Crossing the River: Israel’s Baptism
Baptism Questions
“There is no story but God’s; no God but the Father, Son, and Spirit; and no life but the baptized life.” – Robert Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life
I don’t know about you, but I always get asked a lot of questions about baptism.
People want to know…
What’s the big deal about baptism?
Do I have to be baptized to go to heaven?
What if I was sprinkled or baptized as a baby or when I was younger and didn’t fully understand what I was doing?
Do I need to be re-baptized?
How do I “get saved?”
These are just some of the questions that I get asked when it comes to baptism.
There are some people who think about it, pray about it, read about it, study about it, and it seems like it takes them years to make the decision to be baptized. And then, there’s this kid. Watch this…
I love the enthusiasm.
Some of you watching that video are thinking, how old was that kid? Which raises another question: How old does someone need to be in order to be baptized?
I once sat with a man who was about my age. He had three kids. They had just started coming to church. God was moving in his heart and he wanted to come and talk with me. You know what his question was? He asked me, “Am I too old to be baptized?”
A Different Question
When it comes to baptism, we have a lot of questions. But maybe we need to step back and ask a different question. Maybe the question we need to be asking is something like this…
How do we step into the life God wants for us? The life God has for us?
How do we step out of the life that is killing us? The kind of life that is literally destroying our lives and our relationships? And step into the only LIFE that leads to life?
Some of you know what I’m talking about. You’ve been there. Maybe you’re there today.
Life isn’t working. You’re doing all the things this world tells you to do. Maybe you’ve even achieved some things this world told you would make you happy. You’ve got the house, the car, the clothes, the lifestyle you thought you wanted. You’ve had some success. You’re in with the right crowd. You’ve got money in the bank.
But at the end of the day, you feel empty. Maybe even a little lost. Something is missing. Something isn’t right. You can’t quite put you’re finger on it, but you know it deep down in your soul. There is more. But it’s not the “more” the world has to offer.
How do we step out of the life that leaves us feeling lost and alone and step into the life that leads to real life?
Now that’s a good question. And to find that answer I want to take you back some 3000 years ago to the land of Egypt.
Israel’s Rescue Story
At this point in the story, the people of Israel are living in slavery, in captivity, in Egypt. Through a series of miraculous events we commonly refer to as the 10 plagues, God has delivered His people Israel from their Egyptian bondage. He has chosen an unlikely man named Moses to be their leader.
When the Pharaoh of Egypt told Moses to take the people and leave, they left in a hurry. They are camped out on the outskirts of Egypt when Pharaoh changes his mind. He realizes, if the Israelites leave, his economy is in the tank. His entire slave labor force is gone.
So Pharaoh changes his mind, gathers his troops, and is on the way to recapture the Israelites and return them to slavery.
But God has other plans. He had heard the cry of His people, and what’s about to happen is going to change everything for everyone.
We don’t have time this morning to read the whole story, but let me hit a few critical points for you. If you have your Scriptures, turn with me to Exodus 14. If you have the YouVersion Bible app, you can follow along there as well.
Exodus 14:10-11
As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt?
When Pharaoh and his army approached, the people of Israel were afraid. They were terrified! What’s interesting is that they had left Egypt with their fists raised in defiance (14v8). But now, they are filled with panic (14v10)!
Moses doesn’t know exactly HOW God is going to deliver them in this moment, but he was certain that somehow, God was going to do what only God could do. So he tells the people…
Exodus 14.13-14
But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”
Here’s the problem. The people of Israel really are trapped. There’s the Egyptian army on one side. They’ve got horses, chariots, you name it, they’ve got it! This is a professionally trained and well-equipped fighting force.
Israel is looking around for anything they can grab and use as a weapon. They’ve got women and children and all their livestock and luggage. This is another one of those David versus Goliath moments.
On one side is the Egyptian army. On the other side is the Red Sea. And it’s uncrossable. This isn’t just a rock and hard place that they’re in the middle of. There is literally no possible way of escape, of rescue, or deliverance.
Faith Saves
Yet Moses tells the people… “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.”
Exodus 14.21-22
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
How would Israel escape? How would they be delivered? There was no possible way! They were trapped!
Thankfully, we have a God who is really good at doing the impossible! The seemingly impossible, what was so impossible it hadn’t occurred to anyone in Israel’s camp, was exactly what God had in mind from the very beginning.
It was impossible to cross the Red Sea, until… it wasn’t!
Can you imagine the faith it took to walk between those two walls of water, knowing full well what would happen if they fell?
God parted the waters. The presence of God in the form of a cloud separated the Egyptian army from the Israelites until everyone had crossed. Then the Egyptians pursued them. Which should have seemed like madness.
Chariots and water don’t mix. Muddy river beds and chariot wheels don’t do well together. Why would the Egyptians do this? Take this risk.
First, God had hardened the ground! The riverbed was so dry that even chariot officers were willing to send their horses and chariots in pursuit of Israel! What would have normally never have made sense, seemed to make sense in the moment.
Second, God had hardened their hearts! The Egyptians were walking right into the trap God had set to destroy them and deliver His people. When the last Israelite stepped out of that riverbed, the water came rushing in and every last enemy of God’s people died that day.
But what was most important that day for Israel was not just that they had been saved from the Egyptians who had been in hot pursuit and had held them captive for more than 200 years. What mattered most was something they learned when they walked through the water:
FAITH SAVES!
On that day, they had seen with their own eyes how faith in God, trust in His name, obedience to His instruction, leads to life!
That day, God delivered them from death, darkness, and a life of bondage.
Another River
40 years later, they would come to another river. The Jordan River. And on that day God would do the impossible yet again!
Joshua is now the leader of Israel. God told him to have the people follow the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of God, into the Jordan River.
Joshua 3.14-16
So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed onto the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.
The people of God walked through the water into the Literal Promised Land God had for them. A land flowing with milk and honey! A land full of life where they could live daily with God, in the presence of God.
Fast forward 1400 years later, Jesus arrives on the scene. A man by the name of John the Baptizer is there baptizing people and announcing the Kingdom of Heaven is near! Then John sees Jesus and he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” – John 1.29. And then, Jesus asks John to baptize Him in the Jordan River.
People always ask me this question, too! Why was Jesus baptized? He didn’t need His sins washed away. He was perfect! That’s right! So why was Jesus baptized? According to Jesus, he wanted to John to baptize Him to fulfill all righteousness. (Matt 3.15). What does that mean?
Jesus was walking through the waters of baptism just like Israel had done some 1400 years before. Remember what Jesus did after His baptism? He went into the wilderness for 40 days, just like Israel went into the wilderness for 40 years before entering the promised land! Jesus is completing Israel’s story.
Jesus is doing what Israel failed to do. And after His baptism, after His 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus begins to teach people and show people what the promised land life looks like, what the abundant life looks like… What the with-God life looks like. Prisoners are set free, the hungry have food to eat, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised!
Another Baptism
Jesus had come to save people, but not just the people of Israel, He had come to save all people. But very few people, if any, had understood this. And even those who might have been catching on, they were confused and sad beyond words when they saw their friend, the one they thought would be their Savior, hang on a cross and die.
That was on a Friday. But then came Sunday. His resurrection on Sunday morning after the darkest Friday the world had ever seen had changed everything forever. Over the next 40 days he would be seen by more than 500 people. And then, surrounded by his closest friends and followers, he ascended to Heaven!
He had told his followers to go to Jerusalem and wait on the Holy Spirit. And so they did! They’ve been waiting and waiting. And now, it’s Sunday.
Once again, the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, appears as a fire.
Everyone in the city heard the sound and came running to see what was happening. That’s when they heard the gospel preached for the very first time in their own language through the power of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus! Peter steps forward, and he tells the crowd…
Acts 2.36-39
“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
Now everyone is wondering the same thing, if Jesus really was who He said He was, and we killed Him, what do we do now?
Talk about feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place! Now, I’m sure not everyone there in the crowd that day were the same ones who were shouting, “Crucify Him,” when Pilate was asking what he should do with Jesus. But everyone in the crowd that day felt the same thing.
They understood that if indeed Jesus is the Son of God, that He is Lord, He is God’s Messiah, then they have a choice to make. They have to respond to that truth. The question they had was the same one we have when we come to the realization that Jesus is who He says He is…
What do we do now?
What do you do when you realize Jesus is the Son of the Living God? That He came, He lived, He died, He rose again, and He ascended to Heaven FOR YOU?
Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”
Faith in Jesus Saves
Repent of your sins and be baptized?
What does it mean to repent? Simply put, to repent is to make a turn. To change direction. Just like God instructed Israel to change direction and walk toward the waters of the Red Sea, we are called to make a turn. We are not called to a life of perfection. We are called to live life in a different direction. To turn away from sin and turn towards the River of Life.
What does it mean to be baptized?
Simply put, to be baptized is to walk through the water, to experience the deliverance of God, rescue you, deliver you, save you through the water!
Now what you can’t see in the English translation but you can’t miss if you’re reading this in the original Hebrew language is that the word for rescue used in Exodus… is the Hebrew word yeshua. It means to save, to deliver, to rescue.
So Moses says, “Don’t be afraid, Just stand and watch the LORD rescue you, Yeshua you, today!”
RESCUE is the Hebrew word YESHUA.
Yeshua is also the Hebrew name JESUS!
It may seem impossible to have your sins washed away. It may seem impossible that walking into and out of any water can free you from sin and shame and deliver you into everlasting freedom and life. But our God loves to do impossible things! He wants to rescue you. To Yeshua you! To save you!
And Peter says, when you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the manifest presence of God that guides and protects will now take up residence within you, abide in you, dwell with you. You will never walk alone. He will never forsake you or abandon you. He will be with you. Always.
Acts 2.41
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
That day, about 3,000 people crossed a different river. Like the Exodus that happened some 1500 years before, they were set free from captivity and oppression. From a life of darkness and death. And now they would walk into life and freedom into the promised land God had for them.
And you can, too!
What was most important that day in Jerusalem when 3000 people were baptized was not just that they were saved from sin and death and an eternity apart from God. What mattered most was something they learned when they walked through the water:
FAITH IN JESUS SAVES!
And faith in Jesus leads to the life God has for you, the life God wants for you.
Have you stepped into that life? Have you walked through the waters of baptism? If not, why not?
If you have walked through the water, remember that your faith in Jesus has saved you. And your baptism changes everything about you. Live in it, live from it, today and every day. You can complain and ask to go back to Egypt. Israel did! Or, you can keep trusting the Word of God, the Presence of God, the Spirit of God to lead you, guide you, and protect you as you walk into the Life God has for you.
What if we did this?
What if our baptism wasn’t a one-time thing, but a way of life?
Maybe today, you’ve forgotten your baptism. You’ve wandered back into Egypt, into the old life of oppression, sin, and shame. Here’s the good news today, you don’t have to stay there. The Spirit of God is actively guiding you back to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If we can help you, pray with you, encourage you today, we would love to that. Because…
“There is no story but God’s; no God but the Father, Son, and Spirit; and no life but the baptized life.” – Robert Webber
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