“I baptize {\cf2\super [41]} you with water to show that you changed your hearts and lives. But there is a person coming later that is greater than I am. I am not good enough to take off his shoes for him. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit {\cf2\super [42]} and with fire.
In that place there were six large waterpots made of stone. The Jews used waterpots like these in their washing ceremonies. {\cf2\super [34]} Each waterpot held about 20 or 30 gallons.
At that time we were taught about baptisms, {\cf2\super [44]} and about the special act of a person putting his hands on people. {\cf2\super [45]} We were taught about people rising from death and about the judgment that will continue forever. But now we need to go forward to more mature (advanced) teaching. {\cf2\super [46]}
Those gifts and sacrifices were only about food and drink and special washings. Those things were only rules about the body—\{not about things inside people’s hearts\}. God gave those rules \{for his people to follow\} until the time of God’s new way.
These things are copies of the real things that are in heaven. These copies had to be made clean by animal sacrifices. {\cf2\super [115]} But the real things in heaven must have much better sacrifices.
That water is like baptism {\cf2\super [26]} that now saves you. Baptism is not the washing of dirt from the body. Baptism is asking God for a pure heart. It saves you because Jesus Christ was raised from death.