John and His Message

Transcript

GR 652
11/27/1983
John and His Message
Matthew 3:4-12
Gil Rugh

The first three verses of Matthew 3 describe John the Baptist and his message of repentance. Before going into more detail about John's message, Matthew describes the appearance of John. Matthew has a greater reason for describing his physical appearance than to merely satisfy curiosity. This description of John fits the purpose of John's ministry. Matthew is offering evidence that John indeed is a prophet because he comes dressed in the garb of a prophet. The Old Testament indicates that the garment of camel's hair and the belt about the waist was customary raiment for a prophet. A prophet voice had not been heard in Israel for four hundred years -- a long time. Matthew describes the appearance of John, but even his dress is reminiscent of a prophetic ministry. “Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist” (Matt. 3:4).

The prophet Zechariah alludes to the dress of a prophet in his day. He prophesied in Zechariah 13:4, “Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy robe in order to deceive.” In this passage the robe of camel's hair will be put on by the false prophets in order to present themselves as genuine prophets. Apparently, a false prophet who wanted to deceive the people dressed in this way.

John is identified as a prophet especially with the ministry of Elijah. Elijah's ministry to Ahaziah is recorded in 2 Kings 1. The king was ill following an injury and decided to inquire from the false gods if he was going to recover from his illness. But Elijah, the prophet of God, intercepted his message. “But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, ‘Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?” Now therefore thus says the Lord, “You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone
up, but you shall surely die.”’ Then Elijah departed” (vs. 3,4).

After Ahaziah was told that he would die, the king asked for a description of the man who gave the message regarding death. “They answered him, ‘He was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins.’ And he said, ‘It is Elijah the Tishbite’” (v.8). Since the prophet has a hairy garment bound with a leather girdle about the waist, the king immediately recognizes this as the dress of the prophet Elijah. So when Matthew describes the dress of John, he identifies him as a prophet in connection with Elijah's ministry. That is a crucial identification because later Matthew will make a connection with that identification.

The diet of John the Baptist is not especially appetizing. “And his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matt. 3:4). Two kinds of locusts and grasshoppers are mentioned in Leviticus 11:22 as being food that the Jews were allowed to eat. Even though locusts may seem to be a strange kind of food, they were considered acceptable for the Jews. But such food is representative of a more ascetic lifestyle. In addition to the locusts, wild honey found in certain kinds of trees comprised John's food. So with an ascetic lifestyle, John comes in the wilderness with a striking and dynamic message.

After describing John's clothing and diet in verse 4, Matthew proceeds to describe the response of the people to his message in verse 5: “Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan.” In order to understand the significance of what was happening, it is important to picture this tremendous scene. Some commentators estimate that there could have been between 200,000 and 500,000 people who participated in John's ministry in this way. Matthew is not describing the appearance of a half dozen people who followed John. This prophet came on the scene in such a striking way that after the Spirit of God had prepared the people's hearts, the whole nation recognized John as a prophet, and the leaders even feared him after his death because of the people's high regard for him as a prophet.
As the people hear that a prophet is again in the nation, hundreds of thousands of them flock to the wilderness region of the Jordan to be exposed to John's ministry. They know something special is happening -- a supernatural ministry is again taking place within the nation. Therefore, the whole nation is going out to him.

Matthew recorded in Matthew 3:6, “and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.” This prophet was called John the Baptist because baptism was a central part of his ministry. John had a message to proclaim, and he baptized those who believed that message. Two elements were involved in John's baptism. First, it was connected with confession of sins. The message was to repent. These individuals were changing their minds and agreeing with God about their sinfulness, an essential part of salvation. Second, they were believing John's message about the coming Messiah. In their baptism, they were identifying themselves with John's message and ministry. They were agreeing with God about their sinfulness and were trusting in the Messiah that God provided.

Several years later the Apostle Paul arrived in Ephesus and found some disciples of John the
Baptist living in that area. Of John's baptism, Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus”
(Acts 19:4). John's message to Israel was to repent of their sins and to believe in the Messiah. Those who were baptized by John were saying that they agreed with God about their sinful condition and that they were placing their faith in the coming Messiah as their Sovereign and Savior. It wasn't enough for those individuals simply to mouth the words. That is the same message we have today. Of course, we have the fullness of the finished work of Jesus Christ to proclaim. But in order to receive the forgiveness of sins, you must agree with God about your sinfulness, and you must agree with God that His Son, Jesus Christ, is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Often, if you ask people if they believe in Jesus Christ, they will say they believe in Him, but they have not personally trusted Him as their Savior from sin. They have not agreed with God about their own sinfulness and have not put their trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior. Even though they say the words, "I believe in Jesus Christ," they have not experienced God's salvation which is evidenced by transformed lives. That is what John preached, and the situation has not changed through the centuries.

In Matthew 3:7, John begins to confront the religious leaders of his day. The two groups of leaders in Israel were known as the Pharisees and the Sadducees. This is their first appearance in Matthew's Gospel where they are seen as religious hypocrites. Matthew wrote, “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?’” (v.7). John, dressed as a prophet with the message of a prophet, came with the same approach the prophets had. We might have expected John to view this as his big opportunity. With the leaders of the nation Israel coming out to hear him, we might have expected him to try to get the Pharisees and Sadducees on his side in his efforts to win the nation.

Isn't that the way we think? Oh, boy, if we could only reach a few key leaders, that would make the difference. But John's approach was not geared to “win friends and influence people.”
The Pharisees. The Pharisees and Sadducees had great pride in their religious traditions. The Pharisees were the conservatives of the nation. They were traditionalists and separatists. They did not believe in mixing Judaism with the Greek culture, but rather thought that the Jews ought to remain a distinct group of people separated from everyone and everything else. The Pharisees were the guardians of the Scriptures, but they believed in the Scripture in addition to oral traditions which they believed had been passed on from Moses. As is always the case, when there are people who have an allegiance both to the Scriptures and to traditions, the traditions soon supersede the Scriptures.

Such a development is obvious even today. If you were to ask the Protestants, Catholics or Jews if they believe the Scriptures, most of them would say they do. If you ask them if they believe their church traditions, they will answer in the affirmative. But talk further with them and find out what they know most about. Most are in pitiful ignorance about the Scriptures, but they give great allegiance to the minutia of their traditions.

Such was the approach of the Pharisees. Jesus later rebuked the Pharisees telling them that they nullified the Word of God by their traditions. That is the outcome when traditions and the Scriptures are both respected. The traditions eventually supersede the Scriptures. The Pharisees were traditionalists. They prided themselves in their minute obedience to the details of the Old Testament. Then they added to and embellished these details until their system became such a burden that no one could carry it.

In contrast to the Pharisees were the Sadducees. They were the nonsupernaturalists. A little saying which will help you keep the Pharisees and Sadducees distinct in your mind is related to the belief of the Sadducees: The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they were "sad, you see." Neither did the Sadducees believe in the spirit world. They did not even believe in life after death, yet the Sadducees were the high-priestly party. Though they were the smaller group in Israel, the Sadducees controlled the priesthood because the office of the high priest was occupied by the Sadducees. How amazing! The high priests of the nation Israel did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, in angelic beings or in life after death. Today there are the same kinds of leaders in many religious groups. Many such leaders are antisupernaturalists.

The Apostle Paul, before his conversion, was a Pharisee. He was brought before the Council in Acts 23 where Ananias, the high priest, a Sadducee, was leading the Council. As Paul stood before this group, he realized the group was a mixture of Sadducees and Pharisees. “But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, ‘Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!’ As he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided” (vs. 6,7). The issue at stake was whether or not God could raise someone from the dead. Paul proclaimed that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and the Sadducees wanted to try him because he was preaching about the resurrection. Immediately the Pharisees came to his aid. This is an example of the conflict that existed even among the leadership in Israel. But it is remarkable how united this leadership becomes in opposing Jesus Christ. When Matthew records the ministry of Christ and His crucifixion, the record will show the Pharisees and Sadducees setting aside their differences because Jesus Christ is their common enemy.

The same kinds of alliances occur today. We sometimes see “strange bedfellows” in the ecumenical movement, but the thing that binds them together is their opposition to the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. Their common opposition to the gospel of grace overrules all the other differences they have. Such groups emphasize salvation by works just as the Pharisees and Sadducees tried to work their way to heaven, thinking they would be acceptable to God on the basis of their good works.

John addressed them as a "brood of vipers" (Matt. 3:7). Vipers were poisonous snakes. Near the end of the Book of Acts, Paul was gathering sticks to build a fire, and a viper came out and grasped onto him. Since vipers were very poisonous snakes, the individuals with Paul expected
him to drop over dead immediately. The interesting thing about these snakes was that they could look like a stick or twig in the desert, but without warning they would strike out with their venom.
John told those religious leaders that they were just like vipers -- they were deceptive! They looked so harmless, but in reality they were deadly. Such charges from John were tremendously offensive for the Pharisees and Sadducees who prided themselves on being so far above the common people.

After addressing them with such insulting language, John asked, “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7). Keep in mind that John had been telling them, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v.2). It was not necessary for John to give details to the Jews about the kingdom of heaven. The Jews knew that when the kingdom was set up, it would begin with a time of wrath. They knew that for all unbelievers, there would be a time of judgment and the Messiah would destroy all unbelievers. Thus John's question, “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (v.7).

Such an approach may seem rather unkind. How would you feel if I stood up in the pulpit some Sunday and called out, “Oh, I see we have a few preachers here. You bunch of poisonous snakes! Who warned you to get out of the way of the coming wrath?” You would probably say, “What has happened to Gil? He has flipped out again!” But that was exactly John's approach. Perhaps thousands of people were gathered to hear him, and he began to thunder forth and to point out the Pharisees and Sadducees as a bunch of poisonous snakes trying to get away from the coming wrath. They seemed to be running like snakes do when fire drives them out of the sticks. These hypocritical spiritual leaders were joining the crowd to hear John speak. The whole nation was going out to hear John in the wilderness, so the Pharisees and Sadducees decided they would get in on the action too. After all, since the whole nation was accepting John, the religious leaders decided the people would reject them if they did not at least appear to accept John. Therefore, they came out to be baptized by him too. In Matthew 21, these leaders were afraid to say anything against John even after his death for fear that the people would stone them!

An attitude of conformity is often characteristic of unbelievers and hypocrites. They can be very flexible because they do not have anything to give up; they can compromise all over the place because they do not have anything to lose! They do not have any firm doctrines for their moorings. But John had a message of exhortation for these individuals as well: “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:8). In other words, a true change of mind will result in a change of life. Fruit of change will be evident if there has been a change.

Jesus spoke to this point in Matthew 7:15: “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” How can you distinguish the true prophets from the false prophets? Jesus answered them in verses 16 through 21: “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” There must be a transformed life. Such a transformed life is the fruit of a changed mind. If the fruits of the transformed life are not there, then it is hypocrisy to claim that you have repented.

For one to claim, "Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ," and go on with the same godless life is nothing but hypocrisy. We are not obligated to believe such a claim. Some Christians say, "Oh, you cannot judge them." John judges them very directly. "You are a brood of vipers!" How can he be so direct? They are coming for a baptism of repentance, but there is no evidence in their lives that they have repented. They have not changed their minds at all. They are only riding on the bandwagon of popularity.

John put his finger right on the problem in Matthew 3:9. “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.” These Jews had been taught and had believed that every physical descendant of Abraham was going into the kingdom. Therefore, all they had to do to make sure they were going into the kingdom was to trace their lineage back to Abraham. But John informed them that being a physical descendant of Abraham has nothing to do with getting into the kingdom. God could even turn stones into children of Abraham if He wanted to. John was telling them that they had no more chance than stones of getting in just because of their relationship to Abraham.

How many millions of people today think that just because they were born into a certain church group, they are going to heaven? Is it good enough to be a Roman Catholic? A Protestant? A Lutheran? A Presbyterian? A Methodist? Is it good enough to be a Jew? The issue is still the same. The physical connection is irrelevant, yet people still go on trusting in the physical connection. They do not want to have their world shaken. The Jews of John's day did not like to hear that being a physical descendant of Abraham was no more important to God than being a stone as far as getting into the kingdom was concerned. People need to hear the same thing today. Some think that just because they have been baptized or confirmed, they are going to heaven. John was telling these Jews that their religious associations were not enough. They must repent and they must believe, and the two go together. They must change their minds and believe in the Messiah, the Savior.

The same is true today. It does not matter whether you are Protestant or Catholic, whether you attend church faithfully or you never attend. Church membership or attendance is a moot point. The point is: Have you changed your mind about your personal sinfulness and have you believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior?

John makes another point that we should not overlook. Some people think that baptism can save them. But do you realize that John would not even baptize these people? If what they needed to get saved was baptism, shouldn't John have baptized them and gotten that done? Of course not. Because baptism will not change them. It is just another physical act, comparable to being a physical descendant of Abraham. So if one of these physical descendants of Abraham received physical baptism, it makes no more impact on God than the stone John refers to. The significance of John's baptism was that it identified the believers with John's message. Those who were baptized were saying they had repented and believed and wanted it to be known publicly.

People today still want to trust their family line or their religious traditions. If you ask someone if he is going to heaven, he might respond, “Yes, I go to church.” But going to church does not have anything to do with salvation. Have you repented? Have you changed your mind about your sin and believed in Jesus Christ? A Roman Catholic, a Protestant or a Jew can do that. The point is that you must have a change of mind and faith in Christ.

The ministries of the prophets are thought of as being dynamic and powerful, and they were.
But a prophet in Israel was a sign of spiritual decay. God sent the prophets with a message of judgment for spiritual apostasy. John was no exception. At the heart of his message was the theme of coming judgment.

John announced in verse 2 that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, meaning it was very near. The kingdom of heaven will be ushered in with a time of judgment. John speaks of that judgment in Matthew 3:10: “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.” In order for the kingdom to be set up, there must be a time of judgment. The axe is there at the root ready to cut down any tree that is not bearing good fruit. This indicates that an unbeliever will be destroyed and thrown into the fire, thus prevented from going into the kingdom. John places an emphasis on fire again in verses 11 and 12. In those verses there is a reference to the coming destruction of the wicked, ultimately picturing hell. It shows the loss of the opportunity to go into the kingdom and the destruction and eternal condemnation that follows.

Several Old Testament prophets predicted judgment preceding the glory of the kingdom, and that is why John is warning that the axe is at the root of the tree. Because of the teaching of the prophets, the Jews were well aware that the kingdom was to be ushered in by judgment. Isaiah wrote: “When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy” (Isa. 4:4,5). The order is first judgment, then glory.
Ezekiel's Warnings. Ezekiel wrote about bringing the nation Israel back and establishing them in the kingdom. “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment” (Ezek. 34:16). The fat and the strong have been feeding on the weak so they will face God's judgment. The people will be restored to the land while the unbelieving will be judged. The actions of the unbelieving are evidence of a lack of relationship with God.
Judgment is the key element.

Malachi, the last prophet in Israel until the time of John the Baptist, prophesied of judgment and burning. “‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will 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 will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall’” (Mal. 4:1,2). In these passages, it is hard to miss the emphasis on burning which is part of the destruction of the wicked.

The Jews of John's day knew these prophecies of the Old Testament. They understood that before the kingdom would be set up, God's judgment would fall on unbelievers who would be rooted out of the kingdom as the Messiah established His rule and reign.

John speaks of his baptism and anticipates the Messiah in Matthew 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.” John felt he was not fit to be even the slave of the Messiah. To even unfasten His sandals would have been a higher honor than John deserved. That is how he viewed the gulf between the Messiah he was announcing and himself. The danger would be for the people to want to elevate John. There would even be questions raised as to whether or not John was the Messiah, but he told them that he was only baptizing in water unto repentance. He indicated that the water of baptism symbolized and was a declaration of repentance but that water did not bring about a transformed life. Only the Messiah, through the ministry of the Spirit of God, can change men on the inside.

There are a number of baptisms in the New Testament. In Matthew 3:11 there are references to three baptisms -- John's baptism, Spirit baptism and fire baptism.

The evidence that John's baptism did not save is clear in Acts 19. In that passage Paul rebaptized the disciples of John. When a person was baptized by John, he was identifying himself with John and his message. As believers were later baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, they were identified with Christ and His ministry and message. The baptism of repentance here was simply a testimony of that repentance.

John plays down baptism as he compares it with what the Messiah will do. If John's baptism would bring about the forgiveness of sins, nothing greater could be done. But what John was doing was minor compared to what the Messiah would do.

The baptism of the Spirit is the unique work of the spirit of God through which He places people into the Body of Christ. It did not occur until Acts 2. Because the nation had rejected the Messiah, the baptizing work of the spirit of God was not carried out by Jesus Christ in His earthly ministry. The baptism of the Spirit begins in Acts 2 as a result of the Messianic ministry of Jesus Christ to provide salvation. But the nation rejected Him and thus did not experience the baptism of the Spirit during Christ's earthly ministry.

The baptism with fire which John mentions in Matthew 3:11 is the judgment that John elaborates in verse 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." The winnowing fork was a wooden instrument used to throw the grain into the air. The wind would then blow away the lighter chaff, and the good grain would fall down to the floor. The winnower threw the grain and chaff up into the air until all the chaff had blown away. That is the picture John is describing here where the Messiah "will thoroughly clear His threshing floor" (v.12). In other words, He will winnow the grain until all the chaff is gone -- all the believers will be removed. The judgment will be thorough and complete, "and He will gather His wheat into the barn". Then the warning again, "but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (v.12). Unquenchable fire speaks of eternal destruction. This is always the end in view for the unbeliever.

In Matthew 13, Jesus explained the parable of the wheat and the tares. This passage is preparatory to the setting up of the kingdom where the angels will come and remove the wicked. This is paralleled in Matthew 24 when two shall be in the fields, one will be taken and one is left. In that context, the one taken is the one taken in judgment. It is not a reference to the Rapture, but rather to the removal of unbelievers in anticipation of the kingdom. John's words are recorded in Matthew 13:41 and 42: "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The ultimate destiny of the wicked is the furnace of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth -- tremendous agony. Verses 49 and 50 continue, "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." In anticipation of setting up His kingdom, Jesus said in Matthew 25:41, "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

The Apostle John wrote of this eternal fire in Revelation 14:9-11: "Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.'" The "forever and ever" above could be translated literally, "into the ages of the ages." It is the strongest way the Greek language has to speak of eternity. The events of this passage in Revelation occur during the Tribulation, the seven-year period that climaxes with the return of Jesus Christ to set up His kingdom. Hell is torment for eternity -- day and night endlessly!

It is not surprising that there are people today who refuse to believe the doctrine of hell. It really is more awful than anything we can conceive of. But God knows how awful hell is, and He warns us about it. Yet there are people who refuse to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. They say a loving God could not send them to hell. But what is a righteous God supposed to do with such filthy sinners? You must either experience the salvation God has provided in His grace or spend eternity, day and night forever and ever, in the constant torment of hell.

The Great White Throne Judgment is described in Revelation 20 where all the wicked from all time are cast into hell. "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (vs.14, 15).
In light of these facts, John comes with a message of salvation and judgment. In his message to repent and believe in the coming Messiah, he asked the Jews to change their minds about their sinfulness and believe in the Messiah. If they do not, there is nothing but the anticipation of judgment.

Two thousand years later the message is still the same. God offers you salvation as a gift of His grace in Jesus Christ, but you must change your mind about sin. You must see yourself as God sees you -- a sinner guilty before Him, and you must trust His Son, Jesus Christ, as the One who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins.

You do not have to repent and accept the Messiah. An alternative is available. That alternative is to experience the full brunt of the wrath of God in judgment, which will entail the torment of the fire of hell day and night forever and ever. It is amazing how simple God has kept this message. Anyone can understand it. There are simply two alternatives -- receive the gift of salvation that is available in Jesus Christ or pay the penalty yourself for your sin. The penalty will be paid! John told his hearers to repent and believe in the Messiah. If not, judgment is coming. That is the message we proclaim today.