MattGlover.com

Two of our young people, and regular mattglover.com contributors, took a deep breath and were batised before friends, family and God on Sunday night.

I’l say this a thousand times before I die, but baptisms are my favourite time in church life. Hearing the story of God entwined with the story of a person is the most powerful expression of the gospel that I know. It is greater than any sermon I can preach, any video I can show and any slick music and light routine we could manufacture. A baptism is honest and raw and real. I love them!

Anyway, Tigg and Alison shared a little of there journey with us, friends and family shared words of encouragment in return, and then they were baptised. Lots of cheering and clapping - a celebration that I think echoed through heaven. The supper afterwards was a bonus!

For the message, I shared the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Official. In a nutshell, the Ethiopian guy had been to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way back was reading a scroll of Isaiah. He couldn’t understand what he was reading, but as it happened, the Spirit had told Philip to go up to the chariot and help the Ethiopian out. They get chatting and Philip tells the Ethiopian about Jesus - the guy accepts Philip’s message and commits himself to following the ways of Jesus.

Coming across a stream, the Official asks, “Why shouldn’t I be baptised?” Philip can’t think of any good reason, so the Ethiopian is baptised becoming, possibly, the first African Christian. Tradition has it that he returns to his homeland and becomes a great evangelist, leading many people to faith.

I think many of us are in the same position as the Official. We’ve gathered with other believers many times to worship. We’ve heard and read the Bible and even had it explained to us numerous times. The question the Ethiopian asks is one we should be asking ourselves too - why shouldn’t we be baptised?

All churches have their own theology and tradition when it comes to baptism, but the way I read it, baptism is something that those who come to faith do, as a sign of their committment to Jesus and their participation in the life of the body of Christ. It’s not something that others can do for us, nor is it something that we have to reach a certain level of faith to do. It is a simple, straight forward directive from Jesus and an outward, pulblic sign of our faith.

It means taking a risk. It means taking a real step of faith. It means being ‘outed’ in a very public way. But we need real examples of faith, not wishy-washy, fence sitters who will do everything to hide what they say they believe.

Tigg and Alison aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, nor are they likely to live perfect, sinless lives from this point on. But they’ve declared what side they’re on and done it in a way that has encouraged others to consider the same.

The challenge from Sunday night remains. If you say you have faith, why not be baptised?