Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, �I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?�  But Jesus answered and said to him, �Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.� Then he allowed Him.  When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, �This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.�

• The purpose of Jesus� baptism was to fulfill all righteousness.
• After Jesus was baptized, He came up immediately from the water.  This hints that the mode of baptism was submersion.
• After Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened to Him, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove.
• After Jesus was baptized and received the Spirit of God then God communicated his recognition and pleasure in Jesus.

Jesus charged the eleven disciples present on a mountain in Galilee to �go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you�.   

• Baptism was a commandment directly from Jesus himself.  
• Baptism should be performed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  Then a voice came from heaven, �You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.�

• After Jesus was baptized, He came up from the water.  This hints that the mode of baptism was submersion.
• After Jesus was baptized, the heavens parted, and the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove.
• After Jesus was baptized and received the Spirit of God then God communicated his recognition and pleasure in Jesus.

Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples as they sat at a table and charged them to �Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned�.  

• Again, baptism is a commandment directly from Jesus and according to these verses is part of obtaining salvation.
• Baptism succeeds belief.
• Salvation succeeds both belief and baptism.

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.  And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, �You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.�

• After Jesus was baptized and while He was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him.
• After Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, God communicated his recognition and pleasure in Jesus.

Jesus answered and said to him, �Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.�  Nicodemus said to Him, �How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother�s womb and be born?�  Jesus answered, �Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, �You must be born again.�  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.�

•  Jesus said, �unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God�.  Jesus refers to baptism when he mentions �born of water�.

• The disciples of Jesus baptized believers before Jesus was crucified.

After Peter preached about Jesus to a multitude in Jerusalem, those in the multitude were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the disciples what they should do.  Peter said to them, �Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call".   And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, �Be saved from this perverse generation.�  Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

• Baptism succeeds repentance.
• Baptism should be performed in the name of Jesus Christ
• Baptism is performed for the remission of sins.  
• Believers who repent and are baptized will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• Those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to the church.

• Men and women were baptized after they heard Philip preach the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit led Philip to meet an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading from Isaiah while riding in a chariot between Jerusalem and Gaza.  Philip asked the Ethiopian if he understood what he was reading, and the Ethiopian replied, �How can I, unless someone guides me?�.  The Ethiopian invited Philip to join him, and afterwards Philip preached the gospel of Jesus to him starting with a prophecy of Jesus located in Isaiah 53:7,8.  As they went down the road, they came upon some water.  And eunuch said, �See, here is water.  What hinders me from being baptized?�  Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may.  So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.�  

• The Ethiopian eunuch heard the gospel of Jesus before he believed and was baptized.    
• Philip stated that the eunuch could be baptized if he believed with all his heart.
• Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and came up out of the water.  This hints that the mode of baptism was submersion.
• The eunuch rejoiced after he was baptized.

�And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. �

• Ananias told Saul that he was sent so that Saul may receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
• Something like scales fell from Saul�s eyes, and he received his sight at once.
• Saul arose and was baptized.

• Cornelius and those in his household were baptized after hearing the gospel.  This was the first Gentile conversion.

And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.  Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us.  She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God.  The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.  And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, �If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.� So she persuaded us.

• Lydia was baptized after the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.

And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.  Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household.  And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.

• Belief succeeds hearing (the gospel).
• Baptism succeeds belief.

And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus.  And finding some disciples he said to them, �Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?�.  So they said to him, �We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.�  And he said to them, �Into what then were you baptized?�.  So they said, �Into John�s baptism�.  Then Paul said, �John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus�.   When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.   And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.  Now the men were about twelve in all.

• Initially, the disciples of John referred to in this passage did not receive the Holy Spirit when they believed and were baptized with John�s baptism.
• John�s baptism was a baptism of repentance.
• After these disciples heard Paul�s statement concerning Christ Jesus, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Paul gave the following account of his conversion to a Jerusalem mob:  �Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me.  And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, �Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?�  So I answered, �Who are You, Lord?� And He said to me, �I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.�  �And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me.  So I said, �What shall I do, Lord?� And the Lord said to me, �Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.�  And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.  �Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there,  came to me; and he stood and said to me, �Brother Saul, receive your sight.� And at that same hour I looked up at him.  Then he said, �The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.  For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.  And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.�

• The last sentence relates baptizing with washing away sins.
• It also relates baptism with calling on the name of the Lord.  See Romans 10:1-18 in the Confess Jesus and Believe / Faith sections.  

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

• We are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body�whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free�and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.  For in fact the body is not one member but many.

• Those who are baptized are all baptized into one body (Christ�s body or the church) - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.
• Those who are baptized have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ�s, then you are Abraham�s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

• There is only one baptism.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

• Christ sanctifies and cleanses the church with the washing of water by the word.

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

• We are saved through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

• We should draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.  There is also an antitype which now saves us�baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

• Baptism saves us.
• Baptism is not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.