{"id":2068,"date":"2010-09-06T01:00:10","date_gmt":"2010-09-06T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=2068"},"modified":"2013-03-25T10:28:12","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T17:28:12","slug":"introduction-to-baptism-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2010\/09\/06\/introduction-to-baptism-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to Baptism (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Richard Shin<\/em><\/p>\n

A few months ago, we looked at one of two ordinances established by Jesus: the Lord\u2019s Supper. We approached the ordinance from a Biblical perspective, laying aside the mindless traditions that have caused us to forget the significance of the Lord\u2019s Supper. In the coming weeks, we\u2019re going to look at the other ordinance\u2014namely, baptism\u2014with the same approach and hopefully reclaim the full meaning behind the ordinance. <\/p>\n

To \u201cbaptize\u201d someone in the Greek language literally means to \u201cimmerse\u201d that person. But the Christian baptism signifies much more than the mere physical act of immersion. Much like the Lord\u2019s Supper, we practice baptism because Christ Himself commanded it (Matt. 28:19-20). But we don\u2019t do it merely out of duty to obey our Master; rather, we obey because we love Him (John 14:15). And as we\u2019ll see in the coming weeks, there\u2019s a striking parallel between both ordinances in that Christ Himself participated in both baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper. <\/p>\n

At Lighthouse, each baptism candidate must take a baptism class where the candidate learns the fundamentals of baptism, such as why every Christian must be baptized and why we emphasize and practice immersion (as opposed to sprinkling). After the completion of the class and the candidate\u2019s decision to proceed forward with the act of baptism, the candidate must share their salvation testimony. Afterward, the candidate proceeds to the baptismal tank at the front of the sanctuary where the administering pastor will provide a few words of encouragement and affirmation to the witnessing congregation. Then, the pastor will baptize\u2014in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit\u2014the candidate by fully immersing the candidate in water.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no mere accident that in Matthew 28:18-20 (also part of our MVP), Christ commands us to \u201cgo therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.\u201d It\u2019s a package deal. Conversion and baptism are intricately linked and understood as a progression of one after the other. That is why it\u2019s commonly understood by Baptist Christians that the first act of obedience as a new believer should be the purposeful act of baptism.<\/p>\n

In the weeks to come, we\u2019re going to look at baptism a little more deeply. First, we\u2019ll look at the history of the Christian baptism, and how its significance sheds light unto Jesus\u2019 ministry. Then, we\u2019re going to understand how baptism was commanded in the lives of the apostles at Pentecost, and how one particular apostle\u2014Philip\u2014carried it out. Then we\u2019re going to understand how baptism was taught by two very influential people in the early church: Paul and Peter. Through this, we\u2019ll have a better understanding of how baptism serves the believer as a perpetual reminder of Christ\u2019s finished work on the cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Richard Shin A few months ago, we looked at one of two ordinances established by Jesus: the Lord\u2019s Supper. We approached the ordinance from a Biblical perspective, laying aside the mindless traditions that have caused us to forget the significance of the Lord\u2019s Supper. In the coming weeks, we\u2019re going to look at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel-and-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2068"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}