There are several things that spin my wheels and build my faith, and one of those is baptisms. We celebrated eight baptisms yesterday and it was awesome!
We gathered with church family, local families, friends and even the public at a lake domain in the glorious sunshine. It took a while for the fog in Mangakino to clear, and the water could have been warmer for my personal comfort, but what a wonderful sense of the Presence of God among the family of God as we celebrated with these ones who had made a commitment in conviction. Jesus is Lord!
I believe we get baptised out of obedience to the leading of Jesus – followers of Jesus follow Jesus, friends. But it is obedience that has significant meaning, as we shall see.
followers of Jesus follow Jesus
Paul writes in Romans, “… do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)
As I explained to some young folk last week as we prepared for their baptism, entering the water is symbolic of entering the grave. We are choosing to accept the death of our old self (the flesh and its weakness) in line with the command of Jesus; “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
Praise God, we don’t stay in the grave, which means we don’t leave people under the water! We are raised to a new life (Rom 6:4) with Jesus and as we rise up out of the water of baptism, we are entering into the new, abundant, joy-filled life with Christ. We are a new creation in Christ! (2 Cor 5:17) This new life will be different to our old life, and we should expect it to be so. Just as the new believers lived a new life in Acts 2, so should we. Expect to see miracles, provision, growth, along with the persecution that brings the advancement of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We are baptised into the family of God. This is a remarkable work that God does by His Holy Spirit. So, one of the reasons we make a public declaration before our church family (and others) is the confession and acceptance that we are one, together family. “… we have all been baptised into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:13b) It is our union with Christ through faith in His death and resurrection that unites us with each other. The text goes on to say that we are “one body with many members.” (v14)
I could go on and write about the public confession, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and the power of prophecy activating destiny in this moment… but perhaps I’ll save that for another day.
I’ll leave the final words to John Piper:
“There’s no salvation without the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one God in three persons. When we call upon their name — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — we’re depending upon them, all of them. And we’re honouring them. And we’re saying that this act of baptism is by them and for them.”
(You can read more of his wisdom here: Why is Baptism Important.)
Phil Strong