Matthew 3

Chapter 3. The Inauguration of the King"This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)What a contrast the introduction of God’s King presents to the splendid pageants with which earthly sovereigns ascend their thrones! The present chapter gives us the picture of Christ’s inauguration.

Section I: the Forerunner

Section I—the ForerunnerThe prophet Malachi, 400 years before, had announced not only the coming of the Messiah, but also of His herald. He was to come as Elijah the prophet, and as God’s messenger. In exact accordance with the prophecy and the Old Testament pattern, John the Baptist at length appeared, introduced by angelic messengers and supernatural signs, and proclaimed the advent of the greater Personage that was soon to follow. Elijah A good deal of confusion has arisen in the minds of superficial thinkers through the misleading theories of certain modern freaks, who are contending for the office of the prophet of Elijah and who very wrongly take it for granted that there is to be a third appearance of the ancient prophet. The Scripture gives no intimation of any such reincarnation of Elijah. In fact, they do not teach the doctrine of reincarnation at all. This is one of the wrong teachings of Eastern Buddhism. According to the Bible, John the Baptist was not an incarnation of Elijah, but a distinct individual, named John, who was to represent the same special prophetic ministry which Elijah fulfilled. This is expressed in the phrase, “He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). But John was not Elijah; he was a distinct prophet, closing the Old Testament series of prophetic ministries, even as Elijah had opened it, and our Lord Himself explicitly declares that John fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi respecting the reappearance of Elijah. “‘But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished….’ Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist” (Matthew 17:12-13). False Prophets John was indeed a good deal more true to the ideal Old Testament idea of Elijah than his modern imitators. His personal appearance was rugged and his dress appropriate to a child of the wilderness. He lived in no sumptuous hotels, nor appeared in gorgeous ecclesiastical vestures; but his food was dried locusts and wild honey, and his gown a rough blanket of camel’s hair, fastened with a belt of skin around his waist. His spirit and message, like Elijah’s, represented the law rather than the gospel. He came to the Jewish people and was not a preacher of the gospel for the Gentiles. His most distinguished mark was his humility. His one desire was to bear witness to the coming One and pass out of sight himself. Unlike modern imitators, he had no desire to occupy the center of the stage, but like the true Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, it was his business and his supreme delight to disappear and leave “no one except Jesus” (Matthew 17:8). He was the friend of the Bridegroom whose one occupation was to introduce the Bridegroom and then give place to Him. He was the morning star that shone to introduce the coming sunrise and then paled before the Lord of day. “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).

Section II: the Preparation

Section II—the PreparationHis Ministry of Messenger John’s business was to prepare Israel for the presentation of their Messiah. The nation had backslidden until they practically lost their covenant rights as God’s theocratic people. His ministry of repentance, and the sign of baptism that accompanied it, practically ignored all their ecclesiastical claims and rights and demanded of them that they should come back to God as proselytes from heathenism had to come. The rite of baptism was not unknown among the Jews, but it was invariably associated with the receiving of proselytes or converts from the heathen. To require a Jew, therefore, to be baptized was an ignoring of his Jewish standing. It implied that he had forfeited his covenant rights and had to be born over again. It was indeed laying the axe to the root of the tree and hewing down all their pretensions and claims of birth and merit. That they should submit to this is the most profound proof of the marvelous power of the great revival introduced by John. Baptism in its own essential symbolism and significance is the figure of death and resurrection, and the baptism of the people of Israel was a death blow to all their religious pride and an acknowledgment of the need of an entirely new life before they could again stand on covenant ground. An attempt has been made by some rigid dispensational teachers to show that John’s ministry of repentance was intended only for Jews. They tell us that the gospel message to the Gentile is simply “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and that repentance is involved but not expressed, that it belongs to the message of the law and not the gospel. These writers had better read again the statement of Paul (Acts 20:21), where he tells us that he “declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” We know the church at Ephesus largely consisted of Gentiles, and Paul’s message to them had been the message of repentance as well as faith. Again, in Acts 26:20, the Apostle declares to Agrippa how his ministry and message began: “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” Paul had the same gospel for Jews and Gentiles, repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of repentance is always God’s preparation for every advance moment. The hardened sinner has no use for God’s message of grace until driven to self-despair by conviction of sin; then he is willing to listen to the gospel of the grace of God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. John’s message of repentance was not given merely to the coarse and criminal classes of his time, but to the learned Sadducees, the religious Pharisees and the cultured courtiers who thronged to hear him. It must have seemed very rude that he should class them all with publicans and sinners, but he did, and demanded of them a repentance so radical as to acknowledge that they needed a change as thorough as the publicans themselves. It is said that John Wesley once preached one of his heart-searching sermons to a cultivated audience of fashionable people, and one of the ladies said at the close: “Why, Mr. Wesley, that sermon would just have suited the prisoners in Newgate jail.” “Oh, no, madam,” said the good evangelist, “if I had been preaching in Newgate jail, I would have preached: ‘Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’ The poor, self-convicted sinner could appreciate the gospel, but the proud, self-righteous moralist is not ready for it yet.” But John not merely demanded repentance, but restitution, righteousness, and a life bringing forth “fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). The need of today in the Church of Christ is a revival of conscience and righteousness. This would impress an unbelieving world a good deal more than our learned answers to higher criticism. It is said that a farmer once called upon an infidel neighbor and told him that he had just been awakened to a sense of his sin, and wanted to restore to him four sheep that ought to be in his neighbor’s pasture, with the offspring of these sheep for the past four years. The infidel was very much disturbed and said, “Go away; don’t bother me about the sheep, you are welcome to keep them. If you go on this way much longer I will believe there is something after all in your religion. Keep the sheep and don’t disturb my peace of mind.” This is the gospel our conscienceless age needs, and this is the sort of repentance and practical righteousness that will make people want the fullness of Christ and lead the world to believe in Christ and His people.

Section III: the Witness to Christ

Section III—the Witness to ChristJohn’s Testimony Notwithstanding his bold and faithful preaching of repentance, John knew that mere repentance would not permanently save them, and they must have a power supernatural and divine that would keep them from the sin that they had confessed and for a time put away. Therefore, he brought to them the promise of another and a greater Prophet, One who in His own personal character was so infinitely above him, that His very shoe strings he was unworthy to unloose, and One who was to bring a new power into our spiritual life as much greater than the mere power of repentance and reformation as fire is mightier than water. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11). Water is but external, fire is internal, penetrating and intrinsic in its cleansing power. This was what the prophet Ezekiel had announced centuries before as the radical need of fallen human nature, “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:27). This is the deeper Christian life which God is making so clear and so urgent in the life of His people today. This is Christ’s baptism, not John’s, and no converted soul is fully saved until it has passed on to this deeper life and received the Holy Spirit in His sanctifying and keeping fullness.

Section Iv: the Baptism of Christ

Section Iv—the Baptism of ChristAmong the multitudes that came to John for baptism was one form so little different from the rest that speaking of Him later, John said, “I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit’” (John 1:33). John recognized the modest stranger as together they were going into the waters of the Jordan and at first refused to baptize Him: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14). But Christ insisted, explaining, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Its Meaning Christ had no sin of His own to bury, but He had the sin of the world. His baptism, therefore, was the assuming of the responsibility of human guilt and going down in a figure to death on account of it, and then coming forth in baptism again in a figure of the resurrection. As He did so, John expressed the deep significance of this sign on the following day, by pointing Him out and saying, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). He had borne our sin into the waters of death figuratively, and, coming forth in resurrection, He had also figuratively borne it away. Then, a little later he was actually to go down into a real death on the cross, and come forth in a real resurrection. His baptism was the rehearsal in advance of the crucifixion and the resurrection. Therefore, it was followed by the Father’s voice accepting Him, and declaring that He was well pleased, not only with Him for Himself, but henceforth and forevermore with all lost sinners who claimed Him as their Sacrifice and Righteousness. The Holy Spirit At the same time, there came to Jesus Christ another baptism, namely, the Holy Spirit, just as John declared that there would come this divine baptism to all who received Him. From this moment Jesus Christ stood in a new attitude to His work. Henceforth there was another Personality united with Him, in all His teachings, acts and sufferings. It was the third Person of the Deity, so that all Christ’s public life was fulfilled in the power of the Spirit. While He was by His own divine right the Son of God, yet He deliberately suspended the exercise of His own divine rights, and took the position of a dependent man looking to God through the Holy Spirit to enable Him for all His ministry just as He enables us now. Therefore, He delayed the commencement of His public ministry until after He had received the Holy Spirit. He did not attempt a single official act until He had been baptized with power from on high. What a lesson, what an example for us! His Spirit-baptism was intended to be the pattern of ours. This one feature marked the infinite difference between Christ’s baptism and John’s. John’s was a baptism into death to the old life of sin; Christ’s was a baptism into life and power, bringing to our aid something more than our own will power and our purpose to do better, and giving to us the divine cooperation of the Holy Spirit. Not only so, it takes us into a new sonship. Even as He was recognized as the Son of God, united to Him by the Holy Spirit, we share His relation to the Father, and in infinite humility, and yet with infinite confidence we can hear the Father say, “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Lessons In conclusion, what are some of the lessons of this story?

1. The first surely is repentance. If there is anything that is not right, we must put it right. God is not going to do for you what you can do. You can turn away from sin though you cannot keep away from it without His help; but the moment you make your new choice, He will give you His divine ability to keep it. “If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you” (Proverbs 1:23). It is ours to turn, it is His to meet us with His almighty grace and pour out His Spirit upon us without which all our doing is utterly vain.
2. Are you living under John’s baptism or Christ’s? The great majority of Christians today have gotten little farther than John’s baptism, a conscientious turning to God with a desire and purpose to live a better life, but without any real touch of power from on high. No convert should be left in this place. The only guarantee of being kept is to go on to the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
3. Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed (Acts 19:2)? That is the gift of Christ, that is the imperative need of every Christian. That is the special message of God to His people today, and the great work that He is doing preparatory to the coming of our Lord. Oh, listen to His appeal and “receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
4. Are you living under the opened heavens and in the fellowship and faith of God? That is what the baptism of the Spirit brings. The resurrection and ascension of Christ have opened heaven to the child of God, and it is our privilege to walk in the light of that upper world. We are dwelling in “heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). We are the children of the day. Our feet may tread this earthly scene; but our hearts, our interests, our hopes, our lives are all invested yonder, and it is our privilege also to walk in the favor and love of God. “He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). We have no right to live like a prodigal in the kitchen or the swine house, but to take our place in our Father’s love. Not for our righteousness are we accepted, not because of our unrighteousness are we excluded. But that day on Jordan’s banks, one Man so pleased the Father, that forevermore He is pleased with every sinner that accepts Him and abides in Him, and He is willing to give us His grace, so that we may, moment by moment, “live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way” (Colossians 1:10). Oh, let us walk with the heavens opened unto us and the Father ever whispering: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).