Matthew 3 The King has come

I don’t know about you but I loved a good fantasy book as a child. The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings were my favorite. Now I have to admit I just follow the narrative the story and I don’t catch the finer points of foreshadowing and character development. I tend to leave those things to Bob Bowker.

However, I notice that...

In Matthew, Jesus is the King of the Jews.

Matthew 27:37 And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS

We have seen it so far in the last two weeks, In chapter 1 we get Jesus line. Starting with Abraham and going the line of David. proving to everyone who reads the book that Jesus is king of the Jews and that He has the right the authority to that title. It is very important that we see that in this book. In Chapter 2 we see the birth of a king, the wise men from the east coming with gifts. The star that announced His birth and the miraculous dreams that spared him from the wrath of wicked king Herod. Chapter 3 is no exception. In this chapter, we see the King get His herald, His commission, and coronation. And chapter 4 will continue that theme. That list wasn’t original with me I took that from Dr John Macarthur. But the point is through this whole entire book you see the developing theme. Jesus is the King So lets begin...

The herald of our King arrives.

Matthew 3:1–2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

A herald is someone who preceded a monarch announcing his arrival and John the Baptist fills that role.

Repentance is a radical change of mind and action.

Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

I think every time I face the thought concept of repentance it grows on me. Repent is not remorse, it is more than changing your mind. It is a radical change from the inside out. If you repent you are different and everyone notices.

The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

The phrase maranatha means come LORD quickly. When Jesus says the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, this is a phrase that is unique to the book of Matthew. It refers to God’s dominion over His people. If we have accepted Jesus Christ. We are a part of the kingdom of heaven.

I hope that you are already a part of God’s kingdom, if not God is holding out His hand right now to you, all you have to do is accept God’s free gift, it’s right there near close at hand.…

John the Baptist is the prophesied herald.

Matthew 3:3–6 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ ” Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

I just find the way this books weaves together in perfect harmony and Jesus fulfilling all the prophecies as amazing! Without a shadow of a doubt. Prophecy verifies that Jesus is God. Your choice is weather you will believe the evidence or not.

John the Baptist is the herald of the King.

Isaiah 40:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40:10 Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.

I love Isaiah 40. It is a wonderful passage of scripture. One entire year my students read it every day before the school day. It is an amazing chapter of scripture.

John the Baptist came in the Spirit of Elijah.

Malachi 4:5–6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Elijah was a wild man a mountain man who is figure head of the prophetic world and it is important for us to know that John the Baptist came as a herald in the manner of Elijah, that fits because he is not what you would expect but he is the perfect man for the role.

When I think about Jesus the king I think back to the CS Lewis the Chronicles of Narnia and this fits everything that we are going to learn about Jesus the King of the Jews, Susan is speaking to Mr Beaver if Aslan the lion is tame or safe? Mr Beaver responds...

Safe?.. who said anything about safe? But he’s good, He’s the king, I tell you!

That describes the Jesus that we are going to be introduced to and he has such an appropriate herald.

Some people were baptized before Jesus died on the cross.

Leviticus 15:13 And when he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in running water; then he shall be clean.

So, I find this interesting. Where did Baptism come from, why do we do it? I believe that this chapter is going to help us understand it a lot more.

So I picture these people flocking to the Jordan river. They weren’t baptized in death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ like the people that were baptized in our church just a couple of weeks ago.

If you search baptism in the Old Testament you will find Israel crossing the red sea the jordan river Those were a type of baptism according to Paul but different, namman with elisha. But those aren’t baptism. What I have written about above is the mikveh. The ritual washing for purification written about a few times in the book of Leviticus. It closely looks like what we would consider baptism. bathe his body in running water. These people were baptised to confessing their sins saying that they wanted to be purified and that were repenting and a new person radically changed.

John condemns the religious.

Matthew 3:7 But 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 wrath to come?”

Brood of Vipers! Sounds like seed of the serpent in the garden if you ask me. These people thought that they were good before God, because they were religious but God new their heart

You will be known by your fruit.

Matthew 3:8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,

Remember Galatians: You can’t be saved by works. Hypocrites are the ones trying to earn their salvation. Galatians ends with the fruit of the spirit. Fruit of the Spirit doesn’t save you, but when you repent, their is a radical change. I know some people here that have undergone that radical transformation. I want to have a time soon when we will have a testimony night in which people talk about their experience with transformation. I prayed to God and I gave up that alchohol. Those drugs were gone, my mouth was cleaned up. The fruit of the spirit took it’s place.

Don’t be a dead tree.

Matthew 3:9–10 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I warn about this all the time. These people thought that they were good before God because they were jews. Therefore they would God’s children, no matter what their wicked heart looked like. John says not so. If you are not a fruit of the spirit yielding tree, you are worthy of having that axe laid to the roots chopped down and thrown into the fire. My greatest fear! I know as Christians we are to fear not, but even Paul had this fear. That I would get to heaven and someone sitting here was not saved. They sat hear week after week but never surrendered to the Savior. I preached on this on August 18th in the book of Galatians that was two months ago. But this has to come out hear. What kind of tree are you. I beg you don’t be a tree only good for firewood.

Jesus is commissioned as King.

Matthew 3:11–12 I indeed baptize you with water unto 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 fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The word commission - giving someone a job to do and empowering them to do it.

It’s etymology is CO MISSION - A mission done together. We usually think of the great commission from the end of the book. To go into all the world with the gospel and I am with you always. We aren’t alone on that mission and God gives us the power to do it. Jesus mission as Messiah the king of king given by the herald, His mission to be completed as He does the will of the father.

To be great!

To bring real baptism

To Bring the Holy Spirit

To separate the wheat from the chaff

We all know Jesus Saves, but is Jesus safe?

Revelation 5:5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”

Go back to that quote from CS Lewis. Is He safe? No not safe, He is good, but He deserves all the respect in the world. The same Jesus who saves, who we are baptized in that brought us the gift of the Holy Spirit is the same one I would not want to see face to face if I didn’t know Him as my personal Savior. I said this once. I would rather stand before any judge on this earth guilty of crime than stand before God without my sins forgiven. Jesus is good? AMEN! JESUS is GOD! AMEN! JESUS SAVES! AMEN! But if you don’t know Him He isn’t safe? Have you repented from your sins? A radical change because you have believed in Jesus as your Savior and you have the fruit of the Spirit that changes your life.

The Humble Herald is given a job.

Matthew 3:13–14 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

Imagine you were called today! Bill, you here have the job of running the secret service detail of the President. Is Bill, any of them qualified to do the job? NO could he fake it, Sure! How would he react. Yep they want me to run secret service. We need to be like John the Baptist, he always said...

Jesus is #1, and I am #2.

John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

That is a quote from John the Baptist. I could quote other places. But his attitude was I am not worthy. That’s true. I am not worthy to be behind the pulpit, you are not worthy to be in that pew. We are not worthy to come before the throne in prayer, but still He says come!!!

The Humble Herald is obedient to the King!

Matthew 3:15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

You can learn a lot from John the Baptist on how to be a good Christian. John the Baptist was humble and he obeyed. That is what God wants from all of us. Be humble and obey. But that isn’t just some willy nilly idea from a God that wants to keep you down.

Jesus is the ultimate example of humility and obedience.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

When Jesus came to earth. He had to humble Himself. It would have been easy for Jesus to sit on the throne of heaven! But Jesus is the King of Kings and even though it was a step down, when the Father said go be the King of the Jews, Jesus said, ok! I will obey. We need to have the same attitude be humble and obey.

The Coronation of our King was beautiful!

Matthew 3:16–17 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

This is the climax of the first three chapters. The Trinity on full display as Jesus is baptised Why was Jesus baptised. Well He was being humble and obedient identifying Himself with us sinners. Just like Baptism is us identifying with Christ.

Christ baptism pictured His eventual death, burial, resurrection.

Luke 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!

I don’t know if you have been baptized if you were baptized because your parents told you, you had to!

Baptism doesn’t save you . No work of righteousness does. BUT Baptism is important

First… It symbolizes the washing of regeneration.

It origins come from Leviticus, washing away the stain of uncleaness. It symbolizes the cleansing of sin from our heart.

Baptism happens after repentance. Repentance is a radical change. Baptism says that I am radically different because of Jesus I am no longer a sinner or a hypocrite. I am a life that is changed.

It identifies us with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. We believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. And finally we do it because we are obedient.

Get saved and Be Baptised, Yes it is a humbling thing to get in the water and get dunked, but it is an act of obedience and humility. Some people think that is kids stuff. No it’s Kingly noble it is what Christ did for us.

Every time I have a baptism I want to be baptized again. I don’t know, can we do that? I LOVE JESUS and if He says be baptised, I am going to be baptised.

So you if you haven’t been saved, be SAVED and if you haven’t been baptised be like Christ like John the Baptist. Humble and Obey