Let me say here that whether you believe only adult believers should be baptised or that babies may be baptised whose parents profess faith does not matter. The point Paul is making and I am trying to make also is to make sure that we do not miss out on the practical meaning and value of our baptism. Baptism is a bit like a token you can be given for a Christmas or birthday present: gift tokens, record tokens, book tokens. A token is only a bit of card, but it stands for something much more precious, a lovely gift, that is if you actually use the token. It is all important that you make full use of this token of baptism. I remember once that my father was tidying out his desk, he found some old postal orders from the 1920’s and 30’s, gifts given him when he was a lad, worth 5 shillings, half a crown (25 p or 12.5 p in today’s money and slightly more in euros) That was a lot of money in the 1920’s, a good gift but he let them lie there until the 1960’s and when he wrote to the Post Office they allowed him to cash them in only at face value. He didn’t get even half the value that the giver intended. And suppose he had left them to lie there in the drawer? The gift would be of no value at all. Let no-one who has been baptised leave it too long to enter into the value of your baptism Let it not be a forgotten token. Isn’t that one of the great problems in so many of our churches? So many have the token, but how many have the reality of new life in Jesus?

Let me read just a few words out of one of the old church catechisms, about ‘improving our baptism’, entering into its deepest meaning. ‘... improving our baptism, is to be carried out by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the baptism of others by serious and thankful consideration of ... the privileges and benefits that it confers and seals ... by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the putting to death of sin, and the new life coming from grace; and by seeking to live by faith, to have our lifestyle characterised by holiness and righteousness, as those who are known through baptism as Christ's, and to live in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.’

That’s a lot to take in! Paul put it more simply when he wrote 6.3-4) 'We were buried with him through baptism into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father we too may life a new life.' Because many of us are baptised as babies at the beginning of our lives and is always associated with beginning as a Christian we forget that although baptism is about beginning it is also about dying and rising again to a new kind of life. Which is why it is so appropriate for the Easter season It is a way of linking us to what Easter is all about, the death and the rising again of Jesus Christ. our baptism means that we belong to Jesus Christ. It is a sign to remind you that he died on the cross to take away our sin and rose again so that we too may live in a new relationship with God as our heavenly Father and with other church members as our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Don’t we all find times when it is not easy to be a Christian, times when we may feel that other people have let us down, times when we may feel that we have let ourselves down, or even that God has let us down, times of disappointment and failure, times when sin, plain and simple, seems to be in control of our life and we are far from God. It is precisely at those times of doubt and failure that we should remember our baptism/funeral, remember that it points to that first Good Friday when Jesus himself died for our sins and took them away from us and rose again to give us a new way of living where we don’t have to be controlled by sin any more but as Paul says in v 13: 'offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.'

One big problem for us is, we feel the grip of our old life on us so much. That’s why we need to get the value of our baptism so much. I remember at school a teacher who terrorised me; I worked for him out of fear; Stress wasn’t the vogue word it is now but many of us were stressed going to his classes. When I went to college, I remember feeling very nervous going to my classes; until I caught myself on; I wasn’t at school anymore. My college tutors might tell me if I didn’t do good work but they weren’t going to cream at me and terrorise me as in the bad old days at school. I had to realise I was in a new situation. Dr John Stott puts it like this: ‘Can a married woman still live as though she were still single? Well, yes, I suppose she could. It is not impossible. But let her remember who she is. Let her feel her wedding ring, the symbol of her new life of union with her husband and she will want to live accordingly. can born-again Christians live as though they were still in their sins? Well, yes, I suppose they could, at least for a while. But let them remember who they are. Let them recall their baptism, the symbol of their new life of union with Jesus Christ and they will want to live accordingly.

Is not this wonderfully liberating? Even when you realise you have failed to love Jesus and keep his commands and maybe you feel you have done something so bad you could never be forgiven, remember your baptism and through it the cross, the token and the guarantee that God loves you, and can make you clean and right with him. Or maybe you are lonely and wondering if anyone loves you. Remember your baptism: Jesus loves you. Perhaps someone wonders what’s life all about. Remember your baptism: you belong to God. Perhaps you are tempted to do something very wrong. Remember your baptism: Christ wants you to live a new life. You are marked out for heaven. and you don’t have to live the old sinful kind of life and in the old shameful ways. You can offer yourself to God as those brought from death to life as people declared not guilty in the death of Christ and stamped with his stamp, sealed with his seal in baptism.

And may it be that we all will be thankful for the token given us and resolve that we will not leave it in a drawer but realise its true value for believers, that we become what we are declared to be and called to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

May this Easter time be a time when we experience true new life that the reality of the death and resurrection of Christ shall be a reality in our daily living not only in what we believe but in how we live

Let us be people who are thankful for our baptism and who enter into all its blessings.