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Baby Believers

Writer: Christ Church Elders
Christ Church Elders
1 hour ago
3 min read

Skip to the bottom for the family-friendly version


Sermon Follow Up


Summary


It is typically assumed that infant baptisms are not believers’ baptisms. That assumption is based on the assumption that babies are not believers. Psalm 22, Psalm 71, Psalm 8, and Luke 1 (to name a few) contradict that assumption. Babies can believe and that means that at least some infant baptisms are believers baptisms.


Sometimes our operating assumptions, even as sincere Christians, aren’t as biblical as we think they are. We’ve got theological traditions wedded to a cultural inheritance mashed together with an extended family of intuitions that have been shaped by all kinds of influences. We must remain open and allow the Bible to set our assumptions straight.


This sermon taught that 1) babies can believe, 2) we’ve got good reason to believe that the children of faithful Christians do believe, and 3) that, given those first two points, plenty of paedobaptisms are believers’ baptisms.


Discussion/Reflection Material


-Have you ever noticed the passages of Scripture that feature baby believers or was that new for you?


-What a biblical text means cannot always be determined by simply taking its words in the most woodenly literal sense. Words aren’t blocks of wood with no flexibility, so it is possible that the passages I worked from in this sermon could be understood differently. Do you think they should be? If so, what do you think the Psalmist means when he says, “You made me trust you at my mother’s breasts”?


-Even if we grant that some Christian children will be born believers, we can’t knowthat they are when we baptize them—true enough—but then, can we know that someone who has made a profession of faith is truly a believer?


-God’s covenant promises regarding our children assume covenant nurture. Our children are given to us as gifts—olive shoots around our tables (Ps. 128:3). To fruit and flower they need the right environment, tending, and care—a task to which God calls covenant parents regarding our children. Had you considered that God’s promises are not without responsibilities?


-How well does your disciple-growing greenhouse balance formal instruction and the informal invasion of God’s truth into your everyday life?


Family Friendly Version


This one is a guide, not a script, so don’t just start reading this out loud to your crew. Read it for yourself first, then prep your family time.


Big Idea: God is so near to His people that He can even call them from the womb! Sometimes we think that babies can’t know God, but the Bible says that they can. Just like babies come out of the womb knowing their mother’s voice, they often come out of the womb knowing the voice of their Heavenly Father too! How kind is God that He doesn’t wait for you to become a grown up before you can have a relationship with Him!


Talk about it: Engage your children in open conversation about their relationship with God. Keep it concrete, centering on the fact that God does spiritual things through physical things. His love for them is delivered in large part through your love for them. His love is also delivered through their church family—brothers and sisters in Christ who celebrate their birthdays, play with them, and care about them. Since the Church is Jesus’ body, the relationships that we have in the Church are a real part of our relationship with Jesus.


If your children are baptized, you can add that “concrete” to the conversation. You can say, “God marked you and named you when you were baptized. He made you one of His people and baptized you into Christ. And every Sunday He communes with you at His Table with the rest of His people.”


Help the reality of God’s presence through His people and His sacraments set in. You’re trying to take “relationship with God” out of the realm of an invisible feeling the child is supposed to locate somewhere inside himself and instead point him toward the concrete ways Christ gives Himself through His body.


If some of that is fuzzy for you, it could be helpful to re-listen to the What Happens When We Worship Messages to prepare for this family sermon follow-up.



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