What Does Baptism Mean?

If an idea cannot be explained to children then something is wrong. The following was a children’s talk given before a sermon on ‘Baptism’ to teach the essential good news about forgiveness of sin.

The church went quiet as the speaker stood up to give the five minute talk.

“What is the most important day in history?” he asked.

“When Arsenal won the cup!” came an immediate reply.

“Something even more important than that. It was April 3rd 33AD.

That got the children sitting on the floor at the front of the hall thinking hard. They didn’t go back that far.

“Was that when Jesus was born?” came the question.

“No, even more important than even that - April 3rd 33AD was the day when Jesus did something very special. He died to take the place of you and me.”

The speaker continued. He told them of a teacher who was asked by a ten year old boy,

“Sir, have you ever seen God?”

He wisely replied,

“No, but if I had lived in Israel 2000 years ago I could have done. You see, Jesus was God who entered this world as a human being.”

They then discussed why Jesus had come to this world.

“Was it to teach us God’s ways? Yes, he did just that, but there was something even more important.”.

“Was it to give us an example of how God wants us to live? Yes, but there was something even more important than that.”

After a pause he explained why Jesus had come,

“Jesus came to die so that he could take responsibility for your sin and mine, the sin that separates us from God. The Bible says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.”

He then opened his left hand to show a large ‘J’ written across his palm. This arm was pointing upwards.

“This hand represents the Lord Jesus, this is why it has a large ‘J’ on it

At this point the left arm twisted until the lower arm was lying horizontally.

“When Jesus died he took on himself the sin of all who turn to him as Saviour and Lord.”

Then the arm twisted again until it was upright.

“After three days, Jesus rose from the dead to prove that his sacrifice had been accepted by God and to enable all his people to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, a power that enables them to live as God wants.”

The speaker then produced a bag with an embroidered face of a smiling boy on the front and put it on his right hand.

“Now here is you and me. On outside we look a bit cheeky but basically we think we’re OK.”

The bag was then turned inside out. The inside was made of dark material to represent our sin.

“When God sees what we’re really like inside he sees that we are all rebels against God. We all tend to think deep down,

“Shove off God, I’m in charge, No to what you want”

Those letters spell, S for ‘Shove off’, I for ‘I’m in charge’ and N for “No to what you want’ spell SIN; we do things like lying, stealing, being rude, selfish and unkind as a result of being rebels against God.”

“But when we become Christians, we ask Jesus to take our sin and to make us into one of his chosen people.We commit our lives to Jesus.”

At this point the black bag was transferred onto the left hand which represents Jesus,

When the children had grasped the significance of the transfer of sin, the left arm again was turned until it was horizontal and the speaker said,

“Jesus then died because he was paying the price for your sin and mine.”

The bag was then slipped off the left hand and left on the table, to represent sin being removed, but not before his closed left hand had grasped a white silk from a secret compartment within the bag. The left hand then turned again into a vertical position. The speaker explained that because Jesus is alive he can give his Holy Spirit to all who become his followers. The white silk was then revealed and passed to the empty right hand and then pocketed.

The aim of the talk was to demonstrate that baptism is an enactment of this picture of salvation. The speaker continued.

“So when a person becomes a Christian he is baptised to act out what Jesus has done for him. At Baptism we show that we have asked Jesus to take responsibility for our sin.”

Thus baptism is an enactment of the Christian good news. When a person is baptised they confirm that Jesus has paid for their sin and that they have received the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable them to live their lives for Jesus.