Along Came John
Gospel of Matthew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 46:02
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· 15 viewsWalking through Matthew Chapter 3 tonight. John was countercultural, and preach Repentance was required, and that Jesus would come after him to separate some people with the Holy Spirit.
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Intro Matt 3:1-6
Intro Matt 3:1-6
1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Facts about John
Facts about John
1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
There are many John’s in the Bible, so I want to make sure we know who we are talking about. This not the John that wrote the Gospel of John, or revelation, or John 1,2and 3. That was one of Jesus’ disciples. This John came before Jesus.
John was about 6 months older than Jesus.
John was a cousin of Jesus, which we find out in the Gospel of Luke.
He was the son of Zechariah the Priest and Elizabeth.
He baptized people for repentance of sins in the Jordan river.
He was later beheaded by Herod Antipas as the request of his stepdaughter/niece.
So, John was from a priestly lineage, since his father was a priest according to Luke’s Gospel.
He was called a Rabbi, which means “Master” or “teacher” in Luke 3:12, to which he did not deny that title.
However, John did deny the title of Messiah, which is the Hebrew word for anointed one, and pronounced “Christ” in the Greek.
He also denied that he was Elijah in John 1:21 and in that same verse, he denied that he was a prophet.
Now, John may have denied that he was literally Elijah,
The same prophet from the Old Testament that was taken away in a whirlwind, and therefore never truly died,
But the Jews were waiting on Elijah to return,
And Jesus said that John fulfilled those promises of his return later in this book.
7 And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
8 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
9 But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
10 For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Elias in the Greek is referring to Elijah in Hebrew.
And Jesus said, this is Elias, if you will receive it, verse 14, indicating that John the Baptist was a fulfillment of OT prophecy about the return of Elijah.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, And the heart of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
That is actually the last two verses of the Old testament as they appear in the Christian cannon of 66 books.
The next verse you read is Matthew Chapter 1:1.
Now, I believe this prophecy has a double fulfillment,
Because we are also told in the book of Revelation there will be two witnesses appear in the last days,
And one of them sounds very much like the literal Elijah from the OT
Because it says he will be able to stop the rain and call fire from Heaven,
Which Elijah did once before.
We find many of the OT prophecies to have dual meanings,
And the Jews often looked for just one of those meanings.
This is why they missed that Jesus was the Messiah
So, as we will see, John preached, he baptized, and he amassed a huge following.
So large that it got King Herod’s attention, and he threw him into jail.
Let’s look at what John preached, and how he baptized.
Repent!
Repent!
2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
His main sermon subject was about two things.
Repentance
The Kingdom of Heaven.
John stressed repentance in his preaching, and it was this message of repentance that cause people to go out in the wilderness to be baptized by John.
I know that today, people think that if you want to grow a church, you need to let down on standards, you need to preach tolerance and acceptance,
But John broke that paradigm to pieces.
I have watched churches lose millions of followers over the last couple of decades because they widened the gate, and started preaching come as you are, there is no need to repent.
They must have calculated that this increase acceptance for sinful lifestyles would attract sinners, but it did something else entirely.
Because when you stop preaching repentance, you lose real Christians, and you rarely gain any sinners.
Sinners don’t want to go to church to hang out, they have clubs, bars, and many other venues they can hang out at,
Sinners want to go to church to be changed by the power of the blood of Jesus. And such were some of us…
Repentance is about changing, and that is the message that drew them out to the wilderness to hear John preach.
Despite what they say, people want change.
They get tired of sin. It gets old real fast, and when they get tired enough, they are going to find a John in the wilderness that leads them to real change.
The Kingdom
The Kingdom
The second thing John preached about is the Kingdom of Heaven,
This is a topic you will see often in the Gospels if you are paying attention.
It is the subject all of John’s sermons, and just about every one of Jesus’ parables.
The Kingdom
Sometimes it was called the Kingdom of God
and sometimes it was called the Kingdom of Heaven
But it is really referring to the same thing.
Some scholars think that Matthew may have used the word heaven instead of “God” out of respect for his Jewish audience who refrained from saying the word God.
This is very likely the case, as Matthew is the only one that uses that term, and the other Gospels use Kingdom of God instead.
And remember, Matthew is writing to Jews.
As we go through this Gospel, I want you to pay close attention to this phrase “The Kingdom of Heaven”.
I wrote a little Bible study about it called “Thy Kingdom Came” that is free to download on my website https://JacobJones.org
In short, the Kingdom is what the Jews were waiting for.
They were waiting of the Messiah to come and establish His Kingdom on earth and kick the Romans to the curb,
But What they failed to realize is that:
The Kingdom was not a place, the Kingdom was a people.
20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Jesus tell us how to enter the Kingdom of God in John chapter 3, and it involves being born of the water and the Spirit.
But before you can enter the Kingdom, you must first repent.
This was the point of John’s ministry, and even of Jesus’ ministry as we will see in the next chapter, because Jesus didn’t change the message.
He preached the same sermon as John, and his disciples baptized more people than John.
The message stayed the same.. Repent! Why? Because the Kingdom is close by.
That is what “at hand means”. It is a figure of speech like “around the corner” or “at arms length”.
We’ve only gotten through 2 verses, so we better hurry.
The Forerunner
The Forerunner
Let’s look at Verse 3
3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
You will often hear John the baptist referred to as the forerunner of Christ.
All four Gospels identify John as a fulfilment of Isaiah 40:3
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
In the Gospel of John the Apostle, John the Baptist identified himself as the fulfilment of that prophecy:
22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
Now, what is amazing to me about this prophecy, one that is often overlooked, is how Oneness it is.
Because when we look at Isaiah 40:3
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
We see the word LORD written in all capital letters.
This is because the Jews did not want to accidentally say God’s name when they were reading it out loud synagogues. So, they wrote Adonai about the name of God. Adonai means Lord. So, today, when we read “Lord” in the OT, we need to figure out if it is simply Adonai, or if it is God’s name YHWH, pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah. The way we can tell in the KJV is if it is in all capital letters, it was translated from the Hebrew word for God’s name, YHWH. But if has any lowercase letters, then it comes from the Hebrew word adonai, or in rare cases, a couple of other lesser used Hebrew words like a Governor or Prince.
So, in the prophecy it says that a man will be crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, in all caps.
That means, the one fulfilling this prophecy would be preparing the way for YHWH, or Yahweh.
John said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness… and John was preparing the way for Jesus. Meaning Jesus is Yahweh.
That is why we read in the first chapter of this Gospel that his name would be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us.
Yahweh is the One God of Deut 6:4
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
And Jesus is that same God with us!
Not another God, not 1/3 of God, but Yahweh Himself manifested, or revealed in the flesh.
John was Different
John was Different
4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
In verse 4, I just want to point out that John was seemingly an odd character, and yet, people were still attracted to his message of repentance.
Conventional wisdom would lead us to believe that we need to have our ducks in a row, and be dressed to the nines, and go to where the people are if we are to garner a large following.
But John didn’t go to the Temple mount, or the Synagogue even thought he was the son of the priest.
John went out into the wilderness.
John didn’t have the nicest clothes.
John wore camel’s hair and leather.
John didn’t entice people with fine dining.
John ate locust and wild honey.
John was countercultural.
That’s why he would later say, I must decrease so that Jesus could increase. This was spirit of John. Humility.
What better character trait for the forerunner of Jesus. The one that humbled himself on the cross.
Baptism is for the Repentant
Baptism is for the Repentant
5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Today, we find many different opinions about baptism, but the Bible is pretty clear that only the repentant should be baptized.
Baptism is not a public display of faith.
That teaching is heresy, and not found anywhere in the Bible. It is an attempt to dilute the true meaning of baptism, and remove it from the plan of salvation so they can teach that you can live how you want and still be saved. The Ethiopian in Acts 8 was baptized on the side of the road in the desert because it was important not to wait. The Philippian jailer in Acts 16 was baptized between the hours of midnight and 1AM while the law was on their tales because it was important not to wait. Peter commanded, not requested, but commanded the Gentiles to be baptized as soon as they were filled with the Holy Ghost in Acts chapter 10. When Paul gave his testimony about his own baptism, he said that Ananias told him this…:
16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Baptism in Jesus’ name washes away your sins, and it is the only way to truly “Call on the name of the Lord”.
In verse 6, it says the ones that John baptized, all confessed their sins. That is what baptism is about. It is for a repentant person, one who no longer denies that they are a sinner, who is ready to change, and have their sins washed away.
Vipers
Vipers
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Ok, there is a lot happening in these 3 verses that we need to break down.
In verse 6 we see who John DID baptize
The confessing sinners
In verse 7 we see who John DID NOT baptize
The Pharisees and Sadducees
3. In verse 8 we see why John wouldn’t baptize them
They did not repent.
This further reiterates that baptism is for people that are repenting. You can’t bury someone alive, and repentance is how we die out to our old self.
The Wrath
The Wrath
In verse 7, we also see John ask a question about the wrath.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
So, when they came to his baptism, he asked who warned them to flee from the wrath to come.
Meaning, that baptism is the way to flee from the wrath to come.
The wrath to come is the Day of Judgement.
So, baptism is connected to salvation, otherwise, it could not be used to flee the wrath to come.
Fruits of Repentance
Fruits of Repentance
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
But, baptism does no good if you don’t repent, so John tells them, you go repent and then I baptize you. To do this, they needed to bring fruits in verse 8. Notice that it is plural. This is because repentance is a daily thing. You can’t repent once, and be good.
Repentance is a life-change, and it will bear more than one fruit.
Abraham is Our Father Too
Abraham is Our Father Too
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Keep in mind the audience Matthew is writing to, and his purpose to lead them to be more inclusive of their Gentile Christian converts.
It would have been natural for the Jews to appeal to their father Abraham when the day of wrath comes. They are children of the promise of course. Called out, and separated from other nations. But John the Baptist reminds them that God can make new sons of Abraham from the rocks lying on the ground.
This teaching is further expounded by Paul in Romans chapter 8 and 9 and Galatians chapter 3. When Paul tells the Jews that just being a natural born son of Abraham isn’t enough, you’ve got to be filled with God’s Spirit, and in so doing, even if you are a gentile, you’ve now got the Spirit of Adoption.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
When we are baptized, we have the promise of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2:38, and with that promise, we become heirs to Abraham.
John was foreshadowing this new covenant when he told the Pharasees…
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
We find out in John’s Gospel, that it was actually Herod that sent them out their to figure out who John was, because Herod was worried that because John had so many followers, he might cause a revolution. John didn’t cause a revolution, but Jesus did. And we now have billions of believers in Jesus walking the Earth today.
New Separation
New Separation
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
In these final 3 verse we see a separation happening.
One that was alluded to in verse number 9. The Jews were familiar with separation, for there was no other culture quite like them. Many world leaders have scratched their heads as the culture of God’s chosen people.
Abraham separated himself from all other pagan cultures in Genesis chapter 12, and Jews believed that if they worked hard enough at keeping the law, the Messiah would finally come.
But John tells them there will be another separation. This one would not be a people separated by their connection an earthly father, but a people separated unto our Heavenly Father.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
On one side you’re going to have the unfruitful, and in this context, that is the unrepentant.
Because John told them they needed to bring fruits of repentance, and then says that the unfruitful will be cut down and cast into the fire. How people think they are going to heaven without repentance is beyond me. The Bible makes this more plain than any other doctrine in my opinion.
Who is doing the separating?
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
In verse 11, John tells us that one is coming after him, he will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. We know that this is Jesus.
Jesus is identified in many places as the one John was referring to, and I know y’all know it is Jesus, but just to give one scriptural example:
1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
John the Baptist also said explicitly in the Gospel of John the Apostle that Jesus was the One he was referring to when he baptized him. We will look at that passage in more detail next week, when we pick up at the baptism of Jesus.
12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
But, to button up this lesson, I want to reiterate that Jesus is the one John said would be cutting down the unfruitful trees, (the unrepentant) and casting them into the fire, and in verse 12 separating the wheat from the chaff.
The wheat are the repentant ones that Jesus will baptize with His Spirit, and the chaff are the unrepentant ones that don’t have His Spirit. It is no longer Jew and Gentiles that are separated. It is those that have obeyed Acts 2:38, and those that have not.
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
This lesson was called “Along came John”. Verse one says:
1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
And we will kick off next week in verse 13 that says:
13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
In those days came John…
Then cometh Jesus…