Is baptism a part of worship?

Craig Houston explains in this video that baptism does involve the worship of God. In fact, baptism is worship on many different levels.

First, worship involves obedience. Baptism is also about obedience to the command of making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Obedience in baptism stems from a heart of worship, a heart that desires to obey and honor the commands of God.

Second, it is also worshipful in that it is Trinitarian. In the Great Commission, we are called to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We see this played out in the baptism of Jesus Christ. The Father was glorified, the Son was obedient to fulfill all righteousness, and the Holy Spirit descending upon Christ like a dove and blessing the baptism of Christ. It is a powerful picture of worship.

Matthew 28:19 (NKJV) – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Baptism as worship is something that has really caused me to just ponder and think about the significance of baptism. Obviously, I'm a Baptist and I hold to Believers' Baptism and I count it as something very important. But really viewing it in the eye of worship to see how is it that baptism worships God has been something that's been good for me to press into and to look at how baptism is worshipped from many different facets. One key is that I think a lot of worship is dependent upon obedience. And the Bible says to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken rather than the fat of rams, and that baptism is about obedience when we have believed by faith in Lord Jesus.

It's also worshipful in that it is Trinitarian. Not only in the Great Commission are we told to go into all the world and baptize those who believe in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, you also see in baptism, in the baptism of Jesus, that here was the Father being glorified, Jesus Christ the Son being obedient to fulfill all righteousness. And then the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove and basically ordaining or blessing this baptism of Jesus. And so this is a powerful picture of worship and all of those things more than saying we do this because it's a part of a worship service. It's that the actual obedience in baptism is out of a heart of worship and that the actual baptism itself is an identification with the triune God of the universe.