Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Taking Baptism to the Streets



What about baptizing in the streets? What about baptizing in the neighborhoods? Should we be responsible to provide baptism immediately upon a person's willingness to repent of their sin and call on the name of Jesus for salvation?
  1. I have often walked neighborhoods telling people about salvation in Christ, and exhorting them to call upon Christ to forgive their sins, but haven't brought with me a way to immerse them upon their confession of Christ.
  • In Acts 2 the church was born, and we hear the apostle Peter say, Repent and be immersed for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
  • In Acts 8 we read that when the Samaritans believed Philip concerning the kingdom of God they were immersed.
  • In Acts 8 when Philip took a chariot ride and led the driver to Christ they stopped the chariot and Philip immersed him.
  • In Acts 10 the apostle Peter commanded the Gentiles to be immersed when the Holy Spirit came upon them.
  • In Acts 16 Lydia and her family accepted Christ, and before she invited Paul into her house, she and hers were immersed.
  • In Acts 16 Paul led the Philippian jailer and his family to the Lord, and the Bible makes a point of saying that that same hour he immersed them.
  • In Acts 19 Paul met some of John the Immerser's disciples and they were promptly immersed calling on the name of the Lord Jesus.

hmmmm. Are you seeing a pattern here? I guess one could argue that it is not our responsibility to provide water where there is none, and there's probably a valid point there. But there's water just about every place we share Christ here in our community. All we would lack is the baptism pool. So how about carrying a pool with us so that when people accept Christ we can set it up, fill it, and immerse them right there in the neighborhood where they trusted in Christ? Let me know what you think.

Yours in Him,

Pastor B.

No comments:

Post a Comment