Baptism: A Sign of Obedience

Matthew 28:20

About the Sermon

Baptism is an act of obedience. That is true. But what if I told you that baptism is also a sign of a new life of obedience? Would that sound like a contradiction? Didn't Jesus die because we don't obey? Yes. But he was raised so that we would walk in newness of life. Obedience has a bad wrap. That Jesus came that we might be obedient to him sounds like a bait and switch. But that is only because we have no idea how great a master Jesus is for us or how great a life he came to give. We go under the water with Jesus in baptism to go on with Jesus in a life of obedience. This message is embedded at the very end of Jesus' famous great commission in Matthew 28:20. This new life is part of the good news we picture in the sign of baptism.

About the Series

What does baptism picture? What does baptism do? Who should be baptized? Who actually does the baptizing? Here is a set of sermons for an introduction to baptism, the sign of the new covenant in Christ. The act of baptism doesn’t save a person from their sin. As a covenant sign, however, it signifies the saving reality that Christ has brought, and in particular how that salvation comes to us: through union with Christ in his death, where we have died to sin, and in his resurrection, where we have been raised to new life. As an initiation rite, it also identifies a person with the church. It’s the way the individual and the church say together, “this person belongs to Jesus Christ.”
What does baptism picture? What does baptism do? Who should be baptized? Who actually does the baptizing? Here is a set of sermons for an introduction to baptism, the sign of the new covenant in Christ. The act of baptism doesn’t save a person from their sin. As a covenant sign, however, it signifies the saving reality that Christ has brought, and in particular how that salvation comes to us: through union with Christ in his death, where we have died to sin, and in his resurrection, where we have been raised to new life. As an initiation rite, it also identifies a person with the church. It’s the way the individual and the church say together, “this person belongs to Jesus Christ.”

Sermons in the Series