From our Sunday service on November 23, 2025, Leviticus 16, 2 Kings 5, Matthew 3, Matthew 28, Acts 1 and 2, Romans 6 and 1 Peter 3. This is part 3 of our Built for a Purpose series. Watch the full message: The Purpose of Baptism – Built for a Purpose #3 on YouTube.
Today we’re in the third message of the series Built for a Purpose, where we talk about the church and God’s design for it. In the first week we saw that the purpose of the church is to point people to Christ and to make people more like him. Last week we saw that God established official standards and roles, pastors and deacons, so that his church could function properly in its mission. Today we’re talking about baptism, the first of two ordinances Jesus has called us to observe in memory of what he did for us.
God wants you to know that baptism is an important first step of faith and humility in the Christian walk.
What Is an Ordinance?
I said that baptism is an ordinance. What’s an ordinance? An ordinance is a God-instructed ceremony or ritual that should be observed as he instructed. Ordinances are reminders of what Christ did for us and testimonies of faith in the lives of believers. Today we talk about the first of the two ordinances we have in the church, baptism. Next Sunday we’ll talk about the Lord’s Supper and observe it.
What Does Baptism Mean?
The word baptism comes from the Greek word baptizo. When the Bible was translated into English, they didn’t think we had a good enough word for it, so they took the Greek word, and because of that it can be hard for us to understand, since it doesn’t come from our language. Baptizo simply means to dip or immerse something into liquid.
In the Old Testament, when it was translated into Greek, that word was used for the dipping of a finger into blood for the altar sacrifice. Remember the first Passover, when the death angel flew over Egypt and the firstborn sons died. The Israelites were instructed to take hyssop, dip it into the blood of the sacrifice, and wipe it on their doorposts. That dipping would be translated baptizo. They were to baptize the hyssop in the blood and put it on the doorpost. So the idea of baptism didn’t just come from the New Testament. It has roots in the Old Testament, and its representation grew over time. The word has always been linked with sacrifice, deliverance and dedication.
Washing Before the Sacrifice
Turn quickly to Leviticus 16. We don’t go there very often, but this is where we first see baptism of some form required in the sacrificial system. Verses 23 to 25 speak of the washing and purification of the priest before the sin offering:
And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there: And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people. And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar.
Leviticus 16:23–25
The first time we see the idea of baptism practiced in an earlier form is in the brazen laver, a bowl with water that was used for purification. Before the sin offering was offered, the priest would take his hands and baptize them in the water, as a symbol of dedication to a sacred purpose. And when items were donated to be used in the temple, they were baptized in that water to dedicate them to temple worship. Remember Nebuchadnezzar, from our study of Daniel this year, stealing the cups and plates and utensils out of the temple. It was a picture of a sacred duty ascribed to the things immersed in the water. For the same reason, the priest immersed his hands before the sacrifice, to symbolize the dedication of his hands to the worship of God. Washing was always performed as a symbol of dedication. That’s where we originally get the first glimpses of what baptism would be in the New Testament: a symbol of purification and dedication for a specific purpose for the Lord.
Naaman and the Jordan
The second foreshadowing of baptism in the Old Testament is in 2 Kings 5. Here we see a literal baptism, foreshadowing what would come in the New Testament. We’re in the time of the prophet Elisha. Verse 1:
Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2 Kings 5:1
Here we’re introduced to a non-Jew, Naaman, the leader of Syria’s army. The Syrian Empire was pretty big at this time, conquering and conquering. Nobody wants Syria knocking on their doorstep, and the captain of the army is someone to be feared. But a sad fate awaited him, because he was a leper. Leprosy is a disease that consumes your skin, turns it a pasty white color, and eats away at you until your fingers and toes fall off, and eventually you lose your limbs and die a slow and agonizing death. Naaman was maybe the most powerful man in the world at the time, but his time on this earth was limited.
So what does he do? He runs out of options. He has heard about the nation of Israel, that there are prophets there who work for God, and that through these prophets miracles have been done. He thinks, “If my leprosy is going to end me, maybe I can go to Israel, see one of these prophets, and maybe God will have mercy on me and let me continue to live.” So he goes to visit Elisha. Verses 9 to 12:
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
2 Kings 5:9–12
Naaman, a man of high estate, is offended. Instead of Elisha coming out to see one of the most powerful men in the world, Elisha just sends a messenger to tell him what to do. Naaman’s pride is stricken. “This prophet didn’t even have the courtesy to come and talk to me to my face. And on top of that, the messenger tells me to go immerse myself, to baptize myself, in the Jordan River seven times. We have much cleaner rivers in Damascus. The Jordan is a cesspool of filth.” When people were baptized in the Jordan it wasn’t a pleasant experience. It was dirty, full of soot and all kinds of nasty things. Naaman wanted the honor he felt fit his status. But what God wanted was for him to humble himself in obedience, and then he would be changed. Verses 13 and 14:
And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:13–14
Praise God for his wise servant. Naaman wasn’t smart. He was prideful. He wanted a show. He wanted the prophet to come and yell at the sky and have God strike him with a lightning bolt and heal him, and he wanted all the praise that came with being healed. He was more concerned about looking good than getting what he needed. The servant says, in effect, “Before you walk away, before you give up on this, if the prophet had told you to climb a mountain and ask God to purify you, and lightning from heaven came down and consumed the leprosy from your skin, wouldn’t you have done it if it brought you praise? Then why won’t you just go wash yourself and be clean? Why don’t you humble yourself and be healed? Are you really going to die in your filth, die in your sin, because you won’t humble yourself before God?” And so Naaman says, “Okay, I’ll go do it.” In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word for “dipped himself” is baptizo. He baptized himself seven times in the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God, and when he came out his flesh was like a little child’s and he was clean.
Here we see a foreshadowing of the baptism that would come in the New Testament: a non-Jew, someone outside the promise, receiving a purifying baptism through an act of faith. It was not the washing in a dirty river that saved him. It was his faith in God, which resulted in an action, that saved him. Naaman had to humble himself and obey God to be clean. The waters of Israel were dirty, he was dignified, and the act disgusted him. But without his humility, there was no saving him from his leprosy.
Baptism in the First Century
By the time of Jesus this practice had grown. The immersion of a person into water as a sign of dedication had become so ingrained that it was commonplace. In first-century Jerusalem, rich Pharisees had baptisteries dug into the basements of their homes so they could purify themselves by immersion before heading to the temple for their daily jobs. The priests, Pharisees and scribes all wanted to be ritually purified every day, and they saw this picture of cleanliness as an ongoing act of faith, purity and dedication. You know the Pharisees, they always want to be the most spiritual. “It’s spiritual to dedicate myself once, but what if I did it every day?”
In the time between the Old Testament and New Testament, new habits formed. It became commonplace for Gentiles who converted to Judaism to signify their conversion by taking a ritual bath, as Naaman did in the Jordan. The Talmud states that a proselyte, a convert, who is converted on the eve of Passover, the school of Shammai would say, immerses and eats the Passover offering in the evening. In other words, anyone who wanted to convert to Judaism and take part in Passover could be baptized that morning as a symbol of faith in the God of Israel and be ready to worship at Passover that evening. So proselyte baptism became a thing, a symbol of dedication to the faith. By the time the New Testament begins, the Jews were no longer shocked when a new preacher began to baptize his followers.
The Baptism of John
Turn to Matthew 3. Verses 1 to 3:
In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Matthew 3:1–3
A more accurate way to translate “John the Baptist” would probably be “John the Baptizer.” It’s a verb. He wasn’t denominationally a Baptist, and sometimes people get confused about that. He was the John who baptizes. John’s role was to prepare the way for the Jews to repent. What does repent mean? It literally means to change one’s mind, and not just what you think but what you do: change your mind and turn back to God. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You need to repent and rededicate yourself in baptism because the Messiah is coming, and when he comes, don’t you want to be ready to serve him? So John went through the wilderness of Judaea getting converts and followers baptized, to prepare their hearts and minds for Jesus Christ to come onto the scene. Verses 4 to 6:
And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Matthew 3:4–6
There’s our connection to Naaman. They were baptized in the Jordan, confessing their sins. They were saying, “I am changing my mind. No longer will I serve myself. The Messiah is coming, and when he arrives I want to be ready to follow him.” Some of the disciples were followers of John. They were baptized by John, and when Jesus came they were ready to be his disciples, because they had dedicated themselves to God before he came.
John’s baptism was a response to repentance, a response to a change of mind in a believer. Once a person confessed their sins, John immediately immersed them in the Jordan. Just as the rot of Naaman’s leprosy was removed, baptism represents the coming Messiah’s victory over sin and the complete washing away of the sin-rot of the believer. Now verse 11, the Spirit baptism foretold by John:
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Matthew 3:11–12
John is saying, “I’m preparing you for the Messiah, but when he comes he’s going to baptize you in a way I can’t. I might be able to get your hair and your clothes wet, but the Messiah is going to immerse you, to dip you into the Holy Spirit. He’s going to surround you with his presence and transform you in a way I can’t with water. The baptism I’m giving you is a foreshadowing of what Christ will do for you.” Baptism isn’t just an outward thing. It represents Christ immersing the believer in the baptism of the Spirit.
The Baptism of the Spirit and the Command to Baptize
In Acts 1, Jesus is on the mountaintop before his ascension, giving his last words to his followers. Here he tells us what it’s all about. Verses 4 and 5:
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 1:4–5
He’s talking about Pentecost, which we looked at last week. In a few days there would be a worship gathering in Jerusalem, and during it the Holy Spirit would come, immerse those believers, fill them with his presence, and enable them to spread the gospel to everyone visiting. Jesus had also said, in Matthew 28:19-20:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:19–20
Here’s where we get the ordinance. Just as John had a baptismal ritual as a symbol of repentance, the church age was to carry on the practice. When a believer professes Christ, it is appropriate for them to receive baptism as an outward showing of that inward change.
Jesus instructs them to baptize in a specific way: in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Why? Because all parts of the Godhead have a part in man’s salvation. God the Father planned salvation, sent his Son, and now adopts the believer into the family of God. God the Son became a man, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and now lives as our intercessor and great high priest. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit we are immersed in through salvation, the same Spirit who now leads us, sanctifies us, transforms us, and seals us for our future redemption. So when we baptize, we baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Jesus announced that the baptism of the Spirit would soon begin, so the disciples needed to prepare not just to preach but also to perform this ritual for converts, so that we could point others to Christ through their testimony. We see it applied in Acts 2:38-39:
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Acts 2:38–39
As I said last week, Peter acts as the first preacher and pastor of the kingdom age. Like John the Baptist, he tells the people to repent, change their mind, give their life to Christ, because the Messiah has come. When you give yourself to Christ for the remission of sins, he takes that sin and removes it as far as the east is from the west, and he immerses you in the Spirit of God, which enables you to live a life for Christ. Peter was a different person before and after Pentecost. Before, he was always stumbling over the gospel, over what words to say and what to do. When he was immersed in the Spirit of God, he suddenly understood what the gospel was about and could explain what Jesus had done in a way he couldn’t before. That wasn’t of him. It was the power of the Spirit he was baptized into.
When our sins are forgiven and we are immersed in the Spirit, we have an outward showing to tell the world what has happened. When you look at someone walking through Walmart, Meijer or the BMV, you can’t see on the outside whether they’re a Christian or whether something has changed. So God made the ordinance of baptism as a way for us to say, “I’ve made a change on the inside. I have been immersed in the Spirit of God, and I want everyone to know what has happened in my life.”
Pictures of Baptism
Let’s look at a few passages on the pictures of baptism. Romans 6:3-4:
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:3–4
Paul tells us that baptism signifies the death of our old lives and the birth of the new. Just as Jesus died and was buried three days and three nights, in baptism we represent the burial and resurrection. When the believer is immersed in the water, that represents Christ’s death in the grave. When the believer is lifted out of the water, that represents the resurrection. When we went into the water, we were purified. When Jesus went into the tomb, all the sins of our lives went into the tomb with him, into the ground. But when Jesus rose again, those sins didn’t come back up with him. The death of Christ washed away all the sins of the believer, and they were removed completely.
So when we see the ordinance of baptism, we need to understand what the picture represents. The person who went into the water is not the same person who came out. When you are immersed in the Spirit of God, you are no longer the same. Paul uses it as an encouragement: if we are buried with him in baptism, we should also walk in newness of life like Jesus did. Jesus’s body wasn’t the same after the resurrection. He received a glorified body and a new existence. In the same way, the believer has a new existence, no longer shackled by the chains of sin, but through the Spirit able to overcome it and find new life in Christ. What does Peter say? 1 Peter 3:18-21:
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 3:18–21
Peter reminds us that baptism represents what Christ did on the cross. Just as Christ suffered for sins and was put to death in the flesh, so does baptism represent that. He also goes back to the Old Testament and says that the flood of Noah’s day foreshadows baptism: Noah’s family was saved through water, through the boat that brought them to new life, while the rest perished.
Peter tells us clearly that the act of baptism is not what saves us from our sins. It says, “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.” The text says baptism now saves us, but it doesn’t remove our sins. The water is not magic. It isn’t some sacred thing. It’s just water. It doesn’t save us from the filth of the flesh, but it is the answer of a good conscience toward God. What does that mean? It’s the first step a Christian should take in their walk with God. It’s coming forward and speaking the truth that God has changed me. Baptism isn’t required to remove your sins. Jesus did that on the cross. But baptism gives our conscience peace, because we don’t have to wonder, “Have I identified with Christ? Am I truly not ashamed of him? Do I truly identify with the sacrifice made for me?” When you go in front of the church, the assembly of believers, and say, “I want to be baptized,” you make a public statement of faith that Jesus is your savior, that you aren’t the man or woman you used to be but a new creature, that you are, as the temple baptism represented, dedicated to the purpose of God, purified by the Holy Spirit, and not ashamed to be identified with Christ and what he did for you.
Baptism shows an answer to God’s call. Like Naaman’s, all those centuries before, it shows humility and identity with Christ. It’s a public declaration that we know we need him as our savior. To be baptized is to humble yourself, not to be proud but to say, “I am a sinner. I’m not afraid to tell the church that I’m a sinner and I need a savior.” Like Naaman’s rot was eating him away and would have been his death, sin was eating away at my life and eventually would have been my spiritual death. But I don’t have to stay that way. Jesus came to baptize me in the Spirit of God. He came to wash away the sins that so rotted my flesh, and to bring me out with a new body, fresh and renewed, to walk with him. That is what baptism represents today.
The Doorway to Discipleship
God has always used washing and immersion as a symbol of purification, dedication, humility and deliverance. From Naaman in the Jordan to the early church obeying Christ’s command, baptism has never been about the power of the water, but about the heart of the believer responding in faith to the saving power of God. Baptism is the very first outward step of a transformed life. It declares publicly what God has already done privately: that we have died with Christ, been raised to new life, and now belong to him. It is an open confession that we need Jesus and that we are committing ourselves to walk in the newness of life he provides.
So remember this: God wants you to know that baptism is an important first step of faith and humility in the Christian walk. God has called his church to reflect Christ, and he has called each of us to follow him boldly. Baptism is the doorway to that journey of discipleship. If you’ve trusted Christ but have never taken that step, let today be the day you choose to obey and take part in the ordinance of baptism, to identify with Jesus publicly and to walk confidently in the purpose he has prepared for you.
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