March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

How Real Is Your Faith?

faith We are all about trusting Jesus. We love to sing about how great is a our God. We nod in devoted agreement as our friend encourages us to, ‘keep believing.” And, we get squeamish when someone mentions how hard their family life is. More Faith!

We often associate faith with passionate prayers, faith healings, and moving choir solo’s. Those who trust do incredible and noticeable things for God. But according to the Scriptures that greatest displays of faith come during the normal moments of life. Those who are truly trusting in the sovereign rule of God are those who obey God regardless of their circumstances, who love others well, and who faithfully share the Words of God.

While Israel waited for their new king to appear, Samuel was living out the gospel. In 1 Samuel 9:15-27, we encounter one of those occasion where God peals back the edge of heaven to give us insight into his plans. He tells Samuel that Saul is coming his way by divine order. The lost donkey’s were no accident; they were a divine instrument of God designed to accomplish his will. God tells Samuel that his replacement is coming. And Samuel responds to God’s revelation with obedience, love, and proclamation.

Though Saul’s inauguration would end Samuel’s political rule, crushing the Prophet’s hope for a family dynasty, he submits to God’s commands. Samuel obeys God and installs Saul as the King of Israel. Friends if we believe as A.W. Pink said, “that God is God in fact, as well as in name, that he is on the Throne of the universe, directing and working all things after the counsel of his will (Eph 1:11),” then we will obey God. We will attend church even if that means our son will go from starting point guard to professional bench warmer. We will tithe even if that means we can’t afford that new sports car or that vacation rental. We will share Christ even when our cousins and uncles mock us for being prudes. We will obey even when its costly because we understand that God reigns. We understand that God gives talent, money, and good friends. Real faith produces unconditional obedience. Those who trust God will obey God even when obedience diverges from their feelings and appears costly.

Next, Samuel loved Saul. He prepared choice food for Saul and his servant. Samuel gave the soon-to-be troublesome king lodging. Samuel cares for Saul because he knew Saul arrived by God’s design. If we share the same knowledge, we will not see the wayward children, the cranky bosses, and the annoying church member sniffing a few rows behind us as divine aberrations that must be avoided at all cost. We will not seek to drive away unpleasant people. Rather, we will love them. We will speak well of them. We will encourage them. We will bring them meals. We will pray for them. We will invite them into our homes. We will love them.

Friends this is one of the greatest signs of true faith. If our heart of stone has been replaced with a heart of flesh, we will love those who hurt our platforms, who disrupt our lives, and who set us on edge. Recall Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-44

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Friends if we have faith, we will love our enemies. We will not attack those who attack us. We will love them because we realize God has placed them in our lives by his decree!

Lastly, we will share the Word of God. Samuel tells Saul all that the Lord has told him. If we trust in God, we will share his revealed Word with our friends and family. We will long to see the single-mom with the five loud kids come to faith. We will long to share the gospel with the guy who has a Mohawk, tattoos, and cutoff khaki shorts, and we will continue to share the gospel with our rebellious daughter who routinely mocks our faith. We will embrace the challenges that come with caring for a single-mom who will bring a life-time of financial struggles into our church. We will welcome the guy whose very presence will challenge our suit and tie sensibilities. And we will welcome our daughter back into our church even if that means people will talk and question our wisdom. Why? We do these things because we trust in God’s sovereignty. We trust that the gospel we hold is the same gospel that will give these and thousands of others hope. So, we preach the gospel accepting all the challenges that come with new converts.

Do we trust God? Do we obey God when obedience is convenient and inconvenient? Do we love the loveable and the unloveable? Do we share the Word of God? Do we have faith?

February 10, 2019February 10, 2019 Peter Witkowski Book Reviews

Review: The Doctrine of Repentance

The topic of Repentance demands the Christians full attention. If we hope to walk with our Lord in Savior in paradise, we must know, understand, and practice repentance. As Thomas Watson said, “Repentance is a continuous act. The issue of sorrow must not be quite stopped till death.” If we get repentance wrong, we will undoubtedly get the whole Christian faith wrong.

The Puritan pastor Thomas Watson dived into the conversation about repentance in 1628 when he published his short book, The Doctrine of Repentance. In the space of a 112 small pages, Watson thoroughly wrestles with the doctrine of repentance revealing both what it is and what it is not. After showing that repentance is the conjoined twin of faith, Watson spends the next three chapters discussing the difference between counterfeit and true repentance. He then looks at the motives and reasons for repentance, encouraging his readers to endure the difficulties that often follow true repentance and to remove all hindrances to true repentance.

Both the well-seasoned reader and the new-believer will find Watson’s book helpful. He wields the knife of scriptural interpretation with the care of a skillful pastor, quickly and succinctly applying the Scriptures to the lives of his readers. He clearly reveals what the Bible has to say about repentance. And he says it well. He paints powerful word pictures that bring the truths of Scripture to life. He writes, “Never do the flowers if grace grow more than after a shower of repentant tears.” And then, he says, “A hard heart is the anvil on which the hammer of God’s justice will be striking to all eternity.” Most every page contains 1 to 3 insightful statements worthy of a quick tweet or of a Sunday morning mention. My own heart and preaching has benefited greatly from Watson’s convicting and loving words.

Sunday school teachers, pastors, men and women looking for devotionals, and those who love deepening their knowledge of God will find this little book immensely beneficial. I encourage you to grab a copy today!

June 24, 2018June 19, 2020 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Baptism: yes, no, maybe?

Should we baptize the energetic five-year-old who just bounded down the aisle to tell us they love Jesus? Should we require Sarah to get “re-baptized” even though her Christian parents had her sprinkled as a child? Should we ask Jerry to get re-baptized since he just told us about how he is finally following Jesus. He was dunked as a kid, but now his life is changing. He has stopped getting drunk; he faithfully attends church; and he has begun to final treat his wife with dignity and love. And what about Sally? She was dunked by a Roman Catholic priest. She went was fully submerged and everything. Does she need to be baptized before become a member of our church?

The answer all of these questions and the many others that play on the sands of baptism’s shore, we must turn to the Scriptures. We must look at how the Scriptures speak of baptism and then baptize accordingly.

What does the Bible have to say about baptism?

Baptism is For The Redeemed

The New Testament church only baptized those who had repented and believed in response to the Word of God. The three thousand souls added at Pentecost, the Ethiopian Eunuch, the apostle Paul, the Gentiles at Cornelius’s house, and the Philippian Jailer all heard the gospel, repented, and then entered the waters of baptized (Acts 2:37-41; Acts 8:34-36; 9:17-18; 10:47; 16:29-34).

Luke documents Peter’s words in Acts 10:47-48:

“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Baptism never precedes faith and repentance. It is often closely tied to faith and repentance. After all, the believer who has been redeemed will undoubtedly want to publicly obey Christ and unify with the people of Christ through the waters of baptism. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:4-6:

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all

All who believe in Christ become part of God’s people and share a common hope that is defined by the Lordship of Christ, faith in the his resurrection, and baptism. Baptism cannot be detached from faith. All who believe and have the opportunity to get baptized will eagerly embrace the waters of baptism.

The 1 Peter Objection

But then we encounter 1 Peter 3:21-22 which states:

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.

Peter just said that baptism saves, but the Scriptures mentioned above teach the opposite. What is going on?

The word “corresponds,” ἀντίτυπον, refers to an impression made from stamp used to seal envelopes. It could also be translated as “representation.” Peter is saying that baptism, dunking, is a representation of how God saves us. The salvation is not based on works. Rather it is based on faith in God which grants us good conscience through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter is explicitly revealing that the physical act of baptism does not save. Salvation comes through Christ alone by faith. We cannot initiate salvation for ourselves or for anyone else through the waters of baptism.

Baptism By Immersion

How do we do it? How should be baptize people? Do we immerse them? Do we sprinkle them? Do we need running water? Do any of these things matter?

Correct and biblical baptism always consists of immersion. The baptism described in the New Testament indicate that the baptismal candidates where dunked. Both Mathew 3:16 and Mark 1:10 record that Jesus “when up from the water” following his baptism. And in Acts 8:38-39 we read the following description of the Ethiopian Eunuch’s baptism:

And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

Moreover baptism points to the salvific work of Christ in the believer’s heart. The sacrament does not signal future salvation or hope for salvation. Baptism shows what Christ has done in our hearts. Notice Romans 6:3-4:

“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.”

Colossians 2:12-13, Titus 3:5, and 1 Corinthians 6:11 all confirm the Biblical maxim that baptism should be by immersion. The believer goes under the water to express death to sin and comes back out of the water to express their new life in Christ. Such powerful imagery, such gospel explanation is lost when we dip our hands in small bowl of water and sprinkle someone’s head. Such little amounts of water couldn’t wash dirt off a child’s face. The picture fails to accurately represent the powerful, awesome, and beautiful act of salvation which is tied to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Baptism In the Church

Baptism is a proclamation, a demonstration, and an identification with the gospel. Those who go into the waters of baptism declare that they have been redeemed and our now part of the people of God. The church is charged by God in Matthew 16:19-20 to both bind and loose. The church is supposed to recognize those who have been redeemed and excommunicate those who evidence no fruit of continued repentance. Since Baptism is, “The boundary of visible Christianity” the church should guard and administer the sacrament. The local church should determine who has demonstrated faith and baptize them. The local church (and not camps, college ministries, or para-church feeding programs) has been given the keys to the kingdom and should oversee the sacrament of Baptism. More specifically, the pastors and elders of the local church should do the baptism. They have been appointed by the church to teach, guide, and when needed represent the church. God honoring Baptism takes place when a believer who has heard the gospel and repented is baptized by immersion by an elder in the presence of the local church.

We could summarize all that has been said above in the below definition:

Baptism is the first sacrament of the new covenant which initiates believers into the local church through immersion which symbolizes that the believer has died to sin and been raised with Christ.

The Answers

Who should be baptized? Those who believed in response to the preached gospel. Who has truly been baptized? Those who were immersed after faith. All other baptismal acts including sprinkling and being baptized in a non-gospel affirming church are not biblical baptism. Who needs to be baptized? All who have believed and who have not been immersed in the presence of a gospel believing church by a recognized leader of the church.