Worship

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Based on Gen. 1:1-2

     The Bible begins and ends with God in the midst of water.  It is the physical substance that is nearest to the spiritual.  It is the physical source of all life.  There is no known life on earth that can survive without water.  God gave birth to the world out of a mass of water as the Holy Spirit hovered over the deep.  The earth was immersed in water before it came to life. And so it is with us.  From conception to birth we are immersed in water. When the water breaks we are born into a world totally dependent on water.   Seven eighths of our body and OF all animal life is water.  Nine tenths of all plant life is water.  75% of the worlds surface is water. 

     The clouds above us are floating lakes of water.  They are tiny droplets so small that one hundred billion of them would not fill a tea cup.  They form the clouds that make rain possible, which keeps the world alive.  Water is the blood of the world that gives life to all that God has created.  The blood in our veins that keeps us alive is 90% water.  Water supply is not just vital for farmers, it is vital to the life of each one of us. 

     When everything is working normally there are about 16 billion tons of rain that fall on
U.S. soil every day.  We take water for granted, but have no idea just how much of it is needed to keep life going.  Ten to twenty tons of water are needed for every bushel of corn that is harvested.  15 to 20 tons are needed for every pound of beef, and 120 gallons for every egg.  If it was not for all the irrigation in this country we could be going through a drought like they often do in Africa.  Water is the blood of our nation just as it is all the nations of the world.

     Water is also the key factor in industry.  All that man makes is just as dependent on water as all that God has made.  The production of one car requires 60 thousand gallons of water. For every gallon of gas you put in that car, it takes 10 gallons of water to produce it.  Water is the life line of nature, and also of industry.  Nothing significant happens in this world without water. 

     Therefore, it is not surprising that water plays a major role in the Bible.  It would take hours just to read all of the verses in the Bible that deal with water.  Some of the highlights would be-

1.  The creation.
2.  The flood, where Noah and his family were saved by water, and where the most       universal symbol God ever created, the rainbow, is dependent upon water. 
3.  The great exodus of Israel out of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea. 
4.  The striking of the rock that gave water to Israel, and which the New Testament     says was Christ.
5.  The crossing of Jordan into the Promise Land.
6.  The 23rd Psalm where he leads us beside the still waters.
7.  Jesus is the water of life, and He walked on water, and He stilled the stormy waters,    and He turned the water into wine, and He made water basic to the ordinance He gave    to the church to go into all the world and baptize.  The Lord's Supper has two elements     Bread and wine, and both are products of water.  Some would add His washing of feet,       another water event.

     There is no escaping the importance of water for both the physical and spiritual life. We cannot live without water, and we cannot live a life of obedience to Christ without water. All three persons of the Godhead are identified with water.  God the Father says in Jer. 2:13, "My people have committed two sins:  They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."  Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4:10, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  Later in John 7:37-39 this living water is identified with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said, "If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.  By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believe in Him were to receive," 

     It is through faith in Christ that we receive the Spirit of Christ-the living water, and for all eternity Jesus will lead us to springs of living water, says Rev. 7:17.  Water is not only essential for life in time, it is basic even to life in eternity.  Water is forever because God made it the key to life.   In Rev. 21:6 there is a fountain of the water of life in heaven, and in Rev. 22 there is the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb, and produces the fruit of heaven.  For all eternity nature and man will still depend upon the water of life.  There will be no more thirst in heaven.  This may not seem relevant to us, but for many of God's people in Bible lands this was a precious promise that meant paradise to them. 

     Geoffrey Moorhouse in The Fearful Void tells of running out of water while crossing the Sahara Desert.  He almost died of dehydration, and he writes, "Almost unconscious even of my mind, I was aware of trees somewhere ahead, somewhere beyond Ibrahim and the Camels, who seem to be a great distance ahead.  Then there was a tent.  Ibrahim was squatting by it, drinking from his brass bowl.  Then a small boy was running towards me trying not to spill what was in the bowl.  The water in it was the color of diluted blood.  This was the most beautiful thing in the world, more beautiful by far than the stained glass of Chartres, than a fugue by Bach, then the moment after ecstasy with the one woman you love, or the moment when your son scrambled to squeeze the breath out of you and say, I think you're smashing dad.  There was nothing in the world as beautiful as this bowl full of water."  You may never have this emotional experience with water, for you would have to pay too high of a price to have it, but we should be able to have an intellectual appreciation of this experience. 

     Like the oceans, the revelation of God about water is two vast to cover.  So we will specialize on one aspect of water, which is the water of baptism.  It is all a wonder, but the water of baptism has additional wonders.  It takes a lot of water to obey Christ and be baptized.  The Ethiopian Eunuch went down into the water, and Lydia was baptized in the river, and the early church stressed the importance of being baptized in living water, that is, in natural flowing water, like the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized. There were no churches and baptisteries, and so this was not an option open to them,  as it is to us.  It was several centuries before baptism inside was accepted as the norm.

     Baptism for the early Christians was an experience with nature, as well as with God. This is still true for Christians on many of the missions fields of the world.  Rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds are used all over the world to immerse people in.  Creation is used to worship the God of creation.  Baptism is a spiritual use of nature to glorify God.  There's no way to separate the spiritual and the natural in baptism, for they are one.  We cannot do it in the Lord's Supper either, for you cannot have bread and juice without nature and the power of water.

     Literal, physical water is not only essential to physical life, but to a life of obedience to God, or spiritual life.  The person who attempts to be spiritual without the physical is forgetting just who it is that created the physical, and that He rejoices in it, and expects that we will also, and use it to glorify Him.  The point is, baptism links the Christian with nature. We cannot obey God without nature.  We can go inside to a man-made baptistery, but we cannot make water.  Water is essential to baptism, and so nature is essential to baptism. 

     Jesus began His own ministry with His baptism in the Jordan.  He made baptism in water a symbol of the transition from the old to the new.  His ministry was to take the world from the old covenant to the new covenant in his blood.  Baptism is the symbol of new beginnings. Many churches make baptism the transition from being a non-member of the local church to becoming a member.  It means new opportunity, new service, and a new voice in the local body. 

     Water is a transition element.  We can't explore it in depth, but water is a key factor in the transition of the seasons.  We use it all the time for transition.  From work to a night of relaxation, we take a shower in between, for we want to clean up and be refreshed for the evening.  Water gives us the feeling of newness.  So it is with baptism, for it is like a spiritual bath that cleanses us and makes us ready for a new agenda in the will of God.  Every square mile of air has a two and one half million cubic feet of water in it, and this is crucial for the cleansing of the atmosphere.  Without this water all life would soon choke on the dust and smoke particles in the air.  Water is the cleansing agent of the natural world, and God made it the cleansing agent of the spiritual world as well.  The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, and 90% of blood is water.  When Christ's side was pierced there came forth blood and water. 

     The waters of baptism are to be seen as the symbolic cleansing agent of sin.  In Acts 22:16 Ananias came to blind Saul in Damascus and said, "Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on His name."  It is faith in Christ, and calling on His name that leads to the cleansing of sin, but this is symbolized in baptism.   Only God can cleanse from sin, but He gives the symbolic power to the water of baptism, and, thereby, gives a new slant to the old saying that cleanliness is next to godliness. 

     The old man is buried in baptism, and the new man that rises out of the water is to be a cleansed man, ready to walk a new path on the Rock, which is Christ, and no longer on the dusty road of the world.  Paul fell on the road to Damascus, and was likely quite dirty.  His baptism could have literally washed away the dirt, but it also cleanse him from his evil attitude toward Christ and the church.  Paul was a new man after his baptism because the old was buried, and he came forth from the water to walk in newness of life.

     Lydia was not a wild woman on a rampage against Christianity, and so her baptism was not as great a cleansing, for she did not have such dirty feet as Paul.  Baptism is to be seen as the symbol of God burying our sins of the past in the deepest sea.  We sing, "Let the water and the blood From thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and power."  

     Cleanliness was next to godliness in the Old Testament.  All that was done in the presence of God had to be done with the participants cleansed with water.  Everything the priest did had to be preceded by washing, just like a doctor does today before he goes into surgery. The high priest on the day of atonement had to wash himself before he put on the holy garments, and after he came out of the holy of holies he had to wash again in water.  Our baptism is very much like the high priest getting ready to enter the service of God.  Paul in Gal. 3:27, "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."  Just as the high priest put on the holy garments to enter God's presence, so we, in baptism, put on the most holy garment of all, for we put on Christ.  We clothe ourselves in that which is most acceptable in the presence of God-His Son.  We put on Christ and stand before God clean and pure.  Here is the wonder of water par excellence. 

     The fish became the symbol of the early Christians.  A creature that lives in water became their primary sign.  Like fish, we are to be at home in the environment of the water of life, and have a hard time when we find ourselves cast up on the dry land of the waves of the world.  The Christian should feel out of his element, and very uncomfortable in settings displeasing to God.  They should be eager to get back into the element of Christlike ideals. Holiness is feeling at home in the realm of the spiritual, and like fish out of water, feeling not at home in the realm of the worldly. 

     Our baptism is to mark that time in our lives when we begin to focus on the things of Christ more completely, and let the things of the world fade into the background.  Baptism is to be that bath of transition.  We are wash up and leave the grimy work of the world, and enter into the joy of serving our Lord.  Jesus began His public ministry with baptism.  Paul was baptized, and after his time in the desert, he began his public ministry.  Baptism is to be a turning point where the goal is to be immersed in the things of Christ.  Baptism is a commitment to make the Christian life more than a mere part time, and side line religion. 

     To rise from the water and walk in newness of life is not easy, in fact, it is impossible.  Our very failure to be able to be Christians as we ought to be, is to keep us ever conscious of our dependence upon Christ.  The wonder of wonders is that He loves us, and will use us for His glory, even after all we have done out of His will.   And the wonder of water is that Jesus uses it to symbolize His love for us in forgiving and cleansing us from all sin.  Let us now go and worship our Creator and Redeemer by obeying Him with water.

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