Baptism...An Amazing Testimony

The Testimony of the Believer

August 16, 2015 was a great day of worship, praise, thanksgiving and testimony as our First Baptist Church family and other family members witnessed two young men being baptized in the Turkey River.  Being a part of something like this is powerful and draws me closer to the God of our salvation.

Both of these young men came to faith in Christ at an early age and had been praying to God, receiving counsel from parents and pastors and had been encouraged by their friends to take this step of obedience when they believed that their heart was ready to do so.  Seeing them both stand before the loved ones gathered and provide their testimony about who Jesus is to them was inspiring.  All I could think was, "Thank you, Jesus!" because you are raising up a new generation of believers that will go into this world to seek to share your love and your truth to wherever you may call them.

But perhaps some are asking, "Why did they get baptized in the first place?"

Great question!  God lays out pretty clearly in Scripture that when a person comes to faith in Christ Jesus (which is the receiving of salvation) that a next step in obedience is to be baptized.  We call it believer's baptism because we believe that these individuals made the decision to follow Him on their own and then decide to be baptized.  In Acts 2, Peter delivers a sermon and "Those who received his word were baptized" (Acts 2.41).  These individuals committed their lives to Christ by receiving the word that Peter was speaking and in response were baptized.  There are other scripture passages that are similar in nature but given the purpose of this blog I will stop with that amazing testimony in Acts.

So what are we being obedient to?  Jesus' commission of His disciples in that they were to go to all nations and teach, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28.20) We, as people of the Christian faith are to publicly and symbolically experience death (going into the water) and resurrection (coming up out of the water) of new life in Christ.  This is a way to make our faith known.  Our belief in Christ is never meant to be a private thing between just you and God.  Rather, He made it very clear that we are to take His love and message of the Gospel to all people.  A logical step in that process is baptism.

Like my son, Caleb last summer, these two young men invited others to come and witness this public profession of faith.  It was fitting that there were also campers, people canoeing and several kayackers.  There were people driving by on the highway and there were those that surrounded them as they told their story about Jesus in their lives.

I want to encourage any that haven't been baptized but have welcomed Jesus as Lord and Savior to reach out to myself or your local pastor and visit about your journey regarding baptism as a believer.  It is a powerful statement of faith that is made in a day and time that very rarely gets to hear about the good that God is doing in this country.

August 16th was a special day for these two young men, their families, their church family and most importantly honoring to God.

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 6.4)