When Paul found believers in Ephesus who had not received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, he quizzed them about their water baptism (apparently it was expected that if you had been water baptised, you would also be baptised with the Spirit as a matter of course).
Paul’s question was, into what were you baptised? (Acts 19:1-6) Paul wasn’t in doubt that the element was water, he eager to know into what name they had been baptised. He then proceeded to baptise them in the name of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, in the ‘great commission’ had told them to baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The day of Pentecost gave them their first opportunity to fulfil the commission, they had 3000 newly saved people to baptise, and they were all baptised in the name of Jesus Christ.
And when the Holy Spirit showed up and filled the first Gentile seekers, causing Peter to realise God had saved them, so he made sure they were baptised in the name of the Lord.
Constantly we see it, they were baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, in the name of the Lord, and so on.
When historical religion baptises, it’s called Christening (from Latin christianus meaning "make Christian". The general meaning, "to name", is from the mid-15 century. Christening is a naming ceremony, a child is given a ‘Christian’ name. This comes from a once true and living experience where a new name was declared over a person in the early hours or days of their salvation by the grace of God . . . they were baptised into a name!
So what is it about names? Simply this: names declare nature and names declare destiny.
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1. When God told Adam to name the animals, it wasn’t about thinking up some cutsie pet names like Rover and Fluffy. It was speaking their nature, their into them, virtually prophesying their DNA. It was a creative exercise just as God has spoken and the created world had come into being.
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2.Before Adam named his wife, she was just referred to as ‘the woman’. Once she had been declared to be Eve (= mother of the living), she gave birth to Cain and Abel.
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3.When Jacob wrestled with the Angel … his name was changed from “deceiver” to “prince”. Not only was his nature being changed, but a destiny was being declared.
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4.When a man named Simon came into a ministry of strength and power he did so with a new name; Peter = rock.
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5.In the moment that Saul was being transformed by a heavenly vision and powerful conversion, he emerged with a new name, Paul.
We know the power of a negative declaration. Children who are repeatedly called “stupid” often feel dumb. The name becomes a mental block that hinders learning. They become their name. Fathers who have called their daughters “whores” . . . as a totally inadequate response to some incident of family shame. Many of these will go on struggling with immorality their entire lives. The devil is an accuser, and he often uses other people to speak names like prophetic destinies in order to bring limitation and dysfunction around our lives. Because people act according to who they believe they are, these lies are ultimately acted out in their behaviour.
Just as bad names can hold people in bondage and lead them into destruction, great names can release power into our lives and bring us into our God-given destinies. Jacob, Peter, Paul, are all examples of this. When Mary’s cousin Elizabeth had given birth, her relatives started calling the baby by the name of his father, Zacharias. But Elizabeth strongly objected – No; he shall be called John. They argued that ‘John’ wasn’t a name in the family, so Zacharias (who couldn’t speak) was asked – he wrote “His name is John”, and immediately he could speak and spoke, praising God. John means ‘Jehovah is a gracious giver’. John’s destiny was to prepare the way for the ultimate gift of God’s grace to the world, Jesus. His name was a prophetic declaration of his destiny in God.
When I baptise a person I declare that I am baptising them into the name of Jesus Christ. I’m am declaring their new nature and their new destiny. Galatians 3:27 tells us that as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ
I am speaking the wonderful nature of the Father, of his Son Jesus, and of the amazing Holy Spirit over the person.
In doing so, I am unseating every other name of limitation, shame and sorrow that had ever been declared over them.
I am setting in motion a new future made possible by the blood of Jesus and the power of HIS name by which they are now called.
So as a new name is being declared, the very reason why we can truly have a new nature and a new destiny is being enacted. The reason is two fold: It’s because Jesus took my sin (my old nature), purchased my pardon by dying on the cross for my sin; he was then was buried, but three days later, he rose triumphantly having prevailed over sin, the devil and every foe. Our baptism tells that story. And it is because his death on the cross was our death on the cross. We were “in him”. Our baptism also tells that story that we were dead, but now “in Jesus” we have been raised to a new supernatural life.
Baptism is so much more than a symbolic act, it’s a prophetic act. Prophetic acts, like prophetic declarations, release God’s power to bring about supernatural change in our lives. In baptism, a new name is declared: a new nature and a new destiny. It is an unbelievably significant and wonderful occasion.
No wonder commanded us to Go and baptise the nations in his name!
