Jesus had a ministry that lasted a little more than three years. Of all the things He could have started His ministry with and ended His ministry with, He started it by being baptized and concluded it by commanding the church to make disciples and baptize others. Now, since baptism was the bookends of the ministry of the Son of God, that alone should tell us that baptism, is a big deal. It is but not because of what some people think.

There are two extreme ways that people have of looking at baptism. There is one group that says baptism is necessary to go to heaven, therefore it is a big deal. There is another group that says baptism is unnecessary to go heaven, therefore it is not a big deal. In this case the truth lies exactly in the middle, because both groups are half right. Baptism i…