Baptismal Timing

.... Acts 16 recalls the amazing story of the Philippian jailer, whose conversion holds many lessons for us all. In the beginning of this passage, Paul and Silas were under guard, locked within the inner prison and bound in the stocks for their faith -- yet they were singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

.... Suddenly, at midnight, the whole prison was shaken and everyone’s bonds were loosed! The Philippian jailer, supposing that the prisoners had fled, was about to kill himself when Paul cried out to him with a loud voice and said: "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!"

.... Trembling, the jailer came inside with a light and asked the apostles, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

.... "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."

(Acts 16:31)

.... The jailer brought them out of prison and washed their wounds; the apostles shared the gospel and washed away his sins. For when the jailer and his household heard the gospel, they all believed and were baptized at once.

.... In Scripture, everyone who believed the gospel was baptized immediately and this was no exception – even though the prison was shaken at midnight, the family was gatherered, and the gospel preached and received, so by this time it must have been at least one or two in the morning! Yet the jailer was gladly baptized , and he was still back at work the next morning at daybreak! (v 35). What a contrast with the lazy attitude of so many Christians today!

..... In 1998, I attended a church with several hundred members. The pastor spoke one morning on water baptism, and humbly called for every member who had not yet been baptized to come forward and do so during the evening service. Seventy-five persons came forward in response: a large percentage of the entire congregation.

.... Most of these persons had been Christians for many years! So what had been holding them back? And when I realized the truth, I found it disturbing. It was because, in their hearts, they were ashamed of the gospel of Christ; ashamed to humble themselves publicly in taking their stand for Him:

.... "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

(Mark 8:38)

.... It was especially heartbreaking to compare the two sides of this equation. On Jesus' side of baptism, He took our sins on Himself, and all of their reproach, through the most brutal death imaginable. Yet in this process, He was not ashamed to call us His ‘brothers’ (Hebrews 2:11). So how could it be that on our own side of His death (which baptism represents), we are ashamed to take up His reproach? And after all, what is His reproach? Let us remember whose sins those were, that brought Him to such shame!

.... On that same evening, as I watched the long line of candidates make their way to the baptistry, the Lord brought another story to mind that dovetailed into this. In Mark chapter 5, Jesus was approached by Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, whose young daughter was dying. But as He went to heal her, a woman with an issue of blood pressed through the crowd and touched the hem of His garment, and was immediately healed. She received of His goodness; yet like those persons I mentioned, who had received His salvation so long ago, she quietly withdrew into the crowd and did not come forth to give Him glory. .

.... "And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, 'Who touched My clothes?' "

(Mark 5:30)

.... When she withdrew, Jesus stopped in His very tracks. Even though a young girl’s life was in the balance, He refused to go further. For He knew that virtue had gone out of Him, and He looked around in the crowd to see who had done this thing. Finally the woman, fearing and trembling, came and fell down before Him and declared the whole truth, publicly glorifyng God for the virtue she'd received from Him. And when she did, He allowed her to go in peace.

.... In a similar way, when we receive the virtue of salvation from Jesus, He requires us to come forward and glorify God through water baptism. Do not His eyes search our congregations still, for those who have held back so long and refused to come forward, who have hemmed and demurred for as long as they could, like those seventy-five on that night?

.... In Mark 5, as Jesus waited for the woman to glorify God, everything else was put on hold. The young girl who needed His ministry actually did die. Does this speak of how important it is to glorify Him properly, say, in following salvation with baptism? Might it explain some of the tragedic delays we have faced in our own churches, when we've needed the Lord’s hand, yet He seemed to tarry? But when the glory was given properly, healing broke forth and the young girl was raised from the dead.

.... So if you still have not been baptized, please think about this story and its testimony carefully, and humbly search your heart about it. And do not be like those others, who came in a group of seventy-five, to hide themselves in a crowd even then.

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Daily Bible Reading: Matthew 22