Mat 3:1-2; A Strange Place to Begin Something New.

Class Outline:

Tuesday December 5, 2023

 

The main theme of chapter 3 is the coming of the King and the kingdom in which ritual (baptism with water) is going to change to reality, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

Today we look at the wilderness as a place of trial and new beginnings.

 

MAT 3:1-2

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

 

John proclaimed and baptized in the wilderness. The “wilderness” is more than a location marker. The voice is the wilderness is a recurring prophetic theme.

 

ISA 40:3

A voice is calling,

“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;

Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”

 

It is the place of testing and of new beginnings.

 

ISA 40:10

Behold, the Lord God will come with might,

With His arm ruling for Him.

Behold, His reward is with Him

And His recompense before Him.

 

It was in the wilderness that the children of Israel, after the escape from Egypt, began its existence as a people of God. That experience, and the trials it brought, will be lived out by the Lord Jesus when He goes through His own wilderness testing. The hope of a new exodus then led the prophets to speak of the wilderness as a place of new beginnings.

 

JER 2:2

"I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth,

The love of your betrothals,

Your following after Me in the wilderness,

Through a land not sown.

 

Just after condemning Israel for her idolatry, God continues through the prophet to promise about the second coming of the Lord.

 

EZE 20:34-35

with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; 35 and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

 

God states multiple times through the prophet Isaiah that He is going to make the wilderness flower.

 

ISA 41:18-20

"I will open rivers on the bare heights

And springs in the midst of the valleys;

I will make the wilderness a pool of water

And the dry land fountains of water.

19 "I will put the cedar in the wilderness,

The acacia and the myrtle and the olive tree;

I will place the juniper in the desert

Together with the box tree and the cypress,

20 That they may see and recognize,

And consider and gain insight as well,

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

 

With the water also comes the pouring out of the Holy Spirit - a new beginning.

 

The wilderness is a place of testing and a place of beginnings.

What that beginning is depends on your response to the tests.

 

The application to believer’s today is that there are many, many new beginnings that God wants us to take. They are times of repentance in which we begin to live in ways we haven’t before - they are new. The pain of trial is the only way for us to see our need of repentance and our need to change. The change from God always leads to the maturity of Christ.

 

1CO 10:1-5

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.

 

There is pain in the wilderness. Even if it is the resistance of temptation, there is a level of pain to it.

 

1CO 10:11-13

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

 

Paul is in no way saying that God is going to give you only tests that you will pass. God is faithful to give you the life that He has given you. Every wilderness experience you have, meaning every pain and every temptation, He has provided the way of endurance.

 

Hence, James told us to rejoice in them.

 

JAM 1:2-4

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

The testing that John the Baptist’s beginning will bring to the Jews is that the time for repentance can no longer be put off. The time is now.

 

Repentance has a level of pain.

(Which is why people don’t and those who know they should, put it off.)

 

HOS 12:6

Therefore, return to your God,

Observe kindness and justice,

And wait for your God continually.

 

MAT 3:1-2

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  

 

Repent (present imperative) = a complete change of attitude, spiritual and moral, towards God.

 

The reason is given, and it is an amazing thing to the Jews at the time - the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.

 

“is at hand” - eggizo = perfect indicative. It has drawn near and is still near.

The kingdom is near because the King is on the earth.

 

This same verb in the same perfect tense is used at the end of Matthew.

 

MAT 26:45-46

Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 "Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"

 

The kingdom was at hand and how did the people respond? Betrayal drew near.

 

John the Baptist further emphasized the presence of the kingdom and the immediacy of the need to repent in 3:10.

 

MAT 3:10

“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.”

 

Application:

Don’t fear the wilderness. Endurance will open your eyes to a beginning.

 

What areas do you still need repentance in? What do you need to confess to God in all honesty?

 

Let the word of God examine you.

Let the Holy Spirit examine you and pray for clarity.

Do not fear the wilderness.

Do not fear the pain of resisting temptation.