The First Step

Matthew 3 CSB

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” 3 For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! 4 Now John had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. 9 And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.” 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?” 15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized. 16 When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

It has been over a month since we have been in Matthew, but where we are picking up the story is some 25 year later.

Matthew doesn’t record the adolescent, teenage, and young adult years of Jesus (actually none of the Gospel writers do much if any with those years).

Outside of a visit to Jerusalem in His pre-teen years, Jesus likely grew up like most any Jewish boy from Nazareth.

Matthew’s desire is to present to those reading his account of Jesus’s life that He really is the Messiah, the promised one from the Prophets of the Old Testament.

For that reason, he moves from the birth of Jesus straight to the beginning of His ministry at around 27 years old.

How Matthew Starts and Ends

I think it is important to point out the way Matthew records the start and the end of Jesus ministry.

Here in Matthew 3, Jesus’s cousin John is introduced as he is baptizing people from Jerusalem and Judea in the Jordan river.

He is known as “John the Baptizer” or “John the Baptist” for short.

This isn’t really where we are baptists come from, though we do claim John as our own, but what he was doing and how he was doing it plays a key role in the baptism tradition we are a part of.

John was a unique character, dressed in camel hair and a leather belt, his breath smelling of grasshoppers dipped in honey.

As weird as he might seem, John was important.

Several hundred years before, the Prophet Isaiah told of the one who would come before the Messiah to “prepare the way of the Lord.”

That was about John, and he knew who he was. He also knew who the Messiah was.

So John is preaching, calling people to repentance, and then baptizing them in the Jordan river.

As John is baptizing, Jesus shows up on the shore of the Jordan to be baptized by John.

His first step in His ministry as the Messiah is baptism.

Now fast forward to Matthew 28, the last verses of the Gospel of Matthew, and what do we read.

Matthew 28:19 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Jesus’s final words to His disciples, to His Church, to us…go and baptize the nations.

The ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with Baptism.

Matthew wants us to see the importance of baptism in the story of Jesus.

He is showing us that it isn't some made up tradition or some outdated ritual or some optional observance.

He is showing what will be an essential part of our mission as the Church.

As we walk through this passage, I want to look at three reason Jesus’s baptism shows us the importance of Baptism in our lives and practice.

Jesus shows us the importance of Baptism.

Baptism is an announcement of REAL REPENTANCE.

John’s message to what was likely an overwhelmingly Jewish crowd is “Repent, for the Kingdom of has come near.”

The word “repent” or “repentance” is one of those Christian words we often throw around, but don’t really know the definition of.

Here’s a pretty good definition from the New American Commentary:

Matthew 1. John the Baptist: The Prophetic Forerunner to Messiah (3:1–12)

Repentance in Greek traditionally implied a change of mind or attitude, but under Old Testament influence it took on the sense of a change of action as well. This combination means that John was asking his hearers “to change their way of life as a result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.”

John was calling people to “a change of mind or attitude, which would then lead to a change of how they lived.”

What’s interesting is that Baptism wasn’t a widely practiced thing in the Jewish world.

It’s main use was for non-Jews wanting to convert to the Jewish faith.

In order to give their lives to worshipping the one true God in Yahweh, they would symbolize the death of their old lives by being dunked under the water, and then the coming of their new life when the came out.

So what John is doing is kind of odd and unusual, baptizing Jews not Gentile converts.

John’s message was powerful and challenging to the common Jews he was speaking to.

They understood that what John was telling them, the one he was announcing, was going to change everything.

So clear and serious steps must be taken.

These Jews coming to John were coming to confess their sins before God.

To grieve over their sin like the Gentile would have done.

And to give over their lives to the one John says is coming.

This is what repentance is and what baptism represents.

It is a coming to terms with our sin and a realization of our guilt toward God.

He is right to punish us and turn away from us.

It is the realization a weight that prompts us to grieve and not excuse or ignore our sin and hopeless apart from Christ.

And it is a desire to feel differently, to live differently, and to hope eternally in Christ.

Real repentance isn’t just feeling bad that we did something wrong, it is turning away from our sin as we come to understand how serious and costly it is.

The baptism John was performing in the Jordan was a representation of a death and a resurrection, just like our baptism represents today.

That is what make it so significant, so important. Because what happens in our hearts is displayed in the water.

For 2000 years, our brothers and sisters have come through the waters of baptism to express the repentance that lives in their hearts.

Have you? Don't rob yourself from the joy of expressing real repentance.

Baptism is a display of TRUE TRANSFORMATION.

Juxtaposed with the repentant Jewish common folks coming to John, we are told “many Pharisees and Sadducees were also coming to be baptized by John.

John’s words to them are harsh and ominous, accusing them of having a fake faith and faulty repentance.

We don’t really know why they were coming, but it was likely either a “follow the crowd” sort of thing, or they were there to examine what John was doing to decide if he was legit.

Regardless, John confronts them and calls them out.

Jesus has a somewhat similar conversation in John 3, with one of the most prominent of the Pharisees, Nicodemus.

The message is the same in a lot of ways:

“you are not good enough to save yourself, and until you realize that you cannot know me.”

“It is only through new birth and new life that you can be truly saved.”

These religious elites were coming not to confess their sins and turn from their old lives, they were coming thinking that this was just one more box to check off.

It was empty and pointless, because real repentance results in true transformation.

“produce fruit consistent with repentance!”

Baptism is much more than an initiation ritual, it is a outward display of an inward transformation. A death and a resurrection.

The water doesn't save you, but neither does a confession that shows no real signs of transformation.

The Pharisees were just following the crowds, checking the boxes, with no real, heart/life change.

That is many of those you know and love.

They were dunked as a teenager, but after a few months or moments of excitement, no real change seems to exist.

We aren’t the final judge, but what John is saying here and what Jesus says in John 3, and the writers of the New Testament continually teach, is that faith and repentance that bears little to no fruit is questionable at best.

John’s warnings are vivid and frightening.

Matthew 3:10 CSB

10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 3:12 CSB

12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”

John is pointing to the seriousness of the situation.

Some of you think you are good because of some cultural ideas about Christianity, you walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, and got wet, but what changed about your life?

How does your faith in Jesus change the way you live, what you live for, and the place you look for joy and satisfaction.

There will be a day when the truth will be seen, where the root will be exposed.

Don’t be confused about John’s description of Jesus’s baptism.

Baptism in the spirit is not a separate baptism as some traditions teach, but a fulfillment of John’s baptism.

In a sense, John’s baptism was just words, because they couldn’t change themselves outside of Jesus.

Jesus brought the spirit that allows real, lasting change.

Faith in Him saves us and the spirit of God transforms, and begins to purify our hearts and lives right away.

Baptism is a step of HONORING OBEDIENCE.

Jesus’s baptism was an act of humility.

That is partly what Jesus means when He says “to fulfill all righteousness.”

Jesus is counted as if He is a sinner like everyone else.

He isn’t in need of repentance, but like all those who were humbly confessing their sins and committing to a new attitude and new life, Jesus was joining Himself with them.

Hebrews 4:15 CSB

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Baptism requires humility and that is one of the reasons many people fail to obey Jesus’s example and instruction to be baptized.

“Only kids get baptized, I don’t want to look like a kid.”

“Isn’t it enough that I received Christ and admitted I am a believer? Why should I get baptized?”

“I don’t like to be in front of people and have everyone looking at me?” (Hannah’s response: they are looking at Jesus, not you.)

“What if people judge me?”

Jesus was baptized to inaugurate and announce His ministry.

God’s proclamation over Jesus and the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus from the heavens is a picture of God publically approving Jesus and sending Him out on the mission He has came for.

Baptism is an inauguration of the beginning of our new life and new mission as believers in Jesus as well.

In Ephesians 4, Paul speaks about the unity we share in “one baptism”, showing the importance of baptism as a shared experience of the Church.

We are joined together by our baptism and sent out with a shared mission of making disciples.

Baptism represents the first step of obedience for a Christian.

Following in the footsteps of our Savior, we announce to the watching word that we have died to our old selves and have been born again to a new life in Christ Jesus.

There are all kinds of excuses we can come up with, but the Word of God is clear,

Repent and be baptized brothers and sister.

If you haven’t repented, I want to give you an opportunity right now.

If you have’t been baptized I want to challenge you to grab your phone and scan this QR code before you leav