Good Monday morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder what great power you see in WATER. The powerful waves at the beach? A tsunami? A powerful waterfall or a geyser? A raging flooded river or the pounding rain of a hurricane or typhoon. Or what about the power to produce life as when water is poured on dry ground when there are seeds in that ground? Or the power to sustain life as when you or any animal is dehydrated and receives water? But here’s the more important question: is water able to give you and me eternal life?
Join me again my friends as we spend some time with one of the close friends of Jesus. His name is Peter, perhaps the most famous of those 12 disciples. He’s sitting at a rough table with a parchment rolled out before him and he’s picking up his stylus to continue writing his first letter in about the year 65ad. Thus far his letter is greatly encouraging to Christians around the Roman empire suffering great persecution.
This weekend we looked at a very remarkable statement made by Peter about WHERE the Spirit of Jesus went, during those three days while His bruised and crucified dead body was in the garden tomb. If you missed it, I’d urge you to go back to the Weekend edition and read or listen to it.
Today, let’s follow Peter as he continues writing and makes some statements which have been quite confusing for many people and seem to answer the question I started with: is plain water able to give a person eternal life? Peter is writing in 1 Peter 3:20 “…God waited patiently in the days of Noah, when the ark was being built. In it, only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water…” Now that seems confusing to me, how about you, my friends? We all know the story of Noah and the great flood in which every living animal and person died except those 8 people and the animals who took shelter on the ark which Noah and his sons had built in obedience to God’s instructions and God’s warning about a soon coming flood.
In their case the water brought DEATH not LIFE to those who ignored God. The 8 people who were saved from flood death survived because they were in the ark, dry and away from the water! The ark was God’s escape plan for them, since it was buoyed up by the water and thus carried them safely through both the deluge of unending rain for many days, and the rising flood waters below. 
Do you remember another time water was life to those who were obedient to God’s instructions and death to those who mocked God? Exodus 14 gives us that story as Moses led about 1 million fleeing Hebrew slaves THROUGH the water, as God had miraculously opened up a tunnel through the Red Sea and those people and all their belongings walked between walls of water to safety. But do you also remember that God collapsed those water walls on Pharaoh’s army, and they all drowned? Do we see that in both the Moses story and the Noah story the only means of surviving the death water was OBEDIENCE to God’s provision and instructions? Both Moses and Noah needed to do exactly what God told them to do in order to be saved. Can you make the application to God’s provision and plan for our eternal salvation from our sin condemnation? Only by obeying God’s redemption plan can He save us from eternal hell. Do you understand God’s Redemption plan and why Jesus paid with His life so anyone who trusts in God’s plan can be saved by God from and eternity apart from God?
But what about this next verse which Peter writes: “…and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also, not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. You are saved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels and authorities and powers in submission to Him. “ (1 Peter 3:21,22) Does it sound like Peter is contradicting himself in these two sentences? First, he says ‘…water symbolizes baptism that saves you’, and then he says, ‘you are saved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’ So, which is it or is it a combination of the two? Do you see how this raises the significant question I began with today: is water able to save us and give you and me eternal life?
Remember my friends, the fundamental Biblical principle that we build doctrines upon all the Scripture which relates to that topic. In this case Peter is calling us to consider the power of being baptized in water. The word ‘baptism’ means being ‘inducted into’ or ‘immersed in’. Water baptism was widely practiced in the first century as a means of a person being inducted into a particular group or commitment. John the Baptist was baptizing people who wanted to be ready for their anticipated Jewish Messiah. As John immersed them in the Jordan river, they were proclaiming their strong belief in a soon coming Messiah; their concern that their sinful life may be delaying Messiah’s arrival; and their readiness to serve Him wholeheartedly whenever He would make His appearance. The apostles baptized many people after they had repented of their sin and put their full trust in Jesus Christ to be their Savior. Remember Acts 2 tells us 3000 were baptized on one day by Peter and other apostles! (Acts 2:41) In neither case was their baptism saving them from their sin, in both cases baptism was their public commitment of dying to self and selfish ambition and rising to a new life purpose.
Do you see how this view of baptism parallels both water experiences with Moses and Noah? In both cases those who were obedient to God survived the judgment of water which killed many others who ignored or rejected God. In both cases as they came out of their water experience, they stepped into a new life with an intended lifelong commitment to God, seeking to live each day in gratitude that He had saved them from certain death in that water.
We understand that our rescue from our sin condemnation and an eternity in hell separated from God is not accomplished by water baptism but by Jesus Christ dying in our place as He paid our sin death price when He died on that cross. Our full trust in the sufficiency of the atonement death of Jesus invites God to cleanse us from our sin guilt and draw us into relationship with Him; place His Holy Spirit within us; and assure us of eternity with Jesus in heaven when we die. Our water baptism is our public celebration of that redemption plan of God which God is accomplishing in our lives in response to our full trust in Jesus!
As we come up out of the water, we step forward to a new life of full commitment to the resurrected Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord for the remainder of our lives! Oh, my friends I hope this is clear and helpful and encouraging to you today. Have you fully trusted in God’s redemption plan? Have you fully trusted in the death and resurrection of Jesus to be sufficient for your salvation? And have you proclaimed your allegiance and commitment to Jesus Christ for the rest of your life by your water baptism?
Oh, I think we need to worship right now, so I’ve included a song to help you. And I urge you to spend a few minutes praying, thanking God for His Redemption plan!
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 3:20-22.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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