Baptism in water!
June 3, 2012
Acts 8:38
Introduction
- Some weeks ago we started a series about drawing closer to God
- We started a journey pictured in the structure of the tabernacle
- Paul tells us in Heb 8:5 that the physical tabernacle is a copy and a foreshadowing of God’s residence in heaven
- So we enter the tabernacle through the gate of grace
- We are then cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, offered on the altar
- Today we will look at the symbolism attached to the next aspect of the tabernacle, as we continue our journey
- This implement in the tablernacle, is the laver
What is a laver?
- A laver is a place where you lave yourself, a place where you wash yourself clean
- Why would priests need a place to wash themselves clean?
- Because priests sinned just like the rest of the people
- All men have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God – Rom 3:23
- If we want to experience the glory of God, we will need to remove the problem of sin
- The problem of sin started the day that Adam and Eve took for themselves from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
- They set in motion a curse on mankind, which is our human carnal nature
- Romans 8:7 – The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so
- This is what we call the Depravity of man
- This sin is atoned for by the blood of the lamb, which was offered on the altar
- The priest would offer up a sin offering for his sins, and he would be forgiven
- When we accept Jesus, he forgives our sins.
- All our sins
- We may have killed someone. That is now under the blood of Jesus.
- We may have been unfaithful. That has now been covered.
- We may have lied or stolen or sold drugs to teenagers or committed all kinds of sexual sin
- We may have fantasized about all kinds of things. But what is forgiven, is forgiven. It is past.
- It is as far from us now, as the east is from the west
- Ps 103:8-14
- We are clean
So why is the priest washed?
- He is washed as a physical representation of forgiveness
- The past sin has been washed away
- Rev 1:5 - Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood (KJV)
- Hebrews 10:22 – bodies washed with pure water
- 1Corinthians 6:9-11 – washed, sanctified, justified
- The physical ritual of washing was a picture of the cleansing received through Jesus’ forgiveness
What about baptism?
- Just like the priest, when we come to God’s throne of grace and ask for forgiveness, it is granted, immediately
- No need for penance, we are saved by grace alone
- Eph 2:8-9
- 1 Jn 1:9 – if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness
- When we accept Jesus, having repented and asked for forgiveness, all sin has been forgiven
- But Jesus set us an example of being baptized
Jesus example – Matt 3:13-17
- The Jews would baptize a person, when they wanted to leave their past religion and follow the God of Israel
- They would take them to a body of water, in the presence of witnesses, and totally immerse them
- As they came out of the water, they would declare that the person was now born again
- Jesus did not need to be told he was now born again, because he was the son of the Father, and had never sinned
- This is what John the Baptist meant when he tried to stop Jesus being baptized
- But Jesus’ response was that they needed to do this to fulfil all righteousness, in other words, for the sake of those who would follow
The Picture of baptism
- Rom 6:3-7
- When we go down into the water, it pictures us burying our old sins, the past we would rather forget
- Asw we come out of the water, it pictures us rising to new life! A new life has begun
- We are born again. This is why we usually baptize as soon as possible after a person receives Jesus
- The baptism and what happens in the person’s heart, are part of the same experience
- Just like the priest, forgiven by the sin offering and then cleansed in the water of the laver
Sometimes we accepted Jesus and then fell away for a time
- We come back to Jesus, and ask for forgiveness and rededicate our lives to him
- He forgives us, no sin is too big to be forgiven.
- The unpardonable sin is when a person totally rejects God and no longer wants forgiveness
- If you want to be forgiven, grace is ready to be applied to your life!
- If it is appropriate to be forgiven and cleansed, it would also be appropriate for you to be baptized as an expression of your rededication to God
- So if you have taken the step of rededicating your life to God, you are welcome to be baptized with us today
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