About Duncan Heaster and Pub Church Croydon: Sermons and thoughts
Duncan Heaster and Pub Church Croydon: Sermons and thoughts is the podcast of Duncan Heaster and his friends. Duncan pastors Pub Church in Croydon, in South London UK. He has been studying, writing and teaching the Bible for over 40 years. He's done a verse by verse commentary on every verse of the Bible, and Bible studies and sermons on most chapters of the Bible. This podcast shares them with the world. But it also includes at times his thoughts and reflections as he and his family travel around baptizing whoever wishes to be baptized, throughout the UK and Europe. He's non-standard in a lot of ways. These talks are raw and out of the box, without airs and graces. Probably not for everyone, But if you're out of the box yourself, you might find them helpful and bread for the journey. You can get free access to Duncan's verse by verse commentary, sermons, videos etc. from his free app The Bible Companion, www.freebible.info (http://www.freebible.info) . If you'd like to discuss being baptized into Jesus, you can contact him on +447481122558
10.4 Baptism and SalvationBaptism associates us with the death of Christ, hence it is only through baptism that we can have access to forgiveness. We are “buried with (Christ) in baptism and raised with him through ... the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins ... (God) made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins” (Col. 2:12,13NIV). We are “washed...in the name of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 6:11) - i.e. baptism into the name of Jesus is the means by which our sins are washed away. This was typified back in Num. 19:13, where those without the water of purification had to die. We demonstrated in Study 10.2 how baptism is a washing away of sins (cf. Acts 22:16). The descriptions of the believers as being washed from their sins in the blood of Christ therefore refers to their doing this by means of baptism (Rev. 1:5; 7:14; Tit. 3:5 [NIV] speak of this as “the washing of rebirth”, referring to our being “born of water” at baptism [Jn. 3:5]).
In the light of all this, it is understandable that Peter’s response to the question, “What shall we do?” was, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgivrness of your sins” (Acts 2:37,38NIV). Baptism into Christ’s name is for the forgiveness of sins; it’s that important. There is no salvation except in the name of Jesus (A
25 Mar 2026
Bible Basics 9.3 The meaning of baptism
Bible Basics 10.3 The Meaning of Baptism
ne of the reasons for baptism by immersion is that going under the water symbolises our going into the grave - associating us with the death of Christ, and indicating our ‘death’ to our previous life of sin and ignorance. Coming up out of the water connects us with the resurrection of Christ, relating us to the hope of resurrection to eternal life at his return, as well as to living a new life now, spiritually triumphant over sin on account of Christ’s victory achieved by his death and resurrection.
“...all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death. 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. If we have been united with him like this in his death (by baptism), we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Rom. 6:3-5NIV).
Because salvation has been made possible only through Christ’s death and resurrection, it is vital that we associate ourselves with these things if we are to be saved. The symbolic dying and rising again with Christ, which baptism enacts, is the only way to do this. It should be noted that sprinkling does not fulfil this symbol. At baptism, “our old self (way of life) was crucified” along with Christ on the cross (Rom. 6:6NIV); God “made us alive with Christ” at baptism (Eph. 2:5NIV)
25 Mar 2026
Bible Basics 9.2 How Should we be Baptised?
10.2 How Should we be Baptised?
ere is a widely held view that baptism can be performed, especially on babies, by sprinkling water on their foreheads (i.e. ‘christening’). This is in stark contrast to the Biblical requirement for baptism.
The Greek word ‘baptizo’, which is translated ‘baptise’ in the English Bible, does not mean to sprinkle; it means to completely wash and immerse in a liquid (see the definitions in the concordances of Robert Young and James Strong). This word is used in classical Greek concerning ships sinking and being ‘baptised’ (i.e. submerged) in water, or a bucket being submerged in well water. It is also used with reference to a piece of cloth being dyed from one colour to another by ‘baptising’, or dipping it into a dye. To change the colour of the cloth, it is evident that it had to be fully immersed under the liquid, rather than have the dye sprinkled upon it. Jn. 13:26 uses the Greek bapto to describe how the Lord dipped a piece of bread in wine. That immersion is indeed the correct form of baptism is borne out by the following verses:-
§ “John also was baptising in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptised” (Jn. 3:23). This shows that “much water” was required for baptism; if it was done by sprinkling a few drops of water, then just one bucket of water would have sufficed for hundreds of people. The people came to this spot on the banks of the River Jordan for baptism, rather than John going round to them with a bottle of water.
§ Jesus, too, was baptised by John in the River Jordan - into the Jordan (Mk. 1:9 RVmg.). “As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water” (Mt. 3:13-16NIV). His baptism was clearly by immersion - he “went up...out of the water” after baptism. One of the reasons for Jesus being baptised was in order to set an examp
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