The Prophet to Prepare

Matthew 3:1-12

Immanuel – 11/12/23

The messianic hope of Israel has arrived: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of David, the son of Abraham. We have already seen how so many prophetic strands have come together in Jesus. Continuing the theme of prophetic fulfillments, Matthew moves next into how John the Baptist came as a fulfilment of prophecy. Even so, those prophecies were still about the dawning of the Messiah and the great kingdom He would inaugurate.

Purpose

1. Set the context.

2. What was the heart of John the Baptist’s ministry?

3. The King was about to arrive, bringing salvation and judgment.

It’s interesting to me that chapter 3 begins with “In those days,” because the last thing Matthew narrated were the very earliest years of Jesus’ life. And we know from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus was only a few months younger than John (Luke 1:39-45). But here is John in chapter 3, commanding the attention of the Jews, a fully grown man with an established ministry.

So, when Matthew uses the phrase “In those days,” he obviously isn’t referring to the time when Jesus was still a toddler. It is clear that there has been about a 25-30 year jump since the days of chapter 2. Matthew must mean something a little bit different by, “In those days.” We’ll come back around to that shortly.

Compare this to Luke’s very precise method of recording these events.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. -Luke 3:1-2

Because of Luke’s precise dating, we can learn that John’s prophetic ministry began right around 28 AD (depending on exactly how things get counted).

But Matthew records things very differently; for all of the sudden, in those days, John the Baptist appears on the scene in the wilderness of Judea. We learn from other passages that the wilderness of Judea where John roamed was to the east of the Jordan River.

John appeared in the wilderness, preaching. Since he is called John the Baptist, you might think that the most important part of his ministry was baptism. It wasn’t. The most important part of John’s ministry was his preaching. John was a prophet, the last prophet of the old covenant (or Old Testament). His prophetic ministry was all about his preaching, or proclamation. Most preeminently, John was a herald.

This means that he did not speak for himself. His message came from someone else, from a higher authority. John was speaking for God. And what is the message John heralded on behalf of God?

Read vs 2

The Coming King

This is a summary statement. It sums up everything that John was about. Everything he proclaimed boiled down to this singular sentence: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Before we dive into what John’s message was all about, let’s look at the Old Testament prophecy that Matthew quotes, because this quote is meant to further illuminate John’s message and ministry.

Read vs 3

Matthew quotes from Isaiah 40:3. Let’s look at that verse connected with the two verses that follow it.

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” -Isaiah 40:3-5

In antiquity, when a king traveled, his servants would go before him and repair the roads. Potholes and washouts would be filled, and harsh turns would be straightened. The way would be made so the king could travel as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This was John’s purpose, to prepare for the King; or, as Isaiah 40:3 states, to prepare the way of the LORD. Yahweh was coming. He was coming through the wilderness, coming to His people. And when Yahweh comes to His people, He brings His kingdom with Him.

When Matthew quotes from Isaiah 40, telling us that John was the prophesied voice who would prepare the way for the Lord, it means that the hope of the Old Testament was about to break upon Israel. The Divine King and His kingdom were about to arrive.

Does this not entirely comport with the message of John the Baptist? Again, from verse 2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Let there be no confusion: The kingdom of heaven is synonymous with the kingdom of God.

When John says the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he does not mean thousands of years in the future. No! John was telling the Jews that the kingdom of God was coming in their lifetime. It was so soon that the need for repentance was urgent, was immediate. Repent now so you are ready, or prepared, for the imminent dawning of the kingdom of heaven.

In the hearts of the Jews, John was preparing the way of the Lord. A river of living water was about to gush forth from the wilderness.

Scripture continually casts the wilderness in a theological light. The wilderness was where Israel wandered for 40 years. It was a place of trial, but it was also a place of purification, of meeting with God. When Jesus faces trials of temptation He is in the wilderness, and there it is revealed just how pure He is.

The wilderness was a place of both judgment and salvation. Think of Elijah. When God brought judgments upon Israel, Elijah was driven to the wilderness numerous times. There God provided for him, there he heard the voice of God, he was saved.

Like Elijah, John is in the wilderness. Like Elijah, John is a prophet. John is also dressed like Elijah.

Read vs 4

In the books of 1&2 Kings, Elijah suddenly appears on the scene, dressed in a garment of hair, with a leather belt around his waist (2 Kings 1:8). He had one of the most powerful prophetic ministries in the entire Old Testament. Then, at the end of his ministry, God took Elijah into heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:5).

To the Jews, Elijah became a symbol for all the prophets. Moses was a symbol for the Law, Elijah a symbol for the Prophets.

And at the very end of the prophetic writings – the last words of the Old Testament – God promised to send Elijah once again. And when Elijah comes again, it will be a day of judgment and salvation.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.”

“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 4:1-3,5-6

I hope you hear that John is using such similar language. John doesn’t just live like Elijah and speak like Elijah; Jesus told us that John the Baptist was the prophesied returning of Elijah.

For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

-Matthew 11:13-15

This means that John’s appearance signaled Malachi’s great and awesome day of the Lord. In the spirit of Elijah, John the Baptist came to prepare Israel for the coming of the Lord, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. As Scripture had said, it would be a day of judgment and salvation.

When Matthew writes, “In those days,” that is what he means. In the days when a new age was breaking upon the earth, when the kingdom of heaven was dawning, when the King came to His people, when God began to make all things new: In those days, when the day of the Lord arrived. The day of the Lord is not a literal day. It signifies a visitation from God. Indeed, God was about to be revealed to Israel.

It’s no wonder people were flocking to hear this voice in the wilderness.

Read vs 5-6

The Gathering Jews

A prophet who looks and sounds like Elijah, powerfully proclaiming the advent of the coming of Yahweh and His kingdom; news of John spread like wildfire. People came from all over Palestine. The primary extra-biblical source of history during this time is Josephus. Josephus records that so many people were coming to hear John that Herod Antipas (the ruler of Perea and Galilee, not Judea) grew concerned that John was leading an uprising. Indeed, Antipas would soon arrest John.

Though there were certainly Gentiles who came to listen, don’t let it be lost on you – and Matthew is making it clear: John was preaching to Jews and the Jews were flocking to him.

This is significant because John wants the Jews to repent! In other words, they were not living correctly, they had strayed from loving God, they were living in violation of the covenants. John was calling the people to renounce their former way of living, turn away from it, and live as purified people of God. Such is the nature of repentance.

John would then baptize them in the waters of the Jordan as a symbol of that newly purified life and God’s gracious forgiveness. As Mark tell us, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4). It’s similar to baptisms we do, but there is one major distinction. More on that later.

And notice how, as the people are getting baptized by John, they are also confessing their sins. They are confessing their sins publicly, in front of perhaps hundreds of people.

Only a truly repentant person could bring themselves to do such a thing. Sin is ugly, shameful, and none of us want such a mark upon us. But when we repent, we are happy to tell others what God has rescued us from. It’s the face of true humility; saying, “Look, I am nothing without my God and His forgiveness. My flesh and my heart have failed, but God is my strength and my portion forever (Psalm 73)!”

Confession is a necessary and holy – and yes, often difficult – part of repentance.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. -1 John 1:8-9

It’s clear that many Jews were repenting. It was an absolute revival. In the book of Acts there were even Jews as far away as Ephesus that had received John’s baptism (Acts 19:3). Truly, God was using John to prepare the way!

But there were some who did not believe.

Read vs 7-8

Gathered along the western shore of the Jordan, mixed in with the throngs of people, were the religious leaders. It’s interesting that Matthew lists the Pharisees and Sadducees together, as if they were one coalition, because there was nearly nothing that united them.

The Sadducees were the ruling party in the temple. They were the elites, the Levitical high-priestly aristocrats. Because of their privileged bloodline, they considered themselves superior to the common Jew. Thus, they were not afraid to cooperate with the Romans to maintain and wield political power. And they were also not afraid to use the temple system to get wealthy off the backs of the people.

In opposition to the elitist Sadducees were the Pharisees. The word Pharisee literally means “separated.” They were the party of the people. Because if you worked hard enough, and the right opportunities came your way, any Jew could become a Pharisee.

The Pharisees diligently studied the law and truly wanted to help people actually live it out. So, they created traditions and teaching to make everything as black and white as possible, removing all those bothersome grey areas in the Law. But over the centuries their teaching and traditions piled up, getting increasingly detailed, getting increasingly impossible.

Inevitably, people could not possibly meet their rigid standards, so the Pharisees began to see themselves as a cut above. They got so caught up in the minutiae of their traditions that they lost the weightier matters of God’s Law (Matthew 23:23). Instead of loving others as they loved themselves, the Pharisees preferred to obligate people to obey their teachings.

The Sadducees outright rejected the traditions and teachings of the Pharisees. So, these two religious parties were bitterly opposed. Yet here they are together, come from Jerusalem to observe John, united by their skepticism and hypocrisy.

I say hypocrisy because it seems that some of these religious leaders have come to the banks of the Jordan feigning repentance. John is able to see their hypocrisy, and he calls them out: You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

John’s words are tipped with venom. Calling the religious leaders a brood of vipers is akin to calling them the son of serpents, or sons of Satan. It’s very similar to what Jesus would later say.

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”

-John 8:44

In Matthew 23, Jesus will likewise call these same religious leaders a brood of vipers. But here before John the Baptist, the Pharisees and Sadducees have come pretending to repent. It’s why John says, Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? They are like snakes trying in vain to slither away from the coming wildfire of wrath.

Yes, there is a judgment that is coming. Just as the kingdom of heaven brings salvation, it also brings judgment. As near as one is, the other is just as close. If they truly want to escape, then they need to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Their heritage, their bloodlines, their presumptions, will do nothing to save them.

Read vs 9

It was easy for the Jews to take their position with God for granted. They were the people of God, the children of Abraham. Theirs were the covenants and promises. They were safe.

But such a mentality was deadly. All throughout the Old Testament there are two Israels. One Israel is the bloodline, a nation of people. The other Israel is the remnant, the people within the people, the faithful ones, the true lovers of God, the true children of God.

I say this because being a Jew, or even a Jewish religious leader, did not guarantee that you were a child of God. It’s exactly what John is saying in verse 9. He’s effectively saying, “God can use these rocks to accomplish His purposes instead of you and your stony hearts.”

The true children of Abraham are the children of faith, the good trees who bear fruit in keeping with repentance. But Pharisees and Sadducees and any like them were proud and barren trees, and it was nearly time for their felling.

Read vs 10

Once more we see the nearness of what John heralds. The judgment that comes with the kingdom of heaven is at hand: Even now the axe is laid to the root. The King comes with his kingdom, and a righteous axe for which to hew the worthless trees.

More than any other gospel writer, Matthew focuses on this coming wrath. Judgment was coming to Israel for their unrepentant self-righteousness, their presumption, their hypocrisy; and soon enough, for their rejection of the Son of God. But the path was already set, the axe already laid to the root, the tree was cursed.

In 70 AD the tree would fall. The Romans would destroy Jerusalem, burn the temple to the ground, slaughter the priesthood and the people. The Jewish religious system would never again rise.

John was only warning before it was too late, graciously and sternly calling hypocrites to repent. He knew what Malachi’s prophesy said, from the same passage we read earlier:

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall… Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. -Malachi 4:1-2,5

The fires of judgment were following the Messiah; but so also were righteousness, healing, and joy. Salvation and judgment arrive together on the great and awesome day of the Lord, the day when the King comes to His people.

Read vs 11

It’s clear that John has turned from addressing the religious leaders and now he speaks to all the people, specifically to those hearing his message and truly repenting.

Then John finally speaks of the One for whom he prepares the way. If John was mighty, He is far mightier. If they regarded John, John is nothing beside the incomparable worth of the King. Lower than the lowest sandal toting slave, John will diminish to a shadow when the blazing excellence of the Son of God is finally revealed.

John can baptize with water. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. Water is good, the Holy Spirit is infinitely more so. John speaks of what was prophesied by Joel.

It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days will I pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens…before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. -Joel 2:28-30,31

This is the same passage that Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost; Peter declaring that the great and awesome day of the Lord had arrived. The Holy Spirit had been given to dwell in the hearts of men and women. God has come to dwell with us, and we are His people, and God Himself is with us as our God in every moment (Revelation 21:3).

John said that the Messiah will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The fire, in this context, means a refining fire. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within your heart there will be a sanctifying effect, purifying you, bit by bit, steadily causing you to look more and more like Jesus.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. -2 Corinthians 3:18

The King gives the Spirit and together they will sanctify the people of God!

John’s baptism looked forward to the glories that our baptism is awash in. John’s was a nameless baptism for repentance and forgiveness of sin within the confines of the old covenant. We baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with victory over sin and life everlasting. Ours is the baptism of the new covenant, the realized hope of the Old Testament!

But once more we are called to remember that with the good news comes the bad; for salvation and judgment cannot be separated.

Read vs 12

When comes the King, He will separate the wicked from the righteous. The righteous He will keep forevermore. The wicked will feel the heat of fires that never die.

And speaking of unquenchable fires, we know that John has now moved on to speaking of everyone’s eternal state: heaven or hell. The One who is greater than John, who gives the Holy Spirit, the King, He also wields the winnowing fork. He is the final Judge.

Just as urgent as in John’s day, how urgent the need to repent! How urgent the need to throw yourself at the feet of the King and seek His salvation!

Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

-2 Corinthians 6:1-2

If you have sins to confess, do not let the sun set. Run to the King, for happily He gives His kingdom to any who repent. He has taken these stones and made us into His own people, beloved, precious, alive forevermore!

How well John prepared the way for the coming of Jesus. And I pray that the ministry of John has even helped to make straight the paths that lead to your heart, that the King might come into your heart, filling every corner of your being. Even if you have believed for years, there are certainly crooked ways in your soul. Oh God, make straight the paths of my heart! Oh, Holy Spirit, lead me in repentance!

God had sent John for a specific ministry and a specific moment. But there is much for you and I in the words of John. Especially when you realize that when Jesus began His public ministry, He started by proclaiming the exact same words.

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

-Matthew 4:17