Acts 10: 24-27, 34-48 

Psalm 145 

Revelations 21: 1-5 

John 13: 31-35 

“Baptize All Nations” 

Grace and Peace to you my brothers and sisters in Christ, Amen. 

Within the universal church, there is a divine revelation that  all Christians will at one point struggle with and that is the concept  of Original Sin. Especially in today’s age when people have a  visceral reaction to the very mention of sin, as increasingly all  actions should be deemed permissible according to the culture.  The core of the struggle is simple, for Origin Sin is the concept  that we are all born already damned to Hell. Who in their right  mind would damn an innocent child who from our perspective has  done absolutely nothing wrong to eternal suffering? No one, yet  according to Scripture we are not born saved, and that causes  many great discomfort. 

I have talked to many well-meaning people and in my youth  have been talked to myself as one such well-meaning person  about the horrifying yet deeply Christian, I say foundationally  Christian, belief that because of Original Sin we are all born  automatically sinful and because God cannot have any sin within  Him that would mean we are all born automatically damned to  Hell. In my youth I said how can God be so evil, to not allow  humans to be born automatically good? In my well-meaning, good  intention filled heart, I truly wanted to believe that humans are  born good. But I was naïve. I was a product of humanism and 

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secularism. I listened to human emotions rather than divine  Scripture. 

How often I have met a Christian who didn’t understand the  full depth of what it meant to be born a sinner. How often I have  met a Christian who was so enslaved by their own emotions that  they abandoned Scripture. How often I have met a Christian  whose love for humanity was so great that their love for God  became faulty. 

I say this because if we were born good then why did Christ  come to save us? When Christ came, he did so because not one  person was ever truly good. All have failed God. Christ came and  died on the cross not to condemn us but to save us… save us  

because we were all already condemned; each and every one of  us. I understand no one wants to say a baby is conceived already  a sinner, but according to Psalm 51, we are, for it reads, “Surely I  was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  

We are conceived as sinners, and this is a tragedy that we need  to acknowledge, not to but people down, but lift all nations up. 

If I am good then I don’t need Christ, but because all are  born evil, slaves to Satan, all are in desperate need of Christ in  their lives. And by all, I mean royal “All”. This is why Christ  commands us to baptize all nations, because there does not exist  one person who does not need Christ, and there is no point in our  life when we do not need Christ. The pioneer in Alaska is just as  in need of Christ as the mother in Africa. The politician is just as in  need as the electrician. An enemy Soldier is just as in need as the  paraplegic veteran. The hospice patient is just as in need as the 

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infant babe. All are in need and will always be in need, from  conception to death, of the amazing saving grace which comes  from Jesus Christ alone. 

But to the one who is concerned over the salvation of their  grandparent or loved one or child there is hope. For we profess  that through Baptism the Holy Spirit enters into us and provides  for us the one thing that we lacked at conception, the one and  

only thing that supersedes our sinfulness, and that is faith in  Jesus Christ. In our Baptism we all know that we have indeed  been adopted into the Family of God, that God has indeed placed  his seal upon our foreheads, and that the seed of faith which no  human can cultivate was planted into us via the Holy Spirit. This is  what it means to be baptized. 

And to those who are the source of our deep concern, let it  be known that there are no qualifications that needs to be met for  someone to be baptized. You don’t need to be a rational thinker to  be baptized. You don’t need to be a good person to be baptized.  You don’t need to be wise to baptized. Nor believe in God to be  baptized. The gift of baptism is granted unconditionally for God  does not desire a select group of individuals to be baptized; He  wants all nations to be baptized. And it is through Baptism that the  Holy Spirit provides for you faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ  and the knowledge of God. 

Now many well-meaning people in their struggle with  Original Sin may be led to claiming that all are born good and  eventually learn evil. But I say stop running away from the Bible  and instead use the tragedy and horror of the fallen human 

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condition to enflame that compassion I know you all have for  humanity. And let that compassion, guided by the Holy Spirit, lead  you to following the Great Commission, to teach, preach, and  baptize. If we see an infant child, instead of avoiding the problem  of Original Sin by claiming the child doesn’t need Christ because  they are already good, let us be compelled to realize that if said  child was baptized then the Holy Spirit will enter into them and  God the Father will look upon the child the same way He looks  upon all his adopted children. 

Now, as a caveat, I understand there are those who never  had the opportunity to be baptized, what about them? To that  question I ask were the Jews who died before Jesus truly  abandoned by God? No, for right after Jesus died Scripture tells  us that the Saints rose from the grave. Because of this I say this,  God does not withhold his grace and mercy from those who die  due to miscarriage. I say this because I have met several people  who truly believed in Original Sin and after a miscarriage was  distraught because they never had the opportunity to baptize their  child. They were so filled with grief as they cried over the  possibility that their child was in Hell. No, your child is not in Hell. I  congratulate you for your compassion and love, as well as your  faith which God has blessed you with. I praise God for your love  toward your unborn child, toward your acknowledging the fallen  human condition, and the absolute need for Baptism which would  have provided faith for your child. To you I say be free from your  shame and be free from your despair for your child is with God.

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It is this type of love that I wish all Christians to have; to have  so much compassion in their hearts that they both despair over  the unbaptized and desire quick baptism for all nations. 

And once baptized, some hope from Romans 8, “Who shall  separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,  or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword…  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him  who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels  nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor  height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to  separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Once  Baptized always Baptized, for nothing on earth or in heaven or in  hell can null and void the union granted to you through the power  of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

This is the love Peter had for Cornelius and his entire family. Cornelius, a centurion and the Italian Cohort which would mean  he would have been a commander for as many as 1000 Soldiers,  was a devout gentile believer who feared God and was loved by  the whole Jewish nation. After an angel of the Lord visited  Cornelius, ordering Him to send for Peter, Cornelius, a Soldier,  did as he was commanded. In preparation for Peter, Cornelius  gathered his entire household, relatives, and friends. Being a high  ranking Soldier, I imagine he was quite effective at gathering a  large crowd. And if he did this, then it would be obvious that there  would have been present infants and the elderly. So when Peter  and some other apostles arrived and spoke the good news to  them imagine the shock on Peter and his fellow apostles’ faces 

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when they saw the Holy Spirit rest on every single individual  whom Cornelius gathered. 

Originally Peter wasn’t going to offer them baptism, for he  didn’t want to mingle with Gentiles. It was only at the insistence of  God that Peter went to speak to the Gentiles. And upon seeing  the Holy Spirit rest upon every single Gentile person present, did  Peter realize that the Baptism is truly for all nations, thus he  commanded them all to be baptized. So on that day Peter  baptized not only Cornelius, but his entire household, his  relatives, and his friends, which undoubtedly would have led to  the inclusion of also their households. 

So it doesn’t matter, Gentile or Jew, Male or Female, Black  or White, Rich or Poor, Infant or Elder… baptism is for all nations. 

Let us pray, 

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for allowing us to join  your holy family through baptism and ask that you daily work  within us so that we continue to cherish and trust in the promised  fulfilled through this holy sacrament, desiring all nations to  experience this comfort and to be filled with faith. In your holy  name we pray: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.