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.
We don’t see any evidence in the scriptures that there is any cleansing power in baptism, but we see the concept of baptism and burial linked both here in Colossians and in the book of Romans Romans 6:3–4 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
So, there are a couple of thoughts about being baptism being symbolic of burial. The first is the entire concept and teaching that before we accepted the grace and forgiveness of Jesus that we were spiritually dead.
This is spelled out in scriptures like, Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, …
As well as in the book of Ephesians 2:1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.
And again, in Ephesians 2:4–5 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!
And then we add that to the scripture that links our relationship with Christ to a new birth, and we see, the illustration of being buried, because we are dead in our sins, and being raised to new life. Literally being born again.
Which explains Jesus’ famous discussion with the religious leader, Nicodemus. John 3:3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Now many of us are familiar with the term, “Born Again”, even if we don’t get it right. Apparently it was new for Nicodemus because he questions Jesus, John 3:4–5 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.
But there is another part to this burial symbolism, and that is the Christian putting their old life to death.
We see Paul teaching this in several of the letters he wrote to the early church.
Colossians 2:13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
Romans 6:11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
And this theme repeats itself time and time again, that if we are to mature and grow in our Christian faith, we need to die to our old self, our old sinful nature and our old desire. And being buried in baptism is a symbol of that.
I said, I don’t remember the date of my baptism, but I remember the song we played on our way to my baptism. It was by the group The Imperials and the first verse goes:
Now in my house there's been a mercy killing
The man I used to be has been crucified
And the death of this man
Was the final way of revealing
In the spiritual way to live, I had to die
And the chorus is:
I'm goin' down to the river, my Lord
And I'm gonna be buried alive
I want to show my Heavenly Father
The man I use to be has finally died
And the third point about it not being a bath but a burial, is that at each baptism, we are taught about the resurrection of Christ. Paul told the early church in Romans 6:3–4 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
And because of that symbolism, baptism by immersion, seems to be the most powerful illustration of that. You don’t half bury someone who is dead.
And I realize that there are disagreements over what it means to be baptized and how much water needs to be involved. How many of your never saw a baptism by immersion before coming to Cornerstone. That’s fine, the first baptism I ever saw, was the guy before me.
In the Daily Study Bible, William Barclay writes: “Baptism in the time of Paul was three things. It was adult baptism; it was instructed baptism; and, wherever possible, it was baptism by total immersion. Therefore the symbolism of baptism was manifest. As the waters closed over the man’s head, it was as if he died; as he rose up again from the water, it was as if he rose to new life. Part of him was dead and gone for ever; he was a new man risen to a new life.”
The story is told of the Anglican priest and the baptism pastor debating the issue, and the priest says, “Is knee deep, deep enough?” and the pastor says, “No, it has to be all the way.” To which the Anglican asked, “what about waist deep?” and the Baptist said, “No, all the way.” This continued until the priest asked, “What about this deep?” motioning to above his eyebrows. “No” the baptism minister said in frustration, “all the way.” “See” said the Anglican, “That’s what I’ve been saying, it’s just the little bit on top that counts.”
Over the past forty years, I’ve baptized a lot of people, and the vast majority have been by total immersion, but not all of them.
In 2011, I was leading a teaching team in northern Ghana, and we discovered that under the church guidelines there, only ordained pastors could perform baptisms. And because the majority of their pastors weren’t ordained yet, they hadn’t been baptizing people. Don’t get me started.
And we realized that we had 4 ordained pastors on the team. So, the National Superintendent put out the word that we would do baptisms at the village churches, and over 3 days we baptized 80 people. We baptized people in rivers, and in streams, and in one church the closest fresh water was several kilometers away, so we go a bucket of water and baptized folks by sprinkling. And they were just as baptized.
Let’s keep going, 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 an End, It’s a Beginning. It would be kind of morbid and final if we ended with the thought of being buried, but Paul continues and tells the Colossians that not only were they buried, but they were then raised to a new life.
This isn’t just about remembering the death of Christ, it’s remembering his resurrection.
It’s not just a reminder of Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but a reminder of the rest of the verse, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
It’s not just being commanded to put the old life to death, it’s the promise that with that death comes a rebirth, a new life, a new beginning.
We spoke about this last week, that throughout the New Testament, the Christian experience with described with verbs. We are to be walking in the light. We are to be growing in Christ. We are to be running the race; we are to be fighting the good fight.
No where are we told to sit and stagnate. No where are we told, or is it implied that our salvation is simply a one and done, instead we are commanded to grow, to mature and to become more and more like Jesus.
And so, baptism isn’t an end, it is a beginning.
You’ve heard me say that baptism is the first step of obedience. John R. Rice writes, “God's people should be baptized because God commanded it, not because some church requires it.”
And Max Lucado says, “Baptism is the initial step of a faithful heart.”
However, it is the first step, not the final step.
Let’s keep going, Colossians 2:13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
Baptism isn’t About You, It’s About Jesus
I know that baptism is an outward statement of an inward change, and you are declaring for the world to hear, that you’ve made a commitment. But without Christ, it’s not a commitment that could be made.
At Cornerstone we celebrate believers’ baptism. This isn’t just something that your parents think is a good idea, this is your decision. And it is about the relationship that you have with Jesus.
We are told in Ephesians 2:4–5 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!).
And it’s just a few verses later that Paul writes, Ephesians 2:8–9 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Salvation isn’t a reward for the good things you’ve done. It is acknowledging that we’ve disappointed God by our sinful behavior, and asking Christ to forgive us and make us a new person. And baptism isn’t saying, “Look how good I am.” It’s declaring, “Look how good God is. He offered his very son for my salvation.”
Baptism isn’t Private, It’s Public
Every once in a while, through the years, I’ve had people ask me if they can have a private baptism. Just them and me. They’ve always had a variety of reasons. Maybe they are shy, or maybe they don’t like the way they will look when they are wet. But bottom line, is they wanted it to be a private service.
And I tell them, I will marry you privately, I will bury you private, but I will not baptize you privately.
The entire premise and purpose of baptism is that it is a public declaration.
Throughout the New Testament we see baptism as a public statement of someone’s intention to follow Jesus, and usually it would happen quickly after that decision was made.
And so, we see that repeated over and over again in the book of Acts. Paul accepted Jesus, and he was baptized. Lydia accepted Jesus, and she was baptized. The Philippian jailer accepted Jesus, and he was baptized. They weren’t baptized inside a church building, because there weren’t any church buildings to be baptized in.
Funny story, our first baptism at Cornerstone happened in an outdoor pool. And two our teen girls wanted to be baptized, but their mother said they would wait, because it just didn’t seem right getting baptized outside.
You might remember the story in Acts chapter 8 of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian Eunech, and how the man had questions for Philip about the bible, and we pick up the story in Acts 8:34–38 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus. As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
And there have been those who have pointed to this story as being a private baptism, it happened on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. But really, we are told that he ordered the carriage to stop, so there was someone to order. And he was a government official, travelling on official business, I can’t imagine that he was travelling alone.
Did you see the crew that the Prime Minister took to meet with the President and his crew. When I heard how many people were there, I was a little offended I didn’t make the list.
There are things we don’t know from the story. We don’t know who else was present. We don’t know how many people were present? We do know however, that Philip and the eunuch were not alone.
There is no saving power in baptism, but it is a declaration, and because of that very thing it is to be done in front of people.
I read a great analogy the other day, baptism is like a wedding ring. The ring doesn’t make you married. But it tells the world that you are married. Baptism is the outward sign of an inward decision. It’s how we go public with our faith. Being baptized doesn’t make you a Christian, but it tells the world that you are a Christian.
And I would question your commitment to being married, if you didn’t want to wear your wedding ring in public.
In the early church, baptism wasn’t a quiet event tucked away in a church building. It was loud. It was public. It was risky. For many believers, getting baptized meant putting a target on their back. It meant they might lose their job, their family, or even their life.
Today, you probably won’t lose your life for getting baptized, but it still matters. It tells your friends, your family, and your church, "I’m all in."
And I’ll tell you something else. Your story matters. Your baptism might be the encouragement someone else needs to take their own step of faith.
There are people watching your journey who are wondering if Jesus is real. When they see the difference He’s made in you, it might just lead them to Him.
So, this morning, Pastor Marilyn is baptizing Laurissa Crosby and Sky Lindfield. And when they are baptized, I want you to celebrate, to clap and cheer. Because this matters.
If you’ve already been baptized, today is a reminder. This is your story. You’ve been buried with Christ. You’ve been raised to walk in new life. So don’t go back to living like you're still in the grave.
And if you haven’t been baptized—maybe you’ve been thinking about it. Maybe you've been waiting until you “have it all together.” Can I tell you something? You never will. That’s why Jesus came.
Baptism isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being His.
