Baptism sermons can be hard. A busy auditorium, lots of first-time visitors, the anxiety of giving a “home-run” talk… and an order of service with more moving parts than usual. How good it is that our Father delights in us already through His Son, even before we have uttered a word for Him! What I’ve learned so far from trial and error, from experienced preachers like David Cook and Sam Chan, and trusting the Holy Spirit’s guidance amidst my inexperience, is to plan and prepare sermons on special occasions like you would for a wedding: a milestone moment, with all kinds of people there, but not to see you. And time is short. So on days like these, I’m slowly learning to keep my sermons simple, expository and practical.
For context, this past term our church has been going through our statement of faith line-by-line during our sermons (at PCBC English we’ve called the series “This We Believe”). So with our church’s teaching on the Trinity relatively fresh in my mind, at short notice I was able to take the passage on Jesus’s baptism in Matthew 3:16-17, and prepare that as a shorter sermon (which was superbly translated into Cantonese by Ps Barry, another proud dad!).
Thankfully, during a baptism service you also get to lean in on how powerfully and vividly the gospel is proclaimed and pictured during the rest of the worship service. In our case, to hear five clear testimonies of faith in Jesus (including our eldest child!), and to play a small part in “picturing” the death and rebirth of each follower in Christ, all helps to take the pressure off coming up with unrelated illustrations, and just simply preaching a clear message from a Bible passage.
At the same time, because of the nature of the service (lots of non-Christians and visitors from different church backgrounds), I personally have found it helpful at some point in the sermon to give a brief apologetic for why our church practises believer’s baptism, and to offer a gospel invitation (something I learned from Joe Fleener’s many excellent wedding sermons).
Here’s my script from that morning, lightly edited for clarity (you can also listen to the sermon preached in English and Cantonese here).
Signs of Love 愛的記號 (Matthew 3:16–17)
Sermon #279 preached by William HC on 2 November 2025 for PCBC’s Combined Baptism Service. Big idea: Our triune God pictures a perfect family, provides a promised salvation, and presents a pattern for unity.
[Read Matthew 3:16-17]
[Introduce myself and Ps Barry, acknowledge family & friends]
About Baptism
Let us explain baptism briefly. Here at PCBC, we don’t baptise babies. Nor do we baptise every adult. Rather, we baptise believers as one of the family habits the risen Lord Jesus instructs his followers to do as we make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20). To be immersed under water and raised again vividly portrays the spiritual rebirth each believer has experienced by God’s grace (c.f. Rom 6:1-4). Like a wedding ring symbolises the union of marriage, baptism symbolises every believer’s journey from death to life in Jesus.
To Annie, Jun, Stacy, Eden and Kardia… we’re so grateful for the Holy Spirit’s work in you already. At the end of your water baptism, you will receive gifts and well-wishes. You will be formally added to the membership of PCBC (make sure you sign the big book on your way out!). Yet by God’s grace, you still get to decide, day after day, to keep trusting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.
And to family and friends, I know that today the thing that would bring these five the most joy would not be simply to receive a gift from you. Rather, if you are here and do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, their greatest joy would be to know for certain you too have received the free gift of God’s grace. As Romans 10:9 states: “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Introduction: 💖
Let me ask a question: How do you show love? Turn to the person next to you for a quick experiment. And on the count of three, show them some love. 3… 2…1…
Who showed it this way? [hand heart / 心形手勢]
Who showed it this way? [finger heart / 手指心形]There’s lots of other actions that symbolise love, of course. A phone call to ask: “Have you eaten yet?” A bouquet of flowers. An act of service. Affirming words. We all show love differently.
And yet here is how God shows love: by appearing to our world as Father, Son and Spirit. One God in three persons: our blessed Trinity.
Now I get it – for many of us, talking about the Trinity feels as exciting as answering the final question on a maths exam. “No thanks – I’ll leave it to the experts.”
Yet listen to Gary Millar explain in his book, Need to Know:
“It may seem strange now, but for the first 400 years or so of the Christian church, more energy was poured into working out the right beliefs about the Trinity than anything else. Men like Irenaeus, Augustine and Athanasius… made it very clear that to know God is to meet the Trinity.”
Each of you have professed to know God and live for Him. This is why in a few moments, you five will be baptised in the one name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And before we do so, I’d like to briefly explain three lovely things our triune God shows us from this passage we just heard (Mt 3:16-17): a perfect family, a promised salvation, and a pattern for unity.
So let us first consider how:
1. Only our Triune God pictures a perfect family
Listen again to Matthew 3:16:
“As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.””
Author and podcaster Glen Scrivener, reflects on this scene this way: “to know God we should look at him. And what do we see? A loving Union of three…”
Here is Matthew —an eyewitness and one of Jesus’s close followers—paying careful attention to the events that took place at Jesus’s baptism. And in the same waters where God’s people once made a risky crossing into new beginnings (Joshua 3-4), our Triune God announces a new beginning: as a picture-perfect family. With a proud Father who declares to the world: “This is my beloved son. I’m so pleased with Him.”
Of course, we are two proud dads here [~don’t cry!]… and two thankful pastors. Like many of you, we are so grateful for God’s gracious hand in our families.
Yet how much more delighted must God the Father be at Jesus’s baptism… when he speaks over his one and only Son – “I’m so pleased with you!” How special it must have been for our Lord to experience the closeness and delight of his Father, and the presence of his Spirit.
The photos you take today will be treasured memories. Yet here at Jesus’s baptism is a more perfect picture. This is the gospel: when you unite in faith to our triune God, you go from being a total outcast… to delighting in the closest, deepest love ever known. You become fully known, fully loved in Jesus, by the Father, with the Spirit.
A precious family. One that has always been, and will always be, full of love. Only our Triune God pictures this.
But not only that, for every believer here…
2. Only our Triune God provides a promised salvation
One thing you’ll have noticed by now is that there are differences between Jesus’s baptism, and the ones here today. For starters, behind us is Auckland water, not water from the Jordan River. We’re in an auditorium in Pakūranga, not in the wilderness of Judea. And the ceremony is conducted in English and Cantonese, not Aramaic or Greek.
Yet just as today’s baptisms point to deeper spiritual realities, Jesus’s baptism points to deeper spiritual realities for each of us today.
Because here is a picture of Father, Son and Spirit, presenting a long-awaited redemption. When our first parents failed to obey God’s good word in the garden, all seemed lost. But the Father promised that one day, a son of Adam would crush the serpent’s head. And now, the voice of Heavenly Father here (Mt 3:17) in actual fact echoes an important verse from the Old Testament.
600 years before Jesus’s baptism, the prophet Isaiah predicted this Chosen One with these words:
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.”
A delighted voice. A chosen servant. God’s Spirit upon him. Sound familiar?
Here at Jesus’s baptism, the spotlight shines on the chosen one all of humanity has been longing for. As Matthew and the other gospel writers go on to describe, only Jesus had his Father’s authority to forgive sins, to calm the storms, to feed the multitudes, to heal the sick, to raise the dead – including his own body, after He dies for sinners on the cross. This is the greatest symbol of love (†) – do you believe this?
Yet the Bible is also clear that every member of our Triune God saved us. As Ephesians 1 tells us: praise the Father who chose us, The Son who saved us, The Spirit who seals us (Eph 1:3-15). To paraphrase our opening hymn: “God in three persons, saving you and me.” (♪ 三位一體神，拯救你同我 ♪)
And just as we needed our Triune God to save us… we need God in three persons to keep growing us. None of us can live the Christian life alone! It is the Spirit who will grow in us fruit such as faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). It is the Son who is the Author and Finisher of our faith as we run the race He has pioneered (Heb. 12:1-2). It is the Father who will keep delighting in us and showing His steadfast love to us, just as he did the day He made us.
To the five of you, I can’t wait to see what kinds of spiritual gifts God grows in you, as you keep trusting and following Him. Some of the most faithful prayer warriors in God’s army are the older saints among us like Annie. Some of the best missionaries in God’s service are next generation believers like Eden, Kardia, Jun and Stacy, who cross cultures with their identities firmly anchored in Christ.
And yet each of you belong in God’s family – not because of your gifts, or your talents, or your achievements. You’re not worth more or less based on the language you speak, the years you’ve lived, the gender God gave you. Rather, your true identity and worth comes from being loved by our Triune God who has provided His promised salvation.
And finally, very briefly,
3. Only the Triune God presents a pattern for unity
Look again at our verse. Did you notice at Jesus’s baptism how each member of the Trinity plays a different part? The Father is not hovering like a dove. The Spirit didn’t get wet. There is unity and difference. Yet no one is worth more or less. Here in the life of our Triune God, we are offered a pattern for unity in diversity.
Brothers and sisters, our church is in the midst of many big changes. They are rebuilding the roads right outside our doorstep. Four of you have committed to our church family despite many uncertainties about our English ministry in 2026. And just 7 days ago, our church couldn’t reach a consensus over calling an Assistant Pastor.
So how do we show love amidst these challenges? Whether you show love this way [finger heart]… or this way [hand heart]… only our Triune God presents the ideal pattern of unity. After all, there is no blame game within the Trinity. No finger pointing or resentment between Father or Son. No unforgiveness or bitterness between Son and the Spirit.
And so in that case, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:13-26). Let us unite under our Father’s will. Let us repent and believe in the Lord Jesus day by day. Because just as Paul once told the Corinthians, it is the same Spirit, the same Lord (Jesus), the same God (and Father) who is at work in every church, no matter how chaotic. (1 Cor 12:4-6). Praise God for showing us unity comes not from our skin colour, or what language we speak, but from our triune God… who pictures for us a perfect family, who has provided a promised salvation, and who presents us a pattern for unity in the days ahead. Let’s pray.