Accepting Christ is the most significant action a person can ever take. What a glorious moment when someone trusts Christ as Savior and Lord! At the moment of salvation, Christ comes and indwells the new believer and a wonderful, eternal journey begins. Along that journey, one of the first important steps a new believer takes is the step of baptism.
What is Baptism?
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, symbolizing new life in Christ and testifying to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. New Testament baptism is always by immersion and only practiced after one's profession of faith in Christ. In Matthew 3 when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Scripture says, “Then Jesus, when He had been baptized, He came up out of the water…” Christ’s example for us was by immersion.
Baptism does not impart saving grace but is a testimony that a person has already trusted Christ as their Savior. Baptism symbolizes spiritual rebirth, dying to one’s self and beginning a new life with Christ.
Baptism is the teaching and the command of Jesus.
Some of the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples were the threefold instruction: make disciples, baptize those who believe, and teach them His commands (Matt. 28:19-20). If for no other reason, we baptize because Jesus told us to.
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, o, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
Matthew 28:19-20
Obedience is a characteristic of followers of Christ. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus said we should teach new believers “to obey everything I have commanded you.” Baptism is an act of obedience both for the new believer and the church. We baptize because we desire to obey Christ’s command.
If you have never been baptized, come forward during service at the invitation.
Meet the Pastor and express your desire to be baptized by immersion as a public testimony of your faith in Christ, your obedience to His commands, and as a symbol of your relationship with Him.
Contact the church at 561-687-0337 for further information.
