What Did Baptism Originally Signify?
Bible Study Handout from Last Night:
Here’s the handout. I’ll post the video when I have it.
MATTHEW 3:1-6
3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’ ”4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
In 586 BC the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar came and completed his conquest of Jerusalem. The walls were broken down, the Temple was razed, and the Jerusalem elite were carried off into exile in Babylon, hundreds of miles to the east in what is present-day Iraq. When the exiles returned to the land of Israel decades later, they had to cross the Jordan River—from the east—to get back home.
Centuries later, a man named John went out to the Jordan River and started preaching. (This was roughly in 30 AD.) His message was a call for the Jews to prepare for the coming Messiah by repenting—changing direction. He immersed people in the Jordan River in a way that signified cleansing and renewal. The idea was that it was time for the people to come home from spiritual exile. And baptism was the sign they took their sins seriously, were eager to repent, and were ready.
John was dressed like the great Old Testament prophet Elijah; the Old Testament foretold that a man like Elijah would come again to prepare the way for the Messiah. Jesus is the one who will finally bring his people out of exile—the rest of Matthew is an explanation of how he will do that and what the coming Kingdom is like. (Hint: the Sermon on the Mount is a description of life in the Kingdom—see chapters 5-7.)
The baptism of John is an immersion of the entire self, because the coming Kingdom of Jesus will require a hokey-pokey level of commitment: you have to put your whole self in.
Find a quiet 15 minutes today and ask yourself, “What am I holding back from Jesus, and why? What am I afraid of?”
NOTE: We have been reading through Psalms, and until we get to Psalm 150, I’m going to keep posting at the bottom of each Matthew post daily commentary on that day’s psalm. (On the weekends, it will just be that day’s psalm by itself.) If you’ve read this far, you are an over-achiever. —AF
“Blessed Are the People Whose God is the LORD!” - Psalm 144
Of David.
1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and he in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.
3 O Lord, what is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
4 Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
5 Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!
Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
6 Flash forth the lightning and scatter them;
send out your arrows and rout them!
7 Stretch out your hand from on high;
rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,
from the hand of foreigners,
8 whose mouths speak lies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing a new song to you, O God;
upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
10 who gives victory to kings,
who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me
from the hand of foreigners,
whose mouths speak lies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
12 May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
13 may our granaries be full,
providing all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
14 may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;
may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
15 Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
Psalm 144 borrows heavily from Psalm 8 and Psalm 18, as well as other psalms we’ve read. It’s a nice summary of many of the themes of the psalms, and it concludes with a statement that echoes the first line of Psalm 1:
Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
Indeed.