First Presbyterian Church
Marianna, Florida
Easter Day, Sunday, April 8, 2007
Sermon by Huw Christopher, Pastor

Scripture Reading: Romans 6:1-11  
Sermon Title: “Sharing the Victory of Jesus in Baptism”
Sermon Text: Romans 6:3-4: Do you not know that all of us who have 
been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore 
we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as 
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too 
might walk in newness of life.

	“The Victory is Won!”  Betty Blighton, our church secretary, and I did not 
try, but I somehow doubt that we would have had too much difficulty getting 
someone in this congregation to pay to have those words on the front of our 
bulletin this morning printed in the colors of the Florida Gators.  One of the 
reasons we did not seek individual or corporate sponsorship for such a color 
imprint of the words “The Victory is Won!” on the front of our bulletin today was 
not to offend or upset any Ohio State Fans, or FSU or Alabama or Auburn or 
Georgia or Carolina or even Duke fans who may be sharing in our service today. 
	The other reason, and the main reason, was that the victory to which the 
words on our bulletin make reference is far different from that which appeared last 
Monday or Tuesday night.  The headline in our local paper last Friday, “Donovan 
staying, juniors leaving,” (Jackson County Floridan, Friday, April 6, 2007 page 
1B) highlights the challenge which Billy Donovan will face next year to win his 
third National Championship in a row without at least four of his key players from 
the last two years. In the vicious atmosphere of College sports in this country most 
coaches know only too well their careers cannot be sustained by one or even two 
national championships.  The fans and the Booster Club expect such success not 
just once or twice in a coach’s career, but every year.  Today, though, we come to 
celebrate a victory that happened only once but the influence of which is still being 
felt.  God’s victory over sin and evil and death as he raised Jesus from the dead is 
not something that has to be repeated in the midst of March madness or April 
showers each and every year.  It is a once and for all victory which only has to be 
celebrated. It is victory that needs to be claimed not just once a year, but each and 
every day.  It is a victory that happened long before anyone invented the game of 
basketball.  I am sure it is also a victory that will be celebrated long after many 
have forgotten who won the 2007 NCAA National Basketball Championship last 
Monday night.
	The other difference between the victory that we celebrate today from that 
which was celebrated last Monday night comes, of course, from the very nature of 
the victory itself.  After all even for the most diehard Florida Gators fan what 
major changes in your ways of looking at life and of your ways of living did you 
experience on Tuesday of this week because of Monday night’s victory?  Unless, 
of course, it was the difficulty of actually doing anything on Tuesday because you 
stayed up celebrating too much and too late on Monday night!
	As Paul writes to the Christians in Rome, though, he reminds us that God’s 
victory over sin and evil and death is not something that just happened to Jesus.  It 
is rather a victory in which all people are invited to share.  Through our professions 
of faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, affirmed before other people in our baptisms, 
Paul says, we symbolically participate in that victory.  As those who claim to be 
the followers of Jesus and the children of God we should live as victorious people 
who know that sin and evil and death do not have the final word in our lives, or in 
the life of this world.   
 Today, Erin Christopher, Emily Fuqua, Branham Skipper and  Connor 
Ward come to make their Professions of Faith before us, and we will share in the 
Sacrament of Baptism for Branham.  At the same time all of us will be invited to 
remember and to celebrate our own professions of faith and our own baptisms. On 
this Easter Day as these young people make their professions of faith they will be 
prompting all of us to think what it means to each one of us as the baptized 
children of God to say, “The Victory is Won.” As they claim the power of the Holy 
Spirit to live as the followers of Christ they will be prompting all of us to reflect on 
how, by the power of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives, other people can see that 
we are victorious people as we show forth that newness of life that God offers to us 
through the victory of Jesus.  Let us remember again our own baptisms and what it 
means to us to be baptized in water as we sing the familiar hymn of baptism found 
at No. 492.  

Hymn of Our Baptisms No. 492                                                                  Bunessan
                                                              “Baptized in Water”




 
 
 
 


1