BAPTISM

It is plainly obvious to anyone who gets connected in our church that our people come from faith backgrounds of all kinds. In that sense, we are truly a non-denominational church. I’m an example of that. Raised Anglican with an acute sense of God, saved through a Pentecostal youth worker during my time at the Salvation Army church. And then to a Baptist church in my twenties where I was ordained to pastoral ministry. So many in our church have similar stories or at least have their origin outside of our tradition. We are a Bible church, Gospel-centred, Reformed in theology, and Protestant. Harvest is made up of former Roman Catholics, Anglicans, United Church, Baptists, Pentecostals and Charismatics, Presbyterians, Brethren, Christian Reformed, and more. There are also former Muslims and Hindus with us, and maybe some others I haven’t mentioned. There are, of course, many “Nones” who have had no religious upbringing or experience at all. And a handful who would have considered themselves Atheists at one time. It makes for an exciting mix of stories as we have all come to understand the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, all of that to say, beyond the differences in what we believe, the rites that we follow as a church differ greatly from those many of us experienced in our previous churches and religions. I’m going to insert a short, two message series called The Ordinances, to clearly lay out what we believe about the two Jesus-commanded rites of our church. I’ll preach the first this coming Sunday on Baptism and the second on November 29 on Communion.

Series: The Ordinances

Message: 1 - Baptism

Text: Various Scriptures

Todd Dugard

Harvest Bible Chapel

September 6, 2026

The ordinances are the dramatic presentations of the gospel. They are the moving pictures that represent the spiritual realities of the gospel, written and directed by Jesus himself.

- Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church

Concerning the ordinance of baptism…

1. WHAT is baptism?

2. WHO should be baptized? (Acts 2:37-38, 41; 8:26-37; Galatians 3:26-27)