Matthew 3
COMMENTARY:
: 2 And saying, Repent you: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (3340 “Repent” [matanoeo] means change one’s mind, to have a change of self, abandon former dispositions, new behavior, or to reconsider.)
DEVOTION: Good Biblical preaching is necessary today. John started preaching six months before Jesus came to him to be baptized. Remember that John the Baptist was a cousin to Jesus. He was from a family who were from the tribe of Levi. His father was a High Priest.
So he was brought up to understand the message of the Old Testament with the promises of a coming Messiah. His mother was visited by Mary the mother of Jesus while he was still in the womb. When Mary entered the house, he jumped in the womb because he realized who was in the womb of Mary. Babies in the womb are real people too.
Now he is out preaching a message that God gave him. The first word out of his mouth was “Repent.” What were they to repent? They were to repent of their sin. That was the start of a life with the Creator of the Universe. Without repentance it is impossible to have a true relationship with the LORD.
The Jews were not born into a proper relationship with the LORD and neither are we. Our family can’t give us salvation. Baptism can’t give us salvation. There is only one way and that is through Jesus Christ.
Most people reject the idea that they are sinners. So they will never turn to the LORD. It is sad but true. Only those who repent and turn to the LORD will spend eternity in heaven. The rest of humanity will reject the message and spend eternity in the lake of fire that has an unquenchable fire.
CHALLENGE: First we need to keep short accounts with the LORD. Then we need to warn other believers to do the same. Finally, we have to warn those without Christ to become believers before it is too late!!
: 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. (1843 “confessing” [exomologeo] means to profess, acknowledge openly and joyfully, thank, admit or promise.)
DEVOTION: The book of Malachi predicted the coming of John the Baptist. He was to be the forerunner of the Messiah. We find out in the New Testament that he was a cousin of Jesus. Mary and his mother were sisters. So we have a family relationship between the two of them.
Now John has started his ministry and takes the garb of a prophet. He was six months older than Christ. People come to here him preach. His message is simple: Acknowledge that they are sinners. Once they make this decision, they can be baptized into a new group of people. This group were the ones who made up the church later.
The Pharisees came to hear him and thought that they didn’t need to acknowledge their sin. They thought that because they were Israelites, they were the chosen people of God and would therefore go to heaven no matter what happened. They were wrong and John told them that they were wrong.
The surprise in this chapter was that the LORD came to John to be baptized. HE didn’t have to confess sin because HE was sinless. Why was HE baptized? To set an example and HE stated to fulfill Scripture. Everything that Christ did while HE was on this this earth fulfilled the Scripture regarding HIS first coming. PTL. The Bible is true.
We have to admit that we are sinners before we can become a follower of Christ. Once we have become a follower we need to share the message like John did in his day. One way that we can present the truth regarding the condition of man is through the Ten Commandments. Each one of us knows that we have broken the Ten Commandments. John had to confront the religious leaders of his day – the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They thought that being religious was enough to get them into heaven. They thought that because they were of the bloodline of Abraham they were on their way to heaven. John told them that neither was going to get them into heaven. They had to repent of their sins and turn to God. They didn’t think that was necessary.
Christ preached to the same group and they still didn’t think they were sinners and needed to repent. We find that today there are people who think they are OK and don’t need to repent of their sins. The Bible tells us that John was right and the rest were on their way to the lake of fire for eternity. There are only two directions that anyone can go for eternity – heaven or the lake of fire. We need to present them with this truth and ask for a decision. John did!!!
CHALLENGE: Confession is necessary for salvation. Confession is necessary for proper fellowship with the LORD. Our relationship to the LORD depends on our prayer life and growth in the LORD. It was this relationship which John’s baptism demanded (cf. 21:32), and which now requires Jesus to identify himself with the penitent people of God in order to fulfil his mission.
: 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to HIS baptism, HE said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (2191 “vipers” [echidna] means poisonous snake, evil person, to be cunning, malignant, or wicked person.)
DEVOTION: Is it good to call people names? The answer is no, not usually. Here we have the prophet John calling the false religious teachers a name. The name was “viper.” This is probably a reference to the first temptation in the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve were given instructions from the LORD. HE only gave one negative command. They were not to eat of the tree in the middle of the Garden. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent, the devil, tempted Eve into looking at the tree and wanting the tree. The devil questioned God’s instructions. He told Eve that God really didn’t say they couldn’t eat of the tree. He gave the reason that God was afraid they would be as smart as HIM. It was a lie but Eve believed the lie. She shared the fruit with Adam. Both were disobedient and tried to hide from the LORD. Remember that the LORD is omniscient and no one can hide from HIM.
The Pharisees were teaching people that they didn’t have to repent of their sins. They only had to come to the temple with sacrifice and obey their religious traditions and they would go to heaven because they were descendants of Abraham. That was all that was necessary. They were wrong. They were leading those who were listening to them in the wrong direction and were making them twofold more a child of hell then themselves.
True Biblical teachers need to warn of false teachers even today. Many who are pastors in churches are not teaching the truth of the Word of God on purpose. It is not an accident. They don’t believe the Bible and don’t want others to believe the Bible.
CHALLENGE: Don’t listen to our generations “generation of vipers.”
: 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. The he suffered him. (863 “suffer” [aphiemi] means to permit, allow, not to hinder, yield up, or to let go.)
DEVOTION: Jesus was about to begin HIS earthly ministry. HE was thirty years old which is when a man can become a rabbi and teach those who will listen. HE came to John who had established himself as a prophet of God. He was baptizing people who were willing to repent of their sins. He was one who confronted the Pharisees because they were not genuine followers of the LORD. They were religious but not right with God and were teaching others to be religious but not right with God. He called them a generation of vipers or snakes.
Jesus came to him to be baptized but it wasn’t for repentance because HE was sinless. HE was God in the flesh. HE came to John to identify with him. HE identified with his message. HE was about to begin preaching the same message with HIS twelve disciples in training.
HE was doing everything right in the eyes of HIS Father. HE was fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the Messiah. HE came to die for our sins. HE was baptized by John the Baptist because HE set the example of all of us to identify with the LORD.
Our identity with Christ is necessary through a step of obedience called baptism. Once we identify with the LORD Jesus Christ in baptism, we need to serve HIM to the best of our ability with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Christ gave us a perfect example to follow but the Father knows that we will not be sinless like HIS Son but HE expects us to confess our sin daily and HE has promised to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness to keep us in fellowship with HIM.
Our salvation is sure because of the cross but our fellowship is a daily activity that needs a close walk with the LORD. Genuine believers have a daily goal to be obedient to the LORD.
CHALLENGE: John didn’t want to baptize Jesus but once he was given the opportunity he obeyed. The LORD will give us opportunities to serve HIM we should be willing to obey to.
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