First Mennonite Church
April 5, 2026
Baptism: The Symbol of Our Resurrection
Text: Romans 6:1-14
Before I go to my sermon for today, I want to congratulate, once more, Robert and Jane for placing your lives under the rule of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and for committing themselves to serve the Lord in this congregation.
To you I want to dedicate Paul’s words to the Colossians, the same passage Sarah read this morning. This is what the Apostle Paul said:
3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
This is my prayer for you Jane, Alice, and Robert. May the Lord lead you every day, from today forward. I pray that as we walk together, we grow in the knowledge and stature of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Today, we are celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection. Easter Sunday is the commemoration of the day Jesus conquered death, thus bringing to its fullness our redemption from the power of sin and death. Jesus’ life, teachings, example, and his ultimate sacrifice on the cross were given God’s seal of approval when He raised Jesus from the dead. God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead, therefore, exposing the evil of those who rejected and crucified him.
Through Jesus’ resurrection, the alienation between us and God, our helplessness to the slavery of sin, through our flesh desires, and therefore, our falling short of the glory of God because of sin, were all reversed and upended.
Now we have the possibility of enjoying communion with God. Now we can love God because his love has been poured out into our hearts, the day we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Today we can overcome the power of sin’s grip on us because God’s Spirit lives in us. Now we can share in the glory of God because those whom God called, he also glorified, says the Apostle Paul. And even the reality of our physical death looming in our horizon now signals not our end but our fullest and glorious entrance into the presence of our Savior.
Jesus’ body was put in the tomb that Good Friday eve, after he trod the Via Dolorosa. Death kept hold of his body until Sunday morning. Then, as the Apostle Paul says, God by the power of his Spirit raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 8:11). Therefore, Jesus’ going into the grave and coming out from it became Paul’s perfect illustration of what happens when we are baptized in the Lord.
Romans 6:1-14
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
For the Apostle Paul, the resurrection of Jesus was more than a miraculous event God performed. For Paul, the resurrection of Jesus has direct implications for those who confess to have believed and received the message of the gospel. The resurrection of Jesus, therefore, is not just the acceptance of an abstract theological concept, nor is it just the embrace of a purely orthodox confession, nor is it simply the acknowledgement of a distant event in history. The resurrection of Jesus is the source and foundation for every claim we have about our faith. If Christ had not been raised from the death, everything we say about our faith and life in Christ would be a lie. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, to claim that it is possible to live and serve God would be a lie. However, Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead by the power of God. Therefore, Jesus’ resurrection is source of the power that shapes and defines the Christian life. PERIOD.
Paul says that through our baptism we not only die with Christ but we are also raised with him to live a new life. As we know here on earth, death is final. We do not get to see or interact with the one who dies. Our dying with Christ is also our dying to sin. So Paul says: Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
And the way we give witness to this solemn commitment to the Lord is by being baptized. What follows our baptism is the determination and promise to God to walk in newness of life. What follows our baptism the life of our resurrection with Christ. That began the day we entrusted our lives into the hands of the Lord.
Living the resurrected life in Christ, or what Paul refers to “walking in newness of life,” is evidence that the same power God exercised in raising Jesus from the dead, now operates in the believer’s life. And the way we nourish our new life in Christ is by taking time to read our bibles, is by taking the time to commune with the Lord in prayer, is by being in fellowship with our brothers and sister during worship, is by offering ourselves and abilities to the service of the Lord.
Christ Jesus was raised on Easter Sunday, but the life of resurrection for us is every day, in every situation. The life of resurrection for us is reflected in the way we conduct ourselves at home, the work place, school, and everywhere. Christian ethics and morality are nothing else but the display of Jesus’ victory over death. When you show devotion to God, when you reach out to others in love, when you share the gospel, when you, despite the hostility, rejection or indifference for the sake of Christ, continue showing humility, you are, in fact, living the resurrection power and life of Jesus Christ. So, go live the resurrected life in Christ. Amen!
Pastor Romero