HAVE YOU CROSSED THE JORDAN?
Text: Joshua 3
Dr. Larry Petton
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SCRIPTURE TEXT – JOSHUA 3:5-17
5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” 6 Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them. 7 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.
11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off.
So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Chuck Swindoll once said, “God never asked us to meet life’s pressures and demands on our own terms or by relying upon our own strength. Nor did He demand that we win His favor by assembling an impressive portfolio of good deeds. Instead, He invites us to enter His rest.”
Rest sounds really inviting. And the Lord has personally invited you to cross over into His rest and discover a new life. But you will have to “cross over the Jordan” in your spiritual life to experience the reality of that truth.
I grew up singing the hymn, “On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wistful eye, to Canaan’s fair and happy land where my possessions lie!” We thought we were singing a song about Heaven, but, unfortunately, the experience for Joshua and the people of Israel at Jordan was not a symbol of Heaven. It is the portrait of the victorious Spirit-filled life right now! There are no battles in Heaven. But Canaan was full of battles from the Enemy and tests of faith from the Lord. The first test started in chapter 3 when God challenged the faith of His people and asked them to step into the water and walk!
As we examine the Exodus journey in the Old Testament, we discover that there are three types of people spiritually as described in I Corinthians 2:13-3:3.
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
THREE TYPES OF PEOPLE (Joshua 1, I Corinth. 2:13-3:3)
• EGYPT (NATURAL) - unbelievers who are in bondage to sin. Christ is on the outside of their life. Those in Egypt were freed from their slavery by the blood of a sacrificial Lamb, a picture of Christ on the Cross, who sets us free from sin.
• WILDERNESS (CARNAL) – a believer who has Christ as Resident, but not PRESIDENT. Self, not Christ, is on the throne of this person’s life. The Carnal Christian lives in spiritual defeat.
• CANAAN (SPIRITUAL) – the victorious believer who is living in obedience to the Word and Spirit of God. This believer is not perfect, but he is experiencing growth and victory because Christ is on the throne of his life.
THREE TYPES OF ENEMIES IN THE PROMISED LAND - As you enter the victorious, overcoming life of the Promised Land, you will be facing these three enemies:
1. SATAN and his angels in the Kingdom of Darkness (Eph. 6:10-18).
2. The WORLD and the lust in it (I John 2:15-16)
3. SELF – the desire to be in control of my life without God (Rom. 7).
The key issue that keeps us from entering the Promised Land today is the battle we have with SELF. I have made an acronym of SELF that illustrates the battle we face with the lusts of the world as John described it in I John 2:15-16:
5 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[a] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
“SELF” in the New Testament is a reference to our old, sinful, Adamic nature that is in rebellion against God (Romans 3:1-23).
S – ATISFYING
E- VERY
L – UST of the
F - LESH
How do we overcome the destructive power of SELF and walk in the Spirit? The secret is in the power of the CRUCIFIED LIFE described by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
I agree with David Platt who said of the Crucified Life: “We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about ABANDONING OURSELVES.”
Before we go further, don’t go too far in your theology of DYING TO SELF. Some denominations go so far in this direction that it seems as if the value of people in the Church is lost and all who follow Christ are deemed as worthless, rotten sinners who somehow crawled to the Cross just in time to be spared for damnation. When we speak of dying to self and the Crucified Life, we should remember the words of C.S. Lewis:
“Humility is not thinking less of YOURSELF…..Humility is thinking of yourself LESS.”
WHAT DOES DYING TO SELF MEAN?
R.K. Estrand does an excellent job of describing what self-denial and the Crucified Life really look like to us:
“The essence of a being's "existence" has to do with the fact that he is a "living reality“. If one no longer has or the functions of vitality, they are said to “no longer exist.” So, the essence of “death” is the absence of “life” – therefore when one dies, “one ceases to exist in the same way.” To carry the argument into the spiritual realm, when someone “spiritually dies to self,” self ceases to exist – that is, SELF IS NO LONGER THE REASON FOR ONE’S EXISTENCE. As such, the individual is no longer concerned with “his own will or happiness,” because he is no longer the center of his own little universe... he no longer continues to arrange the world around himself.”
GREAT ILLUSTRATION OF SELF-DENIAL
George Muller, known for his great faith & ministry to orphans in 19th century England, was asked the secret of his service for the Lord. He said, “There was a day when I died to George Muller — his opinions, his preferences, his tastes, and his will — died to the approval or blame of my brethren and friends — and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God!”
GREAT QUOTES ON SELF-DENIAL
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer — When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
• Charles Spurgeon — I have now concentrated all my prayers into one... that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.
• Martin Luther — Until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.
• Thomas a Kempis — The more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
• D. L. Moody — Let God have your life; He can do more with it than you can.
• Ignatius — Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him.
• Vance Havner — Some missionaries bound for Africa were laughed at by the boat captain who said, “You’ll only die over there!” Replied a missionary: “Captain, we died before we started.”
TWO TYPES OF BELEIVERS
There were two types of believers in the Exodus journey from Egypt to Canaan.
1. RED SEA BELIEVERS - Delivered from sin, but not from SELF, walking in the FLESH
2. JORDAN RIVER BELIEVERS - Delivered from sin, victory over self & sin, walking in the Spirit
Have you crossed over the Jordan in your walk with the Lord? Have you moved on from merely being rescued from the penalty of sin to experience the victory of power over sin in your daily life? Our salvation is three-fold:
• We have been saved from the PENALTY of sin. (Justification)
• We can be saved from the POWER of sin now (Sanctification)
• We will be saved from the PRESENCE of sin in the future (Glorification)
As we look at Joshua 3, God told the Israelites to camp 3 days on the east bank of the river and wait for God to lead them through in His timing (Joshua 1:10-11). What prayer is it in your life that you are waiting for God to answer? Scripture reminds us over and again to “wait on the Lord” (Isaiah 40:31).
In Joshua 3:15, God waited until the Jordan River was at its highest surge level. God often waits until the times are most difficult to show His hand. These are tests of faith for His children to wait and see His glory. Maybe the waters are surging around you now. Perhaps you are in deep water financially. You feel as though you are drowning even though you have called on the Lord. The victory comes to those who wait. Courage is often just one second braver than fear because it held on.
THE ARK of the COVENANT (3:17)
The Priests carried the Ark of the Covenant (symbol of God’s Presence) through the Jordan River and across to the Promised Land. They were commanded to step into the water first……and then the Lord responded with a miracle!
Sometimes I hear believers cry out for help by saying, “You don’t know how hard I have prayed. You don’t know how long I have waited on God to answer my prayers! I keep waiting on the Lord to DO SOMETHING!”
Have you ever thought that maybe the Lord was waiting on YOU? Sometimes we need to get our feet wet before God parts the waters for us.
QUESTIONS
Has God spoken to your heart from His Word or by His Spirit and told you to do something?
Did you tell the Lord you would obey Him?
Have you obeyed Him completely?
If you have not………what has kept you from doing what God commanded?
Maybe it is time for you to STEP INTO THE WATER and trust the Lord. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that “without faith, it is impossible to please the Lord.”
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE JORDAN RIVER
The Jordan River is a special to all believers. It is not only the place where the people of Israel crossed over into the Promised Land, it is also the same place where Jesus came years later and was baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30 to begin his public ministry. But, the baptism of Jesus was more than just water baptism to confirm the ministry of John the Baptist. It was also the place where the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus with power to do the work of ministry that He was called to do: Listen to Dr. Luke describe what happened between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit at the Jordan River:
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).
Luke called this experience by Jesus the ANOINTING OF THE SPIRIT.
• Jesus never ministered publicly before receiving the anointing.
• Jesus had the Spirit without measure (John 3:34) but realized that He needed more. He needed the power of the Spirit upon Him.
• Jesus knew that the Enemy was on the outside. That is where the battlefield was. He asked for and waited for the Anointing and received it when the time was right.
• What happened to Jesus was the very same type of experience that happened to the Disciples at Pentecost in Acts 2. They asked for and waited for the Anointing of the Spirit before they entered into ministry publicly.
• Jesus did not have an outward manifestation of the Anointing, but the Disciples did. The common denominator is that both were given power to do ministry as Jesus promised in Acts 1:8.
JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT – What was the relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
1. He was born of the Spirit (Luke 1:35).
2. He was anointed by the Spirit (Acts 10:38).
3. He was led by the Spirit (Luke 4:1).
4. He was filled by the Spirit (Luke 4:1).
5. He was equal to the Holy Spirit (John 3:34).
6. He was raised by the power of the Spirit (
7. He cast out demons and performed miracles by the Spirit (Matthew 12:28).
8. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to comfort and lead His disciples after He went
back to Heaven (John 14:15-31).
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE BELIEVER TODAY - What does the Holy Spirit do for us as we walk with Him?
1. Baptizes (I Cor. 12:13) – this happens at the moment of salvation
2. Adopts (Romans 8:15)
3. Seals (Eph. 1:13, 4:30)
4. Reveals (I Cor. 2:10-14)
5. Intercedes (Romans 8:26)
6. Leads (Romans 8:14)
7. Bears fruit (Gal. 5:22-23)
8. Fills (Ephesians 5:18) - this happens daily to the believer who yields control to the Holy Spirit. It happens on the inside of the believer to produce the character of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit.
9. Anoints (Acts 10:38) – this can happen to believers who yield for and receive the power of the Spirit UPON them. It happens on the outside of the believers to produce the power of Christ to repel the Enemy and the Kingdom of Darkness that wars against us.
Someone has said that the Modern Church looks like a FROZEN WATERFALL. It has all of the form. All of the beauty. All of the outward appearances. But no movement and no power!
Have you crossed the Jordan? If Jesus needed and received the Anointing of the Spirit, what do you and I need? We all need to learn the power of SPIRITUAL BREATHING to walk in victory over sin, self and Satan.
SPIRITUAL BREATHING
• Exhale – confess your sin – agree with God concerning your sin and thank Him for His forgiveness of it, according to 1 John 1:9 and Hebrews 10:1-25. Confession involves repentance - a change in attitude and action.
• Inhale – surrender the control of your life to Christ, and appropriate (receive) the fullness of the Holy Spirit by faith. Trust that He now directs and empowers you; according to the command of Ephesians 5:18, and the promise of 1 John 5:14, 15.
You receive Jesus for salvation and forgiveness of sins. That is crossing the Red Sea.
You receive the Anointing of the Spirit by faith just like Jesus. That is Crossing the Red Sea.
STEP INTO THE WATER today!!!!
