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Today we want to look at the baptizing ministry of John the Baptist.
This is the New Testament origin of Christian baptism.
Today we begin our series with the baptizing ministry of John the Baptist.
This is the New Testament origin of Christian baptism.
There is a close continuity between Christian Baptism and John’s baptism.
John began baptizing, Jesus continued baptizing, and he commanded the church to keep on with the practice: though now the act would be done in his name.
So there are crucial things to learn about baptism from the baptism of John.
There is a close continuity between Christian Baptism and John’s baptism.
John began baptizing, Jesus continued baptizing, and He commanded the church to keep on with the practice:
though now the act would be done in His name and the Name of the Father and the Holy Spirit.
So there are crucial things to learn about baptism from the baptism of John.
The most important thing to learn is that when a Jewish person received John’s baptism,
it was a radical act of individual commitment to belong to the true people of God,
based on personal confession and repentance, NOT on corporate identity with Israel through birth.
This is one of the main reasons I am a Baptist, that is,
this is one of the main reasons that I do not believe in baptizing infants, who cannot make this personal commitment or confession or repentance.
John’s baptism was an assault on the very assumptions that give rise to much infant baptism.
So in chapters 1-2, known as the prologue, Matthew introduced us to the subject of his gospel:
Jesus is the promised King.
Now he describes how the King’s coming was announced by John the Baptist and Jesus Himself.
He explains the response that was required, repentance (3:2; 4:17),
and then expounds the nature of the kingdom that has come near: righteousness (6:33).
So, right at the beginning of the Gospel, we are told that this cannot be just another intellectual enquiry.
King Jesus demands a response.
You and I must be prepared to treat this as a matter of the utmost seriousness.
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of John the Baptist.
All four Gospels record his ministry.
He was, says Jesus, a prophet, but ‘more than a prophet’ (11:9).
He was the appointed herald and forerunner of the King.
Indeed, of him Jesus asserted: ‘I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet’,
he adds significantly, ‘he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he’ (11:11).
Let’s look first of all to 1. GOD’S MAN.
v1.
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
vv3-4 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!
Now John had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
The Bible calls John “a voice” in the wilderness.
Such a voice, speaking so far from the centers of civilization, might have gone unheeded, except that
the Spirit was stirring the people of God and preparing them for the Christ.
John (v3) “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!”
John’s food and clothing signified a poverty, a rigidness, and a seriousness.
“John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist.
His food was locusts and wild honey” (3:4).
The garb evokes Elijah, another prophet called by God to declare judgment on Israel (cf. ).
His location: the desert.
From the wilderness came the voice of a prophet, a prophet all the more striking
since there had been no prophet in Israel for four hundred years.
John preached far from the temple—the center of organized religion—and far from civilization.
The desert location reminds us of the wilderness
where the people of Israel wandered after they left Egypt and where God purged Israel of her sin.
There he fashioned the people into his holy nation.
Everything about John was startling:
his sudden emergence,
manner of dress,
choice of food,
preaching, and baptizing.
Luke covers the entire period between John’s birth and the beginning of his ministry in
Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001).
Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (Vol.
9, p. 196).
Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
The child grew up and became spiritually strong, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
God’s man in the wilderness had a message.
2. GOD’S MESSAGE.
VV3-4 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
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!
His burden: “Repent for the kingdom is near.”
This statement implies two things.
First, there is a kingdom that people need to enter.
Apparently they are presently outside it; they are in some sense lost or estranged.
Second, to enter this kingdom repentance is necessary.
Yarbrough, R. W. (2013).
Sin in the Gospels, Acts, and Hebrews to Revelation.
In C. W. Morgan & R. A. Peterson (Eds.),
Fallen: A Theology of Sin (p.
85).
Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
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