CELEBRATING BAPTISM

At our church, we place a high value on proclaiming your trust in Jesus by following Him in Baptism.  When we baptize, we celebrate.  It is a pretty special time.  We high-five, eat food, tell stories, and remember how good God is to us.  We have a baptism service coming up soon, so I thought I would write a little bit about it.

WHAT IS BAPTISM?

Baptism is an outward proclamation of an inward decision to follow Christ.  

WHY DO WE BAPTIZE? 

In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus talks about baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  In the first century, baptism was used to show that you were following the teaching of a particular rabbi.  Today, we do the same thing.  Baptism is an outward proclamation of a personal decision to follow Jesus.  After you tell Jesus, "I'm in," you tell the world through baptism.  

WHAT DOES BAPTISM DO? 

Baptism doesn’t do anything to save you (Ephesians 2:8).  It simply is a way of telling the church and the world that you are following Jesus.  Think of it like putting on a team uniform.  You can be on the team and not wear the jersey, but the jersey is pretty important. It is a symbol for everyone to see that indicates my trust in Jesus.  Baptism is a biblical way of telling everyone you are on Jesus’ team.