This Sunday was our water baptism Sunday! It’s interesting how some of the biggest and best opportunities in life come when least expected. Ever notice that? And a lot of the time, the biggest and best things happen because of simple steps. Baptism is the first step someone should take after becoming a Christian. Why? This is how a person demonstrates a changed life and makes a public profession of faith!
Think about the story of David and Goliath. The reason David was there that day was because his father sent him to run an errand. It was just by obeying his father that he ended up there to defeat Goliath. He went on to become the greatest king Israel would ever know. He didn’t know when he woke up that day that he’d go to bed a hero. We had several people make the spontaneous decision to be baptized this Sunday, even though they had no idea they were going to take this step when they woke up. God is going to bless them for this step of obedience and faith!
Mark 8:34: “…Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” What a powerful image of what it looks like to follow Christ. It’s profound; it’s simple. FOLLOW ME.
Again, the first step Jesus calls us to take, if we are really following Him, is to be baptized. Baptism is so much more than a ceremony. When people in the early church were baptized, a lot of them would be killed for their faith in Christ. I’m afraid that just like we’ve emptied a lot of the meaning out of following Jesus, we’ve emptied the meaning out of baptism, making it a whole lot less important to us than it is to Jesus! If a person has a difficult time being obedient in taking this first step, other steps of obedience may be difficult. But when people are obedient, it draws them closer to Christ and gives them confidence and motivation to continue walking in obedience.