saturdays is truly refreshing to my soul. This is why I am thankful the Council of Elders requires that I take extended time off each year. It isn’t a month-long vacation, but it is a time of disengaging from my regular labors. To be sure, there will be significant downtime as Dawnae and I do some fun and relaxing stuff. It is, after all, intended to be a time of rest. However, part of my time away will be spent studying and praying and preparing for the coming months. I will plan my preaching calendar through 1 and 2 Timothy, including wrestling with some of the more difficult—and more controversial—texts in 1 Timothy. To that end I will read, or in some cases, re-read, several books and articles written by various scholars on issues related to these two letters. I will spend time seeking the Lord and his direction for this church. I will also enjoy some leisure activities. For many much of this sounds like work, and it is similar to what I do regularly, yet I find it refreshing. I find it restful, and therefore, I find it to be good preparation for the work ahead.

Please pray for us, that we might be present in all that God has given us to enjoy. Pray for our refreshing and our safety. Pray for one another. As you have vacation time or days off in the weeks or months ahead, try to approach your rest from a different perspective. Rather than see it as a reward for the work you have already accomplished, recognize it is an act of faith in God who holds all things together and see it as a time of preparation for work yet to do. So pray for one another, asking God to grant rest, that we might, together, be ever more fruitful in the days ahead.

I grew up in a pagan home. When I say “pagan” I really mean it. When I was little my stepfather was a wizard, which I later learned is somehow different from either a witch or a warlock. He was only in the picture a couple years but my mother often used Ouija boards and Tarot cards. This was the closest thing to religion in the home.

When I was thirteen my younger sister started attending a little church a few miles away. At her insistence I soon began attending as well. Not long after, I was also attending Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services. I was hooked. I wanted to learn as much as I could as quickly as I could. I remember asking how I could learn to follow Jesus more faithfully. I didn’t have the vocabulary at the time but what I was really asking was to be discipled. I was given a workbook called “Milk”.

The workbook covered some of the basics of Christian faith—hence “milk”. It was baby food. Jesus is God in human form. He was born of a virgin. He rose from the dead. The Bible is God’s word and is comprised of 66 individual books. I didn’t learn a lot from this book but I devoured it. When I completed it I handed it in…for grading? I’m not sure what the pastor of the church did with it, but he gave me the next book: “Bread”.

This second book was a little more detailed and I learned more than I did with “Milk”. I quickly finished the workbook. Then I was on to “Fish”. After “Fish” came the real heavyweight, the solid food: “Meat”. Once again I finished the workbook very quickly and turned it in, wondering what was next. What comes after meat? “Casserole”? A full meal? Gourmet dishes? Now that I learned about the food was there training on how to put it all together, so to speak? It’s one thing to know the differences between milk, bread, fish, and meat, but what do I do with all this knowledge?

Nothing. There was nothing else. I had finished the “course” of Christian discipleship. I knew some stuff. My life was still a mess. I still didn’t know how to follow Jesus. I still wasn’t sure what to do with my life, but after finishing “Milk”, “Bread”, “Fish”, and “Meat”, there was nothing more available to me. That was the extent of what it meant for me to be discipled as a follower of Jesus. The mission given to the apostles by Jesus himself is this:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

Notice here that Jesus does not say to baptize new converts and then teach them the basics of the Christian faith. Oh, to be sure, we must teach one another the faith once delivered. We must love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, and mind. That necessarily requires that we learn about God. We need the milk and the bread and the fish and, yes, the meat of the Christian faith, but the mission does not stop with merely educating one another. The mission is to form fully devoted followers of Jesus. Consider Paul’s words to the Christians in Philippi.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Philippians 2:14–17 ESV

In this letter Paul expressed great praise to God for the work he has done among the Philippians. He expresses his confidence that God, the very one who began the good work among them, will be faithful to complete that work “at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). That day is the day the Lord returns and resurrects his people and recreates the earth and all the promises of God in Christ are brought to their fullest expression. Paul expresses great confidence that this will happen. In the text above, he calls them to hold fast to the word of life so that on that day of Christ he will be shown to have not run in vain or labor in vain.

What’s really happening here is Paul is staking his entire ministry success on this: the believers in Philippi will prove themselves true followers of Jesus. If they were to turn away from following Jesus, his labor—his life’s work would have been in vain. This is why he told them in chapter 1 to let their “manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27). He says he wants to hear the report that they are “standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel”.

Paul’s metric for evaluating his own ministry is whether the people he has been given to care for become fully mature followers of Jesus who walk together in unity in their church. As Jesus put it, Paul evaluates his own ministry success by whether these disciples observe all that Jesus commanded them. He doesn’t measure numbers of baptisms or count how many show up for weekly worship. He doesn’t measure ministry success by how many workbooks young believers worked through—or how quickly. His ministry would be successful if the believers he baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit observed all that Jesus had commanded. He indicates how this would be known: their manner of life would be worthy of the gospel of Jesus. They would stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

Near the end of this letter Paul adds something remarkable.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Philippians 4:1–3 ESV

In this letter Paul has addressed the believers in Philippi as a group. The instructions and commands are all plural. They, together, must walk in the Lord. In chapter 4 verse 1 he calls them siblings and expresses his love for them. He tells them all to stand firm in the Lord—together. This is not an individual instruction. Just as we see in 2:27 they must stand firm in one spirit and must strive side by side. Following Jesus is not and cannot be an individual effort.

There was, apparently, a problem between two women in the church. Euodia and Syntyche had been valuable members of Paul’s ministry team. They labored with him in the gospel. The problem with human relationships is human relationships involve humans. Any time two or more humans are involved in any sort of relationship, whether they are friends or co-workers or ministry partners or spouses or neighbors, there will be some sort of conflict. We don’t know what the issue between Euodia and Syntyche was. It may have been a disagreement over what to have for their shared meal in their City Group. It may have been a misunderstood word or a word spoken out of frustration or exhaustion. We don’t know, but Paul calls on them to settle their differences and to “agree in the Lord”.

However, Paul does not leave it up to them alone to resolve their differences. He calls on an unnamed “true companion” to help them. The “you” there, as in, “I ask you also, true companion”, is singular. Paul addresses this individual who would have been known to the Philippians, to walk alongside these women as they resolved their dispute in community. To say this another way, this “true companion” is to help disciple these ladies through the relationship they have together. The true companion is known to them. He or she is not a stranger, but knows them. It is important for them to get along and to participate in the life of the church together and in order to grow past this trouble, they must be discipled in the faith.

It is clear that the mission of New City Church has already been determined by the Lord Jesus. We must make disciples. Before we launched, I was with a group from the launch team and we were wrestling with a mission statement for the church. We wanted one that was brief and to the point, and also memorable. We kept throwing out ideas but they were not adequate as they would stray a bit from the central thrust of our mission. Then, almost in frustration, someone said to me, “So you’re saying that the mission of this church is making disciples—period?” Suddenly everyone’s eyes lit up. I said, “Yes! That’s it. That’s our mission statement: ‘Making Disciples. Period.’”

As we see in Philippi, making disciples happens in relationship. This has become our philosophy of ministry: “Discipleship happens in relationship.” It’s not a program. It’s not a series of workbooks. It’s not a class you attend. It’s about walking side-by-side through life’s ups and downs, working through conflict, rejoicing in successes, living life together, all while helping one another follow Jesus.

In his book “The Mentoring Church” Phil Newton helpfully quotes his good friend, Matt Sligher:

If the ultimate goal for a trainee is to become like the mentor, then one-on-one discipleship is sufficient. However, if the goal for a trainee is to become like Jesus, then he needs mentoring by the whole church.

Phil Newton, “The Mentoring Church”, p. 126

We need one-on-one mentoring, but even more, we need mentoring from the whole church. This is why God has gifted his people with a variety of spiritual gifts. This is why we must live in community in such a way that we are involved in one another’s lives. This requires that we seek opportunities to spend time together. Invite someone over. Greet a visitor on Sunday morning. Go to the park with a group from church. Help someone with his or her home project. Making disciples is our mission. Period. There is no other mission. Discipleship happens in relationship. Therefore, you and I must seek to cultivate those relationships with one another in the church.

If we will do this, if we will pursue helping one another follow Jesus and if we will seek to let our manner of life be worthy of the gospel and if we will strive to stand side by side for the faith of the gospel, we will make disciples. Our efforts here at New City Church will not be in vain. We will be able to thank God, the very one who began a good work in us and who will be faithful to complete it. If we will do this, then the ministry of our church will be successful.

https://youtu.be/99HODGQbMdI

At New City Church Mother’s Day came and went without a single mention of mothers in our worship service. Father’s Day also came and went without honoring fathers. This Sunday is July 3 and we will not mention Independence Day. As a church we hold to the historic Christian sexual ethic. This includes what is expressed in The Didache 2:2—written, by the way, in the first century: “you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide”. As a church, however, we did not publicly celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade last Sunday. We don’t celebrate the outcome of elections—except the one in which God in Christ through his Spirit voted. We celebrate every single baptism, which is the outcome of that election! We don’t have an American flag in our auditorium. We don’t sing “God Bless America”. We don’t honor veterans or frontline workers. We don’t honor those who serve in the nursery, who play instruments or sing, who run audio / visual equipment during our services. We don’t honor elders or deacons in our gathered assembly.

The reason is quite simple and it has nothing to do with not actually honoring those worthy of honor. Our worship services last about 100 minutes. In a given week there are 10,080 minutes, which means we have 9,980 minutes to thank our mothers and fathers, to thank veterans who served, to recognize the service of those who take care of our babies so their mothers and fathers can participate more freely in the worship service. Since we have 9,980 minutes to honor our mothers, why would we take a single one of those 100 minutes spent worshiping our Lord Jesus together to honor someone other than Jesus?

We want to honor those worthy of honor. Scripture instructs us to honor people. Romans 12:10 tells us to outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 13:7 says to give honor to whom honor is due. Ephesians 6:2 reminds us we must honor our father and mother. When Paul sent Epaphroditus to Philippi he instructed the Philippians in Philippians 2:29 to honor men like him. In 1 Timothy 5:3 widows are to be honored. In 1 Timothy 5:17 elders who rule well are to be double-honored. In Hebrews 13:4 we are told to honor marriage. First Peter 2:17 tells us to honor everyone in general and the emperor in particular.

There is something unique about the gathered assembly that restricts who gets honored in the assembly. In theology when we speak of the church functioning in its capacity as a church, we sometimes use the Latin word “qua”, as in “the church qua church”. We can refer to a church in all sorts of ways. Such-and-such a church is having a VBS this summer. This Other Church just called a new elder. The Church Down the Street is remodeling its auditorium. None of these things refers to the church qua church. When we refer to a church in its capacity as a church we are really referring to what makes a church a church. We’ve explored this topic a number of times but it boils down to this: a church is being its truest self when it assembles in the name of the Lord Jesus for worship. In other words, church qua church is the church in its gathered assembly to worship the Lord.

We see the importance of this in Paul’s first letter to Timothy. After writing about the offices of overseer and deacon, he tells Timothy the reason he’s giving these instructions.

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

1 Timothy 3:14–15 ESV

Paul is indicating that his instructions are for the church qua church. When the church is assembling in the name of the Lord Jesus and Jesus is present in his fullness, this letter instructs him how the church ought to function. Not all of the teaching in the letter is directly applicable to the gathered assembly, but the instructions up to this point apply to the gathered assembly. This is how we make sense of Paul’s statement that he does not allow women to teach, yet Acts clearly tells us Priscilla taught Apollos “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). The New Testament is clear that we must serve according to our giftedness, and spiritual gifts are neither pink nor blue. The gathered assembly is a unique thing, however.

When the church gathers as the church, a unique thing happens: the Lord Jesus is present in his fullness. As we’ve explored a number of times, we are the whole church when we assemble in the name of Jesus. (For a more detailed explanation, see this article.) While Jesus declared that where two or more are gathered in his name he is present in a unique and powerful way, he is clearly referring to the gathered assembly. The context of that statement is dealing with church discipline. He says in Matthew 18:15–20 that the final step of church discipline is bringing the matter before the whole church and the reason the “binding and loosing” has power is his declaration in verse 20: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” The gathered assembly is uniquely church. It is church qua church.

Because of the particular importance of the gathered assembly it must be the place and time in which only Jesus is honored. The Lord Jesus enters into our presence in his assembly and we gather to worship him, to honor him—and him alone. It is simply unthinkable that we would dedicate any portion of our corporate worship to honor someone other than Jesus.

It is particularly unthinkable that we would honor or celebrate our nation in the gathered assembly. The entire book of Revelation is a warning against worshiping empire and power. Whether it’s the fall of Babylon and her excessive wealth and immorality or the beast who embodies military power and conquest, praising one’s nation in the assembly where Jesus is present is unthinkable. In Revelation the dragon represents Satan, the evil one. In one of John’s visions he sees a beast rising out of the chaos of the sea. The beast stands for empire. Notice who John says the people worship when they praise the beast for its military power:

And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

Revelation 13:4 ESV

The way in which the beast was worshiped was praise and honor for its power: who is like the beast? Who can fight against the beast? The questions are rhetorical: no one. This is why John says “the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast” (Revelation 13:3). Beasts come and go yet all cause people to worship power, which is the spirit of antichrist. These various manifestations of the beast control entire economies (Revelation 13:15–17). Separate and distinct from those who worship the beast, however, is that great multitude that cannot be counted.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Revelation 7:9–12 ESV

Here John sees a vision of the holy catholic church—the church of Jesus Christ in its entirety. In this, the gathered assembly of all God’s people throughout time, they assemble together to praise and honor Jesus. They worship God in Trinity. They proclaim honor to the Lord forever. When we assemble together, that is, when we are the church qua church, we are assembled across space and time with that final assembly of God’s people. Why would we ever honor someone or something they are not also honoring? Hebrews tells us when we assemble together God is present in our assembly, along with all those who have gone before us (see Hebrews 12:18–24). What are the saints in heaven doing right now? They are worshiping Jesus. When we assemble together on Sunday mornings, why would ever do something they themselves would not—and even could not—do?

We live in 21st-century America, which means honoring “the emperor” is different from what it was when Peter instructed Christians to do so. Go to that Fourth of July parade. Observe Memorial Day. Thank veterans who have served our nation. By all means honor your fathers and your mothers. Celebrate Juneteenth and take your sweetheart out for Valentine’s Day. Praise God for sound judicial decisions and the election of wise and capable leaders. These things, however, are not for the gathered assembly. Rather than celebrating or observing national holidays, we celebrate Easter and Christmas. We observe Lent and Advent. We praise God on Pentecost for building his church. The difference is this: when we assemble as his people on Sunday mornings, we only honor Jesus. There’s plenty of week left to honor those worthy of honor, but when Jesus shows up on Sunday mornings, he is the Guest of Honor, and we worship him and only him.

I was recently asked a question about baptism. Specifically, I was asked what our requirements are for baptism. To answer this we must first explore what baptism even is. We can quickly dismiss the notion that it’s a mere formality. It is often treated as such, especially by those who hold to a credobaptist view, but it can also be true of those who hold to a paedobaptist view. The simple difference between these two views is a credobaptist understands the proper recipients of baptism to be those who profess faith in Christ, whereas a paedobaptist understands that baptism is for those who profess faith in Christ and for their children. In either case, baptism is significantly more than a mere outward act of obedience.

Dr. Michael Svigel is a Patristics scholar at Dallas Seminary. This means his expertise is in the early church’s teaching. In his four-part article “Embracing the Elephant—Toward a Fuller Doctrine and Practice of Water Baptism” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4), he argues there are six functions that baptism accomplishes:

1. Baptism as public confession of Trinitarian Faith (Matt. 28:19)
2. Baptism as personal association with Christ’s death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3–4)
3. Baptism as repentance from a life of sin (Acts 22:16; 1 Cor. 6:11)
4. Baptism as a pledge to live a sanctified life (1 Pet. 3:21)
5. Baptism as a rite of initiation into the covenant community (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27)
6. Baptism as a mark of official community forgiveness (Acts 26:18)

Shortly before his ascension the Lord Jesus commissioned his apostles to begin the work of building his church. He would bring about the growth as they would proclaim the gospel all over the world. Their part in Jesus building his church was two-fold: they would baptize new converts and they would teach these believers to obey the Lord Jesus. Here is how Matthew records this commission:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

Since baptism is performed in the singular name of the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—it is a public confession of faith in that Triune God. Given that Jesus’ instructions included teaching, there is the assumption that some of the teaching occurs prior to baptism. A person being baptized must know something of baptism. In the earliest church many of the first converts were connected with Jewish synagogues, whether the converts were Jews or Gentiles. Being connected with a synagogue meant they already knew of God as Creator, etc., and would have been familiar with the promised Holy Spirit, as the prophets predicted the sending of the Spirit (see Ezekiel 36:26–27, for example). It would be upon hearing the gospel of Jesus who died and rose again that they would understand God’s Triune nature. Over time, however, as more and more converts came with little or no prior instruction in the Scriptures, it became necessary to spend more time instructing them prior to baptism.

Not only is baptism the public confession of faith in the Triune God, it is that person’s personal association with Christ’s death and resurrection. The apostle Paul explained it this way:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

When a person is baptized, he or she is connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The believer is united with Christ. This is why Paul could say in Galatians that he was crucified with Christ and the life he possessed was not his life, but the resurrected life of Christ living in him (Galatians 3:20). Through baptism the believer is united with Christ. What a remarkable thing! God is not limited by space or time and when a person is baptized God is able to unite that person with Jesus, across both time and space, in his death and resurrection. The believer is personally associated with him.

Notice these first two functions of baptism are confessional. The person being baptized is publicly confessing these things are true. The next two functions of baptism are practical. Baptism is a public act of repentance from sin. Throughout the book of Acts, baptism follows a call to repentance and faith. On the day of Pentecost when Peter preached the gospel of Jesus, many were “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:27) and asked the apostles what they must do in response.

And Peter said to them, “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.”

Acts 2:38 ESV

This practice began with John the Baptist. As people came to him for baptism they were told to “bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). Baptism is a public act of repentance. Peter even declares that baptism saves a person from a life of sin. He writes about the ark that saved Noah and his family as the flood waters destroyed the earth. The ark is what saved Noah through the water. He then writes:

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

1 Peter 3:21–22 ESV

Peter is quick to clarify that it’s not actually the physical “washing” with water, but the appeal to God through the waters of baptism. He then goes on to explain the significance of baptism by calling his readers to a life “no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:2). He says further that those who knew them prior to their baptism “are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you” (1 Peter 4:4). Baptism, then, signifies a great shift in the life of the person baptized.

Baptism functions positively, too. It is a public declaration of repentance, but is also a pledge to live a sanctified life. Paul refers to this positive pledge in 1 Corinthians when he tells them they were washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:11). They were set apart and placed on the path of becoming holy. The washing of baptism indicates the removal of the stain of sin while the sanctification of baptism indicates the life of holiness—cleanness. As Peter says in the above passage, baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience”.

So we’ve seen baptism is confessional and practical. It is also communal. Baptism is the rite of initiation into the new covenant community. Jesus ushered in the new covenant through his death and resurrection and one of the promises of the new covenant is “they shall all know me” (Jeremiah 31:34). Under the old covenant many were included in the covenant simply by being born into it. No one is born into the new covenant; all must be born again into it. There can be no unbelieving member of the new covenant, for every member of it shall know the Lord.

Baptism, then, is the sign of entrance into this believing community. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that in one Spirit we were “all baptized into one body”. Paul’s understanding is that through baptism the new believer was identifying with and participating in the covenant community of God’s people, which is found in local churches. There are no free agents in God’s kingdom. While a person may, for a time, particularly after moving, be unconnected to a specific local church, the ordinary life of faithful obedience to Jesus is seen through commitment to a local church. Baptism must precede membership in the local church for the sixth function of baptism.

Baptism is a mark of official community forgiveness. Jesus says something remarkable in Matthew 16.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:19 ESV

The verb tenses are essential to understand what Jesus is saying. Whatever the church binds on earth will have already been bound in heaven, and whatever the church loosens on earth will have already been loosed in heaven. To say it another way, the church’s actions of binding and loosing on earth is a reflection of reality from God’s perspective. When a church, for example, receives a person as a member of that church, the church is declaring that the person belongs to the Lord—they are a member of the new covenant. The church’s act of receiving that person as a member is after that person being “loosed” in heaven. Similarly, when a church reaches that dreadful point of excommunicating a member, the church is declaring that person has already been bound in heaven. The church’s action is subsequent to what has already taken place in heaven and is the church’s stamp of approval on God’s action. When Jesus commissioned Paul as an apostle, he told Paul he was sending him to the nations for this purpose:

…to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Acts 26:18 ESV

This place “among those who are sanctified” in Christ is in community with his people. Jesus is actively building his assembly, his church. Paul’s role was to preach the gospel and see many take their place in Christ’s church, which is manifested in local congregations all over the world. When a church baptizes a new convert the church is declaring the person belongs to Christ and is welcome to the fellowship of that local church. The church is declaring publicly through baptism the person’s sins have been forgiven and they are united in Christ.

So what does all this mean? When New City baptizes a person, that person is confessing faith in the Triune God and is being united with Christ in his death and resurrection. The person is publicly repenting from sin and pledging to live a life of faithfulness to the Lord. The person is being received into the church as a member and the church demonstrates our belief that the person is truly born again and loves the Lord and is therefore counted among his people.

This leads us to two simple principles for baptisms at New City. First, we baptize those who publicly profess faith in Jesus. This necessarily excludes infants. Further, we baptize those who credibly profess faith in Jesus and are making the public commitment to follow him.

Early in New City’s history a woman stopped in before our service began at Palmer Elementary. She asked me to be baptized. We spoke for quite a while about what baptism really means. She wanted to move forward with it. She showed up again the next week and insisted she was ready to turn from her life of sin and to follow Jesus. In other words, she said she was ready with the confessional part of baptism. We had a few baptisms scheduled for Easter Sunday and she said she was ready to make this commitment. She called me that Saturday night, however, to tell me she wasn’t ready. She was not ready to leave her life of sin. She was there the next Sunday morning, but I never saw her again. People need to know what baptism really is, and only upon a credible profession of faith can we as a church make the communal profession of initiating a person into membership and claiming that person as one of us.

The second principle is the person needs to be a part of New City. Also years ago I had a sibling of a person we baptized contact me asking to be baptized. He was not attending New City. He wasn’t attending any church. It was clear that he wanted to be baptized more as a rite of passage, rather like shaving for the first time or graduating from high school. He seemed to think it was merely the right thing to do. To be sure, it is the right thing to do, but only if it is a public repentance from sin and a pledge to live a sanctified life as part of us. Only then could the church truly embrace him as a member.

Because baptism is the first formal step of faith in the life of the new believer, it is also the formal beginning of discipleship. This necessarily requires participation in the life of the church. If a person has no intention of being part of this church, as with this young man, then we cannot, in good conscience, baptize him or her. On what basis—and with what authority—would we be baptizing said person?

If baptism were merely a milestone, we would miss an incredible blessing for both the person baptized and the church. Baptism is the formal beginning of discipleship. It is the public confession that Jesus is Lord. This confession is made by the person and by the whole church. When a church baptizes a new believer, that church is committing itself to his or her growth in Christ, and that person is committing to help the church grow in Christ. Baptism is more than just getting wet. Baptism is an incredible gift given by the Lord Jesus to remind us we are not our own, but we belong—body and soul—to the Lord and to his people.