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QUESTION: What is your stance on fencing the table for visitors when it comes to those who are members in good standing at a Christ-centered church but were baptized as infants?

Should believers be baptized by immersion before partaking in the Lord’s Supper? In this episode of Ask FGBC, Wim Kerkhoff discusses this important question with Pastors Jim Butler and Cam Porter. They explore the biblical order of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, referencing passages like Matthew 28 and Romans 6 to emphasize baptism as an act of obedience and identification with Christ’s burial and resurrection. The conversation also touches on church policy, grace in application, and the significance of following Christ’s commands. Watch the full episode to gain clarity on this foundational aspect of Christian discipleship

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Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Believers’ baptism, immersion, Lord’s Supper, Great Commission, Matthew 28, discipleship, baptism order, salvation, burial and resurrection, church ordinances, local church policy, fencing the table, grace, obedience, Christ’s commandments.

SPEAKERS

Pastor Jim Butler, Pastor  Cam Porter, Wim Kerkhoff

Wim Kerkhoff  00:07

Okay, so a question we received is: should believers be baptized by immersion before taking part in the Lord’s Supper? So yeah, what is your stance on fencing the table for visitors when it comes to those who are members in good standing at a Christ centered church, but were baptized as infants. I think there’s something in there. It’s not quite right either, but that’s the question that was submitted. How would you tackle that?

Pastor  Cam Porter  00:31

Well, the first question, Should believers be baptized by immersion prior to taking the Lord’s Supper? A simple answer to that question is, yes, I think we see in the Bible, for example, a particular order, a conspicuous order given with regards to the order of the ordinances following conversion. For example, in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 , we read Christ saying All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And so we see, we see an order there, with regards to first, the sinner receives the word preached to them. They believe, they are made a disciple. That made disciple is then to be baptized. And we’re saying here by immersion. The word itself means that exactly, by immersion. And we see, we see the the apostle Paul in Romans 6, for example, connecting the doctrine of salvation to the doctrine of baptism and to Christ’s burial and resurrection itself. And so we say yes to the question by immersion, because we are buried with Christ in baptism. We’re immersed with him in his burial with regards to baptism, and we come up in the resurrection, up from out of the water. An so that particular picture of the burial and resurrection of Christ is connected to baptism at the point of immersion. And there are other arguments that can be made. But getting back to the order here, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you so that would be in that would include the Lord’s Supper, the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and the fact that the church is to observe that blessed ordinance or sacrament until Christ comes again. So the answer to that question is yes, and there’s, there’s clear biblical warrant for an answer of Yes.

Wim Kerkhoff  02:53

So would you actually stop people from taking this up, or it’s really on their conscience? Like, how legalistic do you get with it.

Pastor Jim Butler  03:03

Well, you know that this comes to policy and polity at the local church level. We’ve always exercised grace period in terms of people coming in, because we are a very paid Baptist heavy community, the command is given to believers to participate in the supper. I realize there are various degrees of fencing the table. Again, for me, a podcast is not the place to work all that out or to deal with all of that. So suffice to say, realistically or ideally, baptized by immersion. Take the supper.

Wim Kerkhoff  03:38

Yeah, I went through that myself. And took the supper, I realized I wasn’t baptized wasn’t right. And the issue is not so much taking this up, but being disobedient on baptism, right? So eventually I realized need to get baptized.

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