Bible Study on: Matthew Chapter 3
by Russell J. Schmidt
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1) In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
2) and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
3) For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
“ The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘ Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.’”
4) Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5) Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him
6) and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
7) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8) Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
9) and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
10) And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12) His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
John Baptizes Jesus
13) Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
14) And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
15) But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
16) When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
17) And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
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Book of Matthew, Chapter Three
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
We begin chapter 3, introducing John the Baptist as the one prophesied in Isaiah 40:3, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.” This prophecy in Isaiah comes right after Isaiah tells king Hezekiah, in chapter 39, that all he has and those he begot will be carried off to Babylon.
Now, verse 4 tells us that John was clothed with camels hair and a leather belt around his waste. His food was made up of locusts and wild honey. The Scriptures give no indication that John was with anyone in the wilderness; it appears as though he were living in the wilderness alone.
Another prophet of God who was described to be similar to the description of John, was Elijah. He also seemed to be from the wild, as he is described as a hairy man, also wearing a leather belt. This description can be found in 2 Kings 1:8. Another thing that Elijah and John had in common was the fact the Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire by the Jordan River, and John the Baptist began his ministry by baptizing people in the same location as Elijah was taken up.
I don’t know if there is some significance to the comparison, but I will continue to study the possibility. The one thing we do know is that Elijah did not die before being taken up in the chariot of fire, but John the Baptist was beheaded by king Herod.
In verse 5 is where we first find John the Baptist baptizing in the Jordan River, as people from all around came out to him. Now, for someone to be living alone in the wilderness, he must have been very influential with the
message that he was proclaiming about the coming kingdom, because he could have easily come off as a crazy man and ignored because of his lifestyle.
But, his message was so powerful, we find in verse seven that even the Pharisees and Sadducees came out to see this man who was stirring up the people in such a spiritual way. John’s message sure did get people talking, because we read that people came from Jerusalem, Judea, and all the surrounding areas of the Jordan River.
What made his message of the coming Messiah so intriguing to those
Jews whom he spoke it to, was probably do to the Roman occupation of Israel. The Jews in that day were believing for the Messiah to be the one to free them from this Roman occupation. So, John's message came through loud and clear, even though he was a loner who lived in the wilderness. Because they believed that the Messiah,
prophesied in the Old Testament, was going to be their liberator, they were willing to listen to anyone who spoke a message of hope to them.
As soon as John saw the Pharisees and Sadducees, he cried out, “Brood of Vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Now, this was a sarcastic question that John was directing toward them. John knew very well that they were only coming out to see who it was that was creating such a stir and giving them problems.
John goes on in verse 8 and 9 by saying, “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” What John is telling them here is that they are so far removed from God that they are not bearing godly fruit in their lives or the lives of the people they represent. He’s telling them don’t just assume that, if you call Abraham your father, that you are bringing people to salvation. God will raise children of Abraham from stones before these Pharisees or Sadducees will be able to bring one person to the truth through their man-made doctrines.
John goes on in verse 10 by condemning these religious leaders in saying, “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Ouch! Talk about being blunt. John is being symbolic and saying, that the Pharisees and Sadducees have already been judged and will be cast into eternal damnation because they are leading God’s people astray with their doctrines of men and not of God. Their sin falls in the category of the unpardonable sin of Matthew 12:31-32. That would be blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, because this is ultimately what these Jewish leaders where denying.
God Himself, through the prophets, condemns those who lead His people Israel, because much of the blame for Israel’s disobedience, God places on those leaders of Israel and Judah, who did not provide good leadership and example for His people.
Just like in today’s Christian society, there are few Churches teaching on, and leading their membership into, the gifts of the Spirit and the power that Jesus Himself said the Spirit will provide for those who believe. It is just assumed by these teachers that the gifts of the Spirit ended with the last apostle. (If you are not sure what power that I am talking about, please read my study called, "Jesus' Power Within You.")
I say they assume that, because there is not one verse or Scripture in the Bible that alludes to that. Some will point to 1 Corinthians 13:8, which reads, “...But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” The problem with just taking a verse and using it solely on its own for interpretation is that you may not get the exact meaning.
When trying to determine meaning of a verse, you need to get the context of what is being said around that verse. Sometimes for clarity, you have to even look at other books in the Bible to see how certain words were used and if there were certain patterns that develop to help identify meaning. If we look at the full context of what the apostle Paul is saying here, we cannot possibly come up with the definitive answer that unbelievers of the spiritual gifts provide.
What Paul is talking about here is how important love is in comparison to these gifts of the Spirit. If we look at the verse I quoted, the verse starts out with, “Love never fails…” What Paul is saying is that a godly love never fails, but prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will one day cease. When will it cease? Let’s look at verse 10; “but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”
What “perfection” is to come? Jesus Christ! So, if the gifts of the Spirit cease when perfection or Jesus comes, why are we told by the unbelievers that they have already ceased? It certainly didn’t cease when Jesus came the first time, because that is when He instituted these gifts of the Spirit, through the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. The reason why they will cease when Jesus comes back is because they will not be needed by Christians, because we will already have been
changed to our heavenly bodies. Once in our heavenly bodies we will not deal with fleshly problems that we needed the spiritual gifts to overcome. In the mean time, we do
need these gifts to help us overcome the satanic influence that is around us.
You might ask, why then, don't we see more of these gifts of the Spirit throughout the Church? That's a good question and one that can only be answered
in a full study, which I have not done yet, as of this writing. But, I will say that Satan's tactic changed after Jesus defeated him at the Cross. Prior to his defeat, Satan was still occupied with overthrowing God and taking His throne, if he could only get Jesus to sin. Since the Cross, satan is now in desperate times, knowing that he is doomed to eternal damnation upon Jesus' return. He will fight to the finish and in the mean time he wiil take as many Christians with him that will give authority over to him to do.
Satan has been a master at deception and getting the Churches focus off of the spiritual gifts. Satan knows that without these spiritual gifts Christians are vulnerable to his spiritual attacks. Through this deception, Satan has convinced most of Christianity that the spiritual gifts have ended with the last apostle as per God's plan. This cannot be further from the truth. If you are in a Church that preaches that the gifts of the spirit are no longer available, I would advise you to search out a Church that does believe in the gifts of healing, speaking in tongues, the gift prophecy, and all the other gifts that were available to the apostles.
Does this mean that Satan is more power then God, that he was able to deceive the Church? Not at all! Again, this is where the law of freedom of choice the God instituted that governs life as we know it comes into play. God has allowed man to make his own decisions that has brought about this void. These decisions were ochestrated, of course, by Satan himself, through the deception of man living in a worldly way. By living according to the worlds way, we give authority over to Satan and his demonic cohorts, in our lives.
You see, this is the only verse that I’ve heard those who say the gifts had ended with the last apostle, use to defend their position. But, as I pointed out here, it is a weak argument on their part and one that is easily supported as I just did. The reason why those unbelievers are stubborn to believe, is because they cannot get these gifts working in their lives. Why? Because of their hardness of heart! Something that God regularly mentions throughout Scripture when He is talking about unbelievers.
Getting back to just one more point on the verse, 1 Corinthians 13:8,
that the unbelievers use. When unbelievers point to tongues and prophecy ceasing,
they must also say that knowledge has ceased as well, because it is a part of that
verse. It would be hard to point to knowledge as having been ceased, because knowledge of God has exploded with the access of God’s Word and revelation knowledge of that Word.
This outpouring of knowledge that has been happening for the past forty years or so, can be attributed to the prophecies of the end times that we read in Isaiah 11:9, “... for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” In reality these gifts of the Spirit, including knowledge, have been accessible
since Jesus instituted them. Prophecy does tell us that God will remove this hardness
of heart toward these gifts as we move forward into the end times.
How does this tell us that it is referring to the end times? Let’s look at verse 10-11, “10) In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. 11) In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.”
This modern day exodus mentioned in verse 11, of the Jewish people returning to Israel from around the world has been going on since Israel had regained its statehood. With the fall of the Soviet Union, a mass exodus of Jews from Russia and surrounding countries took place throughout the 1990’s. So far from western nations such as the United States and Canada, we have not seen this exodus as of yet, but it will happen as prophecy foretells.
I could get into a whole study here in reference to the nations or areas that are listed in verse 11 above as to where this remnant will come from, but I will save that for another study.
Let’s get back to Matthew chapter 3, and move on to verse 11. John speaks of his baptism being a baptism of water unto repentance. John is telling them here that although his baptism is important to the born again process, it is not a complete process until the one coming after him, whose sandals he is not worthy to carry.
Jesus’ baptism will complete the process baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire. Many wonder what the fire is referring to in this verse. We get our answer in the very next verse. Those who do not except baptism are considered the chaff, which is by definition, the useless part of the harvest. The wheat represents those who have accepted this baptism and are saved, while the chaff is burnt up with the unquenchable fire that Jesus brings with Him.
John Baptizes Jesus
We conclude our study of chapter 3 with the final five verses that describe John’s baptism of Jesus. In verses 13 and 14, we find that Jesus purposely came to the Jordan River where John the Baptist was baptizing, so He too can be baptized by John.
Now, I watched a documentary on John the Baptist recently, where they tried to make it seem that John had more authority than Jesus. This cannot be further from the truth. Jesus does not tell us exactly why He needed to be baptized by John the Baptist, when John, himself, admitted that he could not even carry the sandals of the one (Jesus) who comes after him, but I believe that Jesus was setting an example to all who will accept Him as their savior.
Baptism is a symbolic gesture to God that you are committing your life to Him and believing, without a doubt, that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. It is not something to be taken lightly, because once baptized, it is blaspheme of the Holy Spirit to go back to a sinful lifestyle according to the worlds way.
That is why it is it makes no sense for churches who baptize babies, because baptism is a conscious choice that one needs to make based on the evidence surrounding Jesus. How can a baby make a decision like that? Baptism canot be forced upon an infant, it’s just not biblical. This point will be more evident as we move through our study of the four Gospels.
This concludes our study of Matthew chapter 3.
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