Continuing in Matthew we come to John the Baptist and the baptism of Christ...

::::::::

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. - Matthew 3: 7-8 (ESV)

There were 400 years of silence in the land. That is 400 years where God no longer spoke to the people of Israel. The Old Testament ends with the Book of Malachi. He is the last prophet of God before the New Testament opens with the birth of Christ and the appearance of a new prophet - John the Baptist. This should not have been a surprise to the people of Israel since Malachi actually concludes with this prophecy:

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction."- Malachi 4: 5-6 (ESV)

The Gospel of Luke teaches us that John the Baptist operates in the spirit and power of Elijah. He is the next prophet that was prophesied 400 years earlier by Malachi. Before God went silent to His chosen people. Yet here John is now, on the scene, and preaching the same message Jesus would come to preach:

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." - Matthew 3: 1-2 (ESV)

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." - Matthew 4: 17 (ESV)

Then forerunner and the Master; both preaching the same message. This is the Gospel message beloved. It is not get your best life now. It is not health wealth and prosperity. It is not throw away the laws of God. It is not this esoteric, experiential false holy ghost chasing. It is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It does not need to be sugar coated, dressed up, watered down, made culturally relevant, massaged, manipulated, or altered in any way shape or form. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Was John a flashy prophet like the wannabes we see today dotting the Christian landscape? No. He wore the simplest of garments and ate whatever the land provided for him; even locusts. Because it was not about him. It was always about who he was proclaiming.

Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness--look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.'The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.He must increase, but I must decrease."- John 3: 25-30 (ESV)

Behold young preacher the secret to successful ministry. Behold the check on our prideful flesh that will allow Jesus to be magnified in all you do. He must increase, but I must decrease. It is not about you. It must always be about Him. The reason why there is so much pastor worship is that many pastors refuse to decrease. The reason why so many fall is because they made their ministry to be about themselves. Sure the name of Jesus is thrown around enough to make everything appear pious but whose face graces the covers of their best selling books? Who is being sold to the masses? Who is being marketed? It is not enough to increase Jesus. Without decreasing ourselves we essentially create a competition. There was no competition between John the Baptist and Jesus because John understood that he was not even worthy of tying His sandals. That humble submission is what is missing throughout pulpits today. There is no more reverence for God. There is no more fear of the Lord. The sugar we have laced the Gospel with has sunk us into a spiritual diabetic coma. There is a way out of it. He must increase. We must decrease.

That simple mantra is not meant just for preachers and pastors but all Christians. It is how we keep humble in our own walk. It is how we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is how we assure ourselves that God is in control. It is how He is Lord in our life. John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus and we need to do the same in our lives. Then along came the Pharisees and Sadducees in our key verses. With them come more rich theology for us to unpack. John sees right through them and cuts them to the quick! Who told you to come and escape the wrath yet to come? You brood of vipers! We all know these words but sometimes forget the caveat. "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." John is basically saying - we will see how sincere you were. You cannot merely come to get dunked even by John the Baptist himself. The modern day correlation for us is this new Christian paradigm for counting salvation. This altar call theology. Just like John said to the Pharisees to keep fruit in keeping with repentance, we too must say the same thing for the swaths of unconverted people sitting in pews across this country and world who believe they are saved because of a two sentence prayer in a three minute altar call. We will know if there was a true regeneration based upon the fruit you bear in keeping with the repentance you claim!

I will be the first to admit that I was saved through an altar call process. It can work if the actual Gospel is preached. What Gospel? The same that John the Baptist and Jesus preached - repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As we have seen the implementation of the purpose driven church movement over the past decade we have seen a concerted effort to move away from things that the unsaved may find uncomfortable because the goal is not longer to save them but rather to ensure they come back the next week to our church. So sin is out the window. Repentance? Forget about that! The gospel becomes this mesh of self help and motivational principles wrapped up in the faux love of God. I say faux because the true love of God sacrificed His only Son for our sins. The true love of God wants everyone to repent:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. - 2Peter 3: 9 (ESV)

What is the fruit of repentance then? There should be a change. We should be a new creation in Christ. The old should fall away and the new should be here to stay. We should be about the Father's business. What bothers God should bother us. The Bible teaches us:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. - Colossians 3: 5-10 (ESV)

Instead we have churches just as carnal as the world. Singing Miley Cyrus songs instead of worship. Thinking nothing of mangling the Bible for the sake of a feel good message that has zero biblical truth. There are twenty minutes of "worship" that is all about how great we are followed by a "message" about how much God loves us. No talk about sin. No talk about repentance. We are increased, not Jesus. Then we go for an altar call based on "inviting Jesus into our hearts"; another unbiblical concept. As long as we say the magic words, the preacher welcomes us to the family of God! How arrogantly foolish. If you want to understand why so many will stand before Christ on the last day saying Lord Lord, look no further. No one challenged them with the real Gospel. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So instead all we are left with is - go and bear fruit in keeping with the repentance you claim. Chapter three continues with a stark and frank reminder of what is at stake:

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." - Matthew 3: 12 (ESV)

This is not a game beloved. I do not understand how the charlatans who hold some of our pulpits can sleep at night except to realize that they have no fear of the Lord because they truly do not believe. Do not let anyone downplay the severity of what we are dealing with. These are eternal life and death decisions. Society has done a magical job of mocking hell and judgment. Let the words "burn with unquenchable fire" resonate in your spirit. The devil is not some caricature in a red jump suit with a pitchfork in his hands. Likewise, Jesus is not some hippy-dippy blessing machine. People talk about the love of Christ in increasingly creepy and unbiblical terms. God loved us so much that He would not leave us in our sins. He loved us so much that He does not want us to burn with an unquenchable fire. Jesus is coming soon but that should not be a source of solace for most people, including the majority of people in church today. We may be able to lie to our neighbors. We may be able to lie to ourselves. But on that last day, when He has His winnowing fork in His hand, we will know for sure if we are wheat or chaff. If we were honest with ourselves - we know today. Chapter Three concludes:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." - Matthew 3: 13-17 (ESV)

The chapter concludes with a rare appearance of the entire trinity. The spirit in the dove resting upon Him. The voice of the Father confirming Him. Why? Because He was willing to humble Himself to be baptized by John. The Baptist here is not wrong when he objects. Jesus however understands on a higher plane than we do. He understands that it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness. Here are Matthew Henry's notes from these Scripture verses:

"Christ's gracious condescensions are so surprising, that even the strongest believers at first can hardly believe them; so deep and mysterious, that even those who know his mind well, are apt to start objections against the will of Christ. And those who have much of the Spirit of God while here, see that they need to apply to Christ for more. Christ does not deny that John had need to be baptized of him, yet declares he will now be baptized of John. Christ is now in a state of humiliation. Our Lord Jesus looked upon it as well becoming him to fulfil all righteousness, to own every Divine institution, and to show his readiness to comply with all God's righteous precepts. In and through Christ, the heavens are opened to the children of men. This descent of the Spirit upon Christ, showed that he was endued with his sacred influences without measure. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. At Christ's baptism there was a manifestation of the three Persons in the sacred Trinity. The Father confirming the Son to be Mediator; the Son solemnly entering upon the work; the Holy Spirit descending on him, to be through his mediation communicated to his people. In Him our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable, for He is the altar that sanctifies every gift, 1 Peter 2:5. Out of Christ, God is a consuming fire, but in Christ, a reconciled Father. This is the sum of the gospel, which we must by faith cheerfully embrace."

His readiness to comply with all of God's righteous precepts. In and through Christ the heavens are opened to the children of men. Valuable theological nuggets. I present them here because there is a movement in modern Christianity to discard what is solid theologically for what is experiential. Discard centuries of cogent, thoughtful exposition for what we feel. The widely accepted commentaries are not Scripture but to use that to discard them is intellectually and spiritually bankrupt. I have a lot more faith in what has been vetted for hundreds of years than I do in someone in the year 2015 opening their discourse with "God told me." Just a side note to remember. We have commentaries as tools to help us understand the Word better. To illuminate for us. Beware those who claim direct revelation from God.

That wraps up Chapter Three of the Gospel of Matthew. John the Baptist fulfilling the final prophecy of the Old Testament. Showing us exactly what the true Gospel message is - repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The key portion that stands out for me is "bear fruit in keeping with repentance." This absolutely destroys the hyper-grace teachings of people like Joseph Prince. Repentance is not merely "consenting to be loved." Our true repentance should result in something. It should change things. Instead of being judged by the law eternally, we should now desire to keep the law temporally. Not out of fear of judgment but out of reverence and love for the one who died for us. Preach that. Celebrate that. This is the Gospel.

Reverend Anthony Wade - February 7, 2015

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.