Matthew 3

Matthew 3:1

III. PREPARATIONS FOR THE MESSIAH’S MINISTRY AND HIS INAUGURATION (Chaps. 3, 4) A. John the Baptist Prepares the Way (3:1-12) Between chapters 2 and 3 is an interval of twenty-eight or twenty-nine years which Matthew does not mention. During this time, Jesus was in Nazareth, preparing for the work which lay ahead. They were years in which He performed no miracles, yet in which He found perfect delight in the eyes of God (Mat_3:17). With this chapter we come to the threshold of His public ministry. 3:1, 2 John the Baptist was six months older than his cousin Jesus (see Luk_1:26, Luk_1:36). He stepped onto the stage of history to serve as forerunner for the King of Israel. His unlikely parish was the wilderness of Judeaan arid area extending from Jerusalem to the Jordan. John’s message was, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! The King would soon appear, but He could not and would not reign over people who clung to their sins. They must change directions, must confess and forsake their sins. God was calling them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of heaven. EXCURSUS ON THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN In verse 2 we have the first occurrence of the phrase the kingdom of heaven, which is used thirty-two times in this Gospel. Since a person can not rightly understand Matthew without comprehending this concept, a definition and description of the term are in order here. The kingdom of heaven is the sphere is which God’s rule is acknowledged. The word heaven is used to denote God. This is shown in Dan_4:25, where Daniel said that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. In the next verse he says that heaven rules. Wherever people submit to the rule of God, there the kingdom of heaven exists. There are two aspects of the kingdom of heaven. In its broadest sense it includes everyone who professes to acknowledge God as Supreme Ruler. In its narrower aspect it includes only those who have been genuinely converted. We may picture this by two concentric circles. The big circle is the sphere of profession; it includes all who are genuine subjects of the King, and also those who only profess allegiance to Him. This is seen in the parables of the sower (Mat_13:3-9), the mustard seed (Mat_13:31-32), and the leaven (Mat_13:33). The little circle includes only those who have been born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven in its inward aspect can be entered only by those who are converted (Mat_18:3). By putting together all the references to the kingdom in the Bible, we can trace its historical development in five distinct phases: First, the kingdom was prophesied in the OT. Daniel predicted that God would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed nor yield its sovereignty to another people (Dan_2:44). He also foresaw the coming of Christ to wield universal and everlasting dominion (Dan_7:13-14; see also Jer_23:5-6). Second, the kingdom was described by John the Baptist, Jesus, and the twelve disciples as being at hand or present (Mat_3:2; Mat_4:17; Mat_10:7). In Mat_12:28, Jesus said, … if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. In Luk_17:21, He said, For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you or in your midst. The kingdom was present in the Person of the King. As we shall show later, the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven are used interchangeably. Third, the kingdom is described in an interim form. After He was rejected by the nation of Israel, the King returned to heaven. The kingdom exists today, while the King is absent, in the hearts of all who acknowledge His kingship, and its moral and ethical principles, including the Sermon on the Mount, are applicable to us today. This interim phase of the kingdom is described in the parables of Matthew 13. The fourth phase of the kingdom is what might be called its manifestation. This is the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth which was pictured by the Transfiguration of Christ when He was seen in the glory of His coming reign (Mat_17:1-8). Jesus referred to this phase in Mat_8:11 when He said, … many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.The final form will be the everlasting kingdom. It is described in 2Pe_1:11 as the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.The phrase kingdom of heaven is found only in Matthew’s Gospel, but kingdom of God is found in all four Gospels. For all practical purposes there is no differencethe same things are said about both. For example, in Mat_19:23 Jesus said that it would be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Both Mark (Mar_10:23) and Luke (Luk_18:24) record that Jesus said this about the kingdom of God (see also Mat_19:24 which has a similar maxim using kingdom of God). We mentioned above that the kingdom of heaven has an outward aspect and an inner reality. That the same is true of the kingdom of God is further proof that the two terms indicate the same thing. The kingdom of God, too, includes the real and the false. This is seen in the parables of the sower (Luk_8:4-10), the mustard seed (Luk_13:18-19), and the leaven (Luk_13:20-21). As to its true, inward reality, the kingdom of God can be entered only by those who are born again (Joh_3:3, Joh_3:5). One final point: the kingdom is not the same as the church. The kingdom began when Christ embarked on His public ministry; the church began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). The kingdom will continue on earth till the earth is destroyed; the church continues on earth till the Rapture (the catching away or removal of the church from earth when Christ descends from heaven and takes all believers home with Him1Th_4:13-18). The church will return with Christ at His Second Advent to reign with Him as His bride. At present the people who are in the kingdom in its true, inner reality are also in the church.

3:3 To return to the exposition of Matthew 3, note that the preparatory ministry of John had been prophesied by Isaiah over seven hundred years before his time: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God (Isa_40:3). John was the voice. The nation of Israel, spiritually speaking, was the wildernessdry and barren. John called on the people to prepare the way of the LORD by repenting of, and forsaking, their sins and to make His paths straight by removing from their lives anything that would hinder His complete dominion. 3:4 The Baptizer’s garment was made of camel’s hairnot the soft, luxurious camel’s hair cloth of our day, but the coarse fabric of an outdoorsman. He also wore a leather belt. This was the same attire as that of Elijah (2Ki_1:8) and perhaps served to alert believing Jews to the similarity between John’s mission and that of Elijah (Mal_4:5; Luk_1:17; Mat_11:14; Mat_17:10-12). John ate locusts and wild honey, the subsistence diet of one so consumed by his mission that the normal comforts and pleasures of life were sublimated. It must have been a convicting, scalding experience to meet Johna man who cared for none of the things that people ordinarily live for. His absorption with spiritual realities must have made others realize how poor they were. His self-renunciation was a stinging rebuke to the worldliness of his day. 3:5, 6 People flocked to hear him from Jerusalem, all Judea, and the trans-Jordan area. Some of the people responded to his message and were baptized by him in the Jordan, saying in effect that they were ready to give full allegiance and obedience to the coming King. 3:7 With the Pharisees and Sadducees it was a different story. When they came to listen to him, John knew that they were not sincere. He recognized their true nature: the Pharisees professed great devotion to the law, but they were inwardly corrupt, sectarian, hypocritical, and self-righteous; the Sadducees were social aristocrats and religious skeptics who denied such basic doctrines as the resurrection of the body, the existence of angels, the immortality of the soul, and eternal punishment. Therefore he denounced both sects as a brood of vipers, who pretended to desire to escape from the wrath to come, but exhibited no signs of true repentance. 3:8 He challenged them to prove their sincerity by bearing fruits worthy of repentance. True repentance, as J. R. Miller wrote, amounts to nothing whatever if it produces only a few tears, a spasm of regret, a little fright. We must leave the sins we repent of and walk in the new, clean ways of holiness.3:9 The Jews should stop presuming on their descent from Abraham as a passport to heaven. The grace of salvation is not transmitted in natural birth. God could make the stones of the Jordan into children of Abraham by a less violent process than the conversion of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 3:10 By stating that the ax is laid to the root of the trees, John was saying that a work of divine judgment was about to begin. Christ’s arrival and presence would test all men. Those found fruitless would be destroyed just as a fruitless tree is cut down and thrown into the fire. 3:11, 12 In verses 7-10, John had been speaking exclusively to the Pharisees and Sadducees (see. v. 7), but now he apparently addresses his entire audience, which included both the true and the false. He explained that there was a significant difference between his ministry and that of the Messiah who would soon arrive. John baptized with water unto repentance: the water was ceremonial and had no cleansing power; the repentance, though real, did not bring a person to full salvation. John viewed his ministry as preparatory and partial. The Messiah would completely overshadow John. He would be mightier, He would be more worthy, His work would reach farther for He would baptize … with the Holy Spirit and fire. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is distinct from the baptism with fire. The former is a baptism of blessing, the latter of judgment. The former took place at Pentecost, the latter is still future. The former is enjoyed by all true believers in the Lord Jesus, the latter will be the fate of all unbelievers. The former would be for those Israelites whose baptism was an outward sign of inward repentance, the latter would be for the Pharisees, Sadducees, and all who showed no evidence of true repentance. Some teach that the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the baptism with fire are the same event, i.e., could not the baptism with fire refer to the tongues of fire that appeared when the Spirit was given at Pentecost? In light of verse 12 which equates fire with judgment, it probably does not. Immediately after his reference to the baptism of fire, John speaks of judgment. The Lord is pictured using a winnowing fan to toss the threshed grain into the wind. The wheat (true believers) falls directly to the ground and is carried into the barn. The chaff (unbelievers) is carried a short distance away by the wind and then gathered and burned with unquenchable fire. The fire in verse 12 means judgment, and since this verse is an amplification of verse 11, it is reasonable to conclude that the baptism with fire is a baptism of judgment.

Matthew 3:13

B. John Baptizes Jesus (3:13-17) 3:13 Jesus walked approximately sixty miles from Galilee to the lower Jordan River to be baptized by John. This indicates the importance which He attached to this ceremony and it should indicate the significance of baptism for His followers today. 3:14, 15 Realizing that Jesus had no sins of which to repent, John protested against baptizing Him. It was a true instinct that led him to suggest that the proper order would be for Jesus to baptize him. Jesus did not deny this; He simply repeated His request for baptism as a fitting way in which to fulfill all righteousness. He felt it appropriate that in baptism He identify Himself with those godly Israelites who were coming to be baptized unto repentance. But there was an even deeper meaning. Baptism for Him was a ritual symbolizing the way in which He would fulfill all the righteous claims of God against man’s sin. His immersion typified His baptism in the waters of God’s judgment at Calvary. His emergence from the water foreshadowed His resurrection. By death, burial, and resurrection, He would satisfy the demands of divine justice and provide a righteous basis by which sinners could be justified. 3:16, 17 As soon as He came up from the water, Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending from heaven like a dove and alighting upon Him. Just as persons and things in the OT were consecrated to sacred purposes by the holy anointing oil (Exo_30:25-30), so He was anointed Messiah by the Holy Spirit. It was a hallowed occasion, when all three members of the Trinity were evident. The beloved Son was there. The Holy Spirit was there in dove form. The Father’s voice was heard from heaven pronouncing His blessing on Jesus. It was a memorable event because the voice of God was heard quoting Scripture: This is My beloved Son (from Psa_2:7) in whom I am well pleased (from Isa_42:1). This is one of three occasions when the Father spoke from heaven in delighted acknowledgment of His unique Son (the other places are Mat_17:5 and Joh_12:28).