Dear Baptized Ones,

This Sunday we will have the privilege of witnessing the baptism of Emma Doyle. Emma is a student at Kennesaw State and has recently come to faith in Jesus through the ministry of RUF. It will be a deep encouragement to us all to celebrate the Lord’s gracious work in Emma’s life! It will also be a fitting opportunity to consider how Emma’s baptism will teach us about and remind us of our own baptisms. Because baptism visibly unites us to Jesus and His body, the Church, when one of us is baptized it becomes an occasion to see again how God has been and will continue to be at work in all of us.

Our sermon on Sunday will focus on the burial of Jesus as recorded in Mark 15:42-47. Although perhaps not often considered in this way, this text is an appropriate baptism text. This is because one of the metaphors the Bible uses to explain the meaning of baptism is the metaphor of burial and resurrection. As a visible sign and seal of the reality of our union with Jesus, baptism helps us to see and believe that both Jesus’ burial and His resurrection from the grave were, in an important sense, our burial and resurrection too. Consider how the Apostle Paul puts the matter in Romans 6:3-5:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” 

Let’s prepare our hearts to celebrate Emma’s baptism this Sunday by meditating on the glory of Jesus’ victory over the grave for us. Let’s ask the Lord to give us a renewed sense, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of our union with Him in his death, burial, and resurrection. May the Lord use this means of grace to grow us in faith, hope, and love as we ponder these things.

In Christ,
Robby