After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. (John 3:22-23)

The First Baptists

One of the characteristics of John the Baptist’s teaching was indicative of his name. He was not called the Baptist because he was a part of the Baptist church. That church would not be formed for almost 1600 years, so no one could be called a Baptist in the denomination sense until John Smyth founded the Baptist Church in 1607 in London, England. John was called the Baptist because of what he did. Matthew describes John as the Baptist who came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. He preached repentance in the area of the Jordan because Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. Three things are clear about the teaching of John the Baptist: repentance, confession of sins, and baptism.

King Herod heard of John the Baptist. Everyone called John the Baptist, including the daughter of Herodias, when she asked for his head on a platter. Jesus said of those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. In the early church, Paul found twelve men he thought were disciples of Christ. They confessed they had been baptized into John’s baptism. John told the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptisms – that he baptized in water. He was baptizing in Aenon near Salim because there was much water there. Multitudes came to John to be baptized. John also was in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where he was baptizing.

Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized of him. The request of his Lord humbled John, but Jesus explained His baptism was to fulfill all righteousness. John took Jesus down into the water and immersed the Lord. John was called the Baptist because he immersed people. He was not called John the Sprinkler or John the Pourer. A Baptist immerses in water. During the ministry of Jesus, the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples). Jesus left Judea and departed to Galilee.

John the Baptist and Jesus taught repentance, confession, obedience, grace, mercy, love – and baptism. The Holy Spirit does not tell how many John the Baptist baptized. There is no record of the number of those who were baptized by the disciples of Jesus. The early Christians taught the necessity of baptism. Every example of conversion in the Acts of the Apostles shows the necessity of baptism. Paul wrote to the saints in Rome and Colosse explaining the necessity of baptism. Peter said that baptism saves. Three thousand were baptized in Jerusalem when the Lord’s church began, and thousands more obeyed the gospel in the days of the early church. John was called the Baptist because he obeyed the command of God to baptize. Jesus left an example of righteousness. To deny baptism is to accept unrighteousness.

The religious world denies the necessity of baptism to their peril. Baptism never denies the grace of God or the mercy of God. Some complain that baptism is a work. Jesus told the multitude following the feeding of the five thousand that belief is a work. If a man cannot be saved by works, he cannot be saved by belief. Jesus told the eleven when a man believes he will be baptized. John the Baptist immersed, and the disciples of Jesus immersed to serve as a faithful witness of the divine plan of God to redeem man through the blood of Jesus Christ. If a man has not been baptized for the remission of sins, he has never been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.