Devotional Materials. Week Commencing Sunday 3rd July 2022. Baptismal Service.
Please note. This baptismal service can be accessed via the Angmering Baptist Church website, or directly access it on YouTube where it will appear later today. There you can hear the remaining testimony not printed here and witness the baptisms taking place.
Call to worship
Jesus said ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 28:19)
Paul recounting his own conversion to Christ in Acts 22, says how the Lord spoke to him: “And now what are you waiting for? Get up be baptised and wash your sins away calling on his name.” (Acts 22:16)
A really warm welcome to our baptismal service this morning. We have been greatly looking forward to this day. Amanda, Chris, Andrew and Alan all have testimonies that describe how they came to put their faith in Christ for their salvation. We will hear these in the first part of the service. Each has also chosen a hymn for this occasion- and we will sing these in turn. Then later in the service all four will be baptised.
Opening Prayer
Dear kind and gracious heavenly Father, We thank you for the opportunity we have today to witness the baptisms of Amanda, Chris, Andrew and Alan. Lord speak to us today about the meaning of baptism and in so doing may we have great appreciation of all that you have brought about for us- even our salvation. We thank you that our sister and brothers have come to know and understand your love for them. Lord we pray they would have a fresh encounter of you when they are baptised. Lord, please preserve them from all that is unrighteous and grant them the strength to stay on the glorious path that leads to everlasting life. We ask these things in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Opening Hymn
‘O Happy Day’ MP 499 (Keyboards)
Philip Doddridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytB-P77Tep0
Testimony. Amanda Phillips
God has always been in my life!! He has always guided me and stayed with me, I just never noticed!!!
I attended Sunday school as a child with my family, I went to a catholic secondary school and attended weekly mass and that’s where I stopped.
When I had my children I tried to find a church family that I felt I belonged too, I attended an evening alpha course because I had so many questions, but I felt judged when I became a single parent for the second time and so I left the church again.
In the meantime my children attended the dell club here with the lovely Lorna and David, who have remained wonderful friends for the past 10+ years, Lorna would often tell me that I was in her weekly prayers and I knew I was and that because of her I had God walking with me, watching me, guiding me and having patience.
Before lockdown I cooked breakfast every Sunday morning for the homeless and helping to deliver food parcels, and in March 2020 I started up my own food parcels charity called Sparkles Food Parcels, delivering to those that needed a weekly helping hand.
Sparkles food parcels went from strength to strength and my little 4x4 shed wasn’t big enough, through a wonderful Christian friend I got 2 grants to help buy a very big shed. The first grant came from a Christian charity called ‘Reloved’ and the second was from my friend’s local church, The Trinity Church in Littlehampton. I’m not sure what other evidence I needed to prove that God is in my life, he had most definitely answered my prayers!!!!!
I then got invited by Lorna to attend a beetle drive here one evening and that was where I learnt about the express alpha course David was running and I had a powerful urge to sign up straight away, so for the last 8/9 weeks I’ve attended and I’ve had the most amazing group of wonderful ladies, Polly, Dorothy, Wendy and Carol answering all my questions. They have given me reading material and been truly wonderful and I cannot thank them enough for their kindness and patience and through talking to them I realised I have my special gift of compassion and I’ve had it all along in me and that god IS always, HAS always and WILL always be with me.
I want to be baptised so he finally knows that I know I’m where I am and should be because He is with me.
Testimony. Chris Eustace
I grew up in a loving Christian family with good values and I regularly attended Sunday school. My understanding of God and the Bible stories that I had been taught on those Sundays led me to believe I was a Christian. However, once I hit the pre-teen years my focus went away from God and to the world of everything else a teenage boy would be interested in. This carried on through into my twenties and I found myself after a while searching for something that was missing because the lifestyle I was leading had become unfulfilling. I tried to find fulfilment through work and a busy social life but something was not quite right.
It was then, in 2008, that I met a fascinating girl called Jennie (she’s now my wife by the way!) who had a very strong Christian faith and was a “born again Christian” something which was new to me. The start of our relationship was a little rocky as she herself had been through a rough time. However, and I remember this vividly, a voice in my head
spoke to me and said quite clearly “Be patient, she will be a fantastic wife and mother”. I now know that this was God speaking to me. A few months after meeting we both quit our jobs and went traveling together and through spending time with her, visiting churches in Australia and New Zealand and talking about her faith and then staying with great friends of Jennie’s parents in Perth with whom I had in-depth and challenging chats about God, life and my own faith.
I realised what I had been living was religion and in order to become a born again Christian I had to give my life to the Lord. This is what I did in New Zealand. It wasn’t though until after Jennie and I were married and reading a couple’s Bible together that the idea of baptism came up. I’d been baptised as a baby but the notion of making that decision myself made sense. However, whilst we decided to dedicate our children to God and not baptise them so they then have the choice of adult baptism when they’re older, for my baptism life just got in the way. Before I knew it, here I am 13 years later with 5 beautiful children.
Our recent decision to up sticks and move to Australia for a fresh start was the jolt I needed to get baptised as I wanted to share this special occasion with my parents and in-laws before we leave. I think in the past I was nervous that I didn’t know the Bible well enough or couldn’t recite enough scripture or pray the right way and therefore these things held me back from reaching out to get baptised. However, as people have pointed out to me, it’s as simple as the scripture says in Acts 2… repent and be baptised. I have repented and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and asked Him into my life those 13 years ago, so now I’m standing here before my family to make a public declaration that he is the Lord of my life and I welcome and look forward to seeing how God will direct, guide and use me in the future.
Hymn
‘At the Name of Jesus’ MP 41 (Keyboards)
Caroline Maria Noel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2rKRCWmOU
Testimony. Andrew Terrell
Hymn
‘Father I place into your hands.’ MP 133 (Keyboards)
Jenny Hewer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHGokg-rYOI
Testimony. Alan Barnes
I attended Church with my parents when I was young, and had a very basic Christian instruction when I was at Primary school- along with most other children, but nothing meaningful at Secondary school.
I worked as a chef for a number of years, and this meant working on Sundays, so I didn’t get involved with a Church.
I went through a very difficult time in my life and a Christian called Dominic Mann met with me every Friday evening and did a Bible study with me. He would listen to me and he would read Bible verses that spoke into the hurt I was feeling. God used these to give me real hope.
I attended Faversham Baptist Church, and after moving, attended Whitstable Baptist Church. There I met the pastor Paul Wilson and his wife Anne. They were very warm in their interest and the friendship they showed me. I attended Whitstable Baptist for eleven years.
During that time the Bible continued to speak into my life. I can’t give you an exact day, but I did put my faith in Christ for my salvation. I gladly come to be baptised today as He teaches, and as a sign of my faith in Him.
Since moving to Worthing, God has been helping me to trust His leading. Particularly lessons about trusting Him for my work, and about learning to forgive.
These last twelve months have been the happiest of my life.
I haven’t got much of what the world says you need to be happy, but the Lord has been teaching me to be content in Him and thankful for what He has given me.
Hymn
‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God’ MP 590 (Keyboards. As a round)
Karen Lafferty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFxZeY2D5tc
Sermon. ‘What Does Baptism Mean?’
We are here today to witness Amanda, Chris, Andrew and Alan being baptised. So it would be good to think about the meaning of Baptism. Jesus Himself commanded baptism in the Great Commission. He said ‘Go and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ (Matthew 28:19). Jesus Himself was baptised. He had no need to because He was sinless, but He did so ‘to fulfil all righteousness’- that is to identify with us and to show by example that we who have put our faith in Him should be baptised. A general survey of the biblical references to Baptism, suggest that Baptism is for those who repent and believe on Christ for their salvation.
First then, we need to see Baptism is a picture of Salvation.
Baptism is compared with 2 events in the Old Testament. The first is with the world wide flood described in Genesis. The Apostle Peter picks up on this in 1 Peter 3:20, 21:
“God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”
The flood waters brought judgement on the ungodly. But those same waters lifted up the ark to safety, along with Noah and his family. That is a picture of believers passing through the waters of baptism. Going under the water is a picture of judgement, but we emerge as a testimony that the Lord has rescued us and brought us safely to eternal life.
The second picture of baptism is the Israelites passing through the Red Sea at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. The apostle Paul writes:
“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.’ (1 Corinthians 10:1, 2).
Here, as with the flood, the waters speak of judgement (and they destroyed the Egyptian army), but these same waters parted to provide a path for Israel to pass through to safety. So we pass through the waters of baptism. This speaks of our rescue from the power of sin and death.
You can see from these 2 powerful Old Testament episodes that baptism by immersion is the best way of expressing this imagery. In fact the Greek word for baptism used by the New Testament writers means literally ‘to immerse’ or ‘to dip’
As we emerge from the waters our baptism speaks of the forgiveness of our sins. Having our guilt washed away by the blood of Christ. As Acts 22:16 puts it: “and now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”
Baptism is first of all a picture of our salvation.
Second, Baptism speaks of our union with Christ.
Just as in a marriage a couple become one flesh, so in baptism we declare that we are now joined to the Lord Jesus our Saviour. We identify with him in his saving work on the cross. We identify with him in his death and resurrection. (When Jesus was baptised he didn’t do it to express repentance- he had no sins to repent of- he did it to express union with sinners being baptised.) So, when we gather around the baptistery we need to imagine that the pool is a watery grave. When you go under the water, you will identify yourself with Jesus who died and was buried- for one split second you will disappear, like Jesus, off the face of the earth. Indeed you will be taken backwards into the horizontal position of a coffin! Then, like Christ, you will symbolically rise from the dead. In baptism then you will in effect be saying, “Yes Lord, you died for me, I died with you. You rose for me and I am risen with you!”
This is why it’s said that when you stand before God on the final Day, that He will not see you, He will see Christ in your stead. You and I as believers are now identified with Christ. As Colossians 3:3 says- “your life is now hidden in Christ”.
Paul puts this idea of union with Christ: of being buried with him and raised with him like this: “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 may too live a new life” (Rom 6: 3, 4).
Baptism speaks of our union with Christ.
Third, Baptism speaks of union with the Trinity.
Not only are we joined to Christ but to all three persons of the Trinity. The Lord Jesus commands we be baptised into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
When we are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we become sons of God in him. So now we belong to our heavenly Father, and this is declared when we are baptised into his name.
And baptism also speaks of our union with the Holy Spirit. When you give yourself to Jesus, God by the Holy Spirit comes to live in you. Baptism is the sign of the Spirit’s presence. But baptism is more than a mere sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence. Very often God blesses the act of obedience with a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. This is why here and in many churches baptism is accompanied with the laying on of hands. As hands are laid on those who have been baptised, the Spirit is asked to come and fill them afresh and empower them for his service. This practise has its roots in the New Testament. There we find the Apostles laid hands on their new converts with a view to their receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:15, 17; 9:17; 19:6).
So when a person is baptised they should expect an encounter with God. Both the New Testament accounts and Christian experience bears this out. There is a sense in which every step of obedience taken is blessed by God. But when a person is obedient in Baptism God gives them a special sense of Himself and his Spirit living in them, since the very act of baptism speaks of union with him, and so he wants to bless that believer with a sense of the reality of that union.
This sense of spiritual encounter and blessing comes across in Charles Spurgeon’s account of his own baptism:
“I can never forget the 3rd May 1850. I had some eight miles to walk, to reach the spot where I was to be immersed into the Triune Name according to the sacred command…The wind blew down the river with a cutting blast, as my turn came to wade into the flood; but after I had walked a few steps, and noted the people on the ferry-boat, and in boats, and on either shore, I felt as if Heaven, and earth, and hell, might all gaze upon me; for I was not ashamed, there and then to own myself a follower of the Lamb. My timidity was washed away; it floated down the river into the sea, and must have been devoured by the fishes, for I have never felt anything of the kind since. Baptism also loosed my tongue, and from that day it has never been quiet. I lost a thousand fears in that River lark, and found that ‘in keeping His commandments there is great reward’. It was a thrice happy day to me. God be praised for the preserving goodness which allows me to write of it with delight so long afterwards!”
Baptism is a picture of Salvation.
Baptism speaks of our union with Christ
Baptism speaks of Union with the Trinity.
Prayer
So, as Acts 22:16 puts it- “Now what are you waiting for? Be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”
On the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter proclaimed the good news of God and called his hearers to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Following in that tradition, we baptise those whom Jesus Christ has led to repentance and faith in Him.
Baptisms
Amanda
Chris
Andrew
Alan
Each candidate answers ‘I do’ to the following questions:
‘__ do you believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?’
I do
‘__ In obedience to the call of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, do you repent of your sins and come to be baptised?
I do
‘__ with the help of the Holy Spirit, do you offer your life in service to God wherever He may call you to go?’
I do
Then come and be baptised.
Each candidate is then baptised with the following words:
‘Having heard of your repentance and your faith, I now baptise you __ in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit’
The short hymn ‘It is no longer I that liveth’ MP 350 (keyboards) will be sung between each baptism.
Final Hymn
‘In Christ alone’ MP 1072 (Keyboards)
Stuart Townend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouGuG97l2RY
Blessing
Go into God’s world with joy, and peace, and love, and hope in your hearts; and the blessing of almighty God, creator, redeemer, and sustainer, be with you all. Amen
David Barnes 29/6/22