We started a short series on baptism last week, and I had planned on baptizing four girls this morning after the service. The Christmas play had other ideas! As you can see, our sets are blocking our baptistry and screens, so we had to delay the baptisms until the week after the play.
For Thanksgiving this week, I am thankful for what our baptisms represent—lives that have been changed by the Gospel! I can’t wait for you to see the videos of these girls. They all lined up on a row of chairs and started talking about how Bro. Philip led them to the Lord in our Master Clubs program, or how Mrs. Judy led them to the Lord in Sunday school. I love that our teachers are concerned about the eternal souls of our children, and that we as a church can rally around one another through this beautiful ordinance of baptism.
We said last week that the Scriptures make the order of baptism plain: Salvation comes first, and then baptism is the outward sign of that inward change. When you were immersed in Christ by faith, you were born again, and water baptism is a picture of that immersion into Christ.
That is what today’s sermon is about: immersion.
When a dead body is buried, it is immersed in the ground. We don’t sprinkle or pour soil on top of the body; we immerse it, or BAPTIZE it.
When you use the word baptize, you’re basically speaking Greek. It’s just a transliteration of the Greek word into English, and the word baptize means “immerse.” We said last week that it matters WHO is baptized—only saved individuals—but today we’ll talk about HOW you’re baptized—by immersion.
Dunkin’ ain’t just for donuts. It’s for Bible believing Baptists!
—Pastor Ryan