Luke 3:3: And John came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Israel was baptized twice.  All those who came out of Egypt were baptized into Moses in the Red Sea and in the cloud.  They ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink, because they drank from the Rock that followed them, the Rock that was Christ.  But they rebelled and grumbled and God was not well-pleased.  That baptism into Moses was not a baptism into the promised land; even Moses died on the east side of the Jordan.

As Pastor Sumpter has told us today, John’s baptism links with Israel’s second baptism, not the baptism of the Sea but the baptism of the River, not the baptism into Moses but the baptism into Joshua, not a baptism into the wilderness but a baptism into the promised land.  When all the adults who came out of Egypt had died in the wilderness, God raised up children of Abraham from the corpse of Israel, and John said He was doing it again.

That was John’s baptism, but John’s baptism pointed ahead to yet another baptism, a third baptism, the baptism of the Spirit and fire that Jesus brings.  John’s baptism formed a people prepared for the coming of the new Joshua.  Jesus’ baptism forms us into a host, empowered by the Spirit’s fire, an army that will conquer the land.

This third baptism has now happened, and the world has been transformed as a result.  Because the Son has come into the world, because of His Advent, because He has baptized with the Spirit, we no longer live in bondage to sin, or under the slavery of the Old Covenant.  Ezra is not baptized into Moses, to follow fleshly ordinances that do not take away sin.  He is not even being baptized with the baptism of John.  He is being baptized into the greater Joshua, into a covenant that is effective for the cleansing of the conscience.  He is being baptized into the people that has been baptized by the Spirit, and as a result he is being engrafted into that fellowship.

The baptism of the new Joshua doesn’t allow us simply to sail along.  When Israel was baptized into Joshua at the Jordan, they were called to carry on a campaign of conquest of the land, a war of utter destruction against the Canaanites.  When Yahweh took Israel over the Jordan, He expected them to bear fruit, and many didn’t. As in the wilderness, so in the land: Many grumbled, disobeyed, turned to idols, and fell.

When we are baptized into the greater Joshua, we too are baptized into an army, into a host, called to follow Jesus into the land, called to share in Jesus’ campaign to establish the mercy and justice of His kingdom.  When the Lord waters us with the waters of baptism, we know He will come back looking for a harvest.

Remind Ezra regularly of the great privilege he has received, the privilege of being marked with the seal of Joshua not Moses.  But also remind him that he has been baptized into service and into warfare, and is called to fight in the power of the Spirit.