The King's coming announced by John the Baptist
3
📚In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,3:1 Matthew passes over nearly thirty years of Christ's life and begins to write of the time when He was about to begin His ministry. Other references to John the Baptist – Matt 11:2-14; 14:1-12; Mark 1:2-8; 6:14-29; Luke 1:5-25, 57-80; 3:15-18; 7:18-23; John 1:6-8, 15-35; 3:22-36; 5:33-35. The wilderness or desert of Judea was an area east of Jerusalem and Bethlehem running down to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.⚜
2 📚and saying, “Repent 📖, for the kingdom of heaven 📖 is at hand 📖”. 3 📚 For this is the one who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying,
The voice of one crying out
in the wilderness,
Prepare the way of the Lord 📖.
Make his paths straight.
3:3 This quotation is from Isa 40:3 and speaks of John's ministry of preparation for Christ.⚜
4 📚And John himself had his cloak of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his waist. And his food was locusts and wild honey.
3:4 Plain clothing, simple food, and a humble style of living were the usual marks of God's true prophets. They avoided the materialistic outlook and love of ostentation seen in many religious leaders today.⚜
5 📚Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around Jordan, went out to him, 6 📚and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
3:6 The word “baptized” comes from the Greek word “baptizo”. A famous Greek-English dictionary gives its meaning thus: “Dip, immerse...plunge, sink, drench, overwhelm” (Arndt and Gingrich. Other dictionaries and lexicons are in substantial agreement with this definition).
John's baptism signified repentance and the forgiveness of sins, but it did not produce them. See also Mark 1:4. No water ceremony of any kind or in any place can take away sin or change men's hearts. Only God can do so. And He does so when men receive His Son by faith (John 1:12-13; 3:3-8; 5:24; Acts 13:38-39).⚜
7 📚But when he saw many of the Pharisees 📖 and Sadducees 📖 coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers 📖, who has warned you to flee from the wrath 📖 to come? 8 📚Therefore produce fruit 📖 worthy of repentance, 9 📚and do not think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father.’ For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
3:9 See John 8:39-40. The story of Abraham is in Genesis chapters 12–25. The mistake John pointed out here is a common one among religious people everywhere – thinking that God accepts them and regards them as His people because they are of a certain religious community or sect, or because they can trace their ancestry back to some famous religious leader. Abraham was a man of God but that did not make all his descendants men of God. Now a person is not a true Christian simply because his parents or grandparents were true Christians. An individual's own faith and deeds and character are the important things in God's eyes, not who his or her ancestors were.⚜
10 📚And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire 📖.
3:10 John meant that God was about to judge the nation. The Messiah was about to appear. The people were like individual trees in the forest of Israel. Compare Matt 7:17-20; Luke 13:6-9; Ps 1:3; 37:35; 52:8; 92:12; Eccl 11:3.⚜
11 📚“I indeed baptize you with water for repentance 📖. But the one who comes after me 📖 is mightier than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire 📖. 12 📚His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and gather his wheat into the barn. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”.
The King is baptized and hears a voice from heaven
13 📚Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 📚But John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 📚And Jesus, answering, said to him, “Permit it now, for in this way it is proper for us to fulfil all righteousness”. Then he permitted him.
3:13-15 Jesus was now about 30 years of age (Luke 3:23). John's baptism spoke of repentance and confession and forgiveness of sins (vs 6,11; Mark 1:4). The Lord Jesus was the sinless Son of God (Luke 1:35; John 8:46; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet 2:22). He did not need forgiveness. Why, then, did He come to be baptized by John? Commentators have suggested several reasons. The only reason Jesus Himself gave is in v 15 – “to fulfil all righteousness”. What was right for His disciples to do, He did. He also partook of the Passover feast, though the elements spoke of what He would do for them, not what He needed for Himself (Luke 22:14-15).
Baptism for Him was an act of humble obedience to God's righteous will, and in taking it (as in His whole life) Jesus was an example to all His followers (compare Matt 11:29; 16:24; John 13:15; Phil 2:5; 1 Pet 2:21). He was sinless, but took the place of sinners. He was our representative. He pointed the way we should go, did what we should do, lived as we should live, and, at last, as our substitute, He took all our sins upon Himself and was baptized into suffering and death (Luke 12:50). He died the death we deserve to die.
In other words all He did, including being baptized, was a fulfillment and manifestation and glorification of God's righteousness. And baptism was but a picture of His death, burial, and resurrection which were for the purpose of making people righteous.⚜
16 📚And Jesus, when he was baptized, immediately went up out of the water. And suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 📚And now a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”.
3:16-17 The God revealed in the Bible, the true and only God, is a Trinity. That is, in the one Godhead there are three persons. Each of the three is spoken of in these verses. Jesus the Son is coming out of the water, the Spirit of God descends on Him, and God the Father speaks from heaven. The Son is not the Father, or the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Son or the Father. The three are distinct from each other but are perfectly united as one God in essence, character, mind and heart. So there are not three Gods, but one only. See also Matt 28:19; John 5:30; 14:26; 16:15; 1 Cor 12:3-6; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 2:6; 4:4-6; Rev 1:4-5. For Old Testament indications of this truth see Gen 1:26; 16:7. The Old Testament speaks of the Father (Ps 89:26), the Son (Ps 2:12), and the Spirit (Gen 1:2), but reveals that there is but one God (Deut 6:4; Isa 44:6; 45:18).
God's Spirit is not a mere influence or impersonal power coming from God, but is a divine person. Notes at John 14:16-17, 26.
In those days the dove was a symbol of innocence and harmlessness and gentleness (Matt 10:16). Since then it has become a symbol of peace.
Jesus had been conceived by the Spirit of God (Matt 1:18), and lived His whole life up to His baptism indwelt by the Spirit. At His baptism He was anointed by the Spirit for the ministry He was about to begin. In His life and ministry He laid aside His own divine powers and privileges and depended on God the Father for everything.
This anointing of God's Spirit enabled Him to accomplish all He accomplished. See Matt 12:28; Luke 4:18-19; John 4:24; 5:19, 30; 6:38; Acts 10:28; Phil 2:7-8; Isa 11:1-5. If this was the way of the Lord Jesus we should not vainly imagine that without God's empowering Spirit we can live as we ought or serve God as we ought.⚜
3:17 God here calls Jesus His Son. See Isa 9:6; Luke 1:32, 35; John 1:1, 14, 18; 5:18-23. This means He fully shared the nature of God, as no one else can. He is God's “only begotten Son” (John 3:16). The Father was well pleased with Him because He was without sin of any kind, because He obeyed Him in everything, because He made it the whole business of His life to please the Father. See John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:29; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 7:26; 1 Pet 2:22.⚜