When I was thirteen years old, I was baptized, as it was a rite of passage in my growing
up in the Baptist church. My days were normal as a neighborhood kid with a group of peers who
interacted and shared life. We went to school, played sports and all the fun things normal kids do
in their respective neighborhoods. Going to Sunday School and church was part of that
experience. I was baptized along with Brian and Arlyn and a few others boys who attended the
church. It was part of growing up. Fast forward 40 years, as 53 years old pastor, I was asked to
come to that same building (a different organization was in the building) and preach there. I
came to the building the day before to pray and prepare. As I prayed in that church building, I
shared with God how 40 years ago “I got baptized here, and it really meant nothing to me.” I felt
like God shared right back with me that “I meant something to Me!”
The number 40 is the biblical number of trials, testing, preparation and transformation.
You, of course will find the number 40 throughout the Bible, and how it is indicative of trial,
testing, preparation and or transformation. There is Noah’s 40-day flood, Moses’ 40 days on
Mount Sinai, the Israelites’ 40 years in the Wilderness, and Jesus’s 40 days in the desert. The
greatest transformative timeline we are sharing is the Resurrection and the 40 days prior to the
Ascension. Within this period, we find the culminating victory of every trial and test each of us
has and will experience. Without the Resurrection and the subsequent Ascension, our faith is null
and void. This period of 40 gives affirming validity to all the other 40s in scripture and our
personal lives.
After each 40, there was a promise God put in place. God promised that the earth would
never flood like this again (Gen. 9:13-15). After 40 days on Sinai, Moses returned carrying the
Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28-35). After 40 years, the children of Israel entered the
Promised Land (Joshua 3:1-5, 12). After 40 days in the desert, Jesus gave us the model for
defeating the enemies in our lives (Luke 4:1-11; “It is written”).
Between the Resurrection to Him being caught up in the clouds, Jesus was seen by more
than 500 believers. It was their honor to share truth and light to others then and throughout all of
eternity (1 Cor. 15:6). This time of 40 brought to us victory over every trial, every test, and
anything that would keep us from being transformed through salvation to becoming all that God
desires for us to be (Eph. 2:8-9; Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-11)!
Each period of 40 is significant to God, even for a man transformed from a young,
baptized boy of 13 years old, to a preacher declaring the Gospel in the same building where he
was baptized 40 years later. As we journey through this time, embrace each trial, test, and
moment of preparation, so that you might be able to take hold of the transforming changes that
our Risen Savior has delivered to us.
