From the woods comes this ancient mountain man from the wild, and he’s preaching this really complicated message that probably took a lot of memory work to get it down: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

The kingdom of heaven? What is he talking about?

Many people think, “Oh, kingdom of heaven? God’s place up in heaven.”

But a kingdom is much more than a place. It needs a place. But it also needs a king and a people. Put another way, a kingdom needs three things: a prince, a people, and a place.

The prince is Jesus.
The people are those who follow Him.
The place is your heart today, this world tomorrow.

This kingdom does not look like a moss pond, static. It is moving! Christ is invading this broken world to heal the broken-hearted, to feed the hungry, to find the lost, and to bring you and me into perfect oneness with Him, which is the ultimate expression of worship!

He started this when He came down to earth, but He continues to do it through people like you and me. Today God is building His kingdom and Jesus promised that not even the gates of hell will prevail against it.

3:1 Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying...

Notice the sophisticated, state of the art sanctuary: the wilderness. Preacher, where do you preach? In the woods. John’s location was directly north of the Dead Sea and east of Jerusalem, probably right where the Jordan River dumped into the Red Sea.

It’s obvious that John the Baptist (30 years old) was not trying to engineer the kingdom of John the Baptist. He was interested in people. The temptation to become more interested in ministry than individuals can be incredibly alluring. But John’s location tells you he didn’t fall for that. In fact, he preached in the wilderness not to get away from people but because it would draw many people. Would seeing a preacher in the pulpit of a church surprise you? No. But if a preacher stands on a fire hydrant in the middle of a mall parking lot, people are going to notice.

Not only was the location strategic because it was in the wilderness but because most commentators believe it was near a major road where thousands might pass by in a single day (John 1:28: John 3:26) making it a magnet for drawing masses of people. His place was peopled. Put another way, his location was metropolitan.

If we are going to join God in building His kingdom, we have to be people-minded. You cannot reach people until you are around people. You cannot love people from your cabin out in the woods. When Paul tells Christians in 2 Corinthians 6 to separate themselves from the world, he is not talking about geography but lifestyle. Some people butcher the meaning of this passage, uproot their family, and move out to the land of the hill billies with their goats and school books. Who are they thinking of? Themselves. Hermitization into the land of trees and rocks is not only unloving but unbiblical. Trees don’t need repentance. Rocks don’t need Jesus. People do.

3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The kingdom of heaven is Jewish euphemism for God’s rule (Mat 23:22), a term Matthew uses for his Jewish readers with only four exceptions (Mat 12:28; Mat 19:24; Mat 21:31; Mat 21:43). Mark, Luke, John, and Paul called it “the kingdom of God” in the rest of the New Testament Scriptures. This kingdom is God’s rule in the hearts of believers today, and someday will extend to the physical world we live in (Rev 20:1-6).

A kingdom needs a king. And this king was none other than Jesus. John’s role was to prepare the way for the king, just like they did in ancient times when a man ran miles before the king telling people to line up and bow the knee before the King arrived! That’s why Matthew connects a passage written seven centuries earlier by Prophet Isaiah with John the Baptist in verse 3:

3:3 For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!'”

Matthew is quoting Prophet Isaiah who lived 700 years before him:

A voice is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. 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 the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isa 40:3-5)

John was that mountain smoother and hill flattener. He was that valley raiser.

For people to be ready for King Jesus’ arrival, they needed to repent. Sin stood between them and their King and to repent meant to turn away from their sin. Instead of preparing the roads of the ground, John the Baptist prepared the pathways of people’s hearts!

3:4 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.

Why did people listen to John the Baptist? If the guy put in his application at any seminary or church today, the only call back he’d probably get would be a restraining order. Would you want a pastor who when he smiled, you could spot grasshopper legs sticking from his teeth?

And his clothing. Let’s just say he didn’t get his suit at Banana Republic at the local mall.

There are two ways to get noticed: do something really good, or do something really stupid. John the Baptist didn’t have to do either. His diet and dress were doing a pretty good job all by themselves. But what we often miss is that people weren’t showing up to watch him like Elephant Man in a freak show.

They knew what that clothing meant. They knew what grasshopper teeth represented. (Grasshoppers were an accepted form of diet under the Jewish law, Lev 11:22). John’s diet and dress pointed attention not to himself, but to Jesus. Temporary, non-eternal kings live to draw attention to mortals. But God’s kingdom draws attention to the eternal Son of God!

But how did John’s diet and dress point to Jesus? It told people that he grew up in the desert (Luke 1:80). And if he grew up in the desert, they realized that John was born a Nazirite (Luke 1:15).

A Nazirite was a man or woman who was set apart uniquely for serving the Lord. The word Nazirite means one separated. A Nazirite was not allowed to drink wine, cut his hair, or eat grapes—not even raisins or grape juice. Mr. Welch was out of the question (Num 6:1-21). Sometimes it was for a limited period of time (like Paul, Acts 18:18), and sometimes for life (like Samson, Judges 13:3-6). John the Baptist was a “lifer” Nazirite. So scratch those Sunday school pictures of a nicely shaven John the Baptist with an 80’s hairdo and imagine a wild froey bush!

John’s diet and dress told the people that he was a Nazirite set apart to God. He looked a whole lot like Elijah (2 Kin 1:8), the very prophet the Jews were expecting since his name was evoked in the very last prophecy of the Old Testament (Mal 4:5-6).

3:5-6 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.

People of God’s kingdom are repentant. Who does Matthew say was going out to John? Jerusalem! That’s a city. “All Judea” is a bigger area, including several cities. And the “district around the Jordan” is even wider. So three geographical locations grew some legs, stood up, and marched down the Jordan to John the Baptist? When God sees a city, he sees people. He doesn’t see theaters, Hondas, and street lights. He sees souls.

If you were baptized in the Jordan, you would never forget it. The Jordan River was not vacuumed, filtered, sprinkled with chlorine, and disinfected. In most places it was a flowing mud hole. The kind of river your Mom wanted you to swim in.

Why would they let John baptize them in a muddy river? Because their hearts were repentant.

Here in this rugged environment a wild preacher living off of hoppers and honey, steps out from the woods and calls people to get baptized in a muddy river to get ready for the arrival of their King!

For many years, heathen Gentiles were immersed in water when they converted to Judaism. So for Jews to get baptized by this wild man was an amazing thing. They were admitting to the sin of a Gentile, and the need for cleansing, so they’d be ready when the Messiah arrived. Craid S. Keener observes:

To tell Jewish people that they had to be baptized or repent the same way non-Jews did would have been offensive, because it challenged the prevalent Jewish belief about salvation. Most Jewish people thought that if they were born into a Jewish family and did not reject God’s law, they would be saved; John told them instead that they had to come to God the same way that non-Jews did. The point of John’s baptism is that everyone has to come to God on the same terms.¹

3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Notice John’s outstanding etiquette. He carefully uses the proper form of address “brood of vipers!” English translation? “A bunch of snakes!” Jesus would later call the Pharisees the same thing (Mat 12:34; Mat 23:33). Ancients believed that baby snakes killed their mother by eating their way out of her.²

Why snakes? Because snakes are sly. They represent deception.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees looked like they came forward with humble hearts. But it was all a facade.

The Pharisee was the conservative religionist. He trusted in his exclusivism.
The Sadducee was the liberal secularist. He trusted in his inclusive-ism.

The Pharisee prided himself in his knowledge of God’s Word and keeping tradition.
The Sadducee prided himself in his rejection of the supernatural and courting liberalism.

The Pharisee considered himself spiritual because he embraced higher things like miracles and rising from the dead.
But the Sadducee considered himself intellectual because he rejected anti-scientific things like miracles and the supernatural.  

The Pharisees hated the Romans, the Sadducees were chummy with them.

The term “Pharisee” meant: “We are separate!”
The term “Sadducee” meant: “We are right!”

One was too holy for repentance, the other too smart for it.
Both: wanted John to baptize them. And both would soon reject Jesus and want Him dead.

The Pharisees got so carried away that they interpreted Deuteronomy 6 very literally, and wore a phylactery on their heads, a little box with scripture passages inside. It looked like a Halloween costume party. The Sadducees probably found it entertaining.

The Pharisees found their identity in their morality.
The Sadducees, in their academy.

The Pharisees prided themselves in being religionists.
The Sadducees, in being realists.

The Sadducee would say: “I’m not of the tribe of blind faiths...I believe cause I believe cause I believe.”
The Pharisee would put a bumper sticker on his car: “God said it. I believe it. And that settles it!”

The Sadducee says, “I follow whatever’s latest on the shelf of evolutionary theory because I’m not a dimwit from the stone ages!”
And the Pharisee yells back, “I follow tradition. For what? Tradition! And why do I do that? Because of tradition!”

Here’s what’s fascinating: John the Baptist has the same message for both: Repent! Before you go through the ceremony of baptism, show me a repentant heart by a changed life.

The Pharisees wanted baptism because it was spiritual and religious. From the outside, it looked like the holy thing to do.
The Sadducees wanted baptism because it’s what everybody was doing. It looked like the open-minded thing to do.

When someone’s moral decisions are controlled by the crowd...he becomes a Nazi if he lives in Germany in the first half of the 20th century...

A suicidal bomber if he lives in Afghanistan under the Taliban movement...

Or a smug conservative wearing the Christian brand if he lives in Rome under the 2nd century rule of Constantine.  

You see, the Pharisee and the Sadducee each had different models of the same problem: One trusted his spiritual morality, the other trusted his liberal intellectuality.

What has really happened? Morality and intellectuality have tried to satisfy what only Jesus can. Only through Jesus Christ can one find ultimate reason and experiential satisfaction, for in Him is the essence of all morality and truth!

Instead of trusting people-snubbing religion (like the Pharisee) or man-fearing liberalism (like the Sadducee), we need a change of heart so that we are trusting and living for Jesus Christ.

You could be the model of moral excellence...and yet be far from the One who makes all morality meaningful. You could be the GQ of IQ, yet live in oblivion to the One who created your intellect.

Instead of trusting people-snubbing religion (the Pharisees) or man-fearing liberalism (the Sadducees), we need a change of heart. True love for Christ starts inside out.

3:8-10 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 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.

John was looking for repentance, not show. To claim Jesus but have no change in one’s life is external religion, not true spirituality. It is to have the form without the fruit, like an apple tree that stands tall and strong but without a single apple. How could the Pharisee and Sadducee be rid of his sin and find total forgiveness? By turning from his sin (repentance) and putting his full trust in Jesus of Nazareth (faith). John the Baptist warns them to “flee from the wrath to come.” Who does the Pharisee and Sadducee flee to? To church? Bible study? To social justice? No. To Jesus! To escape the wrath of Jesus one must flee to Jesus (1 The 1:10).

The Pharisees trusted in their lineage (John 8:39-44; Rom 4:16), which one commentary calls “that pillow on which the nation so fatally reposed.”³ They thought that for God to make good His promise of many descendants to Abraham, He needed the Pharisees. But John the Baptist knew this and preempted their default reaction: “We have Abraham for our father!” But that means nothing. God could raise up children of Abraham from the very stones on which the Pharisees walked. He didn’t depend on the Pharisees to make his promises to Abraham true. Lineage does not forgive one of his sins. But Jesus does. The axe represents the judgment God was about to bring upon the Pharisees and Sadducees if they did not repent. The fire represents the lake of fire, also known as, hell.

3:11 “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.

To take off someone else's shoes was the job of a servant. And John the Baptist says, “Even to remove the sandals of my Lord is a privilege greater than I deserve!”

John the Baptist shows us where this respect comes from by drawing a comparison between himself and Jesus.

He says, “I baptize with water. But Jesus, He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John’s baptism was a baptism of water. He’d plunge people under, and bring them up again. It was preparatory. By letting John the Baptize baptize them, the people were saying, “I have sinned against a good and holy God, and I am turning from that sin to get ready for the kingdom of heave inaugurated by Jesus of Nazareth!” This was fulfilled prophecy from the Old Testament (Isa 44:3; Eze 39:29; Joe 2:28).

But Jesus’ baptism is a few notches up. To baptize by the Holy Spirit refers to conversion to Christ (1 Cor 12:13). It’s the moment someone admits his need for mercy, turns to Jesus Christ and surrenders his whole life to Him, and the Holy Spirit enters his heart. This baptism Jesus would later announce to His own twelve disciples:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you (John 14:16-17).

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you (John 14:26).

When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me (John 15:26).

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you (John 16:7-15).

...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me;  for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4-5).

This baptism of the Spirit finally came to pass in Acts 2:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance (Acts 2:1-4).

The holiest Christian or the most faithful pastor cannot baptize someone with the Holy Spirit. God alone can do this. John the Baptist knew that he did not preach just another man, but God incarnate.

If baptism of the Spirit means believing in Jesus Christ, what is baptism of fire? Although some have interpreted this phrase to point to the tongues of fire resting on the apostles on the Day of Pentecost (like John Calvin and Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Acts 2:3), the immediate context of Matthew 3 argues convincingly for a very different interpretation, an interpretation of eternal judgment (this to was predicted by the prophets, Isa 26:11; Isa 65:15; Isa 66:24; Jer 4:4; Jer 15:14).

Immediately before, John the Baptist said, "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” (Mat 3:10). That’s not a pretty picture. If this tree could talk, he is not whistling “Zippidy-Doo-Dah” right now.

In verse 12 John preaches,

3:12 "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."

John the Baptist uses an image that an agrarian society immediately understood.

The farmer would first go out into his field and cut the wheat stalks. Then he’d tie it into bushels and bring it to “a threshing floor.” This was a platform where he’d untie the wheat and beat the wheat stalks until the wheat berries surrounded by little husks called “chaff” fell onto the wood-planked floor. Then he’d grab his winnowing tool and hurl the wheat pieces into the air. The breeze would blow the light-weighted husks and impurities to the side and the kernels would fall down. The kernels he’d scoop up and store in his barn. But the husks and impurities he’d throw into his his cart and haul off to the bonfire.

We all end up in one of two places: the barn or the bonfire.

In a single statement, John the Baptist book ends the two most ultimate actions of Jesus Christ: salvation and damnation, receiving the Holy Spirit or being cast into the eternal lake of fire (Jer 51:33; Joe 3:12-14). Some day Jesus Christ will be to every human a fierce Judge, or his loving Savior.

 3:13-15 Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him.

This is the ultimate moment of awkwardness. John the Baptist is supposed to baptize the Creator of the universe, the eternal Son of God? How strange. Only sinners need baptism.

But Jesus (age 30, Luke 3:23) tells him why He must: “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Whose righteousness? God’s! Why? So you could have the righteousness of Christ.

For you to become God’s child you need perfect righteousness. And there’s only one place you can get it. Not from Sir Pharisee the exclusivist. Nor from Sir Sadducee the inclusivist. But from Jesus Christ the Righteous.

In order for Jesus to take your sins away, He needed to be treated as a sinner in your place. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21).

R. C. Sproul writes,

If you are to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, your sins must be removed. And this phrase can only mean that it was necessary for Jesus to obey the law of God and his righteousness at every point, including this new mandate God had given to Israel.⁴

John MacArthur writes that Jesus’ baptism, “marked His first public identification with those whose sins he would bear (Isa 53:11; 1 Pet 3:18).⁵ Christ loves you so much that He was willing to be treated as a sinner, so God could treat you as sinless. Christ loves you so much, He considered the loss of His life worth the saving of yours.

3:16-17 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

An awesome scene. I’ve seen painters try to reproduce this, but it ends up looking like science fiction.

This is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and all three persons of the Godhead are present. The Son is preparing to serve and die. The Spirit comes down to empower Him. The Father speaks out to approve Him.

The Spirit’s descent upon Christ signifies the beginning of Jesus’ ministry to go out and preach, serve, battle temptation, cast out demons, die on a cross, and rise from the dead in the power of the Spirit. God promised this 700 years before through the words of His own pre-incarnate Son:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners (Is 61:1).

Those watching how knew the Old Testament Scriptures would immediately connect God’s complement of His Son with Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. Those prophecies made up to one thousand years ago were being fulfilled before their very eyes.

Is this not what the believer is to do? To do the Father’s will by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Here, Christ is anointed as prophet, priest, and king. As prophet, He speaks the truth and will guide you. As Priest, he prays for you at the throne and will save you. As King, He conquers your sin and will protect you.

It is amazing to ponder: what God says of His Son—I am well pleased with You— He can say to you, because the Sonship Jesus possesses is shared with you as well, if you believe in Him (Eph 1:5-6).

Endnotes 

1. Craig S. Keener and InterVarsity Press, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, InterVarsity, 1993), Mark 1:4.
2. Keener, Mathew 3:7.
3. Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Matthew 3:9.
4. R. C. Sproul, Getting the Gospel Right (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 146.
5. John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed. (Nashville: Word,1997, c1997), Matthew 3:15.