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.
We are in the third message of the series Built for a Purpose. Today we are 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 Baptism Means
The word baptism comes from the Greek word baptizo, which simply means to dip or immerse something into liquid. In the Greek Old Testament, that word was used for the first Passover, when the Israelites dipped hyssop into the blood of the sacrifice and wiped it on their doorposts. The word has always been linked with sacrifice, deliverance, and dedication.
We first see baptism of some form required in Leviticus 16, in the washing of the priest before the sin offering. The idea appears in an earlier form in the brazen laver, a bowl with water used for purification. The priest would baptize his hands in the water as a symbol of dedication, and items donated to the temple were baptized in that water to dedicate them to worship. That is where we get the first glimpses of what baptism would be: a symbol of purification and dedication for the Lord.
Naaman and the Jordan
The second foreshadowing is in 2 Kings 5, and here we see a literal baptism. Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man, a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. Leprosy consumes the skin and eats away at you until you 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 he goes to visit Elisha.
Elisha does not even come out. He sends a messenger: go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thou shalt be clean. Naaman is offended. This prophet did not even talk to him face to face, and the messenger tells him to baptize himself in the Jordan. We have much cleaner rivers in Damascus, he says. The Jordan is a cesspool of filth. What God wanted was for him to humble himself in obedience, and then he would be changed.
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 was not smart. He was prideful, and he was more concerned about looking good than getting what he needed. The servant says, in effect, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? Then why will you not just go wash yourself and be clean? And so Naaman goes. In the Greek Old Testament, the word for “dipped himself” is baptizo. He baptized himself seven times, and his flesh came again like a little child’s. 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.
From John's Baptism to the Command of Christ
By the time of Jesus this practice had grown. 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. It also became commonplace for Gentiles who converted to Judaism to take a ritual bath, as Naaman did. The Talmud states that a proselyte who is converted on the eve of Passover, the school of Shammai would say, immerses and eats the Passover offering in the evening. So the Jews were no longer shocked when a new preacher began to baptize his followers.
A more accurate way to translate “John the Baptist” would probably be “John the Baptizer.” He was not denominationally a Baptist. He was the John who baptizes, and his role was to prepare the way for the Jews to repent. Repent 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. They were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. Some of the disciples were followers of John, and when Jesus came they were ready to be His disciples. Just as the rot of Naaman’s leprosy was removed, baptism represents the Messiah’s victory over sin.
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:
Matthew 3:11
John is saying, I am preparing you for the Messiah, but when He comes He is going to baptize you in a way I cannot. The Messiah is going to immerse you, to dip you into the Holy Spirit. Baptism represents Christ immersing the believer in the Spirit.
Before His ascension, Jesus told His followers to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. John truly baptized with water, but they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. The Holy Spirit would come, immerse those believers, and enable them to spread the gospel.
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
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 the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because all parts of the Godhead have a part in man’s salvation: the Father planned it, the Son died for our sins, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit we are immersed in, who now leads us and seals us.
Peter applies it on the day of Pentecost: 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. When you give yourself to Christ, He takes that sin and removes it, and He immerses you in the Spirit of God. Peter was a different person after Pentecost. When he was immersed in the Spirit, he could explain what Jesus had done in a way he could not before. That was not of him. It was the power of the Spirit. Baptism is how we say, I have made a change on the inside.
Pictures of Baptism
Paul tells us that baptism signifies the death of our old lives and the birth of the new.
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
Just as Jesus died and was buried, in baptism we represent the burial and resurrection. When the believer is immersed, that represents Christ’s death in the grave. When the believer is lifted out, that represents the resurrection. When Jesus went into the tomb, all the sins of our lives went with Him, and when He rose, those sins did not come back up with Him. In the same way, the believer has a new existence, no longer shackled by sin.
Peter also reminds us that baptism represents what Christ did on the cross, and he goes back to the flood of Noah’s day as a foreshadowing: Noah’s family was saved through water, while the rest perished. And he tells us clearly that the act of baptism is not what saves us from our sins.
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 3:21
The text says baptism now saves us, but it does not remove our sins. The water is not magic. It is just water. It does not save us from the filth of the flesh, but it is the answer of a good conscience toward God. Baptism is not required to remove your sins. Jesus did that on the cross. But baptism gives our conscience peace, because we do not have to wonder whether we have identified with Christ. When you go in front of the assembly and say, I want to be baptized, you make a public statement of faith that Jesus is your Savior, and that you are not ashamed to be identified with Him.
Baptism shows an answer to God’s call. Like Naaman’s, it shows humility and identity with Christ. To be baptized is to humble yourself and say, I am a sinner, and I need a Savior. Like Naaman’s rot was eating him away, sin was eating away at my life. But I do not have to stay that way.
God has always used washing and immersion as a symbol of purification, dedication, humility, and deliverance. 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. 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. God wants you to know that baptism is an important first step of faith and humility in the Christian walk. If you have trusted Christ but have never taken that step, let today be the day you obey.
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