The Christian Influencer
Title: Baptism – The Christian Influencer
Scripture: Colossians 2:6–15
Throughout the month of January, we have been working through the ordinary means of grace—the ordinary ways God uses to communicate His grace to His people.
Two weeks ago, we considered the Word of God as a means of grace. God’s Word is the soul of the church.
Last week, we looked at the Lord’s Supper, seeing how it points us to our eternal satisfaction in Christ while also nourishing our souls in the present.
This week, we turn our attention to baptism.
Most of us do not regularly think about baptism as we live the Christian life.
When was the last time you seriously thought about your baptism—meditated on it—before making a decision?
Have you ever considered your baptism before choosing what to eat, what to watch, or how to respond to a major life decision?
Those questions sound strange, even inconceivable. Why would I think about my baptism in moments like that?
That reaction reveals our struggles.
We often treat baptism as nothing more than a rite of initiation—something done in the past with no present significance. It becomes something we did because it is what Christians do, rather than something that continues to shape how we live.
As a result, we often live indifferently to what God has done for us and in us. This is one reason many people who were baptized now live estranged from God and from the benefits of the gospel: they have forgotten their baptism.
So I ask again: When was the last time you thought about your baptism?
The reality is that you and I are under constant threat of deception. That is precisely why baptism matters.
You might ask, How does thinking about my baptism help me resist deception?
The answer is: in every way.
If we are honest, most of us would say our faith is fairly strong. Many of us have been Christians for a long time, and we assume that stability equals strength.
Yet Scripture tells a different story. The apostles—those who walked with Jesus, witnessed His miracles, and lived alongside Him—were often plagued by doubt.
Why? Because faith is a gift, not something natural to us. What is natural to us is doubt, weakness, and deception.
This means our faith is often weak—faith that needs to be strengthened, encouraged, and sustained by grace.
We are constantly being influenced. Our values, priorities, and assumptions are continually shaped by forces within us and around us. We live under the pressure of false influences that subtly disciple us away from Christ.
For that reason, God gives us signs of reassurance.
Consider Abraham. God gave him the sign of circumcision to confirm, assure, and comfort him that God would fulfill what He promised.
In the same way, God gives us baptism—a sign that speaks to us, reassures us, and communicates God’s purpose to save His people.
Baptism is not fundamentally about us. It is fundamentally about who God is and what He has promised in the gospel.
John Calvin explains why we need such signs:
“As our faith is slight and feeble unless it be propped on all sides and sustained by every means, it trembles, wavers, totters, and at last gives way. Here our merciful Lord, according to His infinite kindness, so tempers Himself to our capacity that, since we are creatures who always creep on the ground, cleave to the flesh, and do not think about or even conceive of anything spiritual, He condescends to lead us to Himself even by these earthly elements, and to set before us in the flesh a mirror of spiritual blessings.”
So again, have you thought about your baptism?
Most of us would have to admit that we rarely do. And because we rarely think about our baptism, we often look elsewhere for assurance—longing for extraordinary experiences rather than resting in God’s appointed means of grace.
Baptism is not merely something that happened to us.
It is something that continues to shape us.
Baptism is the Christian influencer.
And that is the truth that Paul speaks to us in Colossians 2.
Scripture Reading
Let us stand and read Colossians 2:6–15.
Exegetical Framing
Paul is building a case. His aim is to help the Christians in Colossae understand that they are to walk in a manner consistent with the faith they have already received. That is why Paul begins with the word therefore. He is drawing a conclusion from everything he has just said in the previous section.
When we look at the letter to the Colossians as a whole, we see the development of Paul’s argument. His primary concern is stated clearly in Colossians 1:10: that believers would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Paul intentionally links spiritual growth with right knowledge of God. Bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God are two sides of the same coin. Diminish one, and you diminish the other. That is why Paul spends so much time giving the Colossians an exalted view of who Jesus Christ is. That emphasis dominates the latter half of chapter one.
Paul does this because he is deeply concerned that the Christians in Colossae will be deluded and deceived—led to think wrongly about Christ. Christ is the fullness of God, the One who completely satisfies the deep longing of the human soul. To lose clarity about Him is to lose stability in the Christian life.
That is why Paul describes their former life as one marked by being alienated and hostile in mind. Right thinking leads to right living. Growth in the Christian life requires a renewed and accurate understanding of who God is.
Because believers are constantly being presented with plausible but false arguments, Paul exhorts them not to walk by their own resources or wisdom. Instead, they are to walk in the Lord by faith.
The First Encouragement: Live by Faith (vv. 6–7)
If we are to walk worthily, Paul gives us clear encouragements. The first is this: Live by faith.
In verse 6, Paul writes:
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”
In other words, the same way you received Christ—by faith—is the same way you are to live your life. Your entire life is to be governed by allegiance to and worship of your Lord.
Paul then explains what it means to walk in the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 7, he says that we have been rooted, and we are now being built up and established in faith.
The past tense of rooted indicates something that has already happened. When you received the gift of faith, you were firmly planted in Christ. That foundation does not change. But you are now being built up and strengthened in Him through that same faith.
Your faith has roots in Jesus Christ—not in the stock market, not in a political party, not in a job, not a team, a pension, a denomination, or a particular season of life.
There is no other basis for the Christian life than Christ Himself. Not your wisdom. Not your discipline. Not your ability. It is Jesus and Jesus alone.
God will never make your life so easy that faith becomes unnecessary. He will never give you faith in a way that removes your dependence on Him. God is not trying to outsource His care for you, nor is He trying to grow out of His responsibility to sustain you.
God is not primarily working to make our lives better in the American sense. He is working to grow our faith—and that faith is rooted in Christ.
And because your faith is rooted in Christ, you can abound in thanksgiving.
What does Paul mean by abounding in thanksgiving? It is a life of gratitude.
PART III : GRATITUDE
LORD’S DAY 32
- Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works?
- Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also renewing us by his Spirit into his image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, and that he may be praised through us, and further, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.
But, notice again, the way God grows our faith is by what he teaches us in his Word. His Word is food for the soul, and encourger of faith. Verse 7 says rooted and built up in him and established in faith just as you were taught learning about Christ deepening our understanding of who God is is essential to our growth faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ
So, as you were taught about and received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.
Walk by faith.
But if we are to live out our faith, we must also be careful… Careful with what?
Second, Be Careful with the Influencers (v. 8)
We live in a world of influencers.
But what is an influencer? According to Google:
“An influencer is a person with a large, engaged online following who uses their authority, knowledge, or relationship with their audience to affect opinions and behaviors, often within a specific niche. Their aim is to create trust, shape preferences, and move people toward particular actions.”
The people of Colossae also lived in a world filled with influencers. For that reason, Paul issues a strong warning in verse 8. He says:
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.”
Paul’s language is deliberate and graphic. These influencers are not merely trying to persuade you—they are trying to kidnap you.
The word Paul uses refers to a slave-raider who carries off his victim, body and soul. These teachers claim to offer freedom, enlightenment, and progress, but Paul says, in effect: If you value your spiritual freedom, stay away from them.
Influencers activated.
Paul and the Colossians lived in a society saturated with philosophical systems—ways of thinking about life grounded in human reasoning and the elemental principles of the world, rather than in Christ.
We live in a similar world. We are surrounded by voices that constantly offer us human philosophies that subtly pull us away from wholehearted devotion to Jesus.
Paul’s point is this: every influencer seeks to take you captive. They aim to capture your imagination, your emotions, and ultimately your allegiance in order to move you toward a particular way of living. The goal of an influencer is influence.
And the primary method of influence, as Paul notes earlier in verse 4, is the use of plausible arguments—ideas that sound reasonable, compelling, and even good.
There are two common mistakes we make when confronting these philosophies:
- We assume they are not persuasive—but they are.
- We assume that because we believe the gospel, we are immune to them—yet we often believe them more than we care to admit.
Often times, we think that just because the Christian message of salvation is simple, the Christian mind has to be simplistic. “Let’s not get too caught up on theological debate,” we say. But the primary way you live your Christian faith, is by engaging the mind.
Romans 12:2 says, “2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
So, make no mistake: Paul is also seeking to influence us. The way he describes these philosophies reveals what he wants us to believe about them and how we are to respond.
He calls them empty deceit—fluff.
They are like a bag of potato chips: full of air, with very little substance at the bottom.
Paul further describes these philosophies as being according to human tradition and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
The philosophies presented to the Colossians claimed to offer a way to connect with the divine and achieve fullness in life. Our context looks different, but the goal is the same. The longing is the same.
As we saw last week, the issue is satisfaction.
In our context, these philosophies often take the form of what we call the American Dream, which is tied to human tradition. And we cannot deny that it is persuasive—attractive, captivating, and even temporarily satisfying.
The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of background, can achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative—often symbolized by upward mobility, homeownership, and providing a better life for one’s family.
Or Expressive Individualism, which is ted to the demonic elemental spirits of this world. And we cannot deny that it is persuasive—attractive, captivating, and even temporarily satisfying.
Expressive individualism is a modern cultural ethos centered on discovering one’s inner self (feelings, uniqueness, identity) and expressing it outwardly for fulfillment, viewing this as the highest life goal, often rejecting external rules or authorities that conflict with personal authenticity, as seen in slogans like “be true to yourself” or “follow your heart”. This philosophy emphasizes self-creation and the importance of external validation for this self-expression, leading to a focus on personal autonomy and self-discovery, sometimes at the expense of traditional obligations or community standards.
Many of these things are good. The desire to have success, the desire for self-expression. But when pursued as ultimate goals, they are empty and vain. Both are not according to Christ!
They are bags of potato chips. They are not worthy masters. They are not worth enslaving ourselves to. They are not worth allowing to kidnap our godly affections.
Far better is to be a slave of Christ.
Why?
Because Jesus is all that we need.
And that leads us to the third encouragement in this passage:
Third, Live into Your Union with Christ (vv. 9-15)
How?
First: Remember, He Is the God-Man
Jesus is the God-Man—the connection between heaven and earth. In Him, the earthly and the divine, the mundane and the spiritual, are perfectly united.
Paul states this plainly in verse 9:
“For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
And because we are united to Him, what is true of Christ shapes what is true of us.
Second: Remember, He Is Our Satisfaction
Paul continues in verse 10:
“And you have been filled in Him.”
That is satisfaction.
Jesus is fundamentally what we need. We do not need some deeper spiritual experience promised by various religions or Christian sects. We do not need secret knowledge or elevated practices. We need Christ.
And in Christ, the Christian has been filled.
Third: Remember, He Gives Us a New Identity of Freedom
To develop this idea, Paul brings together circumcision and baptism—what circumcision looked forward to and what baptism now looks back to.
To understand this, we must remember what a sacrament is. A sacrament is a sign and seal—a tangible, physical means by which God engages our senses to assure our faith.
Paul’s point is that in Christ, we are free from philosophical captivity rooted in human tradition and the elemental spirits of the world. He demonstrates this by connecting circumcision and baptism, both of which point to our new identity in Christ.
Circumcision and Christ
Circumcision was a bloody sacrament that gave Abraham tangible assurance of God’s promise. That promise was land, a people, and blessing to all nations—and that blessing would come through Christ. Circumcision ultimately pointed to Christ.
It was bloody because it anticipated the removal of sinful flesh. Though circumcision marked out a physical people, it also pointed to a deeper spiritual reality. Sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and spread to all humanity. Circumcision symbolized the need for the cutting away of sin itself.
This is why Scripture calls Israel not merely to physical circumcision, but to heart circumcision:
“Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts.” (Jeremiah 4:4)
Israel was marked as God’s people and called to forsake sinful desires by the cutting off of the heart’s rebellion.
So when Paul says in verse 11 that we have been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, he means that in Christ we experience what circumcision always pointed toward. Jesus underwent that reality—not because He was a sinner, but because He represented sinners.
Paul calls this the circumcision of Christ. What was that circumcision? His death.
He was cut. He bled. And united to Him, we share in that reality.
Baptism and New Life
In verse 12, Paul shifts from circumcision to baptism. This is not accidental. Circumcision has been replaced by baptism because both point to the same reality: the death of the old self and resurrection to new life.
The way we participate in Christ’s circumcision, Christ’s death,, is through baptism.
Baptism is a bloodless sacrament because Christ has already shed the blood. He did it once and for all, for us.
What circumcision looked forward to—Christ’s death and resurrection—baptism now looks back to.
That is why Paul says that in baptism we were raised through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Jesus from the dead.
- What is baptism?
Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, wherein Christ hath ordained the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to be a sign and seal of ingrafting into Himself, of remission of sins by His blood, and regeneration by His Spirit; of adoption, and resurrection unto everlasting life; and whereby the parties baptized are solemnly admitted into the visible church, and enter into an open and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord’s.
Baptism: A New Identity of Freedom
Baptism gives us a new identity—and that identity is freedom.
Paul summarizes it clearly in vv. 13-15:
- You were dead, but God made you alive with Christ.
- You had a record of debt, but it has been forgiven.
- You faced legal condemnation, but God nailed it to the cross.
- You had spiritual enemies, but God triumphed over them and put them to open shame in Christ.
Baptism has nothing to do with what you have done. It is entirely about what God has done.
Baptism is not a sign of your action toward God.
It is a sign of God’s action toward you.
And what has God done?
He has granted you freedom in His Son.
That is why Baptism is a means of grace. It declares to you what God has done to make you his child!
The reality of baptism is the Christian Influencer. It is what should influence the way you live. Do you want to live out your faith and not be taken captive by lies, then this is what Paul and God is telling us…
Main Point: the way you live in a worthy manner is letting reality of your baptism be your influencer.
Let your baptism influence you!
And the only way we can do this is if we regularly reflect on our baptism.
So, how do we live a life that reflects more regularly on baptism?
Application
So I ask again: When was the last time you thought about your baptism?
God gave us the gracious sacrament of baptism because Baptism is the Christian’s influence. It is the sign and seal that compels us to live out our faith in obedience to Christ because it reminds us of God’s goodness. But we often for this Baptism!
This forgetfulness of baptism is not unique to our time. The church has long recognized this danger.
Harold Senkbeil describes Baptismal Therapy this way: the ongoing application of the power of baptism by which the sinner is given a new life to live—no longer fueled by his own measly and inept will power, but by the crucified and risen Savior who lives within him by faith. And it cuts both ways, this therapy. It addresses both guilt and shame. For sorrowing hearts experiencing the crushing weight of their guilt, baptismal therapy brings relief and release in the entire forgiveness of all their sins. For cringing, cowering hearts bearing wounds of shame deeply engraved in their souls by the sins of other people, baptismal therapy brings cleansing and renewal as they are enwrapped over and over in the royal robes of Christ’s own holiness.[1]
The Westminster divines addressed it directly. They taught that baptism is meant to shape our present life, not merely mark a past moment.
Listen to the words of the Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 167:
How is our baptism to be improved by us?
The word improved does not mean enhanced, but lived into—to allow baptism to influence how we live.
The answer states that the needful, but much neglected, duty of improving our baptism is to be practiced all our life long, especially in times of temptation and when we witness the baptism of others:
- By being humbled for our sinful defilement and for living contrary to the grace signified in baptism.
Meditate on how often you fail to live as a baptized Christian—and why. - By growing in assurance of the pardon of sin and of all other blessings sealed to us in that sacrament, including adoption.
- By drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortification of sin and the quickening of grace.
Do you have power to fight sin? Yes—because you are united to Christ. - By endeavoring to live by faith, pursuing holiness and righteousness as those who have given their name to Christ.
You live into your baptism every time you open the Scriptures and submit yourself to God’s Word. - By walking in brotherly love, as those baptized by the same Spirit into one body. (Think of Esau and Jacob – Esau abandoned God’s people and was cut off from the promises)
You live into your baptism when you refuse selfishness and self-centeredness and instead live out your union with Christ and His church.
Why does baptism matter so much?
Because in baptism, God gives us a sign and seal of the gospel of Jesus Christ—a declaration that He has separated us from the world and set us apart for Himself. Having received this gracious sign, your responsibility is to allow what God has promised through Baptism to influence the way you live!
Conclusion
This morning, you will encounter many influencers.
You will be drawn to the nostalgia of a bygone America—its ideals of pride, self-reliance, and self-determination. Or you will be persuaded by the expressive individualism that saturates our culture. Either way, you will face philosophies that are plausible, attractive, and persuasive.
They are not unconvincing. They are enticing. They are capable of distorting our understanding of the gospel.
For this reason, Paul calls them empty deceit—bags of potato chips with little substance. They are according to human tradition and the elemental spirits of this world, but not according to Christ.
And so here is the call before you:
Allow the grace of your baptism to influence the way you live.
Live in light of what has been signed and sealed to you:
- You are dead to yourself.
- Your sins have been pardoned.
- As water washes away dirt, so the blood of Christ truly washes away your sin.
- You have been adopted into the family of God.
Therefore, do not live as those outside of God’s household, but as those who belong to Him.
Let the truth that has been signed and sealed to you in baptism shape your life—so that you will not be taken captive by empty and deceitful philosophy, but will walk in Christ, rooted, established, and overflowing with thanksgiving.
[1] Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 149.