The Message of John the Prophet

Matthew 3:7–12 NASB95

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? “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. “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. “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.”

a. The reason for our judgment (3:7-9)

b. Judgment (심판) is coming (3:10-12)

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BODY

a. The reason for our judgment (3:7-9)

i. Interesting that verse 7 begins with the Pharisees and Sadducees who are coming to him for baptism. It’s interesting that they were coming to John here to be baptized. Usually when we read about the Pharisees, they are going to Jesus to question Him and challenge Him, but here, there is no sign of them challenging John or contesting him.

ii. The response by John is more interesting. He starts by calling them you brood of vipers. He calls them a generation of vipers. It should be taken literally here that John is referring to them as the offspring of vipers. This could be taken literally due to the fact that Satan was referred to a serpent, that John here is referring to them as you children of Satan.

iii. The connotation here is that John is referring to these Pharisees as evil men. He is addressing them for who they are and he is not holding back. But the other interesting part is that Jesus also addresses the Pharisees as the same name in Matthew 12:34. In 12:34, He says how can you, being evil, speak what is good? Again, from this reference, just as Jesus refers to them as evil, John is also addressing them as evil.

iv. Then John follows with a question, who told you to flee from the wrath to come? John’s question is, who warned you, who told you to run from the wrath that is coming? John’s question is, who told you that wrath is coming? How did you know this? In which the Sadducces and Pharisees probably had no idea what John was talking about. Why?

v. Let’s think about the context. John had been preaching for baptism and that people confess their sins so the Pharisees come out and start to come receive Baptism and as they come, John stands before them and calls them a brood of vipers. Why does John call them this?

vi. Because of what happened in verse 6. People who were broken over their sin, they were already being baptized. They realized their sin, so they were baptized and confessed their sin. But the key here in verse 7 is that they came for baptism. They were not being baptized, but rather probably looking around.

vii. When I was young in my youth group days, I remember going on retreats and looking at others and looking at others as they were receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I don’t really know if they were but I am sure there were some there that day that genuinely were receiving Christ. But as I saw these people turning to Christ, I just sat around as a skeptic and would never go forth.

viii. Well this is the same with the Pharisees. They came to be baptized but they weren’t really there to be baptized. They were just looking around. If they were really intending to be baptized, they would have been baptized. You see if the motivation for their baptism was genuine, John would not have asked this question. But rather, John knew based on their actions, that their reason for being there and their coming forth in baptism was not genuine. This is why John follows up by calling them you brood of vipers. John is questioning them by asking them why do evil men like you want to be baptized? And better, who told you that the wrath of God that is coming, who told you that you should run from it? Again, based on this context, because they were unrepentant, and unwilling to be baptized, who told you about the wrath that is sure to come?

ix. Remember that John’s job as forerunner is to prepare the hearts of the people. He was preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The kingdom has come and if the kingdom has come, there will be judgment. All those who are not in allegiance to the new king, they will face judgment.

x. Well the Pharisees probably responded and said we are repentant. Verse 8 is John’s response. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. What John is telling us here again, is that a proclamation that we are followers of Jesus does not mean much if we don’t bear fruit. The purpose of John’s statement here is to tell us that a true genuine convert in the Lord Jesus Christ will bear fruit. There has to be fruit in our lives. We can’t just say we are followers of Christ. We must resemble them.

xi. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Why? Because the more we repent and grow in our relationship with God, we bear this fruit. How? Because we are constantly trusting and living in obedience to Him.

xii. It’s like children. When you look at a child and you see them grow up, they look like us. This is how we know that certain children belong to certain people. Just as children look like their parents, we must also look like our Lord and King. We must bear fruit and resemble Christ.

xiii. John is telling us that a lifestyle of repentance will cause fruit to grow. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will work in our hearts and bear fruit for us. What does this mean? I think of this through family. As we are married to our spouse, we start to bear similarities in our character like our spouse. You see, this relationship that we have with our spouse changes us. Just like our relationship with our children causes our children to become like us. Because we have a relationship with our children, and because we love them and they love us back, they learn from our actions and behaviors. This is why being a parent is so important because our children learn from us. Our fruit grows not only in our lives but also in our children. They learn to talk like us, think like us, act like us. In that same way, what John is telling us is that through repentance, we become more like Christ. The more we acknowledge our dependency and need for Christ, we bear fruit. John’s statement here is making it clear that fruit does not grow without repentance.

xiv. Repentance is not simply admitting our sins but admitting our sins and turning to Jesus as the only source of remedy for our sins. It’s not just saying we believe in Jesus. It’s believing in Jesus and turning to Him for strength and trusting in Him that He will bring about the good works in us. It’s looking to what He wants from me and expects from me and doing those things in obedience because that is what He wants from me.

xv. John explains what true genuine saving faith looks like without mentioning Christ. And immediately, verse 9, John attacks the heart of their pride.

xvi. What is the cause of their pride? John states that their reason for pride is that “we have Abraham for our father.” John is making it plain to see that their reason why they believed they were going to Heaven is because they were Jewish. The Pharisees are exposed that they think they are saved because they are Jewish. It’s simply salvation by ethnicity.

xvii. This might not make a lot of sense but in today’s vernacular, it means salvation because of wealth or power or education. The very things that people take pride in, that was the heart of John’s attack. John was attacking their idolatry and reasons why they felt they were good enough to go into the presence of God.

xviii. One of the things I used to believe when I was a child was that because I grew up in a pastor’s home, I thought I would go to Heaven. Afterall, I did Gospel work too because I helped in the church because my parents made me and I thought I was a good person. But as I grew up, I realized that I wasn’t saved because of my parents. Rather, I realized the only way I was saved because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

xix. You see, John here is attacking the Pharisee’s for their pride. They took pride that they were Jewish and the fact that they were rich and educated amongst the Jews. This is why John writes, that God could raise up stones these stones to become children of Abraham. John was making it clear that their ethnicity did not matter. The only thing that mattered was bearing fruit through repentance. John was preaching that a true broken spirit was a heart that was ready to receive the Lord. But apart from this brokenness that only God could provide, man is too prideful to receive Jesus Christ. Therefore, John was preaching for men to repent and be baptized.

b. Judgment (심판) is coming (3:10-12)

i. Verse 10, John doesn’t just tell his listeners that the judgment was coming. Right, he mentions that in verse 7 by asking them, who told you to run from the wrath that is imminent? Well right after John explains to them that they must bear fruit, he gives a vivid description of what he’s talking about. The Pharisees were probably telling and asking John, I don’t know what you are talking about.

ii. So John tells them, I will tell you what I am talking about. I will explain so you don’t have any mistakes in what I am saying. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit will be thrown into the fire. John is making it clear from what he said in verse 8. A tree will bear fruit, but not even that, it will bear good fruit. A good tree that is living a life of repentance will bear good fruit. But every tree, which does not keep with repentance, will not bear good fruit and will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

iii. The picture of the axe laid down is clear to show that the axe is the means in which trees will be cut down. The imagery here shows that all trees that don’t have fruit will be cut down and burned. What type of tree will be cut down? What type of people are these types of people? The people who say they are Christian and that they love the Lord. They will hear the message of the kingdom preached, yet will reject it. What is rejection? That they don’t consider the truthfulness of it and respond to it.

iv. John 3:17-19 really encapsulates what John the Baptist was preaching. 3:17 tells us that God did not send His son into the world to judge the world, but that people would be saved through Him. But then in verse 18, John writes that He who believes, in Christ, is not judged. But the one who does not believe has already been judged because he has believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.

v. You see, the judgment that John is speaking about by calling these Pharisees a brood of viper is because they did not believe in the Messiah. They believed in verse 9, that they were Jewish. They believed in their ethnicity because they were the chosen people of God. But 3:19 completes this idea by telling us that the judgment is this. Why are the people who don’t believe judged? The judgment is that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light. The judgment is that men loved other things, they were idolaters rather than followers of Christ. The judgment is exactly what John preaches in verse 9. You are judged because you trust in something other than Christ for your salvation. As John preached this, similar to what Peter preached in Acts 2:37, the crowd responds. The question is What shall we do?

vi. Luke 3:10-15 helps us to understand in greater depth what is happening. After John preaches that trees must bear fruit, the question is asked, “what shall we do? How do we save ourselves? John’s response is to share what you have. Do what is right. Then tax collectors ask, what shall we do? John responds by telling them don’t collect more money. Then soldiers ask what must we do? John responds by telling them not to take money by force from people.

vii. Then verse 15 is the highlight. These people thought that as John was preaching this, he was the Messiah. The crowds were astonished by his teaching. How could a man teach so clearly?

viii. This is where John tells us what it says in Matthew 3:11. John understood what he meant when he said in John 3:30, He must increase, and I must decrease. Up to this point in Matthew 3, it has been all about John. John was preaching and many came to listen to his preaching and be baptized. People were coming to hear his teaching because he was so clear and powerful that as Luke 3:15 tells us they thought he was the Christ. This is where John shows the true attribute of a genuine follower of Jesus Christ: humility. The very statement that John was preaching about bearing fruit was displayed in the way he preaches 3:11-12. It was easy for John to think that he was a great preacher and how he could make money through his preaching ministry. In today’s world, John could have thought how he could write books to teach about his successful ministry and show up to conferences to teach how to be a great preacher.

ix. But instead of boasting, John goes on to teach about the person of Christ. John starts his introduction by stating what he does. John writes he baptizes for repentance, meaning he was preaching that men should repent of their sins, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I. What does this mean? John was preaching that men should repent of their sins and confess their sins, but the one who is coming is mightier. How? John says that He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

x. This is an interesting phrase. I prefer the translation here, He who is coming after me should be better translated, the coming one is mightier than I. He’s so mighty that John says he is unworthy to perform even the slave’s task.

xi. He is mightier than John because of His baptism. John says that He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. It is difficult to understand here but verse 12 gives us a hint. Verse 12 speaks about how the Messiah will get his fork and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor.

xii. A threshing floor is a flat surface that was smooth and hard where they would have oxen and cattle walk on them repeatedly so that the grain would be loosened from the chaff. Then winnowing forks were used to throw the mixture into the air so the wind could blow away the chaff, leaving only the good grain on the floor. After that, the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire. Here is the hint.

xiii. John is making it clear that those grains that don’t bear fruit, grains that only have chaff will be burned by unquenchable fire. A fire that can’t be put out. This idea of unquenchable fire seems to be what John is talking about in verse 11 when He says that the coming one will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. It seems more likely that the coming one will baptize you with a fiery breath. Isaiah 4:4, 30:27-28 help us with this understanding by explaining that God’s anger is like a devouring fire and especially in Isaiah 4:4 that God will cleanse Zion and Jerusalem by a spirit of burning.

xiv. The point of what John was preaching here is that the coming one is mightier because He can judge correctly who receives salvation and others who receive judgment. John is making one point clear, that judgment is coming just as what he preached in Matthew 3:2, that the kingdom has come. John is making it clear that if the Kingdom has come, then the kingdom has come to save those who are His but the opposite is true as well, that judgment has come for those who love other things more than the coming One. Who is that coming one? Verse 13 tells us, Then Jesus arrived.

xv. Matthew is making it unmistakably clear that all those who don’t believe in Jesus are judged. This should mean something to us. We all have someone we know who doesn’t believe. Should we just sit there knowing they are judged? This message should remind us of the urgency to share the Gospel with those who don’t know Christ or those who won’t acknowledge Christ for who He is. We should have a sense of urgency. I pray that this message would remind us of a coming judgment that in the words of John, is there is a way that can save us from the wrath to come.

3. CONCLUSION