Ready to be baptized?
Baptism is the first step of obedience a follower of Jesus makes! Learn more about baptism below and let us know that you'd like to get baptized by filling out this form! An email will be sent with your next steps.
A brief teaching on baptism
In Matthew 28:18, when Jesus was giving His disciples the Great Commission, He said, “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
What we see is that Jesus said the very first action step that these new followers need to take is to be water baptized. Water baptism is basically to have somebody, a Christian, take you and dunk you in the water. That does some very significant things.
First, baptism symbolizes and signifies our salvation.
Salvation is joining Jesus in His life, His death, and His resurrection. Baptism symbolizes these realities and our identification with Him.
Romans 6:3 says, “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ in baptism, we joined Him in His death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism, and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”
Baptism shows people publicly what's gone on privately. It shows that in your heart, you are now associated with Jesus. Your old nature, your sin nature, all your darkness and death and bondage, and all of that has now died with Jesus at the cross.
Jesus took it upon Himself and was crucified. You died along with Christ. But then He was raised from the dead! So now in Jesus, we also get to have everlasting life - starting right now!
Baptism also represents cleansing and a new start. It comes from the Greek word baptizo, which means to immerse. It also means to bleach, like to clean away the old color and to dye the garment a new color. This indicates a permanent change. So baptism represents this change of identity.
We are now new. We have a new life, a new identity, a fresh purpose. We've been immersed and changed forever, and now when we're brought up, we're completely different.
Secondly, baptism is our first act of obedience to Christ.
When we accept Christ as Savior, we have to also receive Him as Lord. This means we turn the control of our life over to Him.
This is the very first command that Jesus gives us as His followers: be baptized.
And I want to ask you this question. If you won’t obey the first command of Jesus, how are you going to walk on the rest of this journey of relationship? Why would you obey anything else He says?
So I want to encourage you to follow this first command and be baptized in water. It's the first act of obedience to Christ.
Finally, baptism is a declaration of our allegiance to Jesus.
Baptism is this public proclamation that you have changed teams, that you no longer belong to the kingdom of darkness. Come on, we should get excited about that! You now belong to Jesus and the kingdom of light.
Matthew 10:32 says, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven” We need to tell the world, “Hey, I am now on team Jesus. He has saved me, He's my Lord, and I want to publicly declare what He has done in my life!”
This is what baptism does. It's powerful.
Baptism declares publicly what has happened privately. Are you ready to take this step?
Three questions to ask yourself
- Have I put my trust in Jesus for my salvation?
- Am I committing to make Jesus the Lord of my life?
- Am I PERSONALLY making the decision to be baptized?
- Am I ready to commit to being baptized at our next baptism service?
If you're answers are yes, it's time to be baptized! Fill out the form above and we'll be in contact through email. If you aren't sure, or have additional questions you'd like to bring up, a great next step is to talk to your Joy Group leader or email Pastor Riley at riley@joyeugene.com