Matthew 3

Matthew 3:1

JOHN THE BAPTIST.–Matthew 3:1-12. GOLDEN TEXT.–Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.–Matthew 3:8. TIME.–A. D. 25. Tiberius Cæsar emperor of Rome; Judea a Roman province with Pontius Pilate as governor; Jesus Christ between twenty-nine and thirty years old. PLACE.–The Wilderness of Judea on the Jordan. HELPFUL .–Mark 1:1-13; Luke 3:1-18; John 1:15-28. LESSON .–l. The Coming Kingdom; 2. The King’s Messenger; 3. The Holy Spirit and Fire.. A period of uncertain duration, but from the settlement of Nazareth to the beginning of John’s ministry, somewhere between twenty-five and thirty years, intervenes between this and the last lesson. The silence of the sacred history is only once broken during this period, in the account of the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem when he was twelve years old, given by Luke. At the period we have reached Augustus Cæsar and Herod the Great had given way to other rulers. Tiberius Cæsar was disgracing the imperial throne by his cruelties and crimes; Pontius Pilate was ruling Judea with insolence, rapacity and iniquity; Annas and Caiaphas were sharing in the honors and spoils of the high priesthood; and the people, oppressed and troubled, were hungering for the word of life. Suddenly the silence of prophecy, which had lasted more than four hundred years, since the day of Malachi, is at length broken. A young man of priestly lineage, clad in mantle of skin, and having his home in the desert, stands beside Jordan proclaiming the word of the Lord. He speaks boldly against sin, and exhorts to repentance, of which his baptism is the symbol. He speaks reverently of One who is destined soon to succeed him, and then sinks into seclusion as the Savior appears. THE PLACE of the preaching of John the Baptist was in the wilderness of Judea–a wild, hilly, thinly-inhabited region (not a desert) lying west of the Dead Sea and the Lower Jordan. John’s ministry extended as far north as Enon, near Salim, two-thirds of the way up the Jordan from the Dead Sea. The baptism of Jesus was doubtless at the fords of the Jordan, called Bethabara, five miles northeast of Jericho. I. THE COMING KINGDOM1. In those days. Many years after the incidents of the last lesson; somewhere from twenty-five to thirty. Came John the Baptist. Came forth as a preacher and reformer. He was the subject of prophecy, his birth was announced by an angel, he was of priestly family, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary. He was now about thirty years old. Preaching in the wilderness of Judea. A region thinly inhabited, used mostly for pasture, a rocky tract in the eastern part of Judea and west of the Jordan. One great reason why the wilderness was chosen as the scene of his preaching was that the Jordan provided the necessary facilities for his characteristic rite. He is called the Baptist from this rite, of which he was under divine direction the originator. If Jewish proselyte baptism was practiced before this, which is doubtful, it had no divine authority and was very different in nature from the baptism inaugurated by John. In proselyte baptism the person dipped himself under water, while John baptized the candidate.

Matthew 3:2

2. Repent ye. The great rite of John was baptism but the great duty commanded was repentance. The baptism was the “baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,” and the theme of his preaching was “Repent” as a preparation for baptism and the kingdom. Repentance is more than a sorrow for sin; it is a determination to abandon it and live a new life. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is to be noted, 1. That the kingdom to which he referred was in the future, but near. It did not begin with Abraham, or David, or even with John the Baptist. 2. It is the kingdom of heaven, not an earthly kingdom, and hence, must have a King sent from heaven. That King was not yet revealed to the public, but we have seen that one was born at Bethlehem who was to be the King. John was not the founder of the kingdom, but the herald of the coming King. Even the Savior’s ministry was preparatory to the inauguration of the kingdom. He sent out his preachers to preach that it was at hand, or near. It was when be was “lifted up” on the cross and from the grave that “all power was given unto him,” and the kingdom established on the earth, as the Church of God with Christ as its Head.

Matthew 3:3

3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. John was called a voice, (1) because the whole man was a sermon; (2) because he would call no attention to himself as a person, but only to the Savior whose way he came to prepare. As Quesnel says of the true teacher and preacher, “he should, if possible, be nothing but a voice, which should be always heard and never seen.” Prepare ye the way of the Lord. The messengers sent before the Eastern kings prepared the way for the chariots and armies of their monarchs. A “king’s highway” had to be carried through the open land of the wilderness, valleys filled up, and hills levelled (the words used are, of course, poetical in their greatness), winding by-paths straightened, for the march of the great army. Interpreted in its spiritual application, the wilderness was the world lying in evil. Make his paths straight. Roads that have not been properly prepared at the beginning. So are the ways of men when no preparation has been made for the GREAT KING. When John cried, Make his paths straight, he meant, Have done with all your crooked ways of acting. Be straightforward with yourselves. Let there be no winding and doubting. Be honest. The Lord will not enter hypocritical souls. When the “poor in spirit” were received into the kingdom of heaven, the valleys were exalted; when the soldier and publican renounced their special sins, the rough places were made plain and the crooked straight.

Matthew 3:4

II. THE KING’S .— 4. The same John had his raiment of camel’s hair. In the time of Christ it was the teaching of the scribes that Elijah was to come as the forerunner of Messiah; but our Lord taught his disciples that he had already come in the person of John the Baptist, of whom it was predicted by the angel that he should go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to effect the very changes foretold by Malachi. See Matthew 17:10-13; Luke 1:17. We find, accordingly, that John conformed to his example, even in externals, as to place of residence and style of dress, not for the sake of a mere personal resemblance, but to symbolize the rigor and austerity belonging to the system of which they were both types and representatives. Camel’s hair. Not the camel’s skin with the hair on, but a garment made of the shaggier camel’s hair, woven in a coarse fabric like our drugget. It was recognized as a garb of the prophets (Zechariah 13:4), and is still worn in the East by the poor, or those who affect austerity. His dress resembled that of Elijah, and in this respect also he fulfilled the prophecy of Mal 4:5. A leathern girdle about his loins. The “leathern girdle” may be seen around the body of the common laborer, when fully dressed, almost anywhere; whereas men of wealth take special pride in displayIng a rich sash of silk or some other costly fabric.–Hackett. His meat was locusts and wild honey. I have seen at Medina and Tayf locust shops, where these animals were sold by measure. In Egypt and Nubia they are only eaten by the poorest beggars. The Arabs, in preparing locusts as an article of food, throw them alive Into boiling water with which a good deal of salt has been mixed. After a few minutes they are taken out and dried in the sun; the head, feet and wings are then torn off; the bodies are cleansed from the salt and perfectly dried, after which process whole sacks are filled with them by the Bedouin. They are sometimes eaten boiled in butter, and they often contribute materials for a breakfast when spread over unleavened bread, mixed with butter.–Burckhardt. Wild honey. This existed in such abundance in the trunks of trees and the crevices of the rocks that to the ancient Israelites the land was described as “flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). In some parts of northern Arabia the bees are said to be so abundant that no sooner is a hive deposited than it is filled. Compare Samson’s experience in Judges 14:5-9.–Abbott.

Matthew 3:5

5. There went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea. These expressions must be taken not as meaning every individual, but in their popular sense, as showing the wonderful impression produced by his preaching. The Jerusalemites, or people of Jerusalem, are not distinguished from the Judæans, under whom they were included, but merely rendered prominent among them as the people of the capital and holy city. All Judea, and among (or above) the rest, the people of Jerusalem.

Matthew 3:6

6. And were baptized of him in Jordan. Note that the baptism took place not at, but in the Jordan. Mark says “in the river of Jordan.” The Jordan, the principal stream of Palestine, rises in the mountains of Lebanon, runs south into the sea of Galilee, leaves it and descends southward along Galilee, Samaria and Judea, to the Dead Sea. In many places the stream is fordable, and furnishes good facilities for baptizing. Confessing their sins. Baptism itself, a burial in water, a “baptism into death,” a symbol of the burial of one who dies to the old life, is a confession of sins. The vast concourse is described as submitting to the rite which John administered, not as an empty and unmeaning form, but at the same time confessing their sins, the Greek verb being an intensive compound, which denotes the act of free and full confession or acknowledgment. This is prescribed as a condition of pardon.

Matthew 3:7

III. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND FIRE.— 7. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The two principal religious sects. The first originated in the time of the Maccabees, and were a kind of Jewish Puritans, but had in the Savior’s time degenerated into a set of formalists, who paid far more attention to outward forms than to inner life. The Sadducees were materialistic, skeptical, sensual, worldly. The Pharisees were religious in their way, but blind, full of spiritual pride and prejudiced; the Sadducees had little religion. Generation of vipers. No apology must be made for the denunciatory preaching of John; no more than for the thunder and smoke of Sinai, or for the fire and brimstone of Gehenna. Neither commentator nor preacher should effeminately shrink at the “mention of hell to ears polite.” Doubtless John applied precisely the right epithet, and threatened precisely the true destiny to these future murderers of the Messiah he came to announce.–Whedon. The guilty, corrupted race of mankind is become a generation of vipers; not only poisoned but poisonous, hateful to God, hating one another. This magnifies the patience of God, in continuing the race of mankind upon the earth, and not destroying the nest of vipers. He did it once by water. Who hath warned you? In other words, who hath taught you, and how came you to think that while yet you remain as you are, and without an inward change of mind, you can escape the wrath to come by compliance with an outward sign alone? The last of the Old Testament prophets had also spoken of the judgment to be executed by the Messiah (Malachi 4:5-6); but the Jews pacified themselves with the idea that this threat applied to the Gentiles, and not to themselves.–Van Oosterzee.

Matthew 3:8

8. Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance. The manner of life that would prove that a change had taken place, and that they were truly penitent. There is no repentance whatever unless there is a change of life as the result.

Matthew 3:9

9. Think not to say . . . we have Abraham to our father. One of the first things a true minister has to do is to destroy false hopes. It is thus that John did when he broke in thus rudely upon the hopes of those who heard him. They were living securely in the fact that Abraham was their father, and their reasoning was that if Abraham was their father they themselves were necessarily good, and their moral position was invincible. John takes the roof off this house of refuge, and pours the divine storm upon their heads. He throws down the walls within which they have inclosed themselves, and sends the floods of divine judgment along the courses of their foundations.–Joseph Parker. Of these stones. Pointing, perhaps, to the stones of the Jordan. In thus sinking the higher claims of Judaism, John, no doubt, indicates the coming rejection of the Jewish race. Gentiles who were not Abraham’s children shall become his children by faith. (See Galatians 3:29.)

Matthew 3:10

10. Now also the axe is laid unto the root. Laid there at hand for immediate use to destroy the tree, though as yet no blow had been struck; but laid there, also, that this sign of what is threatened may avert the fulfillment of the threat.–Trench. There is in these words a passing on from the notion of the possibility to that of the certainty of the wrath to come. The ax laid, not near to the unfruitful branches, but to the very roots, points to the judgment of extermination about to break forth on the impenitent.–Van Oosterzee. Every tree. A fruitless fig-tree was afterward made by our Lord the representative of the whole Jewish nation (Luke 13:6), but here each tree about to be hewn down denotes an impenitent individual receiving his sentence.–Van Oosterzee. Cast into the fire. When a tree is not fruitful, or bears useless fruit, it is fit for nothing but to be burned. Let it be noted that fire, here, is a destroying power.

Matthew 3:11

11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. His baptism was only a water baptism. He could go no farther. The King could send the Holy Spirit, and give another and a mightier baptism, in addition to the outward baptism. Mightier than I. In that he can perform all that I only promise; he can establish the kingdom which I only announce; he can give the reality of that baptism which my water-rite only symbolizes; he will give the spiritual baptism, which is wrought by the Holy Ghost. Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. The duty of a slave, or one greatly inferior in rank. In the Orient sandals are generally removed on entering a house, and left in charge of a servant, who brings them again when needed. He shall baptize with the Holy Spirit. In order to know what is meant we must refer to the fulfilment. On the day of Pentecost occurred such a baptism, the first so recognized in the New Testament. Then the spirits of the apostles were overwhelmed by the Divine Spirit so that they spoke as he gave them utterance. It was Christ who “shed forth” the baptism of that occasion. And with fire. The term fire is used in verse 10, and there means a destroying agency; it is used again in verse 12 in the same sense; it is used in verse 11, also, the intervening verse, and must be used in exactly the same sense as in the other two verses. It cannot mean a curse in verses 10 and 12, and a blessing in verse 11, without a word of explanation. It is strange, therefore, that all commentators should not agree that the baptism of fire is a baptism of trial and suffering. There were two classes before John. Some would repent and be baptized finally in the Holy Spirit; there were others who would remain impenitent, and be baptized in the awful trials that would come upon Israel. The next verse explains this. John says in it there is the wheat and the chaff; one shall be gathered into the garner and the other burned.

Matthew 3:12

12. Fan is in his hand. Rather the winnowing shovel by which the wheat and chaff were tossed together into the air, so that the wind would blow the chaff away. Gather his wheat into the garner. Granary, or grain depository. The garners or granaries of the East are often excavations in the earth, in which the grain is buried, frequently for the sake of concealment, either from an enemy or an oppressive government. Sometimes, the owner being slain or driven away, the subterranean treasure is found accidentally by the plow or other means. Unquenchable fire. A reference is here made to the practice of burning the chaff under process of winnowing, lest the flying particles of chaff should be driven back into the wheat; a fire is made to burn, in whose blaze the chaff is forthwith consumed. The wheat is the righteous, the chaff is the wicked, and Christ is the winnower; the granary is heaven, the unquenchable fire is hell.–Whedon. The chaff and wheat may be intermingled, but the Lord shall part them and each shall go to his own place. AND . The preacher and the teacher should be as a voice, hiding themselves behind the cross, and calling attention only to the Redeemer. True repentance is accompanied by confession of sin. The true follower of Christ must follow him in this public profession of religion. It is not true, as sometimes said, that Christ professed religion only by his life. The kingdom of God recognizes an eternal distinction here, and proclaims an eternal separation hereafter, between the good and the evil. The Emperor Sigismond, having made promises of amendment in a fit of sickness, asked the archbishop of Cologne how he might know if his repentance was sincere. He answered, “If you are as careful to perform in your health as you are forward to promise in your sickness.” The kingdom of God demands a transformed character as a token of a true citizenship in its privileges. Birth, or position, or earthly privileges, are no title to citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, but a new heart and a new life. POINTS FOR . 1. Observe that this lesson is about preparation for Christ. There is one who prepares the way. His first word is “Repent.” Every teacher should prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of his pupils, and one of the first words of preparation is “Repent.” 2. Not only repentance, but confession, obedience and fruits are needful to prepare the Lord’s way. 3. Point out the marks of the kingdom–(a) its Messenger; (b) its King already born, but not inaugurated; (c) near at hand, but future; (d) when established on the earth. 4.

Note John the Baptist–his character, his dress, his preaching, the effect. 5. Note his rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees; his plainness with sin, an example to all preachers and teachers. 6. Observe the homage he pays to Christ, and the humble place he assigns himself. True greatness is modest. 7. Notice a picture of the world; a wilderness; a voice; a call to repentance; a solemn warning; a promise.

Matthew 3:13

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS.–Matthew 3:13-17. GOLDEN TEXT.-This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.–Matthew 3:17. TIME.–When Jesus was about thirty years old, or about A. D. 26. In the year 780 after the building of Rome. PLACE.–At the river Jordan, probably at the ford near Jericho. HELPFUL .–Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-23; John 1:15-18. LESSON .–1. Jesus and John; 2. Jesus Baptized; 3. Jesus Anointed.. The great event of John’s ministry was the baptism of Christ, not “a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,” but “to fulfill all righteousness.” Nor can the Christian regard it otherwise than as a great epoch in the life of the Lord. These circumstances unite to give it importance: 1. With his baptism his ministry begins; 2. At his baptism he is anointed as the Christ; 3. At his baptism he is formally acknowledged as the Son of God; 4. God declares that he is well pleased with him in view of his act of obedience. From this time Nazareth is no longer his home, his old earthly relations have passed away, he is the Lord’s Anointed, and his whole life is given to his work. I. JESUS AND JOHN.— 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee. Matthew has made no mention of Christ for the period of the residence at Nazareth, extending from the return from Egypt until now. The childhood and early manhood of the Lord is passed in silence. Luke mentions one incident that occurred at the age of twelve and declares that he lived in submission to his parents, an example to all children which ought to be diligently heeded. A royal child, with a wisdom at twelve that astonished the doctors of the law, and a consciousness, at least in part, of his great mission (see Luke 2:49), still he remained “subject to them,” thus teaching by example all children to honor their parents. His home, until his mission began, was a town on a Galilean hill overlooking the valley of Esdraelon, the battle-ground of Palestine. Conjectures concerning his childhood and early manhood are vain, save that we know that his life was pure and sinless, that his home was a humble one, and that he wrought at the carpenter’s trade along with Joseph, thus setting the example of honest industry.

He may have visited Jerusalem many times at the great annual feasts but we have no testimony that he was there more than twice, once as an infant, a second time as a boy, before he entered upon his ministry. His earthly education was amid the quiet, yet lovely, scenes of his Galilean home, among plain and simple common people, not conspicuous for true, spiritual piety, and despised by the proud dwellers of Jerusalem.

He had retained his home in Nazareth, with his parents, where he lived till he was now about thirty years old (Luke 3:23), the age at which the Levites began their ministry, and the rabbis their teaching. He left Nazareth, and came to Bethabara for the purpose of being baptized, thus commencing his ministry. The name Nazareth means a branch. It is a small city in Lower Galilee, about seventy miles north of Jerusalem, and nearly half-way from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. It was situated among the hills which constitute the southern ridges of Lebanon, just before they sink down into the plain of Esdraelon. Galilee. Galilee means a ring or a circle, and was probably first given to a small “circuit” among the mountains of Naphtali (Joshua 20:7), where were situated the twenty towns given by Solomon to Hiram, king of Tyre (1 Kings 9:11). The name may have contained originally an allusion to one or more of the circular plains of those mountains. It came afterward to be applied to the whole northern portion of Palestine north of Samaria, and which, according to Josephus, was very populous, containing no less than 240 towns and villages. To be baptized. His object in leaving Nazareth was to be baptized. As John was six months older than Jesus, and probably began his public ministry at the age of thirty, the same age that Christ was now, he had probably begun preaching about six months before. During this period the fame of his ministry had extended all over Palestine and We know that not only they of “Jerusalem and Judea round about Jordan” were baptized, but that the Galileans had come in great numbers. Most all the apostles of Christ, if not all, were called of those who had been John’s disciples and were baptized by him. Yet they were Galileans. It is likely that Jesus journeyed with a group of Galileans who descended to Bethabara to hear and obey the great preacher.

Matthew 3:14

II. JESUS .— 14. John forbade him. The objection that John made to the baptism of Christ implies some knowledge of him. Their mothers were cousins. We do hot know that they had any intercourse after the birth of Christ and there is no evidence that Jesus and John ever met. The home of Jesus was at Nazareth, seventy miles north of Jerusalem; there are grounds for believing that Zacharias lived at Juttah, near Hebron, to the south of Jerusalem. John, long before he began his ministry, retired to the wilderness. The Spirit had told John to proclaim the Redeemer and had given him a sign by which he should know him.

He was waiting earnestly for him, and when Jesus came before him, be perhaps knew by the Spirit his godlike purity and may have believed that he was the Messiah, but as yet he “knew him not” (see John 1:33). He could not be certain until he saw the divine sign, yet the probability seemed so strong and Jesus was so pure and sinless that he felt that it was out of place for him to baptize him. I have need to be baptized of thee. These words were uttered under the conviction, not certainty, that Jesus was the Christ. If so, he was the one that baptized in the Holy Spirit. John had far more need of that baptism than of Jesus to be baptized in water.

Matthew 3:15

15. Suffer it to be so now. The term “now” implies that the relation of Jesus to his work made it proper that now he should be baptized. It is true that baptism was for sinners; Jesus was sinless; the candidates confessed their sins, while he had none to confess; but he had humbled himself, taken human form, accepted the burden of human duties, and must set a perfect example to men. He obeyed the Jewish law and it was needful also that he obey the Divine rite that John had inaugurated. There are two aspects in baptism; it is an act connected with the pardon of sins, and it is also an act of obedience; a sign of loyalty to God. Perfect righteousness demanded that he obey this ordinance. When he had ascended the throne and was wearing his heavenly crown it would not be proper, but “now,” while he was in the flesh, “tempted in all points even as we,” it was needful that he set an example of obedience. Thus it becometh us. In order to fulfill all righteousness, show forth a perfect obedience, set a perfect example, it became him to submit to the institution of baptism and it became John to administer it to him. “Us” refers to Jesus and John. The co-operation of the two was required in order to obedience.

Matthew 3:16

III. JESUS . – 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized. The baptism took place in the river Jordan, and was doubtless by immersion. Dr. Whitby, of the Church of England, on this passage says: “The observation of the Greek Church is this, that he who ascended out of the water must first descend into it. Baptism is therefore to be performed, not by sprinkling, but by washing the body.” Dr. Schaff, the great pedobaptist scholar, says: “While the validity of baptism does not depend on the quantity or quality of water, or the mode of its application, yet immersion and emersion is the primitive and expressive mode to symbolize the idea of entire spiritual purification and renovation.” Went up straightway out of the water. The Revision says “from the water,” which is correct, as the preposition is apo; yet Mark uses ek in giving the same account, which the Revision correctly renders “out of.” He and John had descended together to where the water was probably waist deep; he had been baptized, and came straightway, without delay, out of the water. He went up praying, as we learn from Luke 3:21. We find solemn prayer preceding, 1. Our Lord’s baptism with the Spirit; 2. His choice of the Twelve (Luke 6:12); 3. His transfiguration (Luke 9:20); 4. His agony in the garden (Matthew 26:39). Lo, the heavens were opened unto him. The skies were parted, rolled back, so as to reveal, as it were, the throne of God. The expression used by Luke (3:21) and Matt. (3:16) is not so strong as that of Mark, correctly rendered in the margin of the English Bible rent or cloven. (Wicliffe, cleft.) The phrase as here used cannot possibly denote a flash of lightning, or the shining of the stars, or anything whatever but an apparent separation or division of the visible expanse of heaven; how occasioned or produced can only be conjectured. It seems to be in Mark spoken of as if beheld by Jesus only; but in Matthew and Luke the language is more general, and John expressly says that the Baptist was to see and did see the descent of the Spirit (John 1:32-33).–J. A. Alexander. Spirit . . . descending like a dove. In form, and not, as some suppose, in motion merely, which would convey no definite idea. The choice of a dove as a visible emblem of the Spirit has been variously explained as referring to its gentleness, and the corresponding quality of Christ’s own ministry (compare Matthew 12:19); to the brooding of the Spirit on the waters at the time of the creation (Genesis 1:2); to the dove which Noah sent forth from the ark (Genesis 8:8; Genesis 8:12); to the use of the same bird in sacrifice (Leviticus 1:14). The truth taught by the visible descent was the personal union of the Son and Spirit, and the spiritual influences under which the Son was to perform his mission.–J. A. Alexander. The dove appears, not bearing an olive branch, but pointing out to us our deliverer from all evils, and suggesting the hopes of grace.

For she leads not one man only out of an ark, but the whole world she leads up to heaven at her appearing.–Chrysostom. It was needful that the Holy Spirit should assume some visible form, in order that John might be aware of his presence. This had been foretold to him as the mark of the Christ, and it was of immense importance that he should recognize the Christ, in order to turn his followers to him. Besides, God seems to have determined to specially honor the baptism of the Son by the presence of the other persons of the Godhead. The Spirit descends upon the baptized Son, and the Father speaks from heaven to acknowledge him. It was also needful that he be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be the Lord’s Anointed.

Matthew 3:17

17. A Voice from heaven. Three times God speaks from heaven in connection with the ministry of Christ-at his baptism, his transfiguration, and in the temple just before his passion. Thou art my beloved Son. The very words addressed to the Messiah in Psalms 2:7, and from which the Son of God became one of his standing appellations. Thus the baptism of Christ, besides the other purposes already mentioned, was the occasion of his public recognition and authoritative attestation as the Son of God and as the true Messiah, before he entered on the actual discharge of his official functions.—J. A. Alexander. No student should fail to observe the significance of the time chosen by God for the acknowledgment of the Son. It is just after he has humbled himself in an act of obedience, in baptism, that the Holy Spirit anoints him as the Christ, and God formally acknowledges him as his Son.

No more forcible expression of the estimate set by God on this institution could be given. Do not this example and the New Testament harmonize in teaching–1. That we must be baptized if we would follow Christ; 2. That it is when we repent and are baptized that we receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38); 3. That when we have obeyed the Lord he will recognize us as his children? AND . If the sinless Jesus required baptism, no one can consistently claim that he is too pure or too spiritual to need it. Such claims are born of spiritual pride. It was as a dove that the Spirit descended on him–a most captivating symbolism. All along the ages it is the power of his gentleness and tenderness and meekness–his love, in short–that has been victorious. He has “wooed” and won.–Morison.The disciples of Christ are to be as harmless as doves. They will be if filled with the Spirit. The Spirit will not descend into a temple where evil and wrath are nourished. Kings and prophets of Israel were anointed with oil before entering upon their office. Kings are still inaugurated by being thus anointed. Christ was anointed to be a Priest and a King, but anointed by the Holy Spirit. He was thus Christed. As David and Saul were anointed before they ascended the throne, so was Christ. There is a real distinction between the indwelling of the Spirit in the heart, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is that special influence upon men which was sent on the day of Pentecost, and in every true revival of religion since–a pervading Influence, a power from God, which moves the hearts of men, convincing them of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment to come. It is not easy to describe it, but no one who has felt it can mistake it. It is this power which Christ sends, and by which the world is to be converted to God.–Peloubet.PLACE OF BAPTISM.–Probably at the ford near Jericho where John had been baptizing. Here the Israelites under Joshua passed over on dry ground (Joshua 3:17), and twice afterwards was it miraculously opened by Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 2:8; 2 Kings 2:14). From John 1:28, it would seem that John was at Bethany (Bethabara of the common version), situated at this ford, on the eastern side of the river.–Bible Union Notes.POINTS FOR . 1.

Outline what is narrated of Christ to this time. 2. Observe from whence and to where he comes. 3. Emphasize what he comes for, and why, and the difference between his baptism and that of the multitude. 4. Bring out the incidents of the baptism. 5. Point out the significance of the descent of the Holy Spirit. 6. Point out the significance of the divine voice. 7.

Point out the reasons for the presence of all three persons of the Godhead. 8. Point out the full importance of this era in Christ’s life; baptized, his work inaugurated, anointed, acknowledged. 9. Bring out the practical lessons for us.