Cleansed for Covenant

Acknowledge JC back in church after the winter weather

Acknowledge the front row has become empty (if it is empty)

This morning is a special day in our church. It is Baptism Sunday. I want to thank everyone who has helped make today possible and we are so excited to celebrate Hannah today!

We are going to look at baptism this morning. Maybe you have not grown up in church and you do not know anything about baptism or maybe you have been baptized and you have thought you have heard all there is about baptism. But my prayer this morning is that we will come to baptism with fresh eyes and an open heart to allow the Lord to speak to us and teach us.

Baptism was a command from Jesus to His disciples. (Matthew 28:19).

It is the heart of the Father that we would be baptized and would baptize others.

How do we know it is the heart of the Father? Jesus tells us that He only spoke what the Father willed Him to. (John 12:49-50, John 8:38, John 14:10, John 14:24)

The word baptize is the Greek word baptizō. It means to immerse, dip, or plunge.

As Methodist, we practice 3 ways to administer baptism: sprinkling (Ezekiel 36:25-26, Numbers 8:7) pouring (a symbolism of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit Acts 2:33), and immersion (Romans 6:4).

In the Old Testament they primarily sprinkled and poured, with exceptions like Naaman. But it seems that primarily in the New Testament they practiced immersion. References to Jesus or the Ethiopian coming up out of the water, points us to make the understanding that to come out of something you must first be in something.

This morning I want to go a little bit deeper though. I believe baptism is much more than just an expression of something that happens internally but it is a declaration of a New Covenant. And what I hope we will see is that baptism was not a “Christian thing”, but it was actually something that was a common practice in Jewish culture, and still is today.

Paul writes in Romans 11 that we as Gentiles, Gentiles being non Jewish people, have been grafted into the same tree (an image he uses) as the Jews. That we are receiving from the same roots and receiving the same nutrients.

Jesus, Himself, is Jewish.

Why would not our Jewish Jesus who has grafted us into a tree with our Jewish brothers and sisters, not teach from Jewish culture.

Jesus says that He did not come to abolish the law and the teachings of the Jews, but to fulfill it.

So when we look at the law and we look at Jewish traditions and culture, we now look at it through the lens of Jesus and His finished work.

Baptism was a practice in the Jewish culture since days of old.

The word we are going to look at is MIKVAH.

If you travel to Israel today you will find these *screen* spread out over the streets. These are mikvahs.

If you get into your car and drive to Athens, behind the Athens Library, to the Synagogue you will find a mikvah there.

A mikvah is a specialized bath used for ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve spiritual purity, symbolizing a transition or rebirth.

For those who are wondering where I am going, just stay with me… A mikvah is a place where people go to achieve purity and symbolize their transition or rebirth.

*Point to screen* these places would be filled with water and they would enter the pool and fully submerge themselves for purification and rebirth.

Now go with me to Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5:25–27 ESV

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Mikvahs were for everyone’s use but it was primarily used by Jewish women. They used it primarily two times: After they completed their cycle- they went to immerse themselves. And secondly a Jewish woman would go take a mikvah at her wedding.

So in Ephesians 5, it makes no sense to us in Danielsville GA in 2026, who are not Jewish, when he talks about washing her with water.

But there was an understanding to them because they had Jewish weddings. Paul knows that for a wife will go down to mikvah to immerse herself at her wedding as a declaration of her transition.

The bride to prepare herself for this new covenant with her husband, goes to the mikvah to say to everyone in attendance, I am going in one way but coming out a new way- I am going in a single woman but I am coming out as His bride.

Now, watch this, let me go a little deeper: (Can I?)

A man is not required to do a mikvah at his wedding, but a man can chose to do so- and it signifies that just as much as she is giving herself to him, he is giving himself to her.

Now I never understood why Jesus went to get baptized, Until I got the revelation of the wedding mikvah.

Jesus being baptized was His declaration that He was committed to His Bride.

Our baptism is our declaration that we are committed to our Groom.

The language here is that of a wedding.

Why do you think Satan attacks the marriage so much? Because there is a revelation of Christ and His Bride in it.

The Bride did not sprinkle herself but fully immerse herself, because she was entering into a covenant.

The mikvah symbolized:

Leaving the old life behind

Spiritual Cleansing

Stepping into a new identity

Union with her Groom

Romans 6 says we are buried with Christ and raised to new life.

When we are baptized:

We leave the old life behind

We rise in resurrection life with Christ.

Now I want to speak to Hannah this morning, but before I do let me say this: If what I am about to speak speaks to your life and it hits you and ministers to you- receive it.

We read Scripture and see where the Lord speaks to an individual and how many of us believe what the Lord is speaking to that individual can and is for us as too.

For example, the Lord was talking to Jeremiah when He said, “I know the plans I have you, plans to prosper you and give you a hope and future”, but how many of you claim that first and believe it?

God is no respecter of person and what He does for one He will do for another....

Now Hannah, I have a word for you. As I was praying for this day and this moment. Flip with me to Acts 16:13-15

Acts 16:13–15 ESV

13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

When I see you Hannah, I see Lydia. She is a quick story in the Bible but her life had HUGE impact. I can take you to the Sunday the Lord opened your heart and you heard Him calling you. You did not find Him, He left the 99 to find you. And He grabbed you right there *point to the spot in the room*. And just like Lydia, the Lord has been pouring into you. He has been speaking to you. He has been showing you things. You are not crazy, you are not stupid, you are not silly. He is speaking to you and He is going to continue to speak as long as you will position yourself to listen to Him.

Then Lydia got baptized. And that is where we are today. We are excited for the work the Lord is doing in your life and will continue to do as you take this step today. Just like the wedding mikvah you are announcing to everyone in this room and watching live- I have found the One who I love. I am His and He is mine. He already took the mikvah, He already went and prepared a place for you, now today, you get to show the world that you chose Him.

I have decided to follow Jesus and there is no turning back.

But Hannah one more thing happens to Lydia and I want to prophetically release this over you. Not only did Hannah come to the Lord and get baptized, but her whole house. I know you have been praying and you have been worried. I can see you crying in your living room worried about them, but when Lydia took the step the household followed. I prophesy your children shall be saved. I prophesy that we will plan their baptism in this house. I prophesy you shall see your whole household saved.

And it will be Hannah, because the Lord opened your heart and you chose to walk with Him.

Nothing has been wasted Hannah- you have walked through some dark things, but nothing is wasted. Everything you saw, everything you did, everything you experienced, God is going to use it for His glory. Your story is going to have His glory all over it.