Title: Jesus, the Old Testament & Baptism – It mattered to Jesus
Theme: To show the importance of baptism and the symbols from the Old Testament
Text: Matthew 3:13 - 17
Matthew 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. 16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
(NKJ)
This is an interesting story in scripture. Especially considering who is requesting to be baptized. This is Jesus the Messiah. God Himself in the flesh. John had stated earlier.
John challenges Him (and rightly so) about baptizing Jesus. He says, “I need to be baptized by You”. He had been preaching:
Luke 3:16 John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
So when Jesus shows up on the scene John shows his humility.
Baptism is a Symbol of Completion
I want to hone in on a key phrase as to why Jesus thought it necessary that He was baptized.
Yet Jesus makes a statement that is key to the purpose of baptism:
Matthew 3:15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him.
- Original: p????´?- Transliteration: Pleroo - Phonetic: play-ro'-o
- Definition:
1. to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full a. to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally
1. I abound, I am liberally supplied
2. to render full, i.e. to complete a. to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure, fill to the brim b. to consummate: a number
1. to make complete in every particular, to render perfect
2. to carry through to the end, to accomplish, carry out, (some undertaking)
c. to carry into effect, bring to realization, realize
1. of matters of duty: to perform, execute 2. of sayings, promises, prophecies, to bring to pass, ratify, accomplish 3. to fulfil, i.e. to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God's promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfilment
Jesus is saying that I need to do this to make things complete. To show the completion of salvation. To fulfill “righteousness” The right way. The right showing to the public.
This idea of baptism adds something to us. It completes us. It shows the world publicly that we have made that step toward fully immersion in Christ.
How do we know this is important to Jesus
1. This is the very first thing He did publicly as He began His ministry.
2. The whole trinity was there. The father (voice), Holy Spirit (like a dove) and the Son.
I always thought it was interesting that John started his ministry by preaching repentance and baptizing people. This didn’t seem to be a common practice in the old testament. Yet before Jesus came if you were a gentile and wanted to convert to Judaism (become a Jew) there were two major requirements circumcision and baptism.
Maimonides, that greatly revered 12th century Jewish scholar, summed up all Talmudic tradition concerning converts to Judaism as follows.
By three things did Israel enter into the Covenant: by circumcision, and baptism and sacrifice. Circumcision was in Egypt, as it is written: 'No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof' (Exodus 12:48). Baptism was in the wilderness, just before giving of the Law, as it is written: 'Sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes' (Exodus 19:10). And sacrifice, as it is said: 'And he sent young men of the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings' (Exodus 24:5)…When a gentile is willing to enter the covenant…He must be circumcised and be baptized and bring a sacrifice…And at this time when there is no sacrifice, they must be circumcised and be baptized; and when the Temple shall be built, they are to bring a sacrifice…The gentile that is made a proselyte and the slave that is made free, behold he is like a child new born. From https://jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/issues-v02-n10/baptism-pagan-or-jewish/
Although it was not practiced commonly in the Old Testament it was alluded to in many symbols. I want to list them out this morning and then focus on three that I think really bring out the meaning of baptism and salvation.
Alluded to in the Old Testament
Some Biblical events that prefigured our baptism in Christ from https://www.agapebiblestudy.com/charts/Baptism%20Prefigured%20in%20Old%20Covenant.htm. I changed the order and added number 9
1. The baptism of John the Baptist (the passage we are reding) which called the faithful of Israel into the baptismal waters of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah's ministry proclaiming the Kingdom of God [Matthew 3:4-5; Mark 1:4-5; Luke 3:3-4; John 1:31].
2. Creation in Genesis 1:1-2 when the Holy Spirit brought life and order to the waters of chaos.
3. The water purification rites of the Old Covenant: for example, when the priests cleansed themselves with the water from the laver so that they were ritually cleansed and able to enter the Holy Place [Exodus 30:17-21] and later the Temple in Jerusalem, and ritual purification for coming in contact with the dead [Numbers 19:11-13]. Referenced in Hebrews 9
4. When the prophet Elisha told the Syrian general Naaman to dip himself 7 times in the waters of the Jordan River to be healed [2 Kings 5:1-19].
5. Ezekiel's prophecy that Yahweh will pour clean water over His people and they will be cleansed and filled with a new heart and a new spirit by placing God's very spirit within them [ Ezekiel 36:24-27].
Ezekiel 36:24-26 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Noah – Trust in God
6. Noah and his family were saved from the waters of the flood that cleansed the earth of sin in Genesis 6:9-18. Also see 1 Peter 3:20-21
1Pe 3:18-22 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, (19) by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, (20) who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. (21) There is also an antitype which now saves us--baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (22) who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
This showed Noah’s trust in God. To be able to follow the plan of God in salvation. The fact that rain had never been heard of. The fact that animals come from all over. To spend hundreds of days on an ark waiting on God’s provision.
This is true of salvation symbolized on baptism.
Israelites – Faith in God “through the Red Sea”
7. The children of Israel, fleeing from the Egyptians, passed through the waters of the Red Sea, passing from the old life of slavery into their new life as God's Covenant people [see Exodus 14:1] which St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 is a form of baptism.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, (2) all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, (3) all ate the same spiritual food, (4) and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Here is a reference to two areas. The protection of the cloud that hovered over Israel as they traveled from Egypt to Cananan. Also the passing through the red sea.
Both symbols of baptism. They show Israel’s faith in God. Faith of protection from their enemies as they followed God’s ways and plans.
To walk the watered walls of the red sea symbolized baptism as they came up and new nation on the other side.
When a person is baptized they go down being slaves to the world and come up free with faith in God.
8. Similar symbol: The crossing of the Jordan River when God parted the waters and the priests stood midway across the River with the Ark of the Covenant as the children of Israel passed through the waters of the Jordan, leaving their old lives behind to become citizens of the Promised Land.
Jonah – New Creation, New Life
My Addition
9. Jonah in the whale. Jonah 2:5 - 6
Focus on Three
Another Old Testament foreshadowing of baptism is seen in the story of Jonah. The prophet goes down into the waters to what seemed like certain death only to be delivered by God via a great fish that rescues the prophet, thus giving him a “resurrection” of sorts. Jonah references this fact in his prayer: “Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me . . . but You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God” (Jonah 2:5–6). Jesus later used the story of Jonah as a type of His own resurrection (Luke 11:29–30). From https://www.gotquestions.org/baptism-Old-Testament.html
Jonah 2:1-10 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly. (2) And he said: "I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. (3) For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. (4) Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.' (5) The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. (6) I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. (7) "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. (8) "Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. (9) But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." (10) So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Buried with Christ and the Resurrection,
Paul brings it out in Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (4) Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Identified in Christ
Later on in Galatians 3:26 Paul describes it this way. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
From Corson Commentary on Matthew 3:13 - 17
Jonah was rebelling against the Lord when he went through a most interesting baptism. He wasn't only immersed in water. He was thrown in! For three days, he was at the bottom of the sea in the belly of a great fish, where he was broken as he cried out to God and repented from his sin. And suddenly, he was resurrected as the whale had the "urge to re-gurge" him on the beach at Assyria.
(Difference between Noah and Jonah) Jonah's baptism was not a drowning of the world around him. It was a drowning of the rebellion and selfishness within him. Jonah had his own agenda, but through his baptism, he surrendered it. That's also what baptism is about. Not only are you dying to the world that surrounds you, but to the selfishness within you. Baptism says, "Lord, I will go wherever You lead. Do whatever You desire. Whatever that might mean, I trust You. You are my God and my King."
This what happens when we are baptized. It is less about the world changing but we change. We are now new creatures in Christ Jesus. All things have become new.
Conclusion
Water Baptism is key to our walk with God because it symbolizes a new life in Christ. It shows the world our commitment to Christ. It shows that we have been crucified with Christ, Resurrected to new life and cleansed to a new hope in Christ.
This morning I challenge you.
1. If you have not been baptized it is time to show your commitment to Christ.
2. If you have but have “fallen” back in your commitment then consider “re-baptism”. Although not required but I great way to begin the journey fresh and anew.
3. If you have not made the commitment to Christ then He is here. You must make the step of faith.
