Water Baptism

Baptism is about being identified with Jesus. In choosing to be baptised you are saying, “I believe in Jesus, I choose a new way of life and I want to demonstrate that publicly”. It’s a symbol that has powerful meaning, marking your new journey of faith.

Baptism is a public pledge to follow Christ, an oath of allegiance to Him. A wedding ring is an outward sign that a person is married; similarly, water baptism is a symbol designed by God to identify a person as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Water baptism wasn’t an unusual phenomenon in the early church; in fact it took place very soon – if not immediately – after conversion. Contrary to some modern practice which implies that one needs to reach a certain level of spiritual maturity before being ready to be baptised, the biblical expectation is that believers get baptised as soon as they come to faith. In fact, the New Testament doesn’t really leave any room for the notion of an “unbaptised disciple”. This is because baptism is not a statement of Christian maturity; it is a first step into the Christian life.

Want to learn more about baptism? Watch this sermon or see our Events page to book in for our next Exploring: Baptism event. Want to get baptised at City Church? Fill in an application form.