Mat 3:5-10; Real Change Bears Real Fruit, Not Words Alone.

Class Outline:

Wednesday December 13, 2023

 

Theme: Temporary repentance is an arousal of emotions. Real repentance is a change of heart.

MAT 3:1-6

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." 3 For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,

"THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,

'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD,

MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!'"

4 Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan; 6 and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.

John’s baptism did not have the same meaning as the church’s water baptism.

ACT 19:1-4

It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. 2 He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." 3 And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism." 4 Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus."

Paul’s question, “Into what then were you baptized?” shows that the practice was common.

MAR 1:4

John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

 

ACT 19:5-7

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. 7 There were in all about twelve men.

 

John’s baptism was not the same as the church’s baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus. John’s baptism was a ritual cleansing performed when an Israelite repented of their sins.

Israel was to make their hearts ready to receive the Lord. This is not the first time that Israel was exhorted to repent. It was a common exhortation from the prophets to the people for centuries.

It would be good to pause here and review some Israel history in connection with the OT.

 

PSA 7:12

If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;

He has bent His bow and made it ready.

 

JER 5:3

They have made their faces harder than rock;

They have refused to repent.

 

EZE 14:6

'Thus says the Lord God, "Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations

 

The 12 minor prophets can be viewed as one Book of the 12. They were not put together in chronological order, and read together, they have a message, a thread, that seems purposeful. The last 3 prophets (Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi) of the 12 are the latest.

Then, miraculously, after the captivity, post-exilic Israel actually repented.

 

ZEC 1:3, 6

"Return to Me," declares the Lord of hosts, "that I may return to you," …  Then they repented …

 

This certainly would have been a joyous time in Judah. But it wouldn’t last.

MAL 1:6

 'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name.

 

MAL 2:17

You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied Him?" In that you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"

 

One wonders if the many who came to hear John and were baptized had a similar experience of “temporary repentance.”

John is the last, and according to the testimony of Jesus, the greatest of the prophets. And, in the same fashion that we discover in their history, Israel fails to repent.

It is right at the turning point, the central part of the Gospel of Matthew.

 

MAT 13:10-11

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.

 

And in like manner with the prophets before him, John plainly tells them that if they fail to repent (national) that judgment is coming.

 

MAT 3:7-10

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 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.

 

The question begs, were the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized?

The context makes fairly clear that they are not there to repent and be baptized by John. John has become such a popular nuisance that they were sent to see what was going on.

There is a good lesson for us in this. Jesus told us that we are blessed when we are persecuted for His name’s sake.

The world is going to seek out and persecute the truth.

If the truth comes from you (voice in the wilderness) they will eventually seek and persecute you.

John points out something that the Lord Jesus had to also disprove. It is the idea that if one was a child of Abraham then he would be saved from judgment.

John’s response is that God can make children of Abraham out of rocks. The implication is that man on his own, without God, which indeed means to be in opposition to God (no neutral ground) is no better off than a stone. Both will face fire, but the stone will not feel it. Man is worse off, for judgment does not come upon stones who cannot make choices.

True repentance exists as opposed to the temporary kind.

Temporary - the heart is not changed.

God seeks heart transformation, not behavior modification.

The judgment, that was so frequently the message of the prophets, is the message of the last prophet.

 

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.

 

Fruitlessness is one of the most prominent elements in Matthew’s emphasis on judgment.

MAT 7:15-20

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?  17 "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.  18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.  19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  20 "So then, you will know them by their fruits.

 

Faith in Christ would bring about another kind of baptism. Not an immersion and identification with water, but an immersion into God Himself. That is and always will be the most radical change that a person could experience yet.

Now that you are in the Spirit, in Christ, what will you do?