John the Baptist came before Jesus. Why did John come? God the Father had a plan to bring His Son Jesus into the world that the world through Him might be saved. But rather than having His Son just all of a sudden appear, the Father deemed it necessary to send a forerunner to prepare the way so that the people might better receive His Son and the coming kingdom of heaven. Matthew 3:3 “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’’” (see Isaiah 40:3).
John’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2) Repent means to change your thinking and change your ways. John was preaching near the Jordan river where there was water. People came to John from Jerusalem, all Judea and all the region around the Jordan. The people were baptized by John in the Jordan, confessing their sins. Baptism is a burial in water (Romans 6:4) and symbolizes a death to sin. For many people to confess their sins, repent, and be baptized was a great way to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus.
Many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to John’s baptism; these were some of the religious leaders of the people. Word about John had spread to many and he was considered to be a prophet. It had been hundreds of years since the Jewish people had had a true prophet from God, so John’s baptism was seen as a big thing that needed to be investigated. But John knew that these religious leaders were filled with hypocrisy. In other words, they made a show of being righteous, but they lacked true righteousness before God. He said to them “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7) He called them snakes! He questioned what their true motive was in coming to him.
His next message to them is found in Matthew 3:8 “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.” This admonition applies to us today. We may say that we repent of our sins and then we are baptized, but what are the resulting actions? If we continue to sin like we did before, then the evidence shows that there has been no repentance. If we repent of our sins, then the fruit worthy of repentance is that we will no longer sin as we did before. The message for all of us is “Repent!” God does not want us to continue to sin. We must bear fruits worthy of repentance.
And then John told the religious leaders in Matthew 3:9-10 “And do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Perhaps they said to themselves: “We are children of Abraham. We are God’s people. On top of that, we are the religious leaders of the people. God will certainly accept us.” Our thinking might be similar. Maybe we regularly go to church. Maybe we even grew up in the church and our parents were Christians. But John warns that such a heritage is not important to God. John tells them that “Every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Yes, we must believe; yes we must obey the gospel; yes we should go to the church assembly. But God expects us to bear good fruit. If we do not, we also will be cut down like a tree and thrown into the fire to be burned.
John continued in Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John was preparing the way for someone; he did not know exactly who was coming. John was baptizing the people in the river Jordan unto repentance, but he knew that someone was coming after Him and he was just preparing the way for that someone. He knew that the coming individual was much mightier than he and that compared to that individual, he was nothing. He expected the one to come to have a much greater mission and that He would give the people the Holy Spirit. We know that the one to come was Jesus.
John continues in Matthew 3:12 “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” John used the analogy of a wheat threshing floor. After the wheat was harvested from the field, it was brought to the threshing floor. The threshing process involved beating the wheat to separate the grain kernels from the stalks and husks. Then the winnowing would take place which usually involved throwing the beaten wheat into the air and the wind would blow the lighter husks away and the heavier grain kernels would fall to the floor where they could be gathered and saved. The husks were useless chaff that would be gathered and burned. At the end of time, there is going to be a separation process between the grain and the chaff. We want to be the good grain that is saved. We do not want to be the chaff which is burned in unquenchable fire.
Jesus came to John to be baptized by him. John realized that Jesus was the mighty one that was to come after him. Matthew 3:14 “And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’” John saw his own sinfulness as compared to the righteousness of Jesus. So he said “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” Verse 15 “But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.”
Matthew 3:16-17 “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” God acknowledged His Son. The Spirit of God came upon Him. Jesus was well pleasing to the Father and ready to begin His earthly ministry.