Colossians The Promise Of Baptism Series

Baptism. Before I was baptized, I never really thought about baptism. My family was nominally Baptist, that is, as I’ve explained before, the local Baptist church was the church we didn’t go to when we didn’t go to church.

So, when we lived in Lower Lincoln, outside of Fredericton, we didn’t go to Lincoln United Baptist Church, and when we moved to Hammond River, outside of Saint John, we started not going to Rothesay Baptist church.

Because I was neither Anglican nor Catholic, I hadn’t been baptized as an infant. I don’t recall either of my parents talking about having been baptized. And I do not recall ever witnessing a baptism on one of those rare times we were in church together as a family.

And so, when I became a Christian at the age of 19, and ended up in Bible college, three days later, it was kind of like the Spanish Inquisition, nobody expected that, I was told the next step was baptism.

I don’t recall any formal baptism class, but I do remember a group of us making our way down to the Kennebecasis River on a sunny Sunday Afternoon, and my best friend and his brother, who was the local Wesleyan Pastor, baptized me. I don’t recall the actual date, but it was in early October of 1979 and there were fish jumping behind us. And apparently someone had forgot to heat the water. Here is a picture.

It was expected that I would get baptized, and I got baptized. I’m not convinced that I had a deep theological understanding of what happened that day, other than the fact that I got wet.

This is our third week of “Colossians: Christ Above All” series and we have been taking a dive into the various topics that Paul addressed to the early believers in the city of Colosse.

The reason that Paul was writing the letter was to address what some have called the Colossian Heresy. And while the term Colossian Heresy isn’t used in the letter, Paul addresses the teaching that was being taught in the church, that Christ and his sacrifice wasn’t enough to assure people’s salvation. The church was being taught that the grace they had experienced through Christ, wasn’t enough. That they had to do more and be more.

And so, Paul is going back to the essentials, and one of those essentials that he was going back to was baptism. He was reminding them of when they were baptized and why they were baptized.

Maybe you have been baptised and today will be a reminder of what happened that day you stepped into the water.

Or maybe you are here supporting one of those who is getting baptized, they are a friend or family member, and because this is a special day for them, you wanted to be here to celebrate.

Or maybe the fact that we are having a baptism today was a bit of a surprise for you, and you’ve been wondering throughout the service why there is a hole in the platform.

By the way, you wouldn’t be the first to wonder that. When we were building the church, one of the framers asked about the hole in the floor. The baptistry sits in a well that is about 4 metres square, and a metre and a half deep. When we told him it was for performing baptisms, he said the church he grew up in had something like that but it was much smaller. He was from a Catholic background.

Now, let me start by saying, if you’re here today thinking baptism is just some church tradition or some kind of religious hoop to jump through, I want to challenge that thinking this morning, because while it is a church tradition it is so much more than that.

Because what we’re talking about today is not about rituals. It’s not about getting wet. It’s not about joining a club, it’s about celebrating lives that have been transformed.

Which leads us to, Colossians 2:12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

Baptism isn’t a Bath it’s a Burial. Sometimes, because of the water, we see baptism as symbolic of our sins being washed away.

Add to that Paul’s conversion story, where we read in Acts 22:16 “What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.”

We’ll come back to that particular portion of scripture a little bit later in the message, but for now simply to say that it does not indicate that the washing away of Paul’s sins was linked to what he was being asked to do. That is to be baptized. There are two separate thoughts in the passage. Get up and be baptized. And have your sins washed away, not by being baptized, but by calling on the name of the Lord.