The Miracle of Baptism Into the Death
of Jesus
August 4, 2013
2 Kings 5:1-14 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) And the Syrians had gone out by
companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and
she waited on Naaman's wife. (3) And she said unto her mistress, Would God my
lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his
leprosy. (4) And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus
said the maid that is of the land of Israel. (5) And the king of Syria said,
Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he
departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold,
and ten changes of raiment. (6) And he brought the letter to the king of
Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith
sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
(7) And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he
rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man
doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. (8) And it was so, when
Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes,
that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come
now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. (9) So Naaman
came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. (10) And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash
in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt
be clean. (11) 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. (12) 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. (13) 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? (14) 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.
Leprosy was something that was cleansed
in the Bible rather than healed.
It first appears as a sore, then
the skin becomes numb and thick and then scaly.
- The flesh rots away
and produces odour, and fingers are absorbed or fall off, etc.
It was a dread of the ancient world.
A perfect picture of sin.
Naaman was captain over the entire
military of Syria.
- He was afflicted
with LEPROSY which is significantly an UNCLEANNESS, which is sort of different than a regular
disease.
- IT REPRESENTS SIN.
A maiden had been seized from
Israel by Syria to become his wife’s maidservant.
· God had this healing of
Naaman planned from the start.
· This girl being from
Israel would inform them of Elisha the prophet who could bring cleansing to Naaman.
Being a military hero who was
renowned and famous, he expected Elisha to give him personal greeting and to do
something grand and glorious.
· But since LEPROSY
represents SIN, there is nothing glorious to be done with Naaman seeing he simply stood as a
sinner no matter how important he thought he was.
Dipping seven times in Jordan not
only cleansed Naaman’s leprosy, but reminds us of the CLEANSING OF THE LEPER we read
about in Leviticus 14.
Leviticus 14:1-8 And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, (2) This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his
cleansing: He shall be brought unto the
priest: (3) And the priest shall go
forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague
of leprosy be healed in the leper; (4) Then shall the priest command to take
for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and
scarlet, and hyssop: (5) And the priest
shall command that one of the birds
be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: (6) As for the living bird, he
shall take it, and the cedar wood, and
the scarlet, and the hyssop, and
shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the
running water: (7) And he shall sprinkle
upon him that is to be cleansed
from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the
living bird loose into the open field. (8) And he that is to be cleansed shall
wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he
may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry
abroad out of his tent seven days.
All of this was done AFTER THE
LEPROSY WAS ACTUALLY GONE FROM THE PERSON WHO HAD IT.
He could not get involved with the
community of Israel, even though he was healed, until he experienced this
CLEANSING.
· He is pronounced clean
after this ceremony.
The leper was to be sprinkled SEVEN
TIMES with the water and blood from a slain bird.
· ALL OF THIS POINTS TO
WATER BAPTISM FOR REMISSION OF SINS.
Acts 2:38 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.
Two birds, so long as they were
clean ones, were brought to the priest.
· The priest took a basin of
river or stream water, because that was the purest water to get.
· The living bird was killed
over the bowl of water so that its blood dropped into the water.
· The living bird was taken
with cedar, scarlet and hyssop and dipped into the water and blood from the slain bird.
· This handful of hyssop,
cedar and scarlet was then soaked in the blood drenched water and used to sprinkle that
blood and water on the leper SEVEN TIMES.
· Then the living bird was
set free.
It sounds like a perfect shadow of
this:
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
The dead bird's blood was placed in
water, and the living bird was dipped into that water and set free.
CEDAR AND HYSSOP:
1 Kings 4:33 And he spake of
trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out
of the wall: he spake also of beasts,
and of fowl, and of creeping
things, and of fishes.
Largest to smallest.
SCARLET stands for blood.
SEVEN means perfect and we see a
perfect cleansing BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS in water baptism.
Acts 22:16 And now why
tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the
Lord.
Col 2:11-12 In whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ: Buried
with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised him
from the dead.
Acts 2:38 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.
Matthew 26:28 For this is my
blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin.
Remission of sins is by the blood
in Matthew 26 and baptism in Jesus’ name in Acts 2:38.
· Because water baptism is
baptism into the DEATH OF JESUS, which is represented by the BLOOD HE SHED in his
death.
We are immersed, or dipped, like
Romans 6 says into the death of Jesus Christ when we are baptized.
· This shows that baptism is
full immersion.
· Jesus died and was buried
in a tomb IN OUR STEAD OR PLACE.
· This is indicated by
taking the LIVING BIRD and dipping it into the water and the blood from the slain bird.
· When the bloodied water is
sprinkled on the leper, this represents the death of the slain bird that was
required due to sin was IDENTIFIED WITH THE
LEPER.
· In other words, the life
of the bird was taken as though it were the life of the person who had leprosy.
· Lepers represent people
who have SIN.
Jesus died because we had to die.
Hebrews 9:27-28 And as it is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (28) So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he
appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Can we all see the answer as to why
verse 28 says that Jesus was once offered to die when we read verse 27?
· Jesus died once because it
is appointed to us to die once.
· In other words, He died
because our sins caused us to have to die.
· WE HAD A DEATH PENALTY DUE
TO THE CRIME OF SIN.
· This means that HIS DEATH
DEALS WITH OUR DEATH PENALTY.
· HE TOOK OUR DEATH PENALTY.
Blood and water cleansed the leper.
· They stand for the DEATH
OF JESUS.
John 19:34-35 But one of the
soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and
water. (35) And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth
that he saith true, that ye might believe.
BAPTISM IS FOR REMISSION OF SINS.
· People usually never heard
of this purpose of baptism.
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such
were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the
Spirit of our God.
WASHED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD is
baptism in Jesus’ name.
The other bird was released once it
was dipped into the blood and water and the blood and water were sprinkled on the
leper.
This is ATONEMENT.
· We become “AT
ONE” with the Lord in HIS DEATH, so we can say we paid for our sins by Jesus’ death.
· Jesus took our penalty,
and so did we THROUGH HIM.
And we are returned to the
COMMUNITY OF THE SAINTS.
· We return to the family of
God from which sin took us.
Naaman was insulted by the command
to dip 7 times in Jordan.
· Jesus was baptized in
Jordan.
· It is associated with
humbling and nothing grandiose.
· Naaman would have liked
some fancy religious ritual that made him look good to confirm his importance as
Syria’s military leader.
· But he had to realize
LEPROSY IS SIN AND IT IS UNCLEAN and there is nothing really noble about us in the eyes of God
as sinners.
· ONLY THE DEATH OF JESUS
can deal with that.
Naaman came up out of the water
with the flesh of a LITTLE CHILD.
2 Kings 5:14 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.
BORN AGAIN!
BAPTISM IS BEING BORN OF THE WATER
as part of NEW BIRTH.
Israel was a blessed land, and
Naaman wanted to take two mule loads of Israelite earth back to Syria with him in order to
build an altar on it and sacrifice to God as though he were living in the land
of Israel, himself.
2 Kings 5:15-17 And he
returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he
said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now
therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. (16) But he said, As the
LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to
take it; but he refused. (17) And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I
pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant
will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods,
but unto the LORD.
Naaman came out of the darkness of
Syria into the light of Israel’s blessings from God.
Lepers were not HEALED but CLEANSED.
· There is a difference.
· He heard all about Elisha
where he could be cleansed BY THE HEBREW MAID.
Naaman wanted to pay Elisha for the
cleansing, but it cannot be bought.
· Only the DEATH OF JESUS
can set us free from sin.
· Naaman had to come to
Elisha rather than Elisha come to him.
We are set free from sin in
repentance and baptism for remission of sins.
The enemy who bruised Jesus’
heel was CRUSHED IN HIS HEAD.
· Naaman took earth from
Israel back to Syria.
· LIKE LAND FROM ANOTHER
NATION IN SYRIA.
· EMBASSY.
· We are AMBASSADORS
· HEAVEN ON EARTH.
· Israel extended itself
into Syria.
He formerly thought two rivers of
Syria were better than all the rivers of Israel, and now he takes land from
ISRAEL back to Syria.
He was a mighty captain used of God
according to 2 Kin 5:1, who contracted leprosy and then was cleansed.
· Back in the saddle again.
· Return of mankind to POWER.
Baptisms were not planned and held
off for later time.
People did it as soon as they heard
the truth.
Acts 16:27-33 And the keeper of
the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew
out his sword, and would have killed
himself, supposing that the
prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm:
for we are all here. Then he called
for a light, and sprang in, and
came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the
word of the Lord, and to all that were in
his house. And he took them the
same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all
his, straightway.
Acts 8:34-38 And the
eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself,
or of some other man? Then Philip
opened his mouth, and began at the
same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they
came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth
hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went
down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
Not an outward show of an inward
work.
No crowds to prepare for.
It really remits sins.