19. Family Promises

It is my privilege to baptize another granddaughter this morning — Jochebed. I love the name Jochebed. Hebrews 11 says that the Jochebed of the Bible was a woman of faith who entrusted her son to God rather than to the state. And Hebrews 11 says that she was motivated by three things in seeking to save her son, Moses. She was motivated by mother’s love, by lack of fear of the government mandate, and by faith in God. And it took faith to believe God’s family promises rather than submit to the state’s anti-family mandates. And if it had not been for her faith, we would never have had a Moses. So this morning I want to give a baptismal talk that relates to faith in God’s family promises.

Psalm 103:17 says, “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children.” I love that promise — God’s mercy and righteousness resting on the children’s children. And it is a promise that keeps cropping up throughout the Bible. God told Noah, “I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you.” In Genesis 17, God told Abraham, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” And God kept reiterating that Abrahamic promise. To Isaac it was said, “And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you.” He reiterates the same promise to Jacob (Ex. 33:1) and to many generations of believers in the Old Testament. God told Phinehas that His covenant of peace “shall be to him and his descendants after him” (Numb. 25:13). In fact, the concept of God being a God to believers and their descendants after them can characterize the whole Old Testament.

But the New Testament continues that Old Testament pattern when Paul promises the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved; you and your household.” When the jailer believed, his whole household was baptized as a sign that he not only believed in God’s mercy for himself, but he accepted and claimed God’s mercy for his children as well. And that is why the normal pattern in the New Testament is that households are brought into the kingdom just as Abraham’s household was. You have the baptism of the household of Cornelius, and Stephanus, and Gaius, and Crispus, and Lydia, and the Philippian jailer. In fact, the only recorded baptisms where we know for sure that the children were not baptized are those occasions where there were no households to baptize. For example, Christ wasn’t married, the Ethiopian eunuch couldn’t have children, Paul was single, and the twelve men in Acts 19 didn’t have families.

But what an encouragement to know that when families were present, Abraham’s principle continues to apply; and Christ’s promise continues to apply. He said, “for of such are the kingdom of heaven.” Thus the mass baptism in Acts 2 explicitly mentions the promise being to the children. When many more came to Christ and were baptized in the next chapter, Peter bases his confidence on a promise made to Abraham, which said, “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Notice that Acts 4 doesn’t just mention individuals being blessed, but in Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In Acts 10 we have the baptism of a household. In Acts 11, another baptism of a household. In Acts 16, the baptism of two households. The baptism discussion in Galatians 3-4 does the same. That baptism is explicitly tied to the Abrahamic covenant, which excludes neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, neither adult believers nor their children. The last verses of chapter 3 says that all adult believers can be baptized because they are heirs of the Abrahamic covenant. But he continues his logic in chapter 4:1, where he says of the children of those believers, “Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.” It’s not just believing adults who are heirs of the Abrahamic family promises; he calls the child an heir as well. Now obviously in the verses following Paul speaks of the importance of children coming to faith and entering into their full sonship. But God treats them as heirs of the Abrahamic covenant before that happens.

And the point is that it takes faith in God’s family promises to baptize our children. It takes faith to be a Jochebed and believe God’s promises to our children rather than leaving them with the world. It takes faith when the state would love to strip our children out of our hands, but [parents] are not driven by fear, but by faith. And now we have another Jochebed that we are believing will pass on the same faith in God’s family promises to many generations.

I’m going to invite [parents] and family to come up, and as they do so, I want to read one more promise to the family. This promises both water baptism and Spirit baptism. Isaiah 44:1-5 we have a glorious prophecy of the New Covenant — “Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb… I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.” May it be so Lord Jesus. Amen.