To give some idea of how a baptism can be performed
properly, the following is an account of a baptism service performed by the
Christadelphians in Hartlepool, England on a Saturday afternoon in November, 1990.
However, it must be noted that baptism is fundamentally an immersion in water following a
true repentance and belief of the Gospel. The 'service' is just an optional extra to give
a suitable sense of importance to the occasion. The order of proceedings was as follows:
- Opening prayer
- Reading of Romans chapter 6
- Short address about baptism (printed below; real names changed)
- Prayer
- Immersion of the person in a swimming pool
- Prayer
Baptism Address
There can be no doubt that today is the most important
day in Dave's life; in a few moments he will go under the water and rise fully "in
Christ", a seed of Abraham, having those glorious promises which make up the Gospel
made to him.
The extreme simplicity of this act can be deceptive, yet
Dave and all of us here fully believe that this dipping in water will associate him with
the death and resurrection of Jesus, as we have read in Romans ch. 6 vs. 3-5:-
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by
baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection".
For a few moments let us try and imagine the scene at the
resurrection of Jesus, because we have seen that when Dave comes up out of the water he
will be associated with the rising up of Jesus from death.
We can imagine the freshness and silence of the night
air, and the glorious feeling of new life within Jesus. He would have been able to see the
lights of Jerusalem shimmering away in the distance; the people there were completely
unaware of the wonderful thing that was happening so close to them - that a man was rising
from the dead to newness of life.
And so as Dave rises from the water, the world around us
has no appreciation of the glorious thing that is happening; all they can see, if they
bother to look, is a small group of men and women walking to a swimming pool and one man
dipping another. But as the Angels rejoiced at the resurrection of Jesus, so now, unseen
to us, the Angels rejoice at one sinner who repents.
We have read in Romans 6 that we should "walk
in newness of life" - the joy that Dave will now have should go with him as he walks
onwards through life. As we have read, he will no longer be a slave of sin, but of God,
doing His will as it is revealed in the Bible. It is tempting to reason that we should
want freedom for ourselves, but by serving ourselves we are not free, we are slaves of
sin. Dave is now changing masters, to serve God. At times it will seem that the apparent
restraints which living the new life impose upon us are too much to bear, and we are
tempted to try to be free of them. But if we do so, we will not be free, we will be
serving sin again.
Paul explains in 1 Cor. 10:1,2, that our passing through
the waters of baptism is like Israel passing through the waters of the Red Sea. A kind of
parable can be developed from this, with many lessons for us. Israel had been slaves in
Egypt, living a pointless life, working hard in their slavery and serving the idols of
Egypt. Through their experience of life they cried to God to find some way of escape,
although they probably had no idea how He would answer them.
In reply God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt,
through the Red Sea and then through the wilderness, to enter the Promised Land. Israel in
Egypt were like Dave and all who come to baptism; now Dave has been led, as it were, to
the shores of the Red Sea. Once he passes through the water, he will not immediately be in
the Promised Land of the Kingdom, he will join the rest of us here in walking through the
wilderness. God led Israel through the wilderness by an Angel, who was constantly with
them by day and night. So, too, each of us has an Angel encamping around us, leading us
through our lives towards salvation (Ps. 34:7; Heb. 1:14).
Israel were fed each day with manna, which Jesus
interprets in John 6 as God's Word. If they had not eaten it they would soon have died in
that wilderness - there was no other food there to eat. For this reason we cannot commend
to you strongly enough the "Bible Companion" reading tables, whereby you read
the Bible each day, getting the whole context of passages as you read through. It is vital
to make space in our daily routine, preferably at the same time each day, to read those
chapters and reflect on them.
In passing, Israel were told not to try to gather several
days' manna in just one day, but to make the effort to go out and collect it each day. Our
feeding on the Word needs to be daily. As we just would not forget about eating our
natural food, so we should instinctively make the daily effort to feed on the Word of God;
indeed, Job could say that he valued the words of God "more than my necessary
food".
Israel also drank from the stream that flowed from the
smitten rock; 1 Cor. 10 tells us that this represents "Christ".
So we should feed and drink in the example of Jesus,
which we can do by the memorial service each week. Speaking of meetings, it should be our
natural desire to meet with others who share our Hope. A traveller in a literal wilderness
would jump at any opportunity to meet another traveller to discuss the possible problems
which may lie ahead, to share experiences. So we in the wilderness of life in this wicked
world should make every effort to keep in contact with each other. Often such meeting is
not possible in the flesh as much as we would like, but we should take every opportunity
to keep in touch by letter-writing, reading of the magazines, etc.
We have spoken about the responsibilities of the new
life, but it would be wrong to give the impression that if we do certain things, such as
the daily Bible readings, then God will have to reward us. It is God's good pleasure, His
will, to give us the Kingdom as a gift, not as a wage for our works (Rom. 6:23). It would
be wrong for us to feel that baptism is a good idea because now we have a fair chance of
entering the Kingdom. The Truth and the love of God, the victory of Christ, make it all
far more positive than that. God really wants Dave and all of us here to be in the
Kingdom. This fact is so glorious that we have to remind ourselves time and again that it
really is true and that in the light of it we should be making some kind of response to
God's love.
When Israel came out of the Red Sea there was tremendous
rejoicing; Moses sang his song and all the people rejoiced. Psalm 105:35-41 well expresses
this, showing how God provided everything that was necessary for their journey:
"And (the Lord) did eat up all the herbs in their
land (Egypt), and devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn in
their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them (Israel) forth also with
silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Egypt was glad
when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering;
and fire to give light in the night. The people asked, and he brought quails, and
satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;
they ran in the dry places like a river".
That joy is the joy of us, your future brethren and
sisters, who are here to witness your baptism. It is the joy of God, of Jesus and of the
Angels who are intensely watching us at this time. May we each keep this Hope and this
rejoicing "stedfast unto the end", that we might walk together in the Kingdom.
We will now make our way down to the changing rooms,
and then into the swimming pool...
