God makes all thing new through water baptism. In the video below, broadcast on GOD TV recently, Karen Wheaton shares how God can turn our lives around and help us overcome our struggles, while Micah Wood highlights three Old Testament events that illustrate the importance of baptism. Both are from a dynamic youth ministry called The Ramp which is impacting the lives of young people in Hamilton, Alabama.
Karen is a well-known preacher, Gospel music singer and recording artist who is passionate about encouraging people to pursue Jesus. She hosts The Winter Ramp and The Summer Ramp events which feature the dance drama group, Chosen as well as passionate speakers like Micah Wood who is the Director of the Ramp School of Ministry (RSM).
“God makes all things new. He is the one person who can take darkness and make it light and take broken people and supernaturally make them whole. He is the only one who can take sinners and make them righteous,” says Karen. “If you’ve struggled with your old nature or have been constantly battling condemnation, or if you just need to be reminded, then this episode is for you,”
Speaking on The Ramp, Micah shares some powerful illustrations into how life-changing baptism can be. Watch this episode of the popular youth series and trust God to make all things new in your life as Micah reveals how the Old Testament points to the new.
3 Prominent Events in the Old
Testament That Teach About Baptism
1. Noah and The Flood
“who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” (1 Peter 3:20)
Micah talks about the world being filled with wickedness at the time of Noah but how God made all things new. “What was God’s answer for a world of wickedness? How could he return the world to righteousness?” he asks.
“God’s answer was baptism. He took the earth that was filled with wickedness and He baptised it in the waters of judgement. God has an answer for a world filled with wickedness and the answer is baptism.
“In baptism, we are plunged into the waters of God’s judgement and are brought up on the other side. Baptism is the place where God makes all things new. Baptism draws a line in the sand and says this is what was, and what now is.”
2. Moses and the Red Sea
“all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,” (1 Corinthians 10:2)
“The Red Sea was the place where God made all things new for Israel,” Micah says. “For hundreds of years, the children of Israel served as slaves in Egypt. They longed to be free from bondage, dreaming of the day when God would fulfil His promises.
“After leaving Egypt, they thought they were free but they weren’t as their past was chasing them. Have you ever felt free and you aren’t and the thing that you thought you were delivered from is right there in front of you again?
“God has an answer for dashed hopes and His answer is baptism. ‘I am going to take you down into the water and I am going to take you through the waters and I am going to bring you out on the other side’, God says.”
Micah shares that, just like the story of Israelites crossing the Red Sea, when you go into the water your enemy has to go down with you, but when you come up, only you come up. Your enemy has to stay in the waters of judgement, whatever that enemy may be, even if it is the toughest addiction.
“On your day of baptism, you will not see that addiction again. Baptism is supernatural, you cross over in to a different sphere, and, even if you wanted to go back to Egypt you couldn’t get back past the Red Sea!”
3. Consecration of the Priesthood
“And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.” (Exodus 29:4)
Finally, Micah concludes by talking about the Levitical priesthood and how the first step into the priesthood was through washing. This is what the high priest, Aaron and his sons were required to do. “Baptism washes away who you were, so you can step into who God has called you to be,” Micah says.
This means that through baptism your old identity is buried and you step into a radical lifestyle of serving God!
If you’d like to know more about getting baptised why not speak to the pastor of your local church? Some churches only carry out infant baptism, so you will need to find one that teaches full immersion or consider coming on a GOD TV Israel Tour. We have baptised many, many believers in the River Jordan as the picture shows.