I'll be spending this whole series talking about growth. What it means to be planted, rooted, to grow up, to branch out, and eventually blossom. But if you've ever watched a garden through the seasons, you know that growth doesn't just move in a straight line, right? It doesn't just keep growing and growing and growing and growing like Jack and the Beanstalk. Because eventually fall comes and the leaves start to change and the colour fades and things that were once full of life begin to wither and die off.
And if you didn't know any better, you might look at a garden in that season and think it's over. It looks like loss. It looks like things are coming to an end. It looks like death. 'Cause winter is coming.
That's how we feel. And yet what actually is happening in that moment is not the end of the story. Because beneath the surface, something is being prepared. Seeds are falling, roots are deepening, and what looks like an ending is actually making way for new life. And that's why even though we've been talking about blooming last week, Today we're gonna go back to the beginning, to the seed being planted, because from the outside that moment doesn't look impressive.
It doesn't look like growth has started. In fact, it can look like the opposite. It looks like something is being buried. But that is exactly where baptism comes in, because when we see baptism, it can look rather similar. Someone goes under the water and for a split second it looks like a burial.
But what looks like the end isn't the end at all. It's the beginning. It's the picture of a new life, and that's what we're going to explore today. So let's ask some questions together. You don't have to answer them.
We're answering them through this. So we're going to cover: What is baptism all about? Why is it practised differently in different churches? Does it still mean the same thing? Why is such an important mile— why is it such an important milestone in the life of faith?
And what does the Bible actually say about it? So baptism is one of those moments in the life of a Christian that's simple on the surface but incredibly deep in meaning. So I want to preface what I am saying in most of the discussion today. I am assuming a Baptist view. Since I'm in a Baptist church, except when we will get into the other denominations and what they believe and practise about baptism.
At its core, baptism is about identifying with Jesus. It's a way of saying, my life is now connected to his life, his death, and his resurrection. It's a picture. It's a visible expression of something invisible, a way of showing that the old life is gone and something new has begun. Paul says in Galatians 3:27, "For all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." That's the heart of it.
Baptism is about being wrapped up in Jesus, belonging to him, and living a new life because of him. So let's get to the what, when, why, and how of baptism. And we're going to start with when, because guess what? Not all Christians can agree on this. They don't all agree on when a person should be baptised.
Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Methodists, they see baptism as something that brings a child into the family of faith. Anglicans would be included in this too. I was christened as a baby in the Anglican Church. It's a picture of God's grace being given even before someone can fully understand it. And it's a commitment from the church and family to raise that child to know Jesus.
So for us Baptists, that would be more in line with baby dedications. Right? Baptists, Pentecostals, Mennonites, Amish, along with some other lesser-known denominations, practise believer's baptism, which is baptism that comes after someone has personally chosen to follow Jesus. It's rooted in passages like Acts 2:38, which says, "Repent and be baptised." It's a response that follows faith. Now the Wesleyan Church, is anybody here Wesleyan before I go into this?
No? Okay. So, 'cause I don't know a lot about the Wesleyans other than I thought they were fairly similar to Baptists apart from they have this issue about salvation being lost, but anyway, we won't get into that. But it turns out that their view on baptism is a little odd too. The Wesleyan Church seems to ride the fence on this one.
They would say that you can only be baptised once, but they would also say that it can happen when someone chooses to follow Jesus for themselves—believers' baptism—or it can happen as an infant. But if you get baptised as an infant, you can't get baptised again later by choice. So for the denominations who practise infant baptism, it is seen more as a blessing on the child and a promise to support and encourage them to grow up in the faith. And for those who practise believer's baptism, it's a response to the transformation that the person has experienced through coming to faith and accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour. But you'll notice that in neither tradition is there an idea that you have to meet a certain bar in order to be considered worthy to be baptised.
If we had to be worthy to be baptised, none of us would ever be baptised, right? So, that needs to go away. There's no making a level, getting to a certain point, and then that's it. What's, in our tradition of believers' baptism, what's the one thing that you need to do? Believe.
You need to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour. Boom, baptised. Okay? So now the how. There are different ways that baptism is practised.
Some churches, like us Baptists, baptise by immersion, going all the way under the water and then coming back up. That's the practise we use, and it clearly reflects the picture of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Going under the water represents the old life being buried and coming up represents new life in Christ. Other traditions pour water over the head or sprinkle it. For them, the emphasis isn't on the amount of water but on what baptism represents: God's grace at work in a person's life.
So now what? So let's talk a bit about what baptism does and doesn't do. Some traditions view baptism as a sacrament, something through which God actually gives grace in a saving way. That's not ours. Whereas we, as Baptists, see baptism as something Jesus commands us to do.
It's an act of obedience. But we would not say that baptism is what saves us. Okay? So, just because you're baptised doesn't give you a golden ticket, like, right? Baptism doesn't change your heart.
Jesus does that. Baptism is the outward expression of what Jesus has already done on the inside. Baptism is not the source of new life, it's the sign of new life. Make sense? So why does it even matter?
Because baptism is connected to belonging. We talked about that, right? It's part of stepping into the life of the church. And not just believing personally, but being part of a community that follows Jesus together. Because baptism is never meant to be private.
It's a public moment, it's a declaration, a line in the sand where someone says, "I belong to Jesus." And it's something that we celebrate together because every baptism is a reminder that God is still bringing new life. So, now that we have all the info on baptism in a general sense, let's look at how it relates to our So What series. Just before we get into that, let's look at the Scripture passage that we're diving into today. So we're going to be focusing on Romans chapter 6, verses 3 to 5, but for context, I'm starting to read from verse 1. What shall we say then?
Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin How can we live it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised 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.
For if we have been united with him in a death like this, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like this. So first of all, as we could hear, verse 3 tells us that baptism identifies us with Jesus. Or don't you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? Baptism is not just a ritual. It's a public identification with Christ.
That phrase "baptised into Christ Jesus" is really important. It doesn't just mean, um, about Jesus, it means into him. It's the language of connexion and of union and of belonging. So baptism is not just something that we do, it's saying something about who we are now connected to. And Paul makes it even more specific: we are baptised into his death.
That means when Jesus died, he wasn't just dying for us, he was dying in a way that we would be united with him in it. His death becomes counted as our death, our sin, our guilt, our old life. It's all brought into that moment. So when someone is baptised, they're stepping into the water and declaring, "My life is now tied to his life. What is true of him is now true of me." And that's why baptism is not just a ritual.
It's not just a meaningful tradition or a personal milestone. It's a public identification where we say, "I belong to Jesus now. His storey is my story. His death counts as my death, and his life will become my life." And that's what makes baptism so powerful, because it's not about the water itself, it's about the reality that it points to: a life that has been joined to Christ. Baptism is the moment that we declare what soil we belong to, and what our lives are rooted in.
Baptism is when we stand before our community of faith and say, with our heads and our hearts and our whole lives, "My life is now planted in Christ. I am no longer grounded in who I used to be, but in who Jesus is and what he has done." It's like putting a seed in the ground and saying, "This is where life will grow from." So the next point we find in this passage is that baptism declares that the old life is gone. Verse 4 begins by saying, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death." So the word "buried" is important because when we think about burial, we don't usually think of it as a temporary condition. As I wrote that, I started thinking about the end of Pet Sematary. And we definitely do not want to think of it as a temporary condition.
Burial is final, is decisive. It means something has come to an end. And Paul is saying that's what has happened to your old life in Christ.
A seed doesn't stay on the surface where it's visible. It has to go down into the soil, right? Into the dark. Hidden from view. And from the outside, it can look like nothing's happened, even though everything that matters has already begun.
Because the— that burial is not the end of the story. That burial is what makes new life possible. And Paul says that's what baptism represents in us. The old you is not just being cleaned up and improved. It's not like getting a fresh coat of paint.
The old you, the old habits, the old identity, the old ways of thinking, your old patterns of sin and self have been buried with Christ. Which means this: God is not trying to fix your old life. He is bringing it to an end and giving you a completely new one. And that's a hard shift for us because we tend to live like the old life is still active. We like to revisit it.
We return to it. We dig it back up. Not a good idea. Paul's language is clear. It's been buried.
And when something is buried, you don't go back to it— you shouldn't— and dig it back up. You don't reopen it. You don't try to revive it. Instead, you trust that what God has done there is complete. And here's where the seed imagery helps us again, because when a seed goes into the ground, it actually breaks open.
It stops being what it was. That old form is gone. But that breaking, that burial, is exactly what allows new life to emerge. We see that what looks like loss is not always the end. What appears to be defeat death can actually be the beginning of new life.
So when you went into the waters of baptism, if you've been baptised, or when you watch someone else go under, you are seeing a picture of that reality. The old life is not just being managed, it's being put to death. And the question for us is this: if God has already buried that old life, then why are we still holding on to it? Why do we keep returning to patterns that no longer define us? Why do we keep believing identities that are no longer true?
Stop digging up what God's already buried and instead trust that what he has planted will grow. So as we move into the next part of verse 4, which says, "In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we may too live a new life We come— and now that brings us to our next point, that baptism celebrates new life in Christ. So Paul says we are raised to walk in newness of life. And that phrase matters more than what we might realise, because when Paul says this happens in order that we might walk in new life, he's telling us that it is the purpose, that it's the goal. That's what baptism is pointing toward.
We share in Christ's death so that we can share in his life, not just someday, but right now. And when Paul says, "Just as Christ was raised from the dead," he's not making a comparison. He's grounding our new life in something real that actually happened. Jesus was raised from among the dead, truly and physically, historically, and that same power that raised him is the power now at work in us. Sorry, every time I say that I find that mind-boggling.
That same power that raised Christ from the dead is now still at work in us. That is incredible. Sorry, that was an aside. Paul calls it the glory of the Father, but he's not talking about something abstract. He's talking about the power of God fully displayed fully unleashed, bringing life out of death.
The resurrection wasn't just a moment, it was a revelation of God's power. And baptism says that power is not distant, it's not just something that we believe in, it's something we live in. So when someone comes up out of the water, it's not just a symbol of a fresh start, it's a declaration that a new life has begun, a new direction is possible, and a new power is at work, not because we try harder, but because the same God who raised Jesus from the dead is now bringing new life in us. And the question is no longer, "Is change possible?" The question is, "Am I walking in the new life I've been given?" When a seed finally breaks through the soil, something has clearly changed. It's not just that it's alive, it's that it's growing in a completely new direction.
And that's the picture that Paul is giving us here. Newness of life doesn't mean life is suddenly perfect. It doesn't mean that everything is instantly easy. But it does mean that something real has changed at the core. Where there were once old patterns, there are now new desires.
Where life used to move in one direction, now there's a turning. Sometimes it's slow, sometimes it's messy, but it's real. And where we once relied on only our own strength, now there is a new power at work in us through the Holy Spirit. It's not just behaviour modification, it's transformation. Not just trying harder, but becoming different.
It's like that first green shoot pushing up through the soil. It's small, it might not look like much yet, but it changes everything because it proves that life is there. You don't look at the little shoot and say, "Well, that's not a tree yet, so it must not be real." No, you recognise that something has begun, and that's the invitation of baptism: to not just celebrate that new life has begun, but to actually walk in it, to live each day in light of what God has already made true. For if we have been united with him, in a death like this, like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. So baptism points to ongoing transformation.
Baptism is the beginning of a fruitful life. It's not the finish line. This is where everything in this series comes together. If you are united with Christ, not just in his death, but in his resurrection, then that means his life is now at work in you, and life grows. It doesn't stay static, it doesn't remain the same.
When something is planted and comes to life, fruit isn't immediate, but it is expected. And that's what it means to be united with Christ. Growth is not optional, it's part of the life that he gives. Change is not instant, but it is ongoing. Fruit doesn't appear overnight, but over time it becomes visible.
And that's important because sometimes we can look at our lives and think, "I should be further along by now." Or we look at someone else and think, "Why don't I look like that?" But fruit doesn't grow by comparison. It grows by staying connected to the source of life. New life in Christ will produce visible fruit over time. But some people think that baptism is like the culmination, the peak, or the highlight of one's faith journey. That is seen in the way many of our churches have a list of steps that one needs to go through before they are approved for baptism.
And this is particularly true when it comes to children, and I'm going to go on a little rant here, having spent many years working with kids and youth. There tends to be this fear that, that kids and young people, that they don't really understand the commitment, that they have a greater chance of walking away as they grow older. But this happens to be a major pet peeve of mine, because I spent years serving and teaching kids and teens, and over that time, there's some things that I've learned. First of all, kids understand a lot more than we give them credit for. If you give them, give them space to ask questions, if you encourage them to dig, to wrestle, to really think, they can encounter Jesus for themselves.
Not just because someone told them that they should, but because they've come to know him personally. Second, making a decision to follow Jesus at a young age doesn't make someone more likely to walk away later. What actually matters is discipleship. If kids are consistently challenged and encouraged to grow in their faith they will grow. And yes, sometimes kids do walk away, but often it's for a season and many come back.
And when they do drift, it's usually not because they were too young, it's because they were never really given the space or support to develop a faith of their own. Baptism is the beginning of the journey, not the end. We can't just baptise somebody and then leave them to figure everything out on their own. They need guidance, encouragement, and a community that walks with them. Regardless of their age.
And third, for those who would say a child's faith isn't mature enough for baptism, I would point you to Jesus' own words in Mark 10. When people brought Jesus to him, the disciples tried to send them away, but Jesus was indignant and he said, "Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." And then he says something even more striking: "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." If Jesus calls us to have the faith of a child marked by trust, humility, and dependence, then why do we sometimes expect children to grow out of that before we take their faith seriously? The reality is children often model the kind of faith we're still trying to learn. They trust more freely, they love more openly, and they're okay with not having all the answers. In many ways, they are not behind in faith, they are ahead of us.
And maybe that's exactly why Jesus points us to children. Because when you look at the kind of faith that they naturally have— trusting, open, dependent— you start to realise that that kind of faith is actually the best soil for growth. Kids don't overcomplicate it. They don't try to manufacture it. They simply receive and respond.
And that's how fruit grows. Not by striving harder. Not by forcing change, but by staying rooted in the one who gives life, which is what brings us to where this series has been leading: being fruitful. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. What are these?
A little louder. The fruit of the Spirit. And this kind of fruit can't be forced. You can't manufacture it by trying harder. It grows out of a life that is planted in Christ.
Just as a quick aside, did you guys ever do the song, "Faith Like a Coconut"? Oh, I so wanted to do that today, but after doing the books of the Bible, I thought somebody might not like it. Anyway, back to— such a good song. So yes. The fruit of the Spirit, it grows out of a life that is planted in Christ, evidence that something real is happening beneath the surface.
Fruit is never the starting point, right? It's the result. It's what shows that life is there. Because if you're united with Christ, growth is already underway, life is already at work, and fruit will come. And that's what baptism points us to.
So how is baptism a sign of fruit? Baptism is the first visible evidence that something real has taken root. It's the moment that someone steps forward and says, "God has done something in me, and I'm not hiding it." It doesn't mean that the fruit is fully grown, it doesn't mean that the journey is complete, but it does mean that life is there. It's that first sign above the surface that something has really begun underneath, and it points beyond itself to the life of Christ at work within. So yesterday, as we mentioned, a group from our church gathered to practise the discipline of listening for God as we begin discerning our next steps in the new season of ministry.
And as we reflected where we've seen God at work in the past, something began clear. It wasn't just the storeys themselves that stood out. It was the joy not only in those that were directly involved, but across the whole church. And why was there such joy? Because we were partnering with God in his mission, and there is something, something deeply life-giving about being in step with what God is doing.
When we align ourselves with his purpose, joy begins to grow naturally, like fruit on a healthy tree. So as we move forward, the question isn't simply, "What should we do next?" but, "Where is God inviting us to join him?" Because when we do, we can expect that same kind of joy, the kind that comes when fruit is growing and beginning to ripen. And we're going to see some of that in a tangible way this summer, because as a church we will be blessed by several baptisms. I think last count was 7, maybe 8, moments that we get to witness where people will step forward and declare that God is at work in their lives. Not because everything is finished, but because something has begun.
Because fruit doesn't appear at the start, it emerges over time, and baptism is that first visible sign. That the life of Christ is already at work within. So let's be a people as a church who don't just look for fruit, but who follow Jesus closely enough that fruit can't help but grow. Amen.
