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This sermon overviews the importance of water and baptism through out the Bible.
Baptism, A Water Metaphor
Introduction: Acts 2:37-38 Have you ever given thought to how odd the command to be baptized is? Jews did not practice baptism in the OT, and yet both John the Baptist, Jesus, and Jesus’ disciples commanded and practiced baptism. In fact, for both John and Jesus, baptism was essential, and to refuse it was to refuse the command of God (Luke 7:29-30; Mark 16:16). Therefore, it is appropriate for us to consider why the Lord used immersion in water as a command to bring one to the forgiveness of their sins. In fact, it is this same confusion that we see in our friends who believe that baptism is not essential for salvation. To them, it seems odd. And indeed, without further explanation, it does seem odd.
We find the answer to our question by first realizing that when baptism was first introduced by John, and then by Jesus, and the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, it was to a Jewish audience. Therefore, the only way we can know what this Jewish audience was hearing is by knowing what they knew from the scriptures they studied all their lives.
The OT Foundation for Baptism
The first thing we need to notice is the significance of water to the way the Lord operated in the OT. Genesis 2:10-14 gives us the first picture of water, the river that flowed through the Garden and then parted into four rivers. The description depicts the goodness of God’s provisions for man’s needs. From this, and many other passages, we learn that water, and especially rivers, provided life and were a symbol of life.
When we come to the last chapter of the Bible and the pictures of heaven, we again see “the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God” and nourishing the “tree of life” (Rev. 22:1-2). When God pictures “life,” he does so through pictures of rivers and even “pouring out” of his Spirit, as Peter mentioned at the beginning of his sermon in Acts 2:16.
When God pictured the Promised Land for Israel, it was a reflection of the Garden: For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills (Deut. 8:7).
Throughout the Wilderness Wanderings, God repeatedly provided water for Israel, reminding them that only he was the source of life. Psalm 105:41, “He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river.” This illustrated to Israel that God is the life-giver.
When Zechariah spoke of the days of the Messiah, he used the picture of cleansing water: “On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. And the LORD will be king over all the earth” (Zechariah 14:8–9 ESV).
Ezekiel 47:1-14 When the Lord gave Ezekiel a vision of the temple that the Messiah would build, the vision shows water flowing from the altar of the temple that turns into a great river that flows into the wilderness. As it floods the barren land, everything comes to life. It even flows into the Dead Sea, and the Dead Sea comes to life.
In Ezekiel 36:19-26, the Lord describes how he will change his people from a people who had profaned his holy name to a people who would vindicate his holiness before the nations. To do that, he would begin by “sprinkling clean water on them” and putting “his Spirit within them,” giving them a new heart and a new spirit. Again, we see the Lord referring to cleansing from sin coming from a “water” metaphor.
When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, he used the same “water – Spirit” analogy, directly referencing Ezekiel to show the change God would effect in the believer to create in them a new life.
Hebrews 10:19-22 The Water Metaphor in the NT
Reading this text from a Jewish point of view, is both shocking and thrilling. The book of Leviticus goes into great detail about the danger of approaching the Lord while in an unclean state. In Leviticus, the uncleanness was outward, resulting from either a fleshly touch or a physical disease. But that was only symbolic of the real uncleanness, that of the heart. Jesus makes this clear in Mark 7:20-23.
Therefore, now that we have confidence to enter into the Most Holy Place by the blood of Christ, we are able to “draw near” with a “true heart” (that of sincerity and trust). We have “full assurance of faith” because “our hearts are sprinkled clean from and evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” In this, we see both a blood cleansing metaphor and a water cleansing metaphor.
The sprinkling on the heart comes from Exodus 24:6-8 when Moses threw blood on the people to cleanse them for service to the Lord.
The writer’s reference to “bodies washed with pure water” refers to the dozens of ways Leviticus records that a person might become unclean: leprosy and other skin diseases, oozing sores and a flow of blood, and even touching a dead body. The remedy was the combination of a blood sacrifice of an animal and the worshiper washing his clothes and bathing himself. This same cleansing was practiced by the priests when they were doing service in the tabernacle.
Just as under the old covenant, blood and water are used in cleansing. The difference is in what is cleansed. These are not just symbols. There is still real blood – the blood of Jesus. There is still real water, but in this case the cleansing is not of the flesh.
Hebrews 9:13-14, “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Hebrews 10:1-2 also emphasizes the greater cleansing, with the worshiper no longer having a consciousness of sin.
Going back to Hebrews 10:22, we see that we are “sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Again, the conscience is cleansed in connection with the metaphors of blood and water.
1 Peter 3:20-21 shows Peter using a similar cleansing of the conscience in connection with baptism: not the removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience…” Note the parallel with the salvation of Noah through the waters of the flood. Baptism “saves” in the same way. Someone says, “But God is the one who saved Noah.” Absolutely. And it is God who saves us. But he saves us through what? Through water.
Titus 3:4-7 ties all this together in one sentence. Notice the work of Jesus, the work of the Spirit in bringing life, and the “washing of regeneration.”
Even in Ephesians, Paul speaks of how the Lord cleansed the church “by the washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:26).
Conclusion
In Acts 2:38-39, when thousands asked Peter what they needed to do since they had killed the Messiah, Peter’s answer was baptism “for the forgiveness of sins” and they would receive the “gift of the Holy Spirit.” Water and Spirit again put together in connection with the blood of Christ.
Notice that these first century Jews did not blink at the command! 3000 were baptized that day (vs. 41).
Today, denominations teach salvation at the point of a statement of belief. Baptism has nothing to do with salvation and is instead obeyed at some later date. Such teaching ruins the OT picture and the NT fulfillment. Water is part of the cleansing of the conscience through the blood of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus.
Berry Kercheville