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Household Faith | Remembering Baptism - Lesson Five

Updated: Mar 22, 2023

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Household Faith Series - Remembering Baptism - Lesson 5
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About the Household Faith Series

Calvary’s Household Faith Series is a collection of lessons on a series of important faith formation topics designed for parents to lead their children through as they teach them the faith. God has given every parent the gift of being the greatest influence on the faith life of their children. The church’s role is to partner with them as they pass on the faith to their children. This Series is an attempt to do that by equipping parents with the necessary resources and lessons.


The Household Faith Series includes

  • First Communion Preparation

  • Remembering Baptism

  • Reading the Bible

  • Learning to Pray

  • Confessing the Creed

  • Learning the Liturgy

About Remembering Baptism

Remembering Baptism consists of five lessons following the questions and answers Martin Luther puts forth on Baptism and the Apostles’ Creed in his Small Catechism.


These lessons seek to help parents whose children are baptized or who are preparing them for baptism learn what Holy Baptism is, what its benefits are, how Holy Baptism can do what it does, and what it means for the new life of the baptized. It also aims to teach them about various aspects surrounding Holy Baptism, like infant baptism and baptismal sponsors.


Each lesson makes use of readings from the Bible and Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, videos, important vocabulary words to know, and questions to reinforce and solidify learning.


In the end, we hope these lessons will help those who are baptized learn more about what happened at their baptism and help those preparing for baptism understand how God works through the water and word of Holy Baptism.

 

Lesson Five: What Does Baptism Indicate?

Review the following before you begin Things you’ll need for this lesson:

  • Bibles for those going through the lesson

  • A copy of Luther’s Small Catechism. If you don’t have or can’t find a physical copy, you can download the Small Catechism app in your smart device’s app store or go to https://catechism.cph.org/ to view it online.

  • An electronic device that can play YouTube videos. We’ll be using videos from BibleProject.

  • A pen or pencil for recording your student’s answers at the end of the lesson

LEARNER GOAL: At the end of this lesson, students should understand what it means to remember their baptism and that baptism is not a mere past event, but a present everyday reality of life.

 

Introduction

PARENTS SAY: We’ve made it to the last lesson! Let’s remember what we’ve learned so far. In lesson one, we learned that in Baptism God puts his name on us—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In lesson two, we learned who God is and that he not only gives us all we need to live, but also all of himself in Jesus and all that we need to believe in him. In lesson three, we learned what God gives us in Holy Baptism. And, in lesson four, we learned that baptism can do what it does because of God’s word added to the water.


In our final lesson, we’ll learn that we never outgrow our baptism, what it means to remember our baptism, and that while we only need to be baptized once, the benefits of our baptism (what we talked about in the lesson before this one) are given to us daily, again and again.


Small Catechism Reading

Open your copy of Luther’s Small Catechism (or go to https://catechism.cph.org/) and turn to the fourth chief part entitled, “The Sacrament of Holy Baptism” and read the fourth main question, “What does such baptizing with water indicate?” and Luther’s answer. Then read its follow-up question, “Where is this written?” and Luther’s answer.


Review the vocabulary word below, then ask the following questions:

VOCABULARY: Repentance, To be turned or to turn from one thing to another; a change of mind
  • What does baptizing in God’s Word added to the water indicate about the Old Adam in us? (The Old Adam is a way of talking about our sinful nature we inherited from Adam and Eve.)

    • A: That it should daily be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires

  • What does baptizing in God’s Word added to the water indicate about the “new man” or new us?

    • A: That it should daily emerge and rise to live before God in righteousness and purity

  • While we only need to be baptized once, how often should this dying and rise happen in our lives?

    • A: Daily

Video - Image of God

Watch the Image of God video on the BibleProject YouTube page (https://youtu.be/YbipxLDtY8c). This video looks at how our human vocation as co-workers with God has been compromised by our selfishness and evil, and how Jesus opens up a new way of being human through his life, death, and resurrection.

Discuss what you saw in the video. If you need to, you can use some of the following questions:

  • Why aren’t people supposed to make images of God?

  • What task did God give to humans and how did we mess it up?

  • Why did the New Testament writers call Jesus “the image of Godand “the new human?”

  • What did the Apostle Paul say this new human life (one transformed by Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection) looks like for us?

  • What was something new that you learned?

    • Parents, feel free to share something you learned

  • Was there anything in the video that was weird, confusing, or that you didn’t understand?

    • Parents, don’t hesitate to share something that was weird or confusing to you or that you didn’t understand.

    • Also, feel free to write down these questions and try to find the answers throughout the week.

Bible Reading - Romans 6:1-11

Grab your Bibles and turn to Romans 6:1-11. Read it aloud (consider taking turns with those with you); then, discuss what you read. Use some of the following questions:

  • What does Paul say baptism does?

  • What does Paul say about those who have died to sin?

  • What does Paul say we must consider ourselves?

PARENTS SAY: The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Rome, tells us that Holy Baptism unites us to Jesus’s death and resurrection. It transforms us. Through baptism we die to sin and we have a new life in Christ.


But our new life isn’t perfect. Not yet. We still struggle with sin everyday. The good news is that baptism is not just something that happened in the past. It’s part of everyday life. We don’t say, “I was baptized.” We say, “I am baptized.”


Martin Luther’s fourth question on baptism (which we read at the beginning of our lesson) asks, “What does such baptizing with water indicate?” This is another way of asking, “What does Baptism have to do with my daily life?” Let’s learn about that next.


Video - Sacrifice and Atonement

Watch the Sacrifice and Atonement video on the BibleProject YouTube page (https://youtu.be/G_OlRWGLdnw). This video discusses God’s “covering” over human evil through animal sacrifices that ultimately point to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Discuss what you saw in the video. If you need to you can use some of the following questions.

  • What do the previously commanded animal sacrifices point to?

  • What does Jesus’s death provide for us?

  • Describe baptism and what it does for us

  • What do the “new rituals” of baptism and the Lord’s Supper do?

  • What was something new that you learned?

    • Again, feel free to share something you learned

  • Was there anything in the video that was weird, confusing, or that you didn’t understand?

    • Again, don’t hesitate to share something that was weird or confusing to you or that you didn’t understand.

    • Also, feel free to write down these questions too and try to find the answers throughout the week.

Bible Reading - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Grab your Bibles again. This time turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. Read it aloud (consider taking turns with those with you). Then, review the vocabulary word below and discuss what you read. Use some of the following questions:

VOCABULARY: Righteousness, A right relationship with God given to us by Jesus in exchange for our sinfulness.
  • If someone is in Christ what are they?

    • See verse 17

  • What did God do through Christ?

    • See verse 19

  • Paul writes, “For our sake he made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin;” why did Jesus become sin for us?

    • See verse 21

PARENTS SAY: Our new life in Christ, our Christian life is not lived in our righteousness. We can’t earn a right relationship with God by what we do. Instead, we live in Jesus’s right relationship with God, his righteousness. Paul also wrote, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:17). Baptism clothes us with Jesus’s righteousness.


But because we still sin, this means that every day of our new life in Jesus we should remember and return to our baptism. Said another way, to remember your baptism is to remember that we are baptized and that we are forgiven.


We do this every Sunday when we make the sign of the cross, which we are marked with at our baptism. But we can also remember our baptisms when we wash our hands and bodies and we can remember the benefits of our baptism when we look at the cross.

 

Some questions to see what you learned

Review the following questions with your child to see what they learned and reinforce the information; grab a pen or pencil to record their answers

  1. What does Holy Baptism have to do with daily life?

  2. What did Romans 6:1-11 teach us about baptism?

  3. What do the words “repentance” and “righteousness” mean?

  4. Where does our righteousness come from?

Closing Prayer

Close your time of study with the following prayer:


Heavenly Father, giver of life, look with kindness upon our family. Let us always rejoice in the gifts you have given us, especially those in baptism. Strengthen us in our baptism so we may share eternally together in the salvation you have given us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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