The Glory Revealed

Matthew 3

Good morning, church family and visitors!

I am so blessed and excited about our passage this morning! I have been looking forward to this passage for a while and here we are!

Matthew chapter 3! We are still in our prepare the way mini series about those who went before King Jesus launches His earthly ministry!

We talked about the men and women in Jesus’ genealogy that prepared the way.

We talked about Joseph, God’s chosen defender of baby Jesus.

This week, we are look at the the ministry of John the Baptist and the passage of scripture that our sermon title actually comes from, Prepare the way of the Lord.

Without further ado, let’s pray and dive in.

Let’s break it down section by section.

Vs 1-6 JB and his ministry

Matthew 3:1–6 ESV

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ” Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

John the Baptist, further called JB in this sermon, is the son of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth. He was about 6 months older that Jesus.

JB’s miraculous birth is recorded in Luke 1 and 2. It was a miracle in itself!

Vs 4 tells us that he wore a garment of camel’s hair and had a leather belt.

Can you picture that? I think he stood out as different!

He preached and lived in the wilderness in Judea.

His diet, I’m sorry to say, probably was not locust the insect. But locust, the pods from a honey locust tree that is native to a long of different regions and has been a stable of even native American diet years ago.

The pods tastes like honey.

So, here is this hairy man, living out in the desert hopped up on a ton of sugar!

But more important that what he looked like is what his mission was. His purpose in life was to prepare the way in the lives of the Jewish people for the coming of the Messiah.

Vs 3 references, hopefully a familiar verse! And one of the reasons I have been so excited to present this message.

Verse 3 quotes the passage of scripture that we have been praying every day at 8pm since the beginning of April.

Turn with me over to Isaiah 40:3-5, and let’s read it out loud together. We have been praying the last verse together every night, so let’s read it together!

Isaiah 40:3–5 ESV

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Keep a finger there, because we will be referencing it throughout the message today.

This is a prophecy about JB and his mission to prepare the way for the glory of the Lord to be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

But verse 3 and 4 explain how he is going to do that.

Check this out, I believe that this passage is fulfilled in Matthew 3 and it teaches us a lesson for us today as well!

Watch this,

JB’s message is in vs 2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Like a herold running before an arriving King, JB goes before Jesus and tells the people, “You better shape up! the King and His kingdom is arriving!”

The preparation that he tells them to do is to repent.

The best way that I can explain repentance is this,

Repentance is confession, contrition and conversion.

Vs 6 tells us that the people were confessing their sins.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

But its more than just admitting you have sinned, you must feel sorrow for your sins. Confession without contrition is cheap grace. We can not be flippant with out confession!

David, after Bathsheba, wrote

Psalm 32:3–5 “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

Confession with contrition must be accompanied by a conversion. A turning away from the former way of doing things. To turn away from sin and turn towards Jesus and what is right.

Confession, contrition and conversion are necessary for Godly repentance.

JB was teaching repentance and baptizing them as an outward sign of the change with in.

Now, baptism was not a common practice in the Jewish culture. The priest would immerse themselves in water as a part of their ritual washing before entering into the holiest of Holies. It was a sign of the cleansing of their sins before they entered into the presence of the Lord.

The only other baptism in the OT was when a Gentile wanted to convert to Judaism, they would have to be baptized as an outward sign of their conversion to the Jewish faith and to the worship of Yahweh.

In Vs 6, we see that JB was leading the people to confess their sins, feeling remorse for their sins and baptizing them as a sign of conversion, or turn away from that sin.

JB is fulfilling the first part of Isaiah!

He is making a straight path in the desert for the Lord to move in the lives of people and repentance is that path!

Now, we are going to see him play this out the rest of the way.

Vs 7-10 The highs and the lows

Matthew 3:7–10 ESV

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Okay, so here is the introduction to two main groups that will constantly face off with JB and Jesus. They will eventually lead to Jesus’ death.

So, a little background on these two groups.

They were both not in the picture in Malachi. They both sprung up and rose to power during the intertestamental period. Right around 165 BC when Alexander the Great from Greece swept through and conquered most of the known earth.

With him, he brought the Greek culture and philosophy. He brought polytheism, the worship of multiple God. And with that, a completely different set of moral values that did not align with the Mosaic Law.

The Pharisees, orginally known as the Chasidim, rose up and staunchly defended the Torah and strict adherence to the Law. They rejected any and all compromise with the Jewish law and the Greek culture. They stood strong to defend the law handed to them by Moses.

They were mostly middle class people that lead the local synagogs during the intertestamental period. They were routinely persecuted and murdered for standing firm and resisting bending to the culture of the day.

During the 400 years, they started adding to the Torah, additional rabbinic teaching and moral rules. They started to view their additional rules and teachings as equally important to the Torah and in many cases, they began to ignore the teachings of the Torah in favor of their additional rules and teachings.

They believed that you could keep the Torah AND all of their additional teachings perfectly and could earn eternal life. They believed it was possible to be good enough.

Now, the Sadducees took a different route to power. First, they were wealthy powerful leaders in the Jewish society. So, they took the route of compromise with the culture and those who conquered them. First, the Greeks and then the Romans. They thought that the best route was to conform to the current culture and there was a place of mixing the two that could work.

They only held to the Torah and rejected the additional teachings of the Pharisees. They did not believe in the soul, heaven or hell, miracles or angels and demons. And because they rejected all things supernatural or spiritual, they rejected the teaching and belief of the resurrection from the dead.

They were power people that was in league with the current leaders and were actually chosen by them. The high priest that Jesus interacts with, the Annas and Ceiephas families, were put into power by the Herods.

So, we have the religious elites in power and they don’t like each other but they will absolutely partner up against anything that goes against both of their positions and opinions!

So, you get this hairy guy in the wilderness, accumulating a following of regular people and baptizing them like they are Gentiles or priests and of course, they are going to have a problem with all of that!

These people were not priest like the Sadducees and they are Jews! They don’t need to convert to worshipping Yahweh, they were Jews! So, the Pharisees were made because this guy is teaching things that are not in the Torah or their additional laws.

So, they come out not to be baptized but to criticize.

And JB hits them right with it.

He called them the offspring of vipers.

They taught that because they were Jews, they were good!

He tells them it doesn’t matter if they are descendants of Abraham because they have become descendants of satan.

JB’s message is that we are ALL outsiders in need of the coming King!

He is saying that it is not about family heritage, birthright or the location of your birth. It is about the coming King opening the Kingdom of heaven and He is going to be the pathway to God!

He says God can turn even those with hearts of stone into children of God!

He is fulfilling Isaiah and bringing down those who thought of themselves in high places.

He tells them that they need to repent and turn away from their sins.

And his warning is the same as Jesus’ in Matthew 7, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

He is bring down those in high places.

Luke’s account of JB adds this part.

Luke 3:10–14 “And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.””

JB also fulfills Isaiah by raising up those in the valleys to a place that says, “You, even you, can be accepted into the Kingdom. Those religious leaders want to keep you down, but Jesus wants to lift you up!”

The divide between the classes had never been this bad.

The social structure of that day is the Pharisees and Sadducees saw themselves way up here! While pushing laws and regulations that could never be met on everyone down here!

JB confronts this. Jesus confronts this! The gospel confronts this!

In order to come to saving knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ, those who think highly of themselves, think they can be good enough, or can earn apart from Christ must be brought down and humbled!

And those who think they are too far gone, sinned too much, hurt too many people, the outcast of the church, must be brought up the level that they believe that God’s love is poured out for them and true, forgetful forgiveness is available to them through Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is the great equalizer!

The Lord desires to reveal His glory to all mankind but preparation must be made first!

In the dry and weary world, repentance is a highway to God.

Those that are lowly and broken need to be lifted up!

Those who are high and arrogant need to be humbled.

The highway to the Lord is not rough, overly complicated, or broken up by man-made rules or laws.

The highway to the Lord is smooth and easy. All of us are equal on this highway. All of us are equally in need of a Savior!

JB’s word try to bring down the high and arrogant Pharisee and Sadducees.

Isaiah 57:14–15 “And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Repentance is pathway for the revelation of God's presence and glory!

Vs 11-12 Jesus brings salvation and judgement

Matthew 3:11–12 ESV

“I baptize you with water for 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. His winnowing fork 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 unquenchable fire.”

Baptism is an outward expression of an inward change. That is the simplified way of explaining baptism.

The Bible tells us that in order to receive Christ, we must repent, confess, feel contrition, and covert or turn away from the former life.

We must die to ourselves and pick up our cross and be crucified with Christ. Meaning, we must turn away from the sinful paths of life and commit ourselves to pursuing Christ and Christlikeness for the rest of our lives.

So, when we are baptized, we are buried with Christ and are raised to walk in the newness of life.

We are putting your faith in Jesus’ death to pay the penalty for your sins and believing that just the same as He was resurrected from the dead, so will we!

It is a sign that says “I was an outsider of God’s family. But now, I am converting and joining the family of those who worship Yahweh!”

But JB humbly admits that he is not the Messiah and his baptism is for repentance but it is not the same as Jesus’ baptism to come!

He says, Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

First, when you repent and put your faith and trust in Jesus as you personally Lord and Savior, you are baptized or immersed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit!

This was brand new but prophecied by Ezekiel and Isaiah.

So, JB was announcing that salvation was coming from the King! But with salvation, Jesus brings judgement.

Salvation and judgement are two sides of the same coin.

How can there be salvation when there is nothing that we need to be saved from?

When we receive Christ are we saved from our sins? Yes, Jesus’ blood and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to defeat sin!

When we receive Christ are we saved from the old sinful creation? Yes! We are made a new creation in Christ Jesus!

But neither one of those are primarily what Jesus’ death on the cross saved us from!

The primary thing that Jesus saved us from is the perfect, judgement of God, and the consequences of sin consumed by the holy wrath of God!

We are saved from the death that we so rightfully deserve, dealt on us by the hand of the just God!

And the Kingdom of heaven brings both! Jesus brings both!

One day, He will return and gather His children to Himself. But the rest of the people and the rest of the world will undergo a baptism of fire. A cleansing of all things sinful and all sinful people that did not accept the King’s offer of salvation.

Matthew 3:12 “His winnowing fork 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 unquenchable fire.””

The gospel is the great equalizer.

We are all in need of salvation from the judgement and death that we all deserve.

But we must receive the King’s invitation of salvation.

Vs 13-17 The Glory Revealed!

Matthew 3:13–17 ESV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus comes to His cousin John and asked to be baptized.

John rightfully recognizes the perfect Lamb that comes to take away the sins of the world does NOT need to be baptized to repent of His sins because He is perfect!

But Jesus says, Matthew 3:15 “But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.”

So, why was Jesus baptized?

First of all, as an example to us. He says its the right thing to do. For a believer to be baptized is supposed to be the first act of obedience because Jesus said it was the right thing to do!

Second reason, could be to show what His life was going to accomplish.

Jesus is going to be offered as an offering on the alter of God for the forgiveness of sins. (interestingly enough, JB was from the tribe of Levite. So, it was fitting for him to baptize Jesus since they made the sacrifices on the alter.)

Jesus was going to die, be buried in the grave and on the third day be resurrected from the dead.

He could have been showing what His life was going to accomplish!

But the third reason for Jesus to be baptized was probably also to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 40.

Here we have it! When Jesus was baptized and came up from the water, the heaven were opened!

I don’t know what that looked like but I bet it was glorious!! Or full of glory!

And you see this glorious sight of the Holy Spirit like a dove descending and resting of Jesus!

And then you hear this awesome and awe-full voice of the Father speaking in all of His glory,

“This is my Son with whom I am well pleased!”

The full glorious trinity on display for all flesh to see together and the mouth of the Lord speaking for all to hear!

This revelation of Jesus as a person in the trinity of God IS THE revelation of the glory of God prophecied in Isaiah!

The heavens opening and the full display of the trinity is the revelation of God’s glory!

When we proclaim the gospel, we are echoing the glorious words of the Father! Jesus is the Son of God! The Messiah! The perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

The Gospel is more powerful that we can even imagine!

Paul said he couldn’t preach well but he brought the Gospel and its power was manifested in the NT church!

Jesus said that proclamation of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the Living God would be the foundation that the church would stand on and assault the gates of hell as we pluck people out of the grasp of hell!

And the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the glory of God that we have been praying for every day for months that would shine bright in this church and in our city!

Church, can someone say praise God!

But the pathway to the Gospel, to revelation of God’s glory in His Son is repentance.

Everyone close your eyes for minute.

Recap:

Repentance is confession, contrition, and conversion.

The Gospel is the great equalizer.

Think too highly of yourself, you need to humble yourself and admit that you are a sinner and can’t accomplish this on your own.

Do you hear a message like this and think, but you don’t know what I have done and who I am.

You have accomplished the first part. Admitting that you have sinned. Now let Jesus lift you up to believe that His love for you surpasses your past and even if you think you are too far gone, we are all equally in need of a Savior.

Share the Gospel

In the passage is the Gospel plainly spelled out.

Repent and confess.

Be buried with Christ. Dying and renouncing your old self.

Like Gentiles before, you were an outside. But now you are choosing to worship Yahweh, the God is Israel.

Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Be raised to walk in newness and unity with Christ

Adopted into the family of God

Indwelling with the Holy Spirit

Share about believers feeling distant or a desperation for the glory of God to be revealed in your life or circumstances.

Repentance is the pathway to the glory of God.