Unit One: A Few Covenant Essentials 

Lesson Six: Baptism

We see it every once in a while in church. Someone comes to the front, maybe an adult and maybe a baby, and the pastor sprinkles or pours some water on them. In some churches, the person is dunked under the water.

It’s called baptism, and it’s been a part of church life for years. People were being baptized in the Bible even before the church began.

You can find it at the very beginning of the New Testament. Just as Jesus was beginning to preach, another person came on the scene. We know him as John the Baptist, or John-the-dude-who-baptized-people.

John can tell us what baptism meant in his time. Check this out. It’s a verse from the gospel of Luke, and it talks about the meaning of baptism.

He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 

Luke 3:3    (NIV)    

For one thing, it was all about repentance. And to know what that means, find the five words that follow the word repentance, and write them out.

Apparently, another way to say the word repent is change your ways. So these people came to be baptized as a way of saying that they were going to change their life. They were going to stop doing bad things and start doing what is right.

So that makes baptism a promise. 

When the church began, they kept the practice of baptism. I’ll show you a verse from Acts 2, from the first revival service. You might have seen this before. Peter has just delivered a really great sermon, and this is the result.

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 

Acts 2:41  (NIV)    

How did the people declare that they were going to be a part of this new thing, this new faith in Jesus?

They made a promise to be a part of the church, and that actually meant something more than it did in John’s time. It meant that they had received a new life in Jesus. They didn’t just promise to be good. They promised to follow Jesus.

In addition to being a promise, baptism also tells a story. In John’s day, people walked out into the river and were doused with water or dunked under the water.

 They came to God and were washed. The water didn’t do the trick. The repentance did. But the water was a symbol of a spiritual change.

Because of Jesus, something new was added to the picture. Check this out from the book of Romans.

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 

Romans 6:3-4    (NIV)    

Baptism reminds people about the death of Jesus on the cross and his rising on Easter morning. So everyone who is baptized has chosen to die to their old life and live a new life in Christ.

So baptism is a promise and a picture. When I am baptized, I promise to live a new life in Christ. And I am washed with water, which symbolizes a clean life. It also symbolizes a totally new life, just like rising up from the grave.

It’s a radical picture, but new life in Christ is very radical.

And there is another part of the picture. Let’s talk about what a symbol is. A symbol is something that we can draw or see or do that has a much larger meaning. It is usually a small picture of a gigantic, enormous truth.

John knew that baptism would be much more important when Jesus came. In the first chapter of Acts, we can see that change begin to happen. 

On one occasion, while [Jesus] was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 

Acts 1:4-5   (NIV)    

Jesus said that every Christian would be baptized by the Holy Spirit. We studied the Holy Spirit a few weeks back, so we know that the Spirit lives in anyone who trusts Jesus for new life.

So the Holy Spirit is poured out on anyone who comes to Christ, just like water being poured out. Just like baptism. In fact, this is the real baptism. This is the thing that baptism points to.

Let’s review. A little bit of water is a symbol of a completely new life, of a promise to live for Jesus, of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life.

That’s why the church continues to baptize today. Plus, the Bible tells us to keep doing it, so we aren’t going to stop any time soon.

There is one thing to add before we move on ...

Sometimes people ask whether baptism is for babies. We baptize a lot of infants these days. But the Bible shows baptism as something that adults do, so some churches reserve baptism for adults.

The baptism of babies began after the church had been meeting for a few centuries. People wanted a way to include their little children in the church. It isn’t quite the same picture as what we see in scripture, but it was important to parents.

At this church, and in all Covenant churches, the baptism of an infant is a pledge that parents make to raise that child for Christ. It resembles the practice in the Old testament of dedicating a child to God.

So it’s a time to thank God for a child, and it’s a promise to tell that child about new life in Christ.

That moment is important to many parents, and if they ask for their child to be baptized, we get some water. We baptize adults and infants, because we want to take every opportunity to bring children and grown-ups to Jesus.

Let’s do a little more work before we move on to something else. Here is some scripture that you can study on your own. For the answers, talk to your teacher, or consult an especially learned person, like your parents. 

In your Bible, look up Matthew 3:1-6. This is a description of the life of John, who was known for baptizing people.

Check out verse 6. In what body of water did John baptize people?

How cold was the water? (That’s a trick question. We don’t know. But the climate was probably quite warm.)

What did the people do when they were baptized? (That’s not a trick question. The word starts with “c” and has an “o” and an “e” and another “e” if you use the past tense.)

What does that word mean?

According to verse 1, what was John’s message?

Read Acts 16:29-34 in your Bible. This is the story of a jail administrator in the town of Philippi, so he is called the Philippian jailer. He has an experience that brings him face to face with the gospel of Jesus. 

In verse 31, he asks what he has to do to be saved. What did Paul tell him?

Was baptism involved, according to verse 31?

In verse 33, what did the whole family do after they made a commitment to follow Jesus?

[ If your answer is they got baptized, then you are correct. ]

So that’s what baptism is. Now you know.

It’s a statement that people make, and it’s a picture of new life.

And most important, it’s your choice.

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