Our roadmap

Our roadmap
Week 1: What is the gospel?
Week 2: Who are we?
Week 3: What do we believe?
Week 4: What do we do?
Week 5: What is baptism?
Next step: Fill in a member application form
Membership interview: Interview questions

Are you not baptised yet? I hope you are excited to get baptised. Baptism is necessary for church membership. This lesson is for those who have not been baptised yet.

What is baptism?

Believer baptism, by full immersion (underwater), is an outward symbol of an inward reality. In baptism, we identify with Jesus Christ and His Church.

Romans 6:1-5, What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

What does it mean to die to sin? (2)
What does the word baptism mean? (3a)
How does baptism outwardly symbolise an inward reality? (3b-4)
How does baptism identify us with Jesus? (5)

Is baptism necessary?

Believer baptism, is commanded by Jesus in the Great Commission, and is therefore a necessary act of obedience to Him.

Matthew 28:16-20, The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What is the command in this passage? (19)
What are the ways we are to go about that command? (20-21)
Whose authority do we baptise in? (19)

Why must I get baptised if I was christened as a child?

In Scripture, believer baptism comes after belief, and before membership.

Acts 2:32-41, “God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this. Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says:

The Lord declared to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.’

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.