A Kingdom requirement for both the religious and irreligious...

This week we are looking at the reality that when we read the letters that make up the Bible, we discover that God had, from the very beginning of time, had a plan and promise in mind when it came to how He would respond to our selfishness and rebellion. A plan and a promise that would bring rescue, restoration, and healing from the consequences of the corruption that our selfishness and rebellion brought into humanity.

God had a plan and a promise; a promise of a new kingdom. In Matthew 3, we see a man named John the Baptist proclaim a pretty rough and tough message about this new kingdom; repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. If John the baptizer was communicating this message in the language that we use in our culture today, his message would sound something like this “Repent, recognize and feel remorse for how you are living life. Change your attitude and your mind when it comes to the trajectory of your life that is moving away from God and turn back to God, because God is coming soon. The kingdom of God is approaching and will be here soon”.

Matthew then explained that as people heard the message of John the baptizer, they responded by being baptized in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. All Jerusalem was going out to him and were being baptized as a public proclamation that they were identifying and aligning themselves with his message.  The people of Jerusalem recognized their need to repent from their selfishness and rebellion and change the trajectory of their lives that had been moving away from God back toward God. These people recognized their need to be right with God before the Messiah, the promised one of God appeared to usher in the kingdom of Heaven that they were waiting for.

And as Matthew continued to give us a from row seat to the event from history, we see Matthew introduce us to another group who also came out to see John the baptizer. Let’s meet them together, beginning in Matthew 3:7-10:

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? ⁸ "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 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. 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.

Here Matthew introduces us to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who were the leaders of the two largest religious denominations of the Jewish people.  These were the religious people; they went to church and had their lists that they followed and tried to convince others to follow on what it meant to be right with God.

However, as these religious leaders approached John the Baptizer, Matthew tells us that John looked at these religious people and called them a brood of vipers. Now a viper was a poisonous snake that inhabited this region of the world. John’s point was that these religious people were like poisonous snakes that were infecting the Jewish people with religion, instead of leading them into a relationship with God.

John then called these religious people to do the same thing as the irreligious people who were coming to see and hear him- repent. The religious people needed to repent from their religion and bear fruit in keeping with repentance. John was basically saying to these religious leaders “you need to change the trajectory of your life from religious performance for God to a genuine and authentic relationship with God that results in a change in your lifestyle.” John here is revealing the reality that an inner desire to change will produce external changes, or fruit, that will be evident in one’s lifestyle.

John then raised the stakes with the religious people of his day by stating “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.” John was basically saying to the religious leaders of his day “don’t think that just because you were born Jewish that you are part of the kingdom of Heaven. It is God’s supernatural work in our lives that makes us part of the kingdom of Heaven, not just our physical birth into the right family, ethnicity, or culture.”

Matthew tells us that John concluded his scathing comments against the religious people of the day by painting a word picture of a tree being cut down by an axe to proclaim that time was running out. John basically said to these religious leaders, and the crowds that were listening “just as an axe is at the root of the trees before they are destroyed, time is running out before you will face judgment if you do not repent and produce the fruit that demonstrates a changed life. A failure to recognize and feel remorse for a life that is in a trajectory away from God will result in judgment from God.”        

Now a natural question for those listening to John’s message would be “is John the Messiah, the rescuer, the redeemer”? We see John answer this question in Matthew 3:11-12. Let’s look at it together:

"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. 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."

Here we see Matthew explain that John denied that he was the Messiah. And to demonstrate that he was not God’s promised Messiah, John contrasted the baptism that he was providing with the baptism that will come when the kingdom of Heaven appeared through the Messiah. John explained that while the water baptism he was providing was an external sign, the baptism of the Holy Spirit that will come for those who enter into the kingdom of heaven will be internal.

For those who refuse the kingdom of heaven, John explained that their baptism will be of fire. The fire refers to the fire of judgment of those who reject the kingdom of Heaven. John then painted to a word picture to explain to the crowds listening what the Messiah would do when the kingdom of Heaven arrived.

Now a winnowing fork was used in Jewish agricultural society during harvest to sift through grain. Piles of grain would be scooped up by the winnowing fork and thrown into the air. The heavier grain would fall to the ground, while the worthless chaff would be blown away by the wind. The wheat would be then gathered into a barn, while the chaff would be gathered to be burned with fire.

John painted this word picture to explain that the Messiah will sift through all of humanity and gather all of those who recognize their need to change the trajectory of their lives to follow God into the kingdom of Heaven, while allowing the rest of humanity to experience the eternal judgment that awaited those who reject the kingdom of Heaven. Matthew then gives us a front row seat to the encounter that the messenger of the kingdom of Heaven had with the kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 3:13-17:

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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."

Now can you imagine what John must have been thinking and feeling? Here is a man that has been proclaiming, God is coming, the kingdom of Heaven is coming, and there right before his eyes is the promised one of God, the Messiah Jesus. And then the Messiah, who you have just been saying will provide a greater baptism that people will publicly proclaim and identify with than yours, asks you to baptize Him?

Matthew tells us that John responded to his situation by stating “I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me”? John recognized his need for identification with the message of the kingdom and responded by wanting Jesus to baptize him. However, Jesus replied to John’s request by saying “permit it at this time for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”. But what does that mean? And why would Jesus, God in a bod, without sin, without a need to change the trajectory of His life, want or need to be baptized?

You see, Jesus told John that He needed to be baptized not because Jesus had ever sinned; Jesus wanted to be baptized because He wanted to identify Himself with sinful people, even though He never sinned. When Jesus stated that He fulfilled all righteousness, Jesus was explaining that He fulfilled all the requirements necessary to be our rescuer and deliverer from our selfishness, rebellion, and sin. And one of the ways that He did that was through this act of baptism.

This act was Jesus way of identifying Himself with us so that He could allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful life so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Matthew then recorded God the Father’s response to Jesus desire to identify with rebellious humanity in verse 16.

We see all three members of the Trinity present as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus to empower Him to accomplish His mission of revealing the kingdom of Heaven as God the Father proclaimed “this is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”.

And a little later in Matthew’s account, we see Jesus uttering a familiar message. A message that we will look at on Friday…