QUESTIONS - Can I Baptize Someone Without Being A Pastor？
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the role of the church in providing authority for pastors and deacons to administer the sacraments, including baptism and the Lord's Supper. Who is qualified and called to be an elder or a deacon? According to the Commission of Christ, according to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Second London Baptist 1689 Confession, it is only those who are qualified and thereunto called by the commission of Christ.
Transcript
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Could you discuss the ordinance of baptism, more specifically,
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the church giving authority for pastors or deacons to perform the baptism?
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can any Christian baptize a confessing believer? Great question. This is another one that we got
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ahead of time. So I'm prepared. I've got my 1689 confession here. This is one of the distinctions
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between the Westminster. There's not much, but there are distinctions between the Westminster
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confession of faith and the second London Baptist 1689 confession of faith.
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This would be one of them. All right. So I'm reading from paragraph 11. Paragraph 11. This
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is chapter 26 of the church, chapter 26 of the 1689 confession of the church. Paragraph 11
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says this, although it be incumbent on the bishops or pastors of the churches to be instant in
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preaching the word, meaning that they would be the ones who are ordinarily and frequently
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fulfilling that duty in the church, preaching the word on the Lord's day by way of their office,
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Yet the work of preaching the word is not so peculiarly confined to them, not so peculiar to them, that others also gifted and fitted by the Holy Spirit for this ministry and approved and called by the church may and ought to perform it.
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So this is not addressing baptism, but I want you to see a principle here.
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This is a principle within Baptist polity, Reformed Baptist polity, church governance,
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What that is saying right there is that ordinarily elders would preach the word on the Lord's
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But a man who is biblically qualified and yet is not holding the office, not ordained
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yet as a minister of the word, not holding the office of an elder, it is still permissible,
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right? It's not necessarily ordinary, but it is permissible for him to preach the word.
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So, in a Reformed Baptist local church context, you could have a member of your church,
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a male member of your church who is spiritually mature and sound in doctrine, but not yet an
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elder, for whatever reason, fill the pulpit on a Sunday and preach the word, all right? That's
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something that's unique to Reformed Baptist polity. So now the question is, well, what about
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baptism? So skipping forward a little bit here, this is now, let me see.
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I had it. Let me find it. Looking at baptism. Yeah, here we go. Baptism. This is chapter 28
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in the 1689 confession of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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It gets specific just speaking about just of baptism, chapter 29, and of the Lord's Supper,
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chapter 30. But we're looking at chapter 28, because this addresses the who, who can administer
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these sacraments. Chapter 28 of baptism and the Lord's Supper, paragraph two. There's only two
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paragraphs here. This is the second one. It says, these holy appointments are to be administered
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by those only who are qualified and thereunto called according to the commission of Christ.
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These holy appointments, the sacraments or the ordinances of baptism in the Lord's Supper,
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when we have two sacraments, baptism in the Lord's Supper, these are to be administered,
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who can baptize, who can administer the Lord's Supper?
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By those only who are qualified and thereunto called.
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not according to being an ordained officer of the church an elder or a deacon but according to the
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commission of christ and the scripture reference that is cited here there's a couple but one of
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them is matthew 28 verse 19 which is the great commission right go and make disciples of all
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nations baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit and teaching them to
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obey all commands, right? All of Christ's commands. Now, Jesus prefaces this commission that he gives
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to the church by saying that I have all authority in heaven and on earth. So Christ is king and from
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his kingly authority, that authority is not just a heavenly, ethereal, spiritual authority. He is
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seated physically in heaven at the right hand of his father. That's where Jesus is in the flesh.
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He is forever the God-man incarnate in the flesh.
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That's where he is in heaven, but his rule is in heaven and on earth.
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He has authority on earth, even while he is seated in heaven at the right hand of his
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And with that authority, not just spiritual heavenly authority, but physical, tangible,
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earthly authority, he commissions the saints, not just elders, not just deacons, not just
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is he commissions the church, which is made up of Christians, believers, to do four things,
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which I would argue is really one commandment. But go, make disciples, baptize them into the
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name of the triune God, and teach. Teach them to obey Christ's commandments. So it's go,
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it's disciple, it's baptize, and it's teach. Teach them to obey all my commandments. I would argue
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it's really one commandment with just an exposition of three different aspects of the commandment.
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the one commitment I think is make disciples. Make disciples. How do you do it? Well, you go
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to places and people who have not yet been discipled. And that doesn't always mean oversee
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missions, but even in your neighborhood, going to those who are not yet disciples of Jesus. So
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make disciples is the command. Three aspects of that, go, baptize, teach. Go, baptize, teach.
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um so who's called to do this the saints christians and and what is it that they're
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called to do make disciples and and how do you make disciples well there are three aspects you
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go you baptize and you teach meaning that all christians have been commissioned by christ who
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has authority in heaven and on earth and therefore he is granting us that authority in his great
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commission. He is commissioning us with authority, his authority to make disciples. And how do you
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make them? You go, you baptize, you teach, which means Christians have authority to baptize.
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Some of you may have heard me talk about this before on John Harris's channel,
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Conversations That Matter. He's had me come on and talk about church planting within a
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1689 Reformed Baptist covenantal framework. One of the things that I would say is, you know,
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Titus, in the first chapter that Paul writes to Titus, he says, this is why I left you in Crete
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to put what remains into order, appointing elders in all the churches. He doesn't say
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appoint elders so that they can plant churches. He says appointing elders in all these pre-existing
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churches. That's the implication. And I think it's a clear implication. So, essentially what
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the apostle Paul is saying is, Titus, there are churches that already exist. They've already been
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planted. They already exist, but they need to be organized. There are times, and especially in the
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first century with the apostolic missionary journeys of the apostle Paul, especially among
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the Gentiles, where Paul would go on a journey, a missionary journey. He would preach the gospel
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and the gospel coupled by the power of the spirit under the sovereignty of God would make converts,
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right? Make Christians. And then he would go to another place, leaving behind in that particular
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village or city or area Christians. And then what do those Christians do? Well, they're immediately
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required by God, duty-bound, to church together, to ecclesia, to gather together on the Lord's Day,
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the first day of the week, for preaching and for the Lord's Supper and for baptism and for
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singing, addressing one another with spiritual songs and hymns and psalms. And so, they are
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gathering together as the church. They're having church. They are a church. They're a group of
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Christians in a particular local area, covenanted to Christ and to each other, to carrying out his
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great commission together in a covenant community in a local area. It's a church without elders.
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And that's kind of a novel idea, I think, for a lot of people. But I think biblically,
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that does exist. Now, that doesn't mean it's ideal. That doesn't mean that's what we should
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shoot for. And it also doesn't mean that it's ordinary, but it is permissible and possible.
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It is permissible and possible. What is? It is permissible and possible that a church exists
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without elders for a time. That a church exists without elders for a time. And I think that's why
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I personally believe that that's one reason why I'm a Baptist. It's not just mode of baptism,
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sprinkling versus immersion or pouring versus immersion, and in terms of our view of the
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covenants, in terms of infant baptism versus a believer's baptism, the paedo-credo. It's not just
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that. A lot of people don't know this about me, but I'm actually more persuaded. I am a Baptist
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in terms of baptism, but I'm actually more strongly persuaded by Baptist polity than I am
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by Baptist baptism. I think the Presbyterians, God bless them, most of my partners in ministry
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are Presbyterian. But I think they're wrong, and I think there are some big problems and negative
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effects of them being wrong in the area of church polity. I think that at a certain level,
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there's a subtle, it's not major, but I think there's a subtle denial of the priesthood of
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all believers. I think that there's a subtle demeaning and minimization of the authority
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and responsibility, corresponding responsibility that God has given not just to officers in the
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church, elders and deacons, but to members of the church, the saints themselves, the work of
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ministry, Ephesians 4, that belongs to the saints. I think that that work of ministry that Paul talks
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about in Ephesians 4, that's not just given to the officers of the church, but to the church
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itself, the congregation, is the Great Commission to build up one another in love by discipling one
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another. And what is it to disciple? What is included in discipleship? Going, baptizing,
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and teaching. So, Christians can teach, whether they're an elder or not. And the Baptist
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Confession, the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, explicitly says that.
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in the Westminster world, in the Presbyterian world, that cannot occur. In fact, even ruling
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elders, ruling elders, because they have a bifurcation, right? So we have elders, deacons,
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and members within Presbyterian. Now there's a spectrum here, but most Presbyterians divide
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the eldership at least once, if not twice. They have two, what I'm saying is two types of elders,
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different types of elders, or three. They would have ruling elders, and then they would have
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ministers, right? Those are teaching elders. And in some cases, they would have a pastor
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and then a teacher and then a ruling elder. And in that case, the pastor obviously is teaching
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and preaching the word on the Lord's day, but they might have someone else who can teach but
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can't administer the sacraments, right? So, he's like a seminary professor who's been ordained as
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a teaching elder, an academic kind of theological elder in the church, but he's not the pastor. So,
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he's not administering baptism in the Lord's Supper, but he can fill the pulpit. And then
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the ruling elders over here, they can't fill the pulpit. They can't teach on the Lord's day.
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And so, my point is, in Presbyterian Westminster thought, only an elder can teach, and even all
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the elders can't teach. And that same principle applies to the ministering of the sacraments
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when it comes to baptism and the Lord's Supper. Whereas within Baptist polity and understanding
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of the sacraments and understanding of officers of the church and ordination, and I think
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ultimately this all roots in an understanding of Christ's great commission in Matthew 28,
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this is the work of ministry given to the saints. So, you could plant a church, to answer your
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question, Brandon, you could plant a church and be earnestly praying that the Lord would either
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raise up one of the men who are already there to become a pastor or that the Lord would send a
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pastor. But in the meantime, if there aren't any faithful churches around where you live,
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you could have a few faithful families that we want to do church because it's biblical. We have
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to, we can't just not go to church and on the Lord's day, gather in someone's home and the men
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do their best taking turns to preach the word and those men also baptizing and administering the
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Lord's Supper, all the while recognizing that this is not ideal and it's also not permanent,
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but it is possible and permissible under the word of God because the great commission includes
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baptizing and teaching in our quest to make disciples. And we've all been called as Christians
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to make disciples. And so you could do this for a temporary moment of time as you pray that the
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Lord would provide elders for you. In that sense, that is just one example of why Baptist polity
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It more greatly affirms the priesthood of all believers
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giving dignity to the Christian and not just the minister.
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But real quick, before you go, do us a small favor,
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