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Reading Matthew 3:4-6 about John the Baptist, the words that he preached, and the ministry he fulfilled as the forerunner to the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
John the Baptist was the one that was prophesied by Isaiah, the forerunner to Christ, who was in the wilderness saying, Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in the Gospel of Matthew. As we've been reading about John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3, I'm going to pick up where we left off last week, but first reading this whole section again, verses 1 -12 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.
Hear the word of the Lord. Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
And do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children for Abraham. And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
So as I mentioned last week, this particular section is divided up into three parts, and we had looked at part one last week, verses one through three, introducing us to the ministry of John the Baptist, tying in to his ministry that prophetic word that was said about him from Isaiah 40, verse 3, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Now whenever Matthew makes a reference to something in the Old Testament, he's not isolating verses. The whole context is being considered there. That's something to keep in mind, too, when we get to the crucifixion of Christ later on, and we know that he's quoting from Psalm 22.
When Christ prays from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And it's not just verse one that Matthew has in mind there. It could have been that Jesus prayed the entire Psalm, or more than just verse one anyway.
So as we consider this reference to Isaiah 40, verse 3, consider what comes even after that. So a voice is calling, prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
That's how it reads as translated from the Hebrew. Little bit different as translated from the Septuagint, which is what Matthew would be translating from, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So continuing on in Isaiah 40, verse 4, let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley.
Then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken. Now this is prophetic, what's being said here, and the imagery that's being used is basically to say that there will be no obstacle to prevent Christ from coming and appearing.
Let every valley be lifted up, every mountain and hill be made low, let the rough ground become a plain. In other words, a description of that statement, make his path straight. Let there be a way for Christ to come, and God will make that way.
He will accomplish what he has decreed, that his Son will put on flesh and dwell among us, and his presence will be made known by the people, and there is nothing in the world that will happen to prevent this from taking place.
Consider what we've read here in Matthew, that there was one who tried to prevent this from taking place, that was Herod. But the Lord had acted even to warn the Magi, and to warn Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt, and that it wasn't long after that that Herod met his untimely demise.
Nothing was going to prevent this that had been prophesied from of old, that the Christ would come. And there would be a forerunner to him, that is John the Baptist, one who would prepare the way for this ministry.
Now I love John the Baptist, one of my favorite persons in the New Testament, and I've probably done more study in Paul more than anyone else other than Christ. But John the Baptist has always been incredibly intriguing to me.
You understand that of the persons that we read about in the New Testament, only three were prophesied about in the Old Testament, and that is, of course, Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot, and John the Baptist.
Now you could probably argue that Mary was prophesied about as well, for Isaiah 7 says the virgin will be with child. I suppose you could make that argument. Some have even argued that the Magi are prophesied about in Psalm 72 .11, let all kings bow down before him, let all nations serve him.
And what did the Magi do the moment they found the Christ child? They bowed down and worshiped him. So maybe there's a reference to them there in Psalm 72. But all things considered, three men are prophesied about in the Old Testament, and we see all three in the first gospel, Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot, and John the Baptist.
Now John even knows that he is the fulfillment of that prophecy in Isaiah. When we read about the Pharisees interrogating him in John 1, and they ask him who he is, he makes that very reference to Isaiah 40 verse 3.
This is John 1 verse 22, therefore they said to him, who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? And he said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. So John knew he was the fulfillment of that prophecy. That reference, Isaiah 40 verse 3, is made in all four gospels with regard to John the Baptist.
There is no one else that could have been speaking about but him. And so, this statement here in verse 3, Matthew 3, 3, is not John the Baptist speaking, this is rather the commentary of Matthew, but he says, this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
And of course, that is where John is. He is not in the city, he is not in the towns, he is outside, and people are going out to him in the wilderness, in the barren, desolate places, in the badlands, as I've heard them referred to as well.
Now the unusual nature of John is explained further in this next section. So that first portion of Matthew 3, that's the opening section, which we looked at last week, verses 1 through 3, introducing us to the ministry of John the Baptist.
And then something said about his unusual nature in verses 4 through 7, even with regard to things that he will say, for we see his first statement against those false teachers come up in verse 7. So verses 4 through 7 here describes John Forrest.
Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Now it's assumed by many scholars that John the Baptist was a Nazirite. That's probably true.
I don't have any reason to say that it's not. In Luke 1 .15, it says, before he's born, that he's not to touch any strong drink, or that he's not going to touch any strong drink. And that was one of the stipulations of the Nazirite vow, which we read about in Numbers 6.
He would abstain from all of the products of the vine, including wine. He would allow his hair to grow without ever being cut. And he would also abstain from coming near or touching a dead body. All of that is in Numbers 6, verses 3 through 6.
Now a Nazirite vow was generally something that a person voluntarily entered into. Some believe that Paul was also a Nazirite, but he would have been a Nazirite by his own decision. John the Baptist was a Nazirite from birth, and only three persons in the Bible are described as having been a Nazirite before they were born.
And that's Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. So presumably he was a Nazirite, and some of this unusualness about his character explained here in that he lived out in the wilderness. That's not a stipulation of a Nazirite, but he accepted a life of poverty.
As many prophets did, sometimes to be a prophet of God meant that a person was going to be isolated. They would live alone. They would even be ostracized. They would be exiled. They were not welcome anywhere because they were hunted.
They spoke the word of the Lord. And the people, kings in particular, hated hearing from that messenger. They hated God, so they hated God's prophets. Remember that Jesus said in Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are you when people hate you and revile you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This is the way prophets were treated. And so it is the way that they treat John the Baptist as well.
John the Baptist takes on that persona of a prophet, living out in the wilderness, making his clothing, his garments, whatever was available to him. Camel's hair, which wasn't really a preferable garment.
Camel's hair wasn't especially soft. He had a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. That wasn't a common diet. Now the people of Israel could eat locusts. That was one of the insects that was permitted to be consumed according to the dietary laws that we read about in Numbers 11.
So he could eat locusts, but that's just not a typical delicacy. Israelites didn't go eat bugs. They would eat meat, fish, lamb, something else, just not a locust. But this was what John the Baptist committed himself to, and wild honey.
So that's what was out there in the wilderness. He would eat locusts and wild honey. Now what he's demonstrating by this is almost as if he has chosen the diet that one would eat during a time of extreme famine.
You just eat what's out there. I can find a locust. I can find wild honey. So that's what my diet is going to be. There isn't a famine in Israel at this particular time, but John the Baptist has chosen this diet as a demonstration of a spiritual famine that was in Israel at the time, and we've already read about that kind of famine.
We noticed that when the Magi came seeking him who had been born king of the Jews, and none of the people understood what they were talking about. Who is this king of the Jews? And all of Israel is troubled.
All of Jerusalem is troubled along with King Herod because of these foreigners that have come in following the Old Testament scriptures, that which had been spoken by the prophets. They followed this star, but they knew who the star was leading them to because they had read about it in the prophets.
And even Herod didn't know what they were talking about. He had to consult his own wise men. What are they saying? Where is this king of the Jews supposed to be born? Oh, yeah, there is a prophecy about that, and he's supposed to be born in Bethlehem.
So that's where Herod ends up sending them. But these foreigners knew about the birth of the king. The rest of Judah did not. And if there's anybody that should have known of the birth of their king, it was Judah.
They had these oracles that had been given to them from God, but had no understanding of what the prophets had foretold. These foreigners knew, but Judah did not. And so demonstrating a spiritual famine that was in the land, hence why John the Baptist is eating this particular diet, because even his diet as the prophet of Judah at this time, his diet reflects the spiritual famine that is in the land.
Verse five says, Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan. So even though there is this spiritual famine in the land, there is nonetheless this curiosity. And the Lord has certainly stirred curiosity in the hearts of the people, because this is part of the fulfillment of the prophecy.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And so these people, they're curious. Has the Savior come, the Messiah who was prophesied, the one who will deliver us, has he come as this man is calling out in the wilderness?
And so the people go out to him, which wasn't terribly convenient, leave their homes and their towns to go out and hear this guy that's calling out of the wilderness. Now certainly there were people that probably thought of him as fanatical or even crazy, but people knew who John was.
He was not some mysterious figure. Who is this guy? No, they knew who he was. He was the son of Zechariah, one of the priests in the temple. Luke gives us much more backstory into the life of John the Baptist than the other gospels do, but we know the family, the lineage that he came from.
So John was a known name. His family was well known. His father was known. And so the people go out to him knowing who he is. Have you seen John? Son of Zechariah? The baptizer out in the wilderness? He's also baptizing in the Jordan River.
So Jerusalem goes out to him and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan, verse six, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. And this is part of the fulfillment of that exhortation that's given.
Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. The king is coming. The holy one, the anointed one, as he's called by the prophet Isaiah, this is what it means to call him the Messiah or even the Christ.
He is the chosen one or the anointed one. And so the people in preparation for his coming, they cleanse themselves. Like if anybody was going to go and have an audience with the king, you couldn't just walk in to see the king in whatever condition you were in.
You probably had to bathe or somebody would dress you a certain way to make you suitable to appear before the king. And so this is what John the Baptist is accomplishing with his preaching and with the people coming out to him to be baptized.
They're getting cleansed. They are repenting. They're confessing their sins and repenting of these things because they are making themselves clean in preparation for the anointed one, the king, the one whom God has chosen to deliver his people.
If indeed this king is coming, we need to prepare ourselves. And so the people are baptized in preparation for this. Now, baptism was a practice that was going on in Judah. It had been going on for hundreds of years.
Most commonly, the practice of baptism was applied to proselytes, those Gentiles who had been converted Jew. But to be baptized, they would baptize themselves. It wasn't something that was—there wasn't like an official ceremony that was being done in the sense that you have to be baptized by this person in order to be cleansed of your Gentile-ism to become a Jew.
They would just wash themselves. They would stand in a basin of water, or it would be in a river or something like that, and they would dunk themselves under and come back up. And that was the most common practice of baptism in Judah at that particular time.
There was, of course, all the different ceremonial washings that were required. If a person got sick and then they were healed, they were to be washed. For the priest, whenever he would go in on the Day of Atonement, he would be completely washed head to toe.
He would go and make the first sacrifice, would come out, have to be stripped of his linens, completely washed head to toe again. He would make the second sacrifice, come out and repeat the process three times.
He would do that. So that was another kind of baptism. Baptisms were always part of ceremonial cleansing in the law, in the history of Judah. But it wasn't something that the people just regularly did.
There wasn't a reason for them to have to be baptized, again, unless they were some kind of a proselyte or a new convert from Gentile to Jew. So the people come to him, and along with their baptism, they confess their sins.
So even here, we recognize that there is something outwardly that they are doing, being baptized, that reflects something inwardly that's going on, the confession of their sins, desiring to be cleansed so that they prepare themselves for the coming of the Anointed One.
Now this baptism that John was doing is not the kind of baptism that we practice today, and there is a distinction that's being made. This was a very limited baptism during the time of John. But the baptism that we practice today in the church, in obedience to the command to go and baptize the nations, this baptism is in association with Christ, to demonstrate that we are buried with Christ in our sins, and we are risen with him to new life, as Paul lays out at the start of Romans 6 as well.
So it's a different kind of baptism. We also see when Paul encounters the men in Ephesus whom he brings to the knowledge of Christ, they say to him that they had been baptized in John's baptism, but they did not know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And so there's a distinction there between the baptism that we practice in the church now versus the kind of baptism that John the Baptist was doing, preparing people for the coming of the Christ, specifically Yahweh, because that's the name that's used in the Hebrew scriptures.
In Isaiah 40, verse 3, a voice is calling, prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. So this is not just any king that John is preparing the people for, it is God himself.
And this is what the people are anticipating and even confessing their sins as they prepare themselves for Christ. Now we don't prepare ourselves for Christ, we are prepared by Christ. We come to Christ as we are.
It is he who cleanses us and makes us new. And then when we are baptized, we are demonstrating by our baptism an outward sign of something that has happened inwardly. We've been cleansed by Christ. And so by our confession through baptism, we demonstrate that we've been buried with him in our sins, risen to walk in newness of life.
The old man, the old sinful man or woman is dead and buried, and we've been risen and clothed in his righteousness to walk in his ways after the Lord. And so let us in the baptism that we have received, walk in the righteousness of Christ that we have been given.
We'll come back to the testimony of John the Baptist here in Matthew 3 tomorrow. Heavenly Father, as we finish this up, we thank you for the confession of sins that we have made because of the conviction in our hearts having heard the gospel.
We heard about our sin and need for a Savior and that Christ is that Savior. And confessing our sins, we have been cleansed of all unrighteousness. We've been clothed in his righteousness that we may be holy before you.
So help us to walk in that righteousness today, living in honor before you that our very minds, our thoughts, our desires would be conformed to Christ. We want what you want for us as we would submit ourselves as worthy and humble servants unto the Lord, unto Christ our King.
We glorify him today in Jesus' name. Amen.
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