A Voice Crying in the Wilderness: Part 2 | Matthew 3:1-17

preparedness, preparing Israel to meet none other than the Lord, than God. Yahweh says

verse 3. But church, what was astounding was where we left it last week. And that was with

John proclaiming to the religious leaders of Israel that his ministry was only a foretaste

of what was to come when the kingdom of heaven had broken in. He symbolically washed people's

sin away with water, but as he said in verses 11 and 12, one would come after him who was

more powerful and he would baptize people with the Holy Spirit and fire. So that's where

we left it last week. We left it in the wilderness with a spiritual awakening and a rugged mountain

man preaching to the masses that they needed to repent, that they needed to come to God

himself, that they needed to put their trust in his mercy, that they needed to turn from

their ways of doing things and that they needed to be washed clean in the rivers of the Jordan

before they met their king who was bringing in his kingdom. So let's pick it up from these

verses and figure out what's happening here and see just why Jesus is indeed not only

the king of Israel, but the king of God's kingdom. Okay, so if you have your text in

front of you, let's look at chapter 3 verse 11. So this is John, the lone prophet in the

wilderness of Israel and he says, I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me

comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. Now the first

thing that needs to be said here is that all genuine prophets that have been sent of God

never go out of their way to point to themselves or to their own ministry. But as we see all

throughout scripture, they not only point away from themselves, but to the coming Messiah.

For example, take Daniel's prophecy of the son of man in Daniel 7. Here you have a well

educated and highly respected servant of the Babylonian royal house. And though he was

gifted in visions and interpretation of dreams, he preached to the Jews that there was one

who was coming in the clouds of heaven. Daniel then goes on to say of this son of man, as

he called him, that he approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He

was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language

worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom

is one that will never be destroyed. Do you hear that? You have one of the most influential

gifted prophets in the Old Testament age. Not just respected by the Jews, mind you,

but even by Gentile tyrants who were looking to him for advice. And who does he point to?

Well, he points away from himself and for all people to look for the coming messianic

kingdom, whose king will bring in a kingdom that will last forever and never be destroyed.

King David was the same. He was not only known as Israel's king, but called by the apostles

a prophet whom the Holy Spirit spoke through to the Jewish people. In the Psalter that

you have the king of Israel writing prolific poetry that the Israelites collected and they

would sing either in the temple in Jerusalem or on the Sabbath at synagogue. But listen

to these words of King David in Psalm 110. He writes, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at

my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will extend

your mighty scepter from Zion saying, rule in the midst of your enemies. Again, you hear

it here. You have one of the most influential men to ever live in the ancient world and

one of the most influential prophets that Israel ever knew. Who does he point people

to? Well, he's not talking about himself here. He's pointing the people of God to look out

for the coming Messiah who David said was his Lord.

Church, we get a bit of insight into this, why the prophets did this in Peter's first

letter to the church. He explains in chapter one verses 10 through to 12, saying the prophets

who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently and with the greatest

care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the spirit of Christ in them was

pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke

of the things that have now been told to you by those who have preached the gospel to you

by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Church, that's exactly what John was doing

in his ministry. Though incredibly influential and though seen as many as a candidate for

the Messiah, he spent his ministry out there in the wilderness, not pointing to himself

but preparing Israel for the kingdom of heaven by getting them ready to meet Jesus, their

long awaited Messiah, who John even confessed that he wasn't even good enough to be a slave

for. Now, what did the spirit of Christ in him

reveal? We see it in the rest of verses 11 and 12. He says that he, the Messiah, will

baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire and that his winnowing fork is in his hand

and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the

chaff with unquenchable fire. There's a couple of things that we need to

understand here to get what John is saying to the original people that he was preaching

to. First, the Messiah is going to baptize people with the Holy Spirit. Now, we have

to understand the gravity of just what John is saying here. He's saying that the Messiah

is going to pour the very Spirit of God on people. Now, why might that be hugely, hugely

significant? Because who on earth could ever imagine giving God's Spirit to people? Who

in their right mind could fathom telling God where he was to be and who he was to purify?

I mean, if that doesn't hit you right between the eyes, I don't know what will, but that's

John's revelation here of the Messiah. That's what he is saying here with the very Spirit

of Christ revealing this to him, mind you. He's saying that the Messiah would purify

people. That's what baptism symbolized here. We saw that last week. Not with water, but

with the very Spirit of God. That's the picture we're meant to see here.

That's a picture that John is giving to Israel when he says that the Messiah will baptize

people with the Spirit. He's saying that the Messiah will give the very Spirit of God to

people and those people will be purified before the living God. Now, with that said, John

isn't just pulling this from his own imagination, as we've seen, but he's heavily drawing on

all these promises that were given throughout the Old Testament about the Spirit of God

coming. For example, he would be poured on people. We see this in Joel 2 verses 28 to

Joel 2:28–29

29. He would change people's hearts, Ezekiel 36 26. He would circumcise people's hearts,

Deuteronomy 30 verse 6. He would give people a new heart that would love God's law, Jeremiah

Deuteronomy 30:6

31 33. In other words, it's when the Spirit of God is given to people, to you and to I,

that's when we were born again and made new creatures. That's what it is to be baptized

with the Spirit. It's to have Jesus pour the Spirit on us and transform our hearts and

purify us before the living God. And incredibly, that's what John is saying in our text here.

He's saying that this Messiah, this one to come, he will baptize you with the very Spirit

of God and fire. So second, this fire that's involved, this fire that we see here in verse

11 is somehow connected with the Spirit of God and that purifying picture that we have

in baptism. So that's a good thing, right? The Messiah is going to come and when he comes,

he's going to purify people from their sin by baptizing them with the very Spirit of

God and purify them with a spiritual fire that will make them clean because that's what

fire does. It purifies. I think we get a glimpse of this in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost

when the Spirit was poured out and tongues of fire seemed to appear over the faithful

in that incredible prayer meeting in the upper room. But hang on church, we mustn't forget

verse 12 because fire is talked about there as well but in very, very different terms.

You see, John is drawing on a very familiar picture here, a picture of a sermon example,

if you will, of a farming technique that was used in the ancient world. This picture would

have terrified people because farming was an incredibly popular occupation in this context.

They definitely would have got what he was saying here. You see, what would happen at

harvest time is that the wheat from the fields would be bought in and go through a process

called threshing. Now this happened by having oxen tread on the wheat which shook the wheat

free from the chaff. But there was a problem. It left the wheat in the same heap with the

chaff. So to separate it all, it had to be winnowed. And that was the process of getting

the wheat separated from the chaff in that same pile. And they did that by getting a

big fork and throwing it all in the air. The wheat which was heavier would fall straight

to the ground, but the chaff which was lighter would be blown to the side. Then it was collected

because it was good for nothing and thrown in the fire to be burnt.

Brothers and sisters, the picture is terrifying. If the winnowing fork is ready in the hand

of the Messiah as John said it was, then the process of separation was about to begin with

the kingdom of heaven breaking in. Those who believed in John's preaching would be met

with total and utter purification. But here's the terrifying thing. Those who rejected John's

message would be met by the Messiah with a fire that could never be quenched. That's

what's being said here. John is saying in no uncertain terms that the Messiah is coming

to separate those who repent and turn and trust in God for salvation and those who do

not. And he says those who do not repent will be met with a fire that will never go out.

All this to say, what you have here is this prophet who was preaching and preparing people

not only for the coming kingdom of heaven, but preparing people to meet the Messiah who

is clearly more than just a man. Now this was Yahweh incarnate. That's who we're looking

at here. The king of Israel, the one who was bringing in the kingdom of heaven is God himself.

And he will give his spirit to all those who put their trust in him and purify them from

their stain of sin. But all those who reject and don't turn to him will be met with unquenchable

fire of eternal judgment. That is who John is preparing Israel to meet. Her Messiah,

which was both glorious and terrifying simultaneously. So it's incredibly interesting what we read

here next in verses 13 and 14. We read then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be

baptized by John. But John tried to deter him saying, I need to be baptized by you and

you come to me. Okay, so it seems to be an obvious problem here because everything that

we've read and come to understand about baptism seems to be thrown on its head here, right?

I mean, baptism was about not trusting in your own righteousness and participating in

an outward sign of your trust in Yahweh and purification. But then Jesus comes on the

scene to do what? Well, we see it in verse 13. It's to be baptized by John. It's no wonder

that we see John react in the way he does in verse 14. You can imagine it. You have

this rugged mountain man with locust legs in his beard, probably with the shocked expression

on his face going, but I need to be baptized by you. Why are you coming to me? Well, admittedly,

on first reading, this can seem a bit confusing. But if we understand everything going on here,

it's actually incredible to see why Jesus came to be baptized by John. Now, we never

want to read scripture out of context, nor do we ever want to read scripture in a vacuum.

No, we have to remember where we have come from, where we've come from in this series

so far and remember what Matthew has clearly told us. You see, Jesus was conceived by the

Holy Spirit. And because he is, as Matthew affirmed, God with us, Emmanuel, there is

no need for us to think that Jesus had come to repent of sin. That's clearly not what's

happening here. John certainly got that as well. That's why he was trying to deter Jesus

and said he needed to be baptized by him. No, the text doesn't even imply that repentance

is on view here. But this still begs the question, why did Jesus come to be baptized? Well, we

see it in verse 15. In fact, Jesus explains it to us himself. He says, let it be so now.

It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. A couple of things to be

said here. See, by Jesus saying, let it be so now, he was saying to John, the time is

now. It's not later. And that God's will for the present time is for Jesus to begin his

public messianic ministry with John's baptism. Why? Well, in one sense, it was to publicly

endorse John's ministry and message and to approve what John had preached about the Messiah

and his mission. But I want to go a little further here. You see, Jesus says he came

to John to fulfill all righteousness. I have to confess, there is a lot of discussion over

what Jesus meant by that phrase, to fulfill all righteousness. But I want to say, and

I do want to say this, Jesus being baptized seems to be something that Jesus does so that

he is somewhat linked to us, his people. And I say that because what seems to be happening

here is what Isaiah said the Messiah would do in the 53rd chapter of his book, which

was that there would come a day where a servant would come and he would be numbered with the

transgressors, Isaiah 5312. That means in this baptism, Jesus wasn't coming to John

to be purified, but had come to be identified with his people. That's right. Jesus was baptized

because he was ultimately identifying with his people who are all transgressors. And

that is happening here in the Jordan by having the very water that symbolically washed their

sin away being symbolically poured onto him. Australian Bible scholar Leon Morris, he says

it like this, Jesus might well have been up there standing with John and calling on sinners

to repent, but instead he was down there with the sinners, the transgressors affirming his

solidarity with them, making himself one with them in the process of the salvation that

he would in due course accomplish. I know that's a lot, but with all of that said, Jesus

not only endorsed John's message and ministry and linked it to what he was going to fulfill

as the more powerful one, but he identifies with us sinners in our mess and with where

we are at. He is a merciful high priest. He really is as Isaiah said all those years ago,

well, he is God with us. John, he then consents and Jesus was baptized. We read on verses

16 and 17. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment,

the door was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting

on him. A voice from heaven said, this is my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased.

This is the picture that we have church. The son obeyed and the Spirit of God anointed

him and the father announced his son to the world. It's here that we see a very public

display of what Isaiah prophesied in the 61st chapter of his book where he said that the

Spirit of the Lord would be on him, the Messiah, the servant of God and he being God will anoint

him to preach the good news to the poor and bind the broken hearted and proclaim freedom

to the captives to set free the oppressed. That's why the Spirit of God was given to

Jesus by the father. It was for the messianic ministry that was about to take place on this

earth given to Israel's true king of Psalm 2 whose kingdom will never be destroyed as

Daniel said. Who will rule from the midst of his enemies as David prophesied. God's

very son who in a very public coronation received the very Spirit of God and was announced by

God the father as the one who was bringing in the very kingdom of heaven. So church what

we have here in our passage before us this morning is an incredible picture of the triune

God at work in human history. The father sent, the son obeyed and the Spirit anointed. Why?

Well it's as we have seen all throughout the gospel according to Matthew. God with us has

come to us to save us from our sins. And church Jesus came and obeyed in everything. He is

indeed the saviour of the world absolutely. But we must be clear on this this morning.

He is coming again. He is coming as the judge of the world and in his judgment there will

be wrath against sin. That's a picture that we see in this text. His winnowing fork is

in his hand the axe is laid at the roots of the tree and all those who don't repent who

dismiss the call of the kingdom will be met with an unquenchable fire. And church this

is the essence of the gospel and of the kingdom of heaven that we've seen this morning. Jesus

isn't just some hippie where it's all well so don't worry about it. No he's a king. He

is a righteous king who is wholly set against sin and we all, all of us in this room have

sin in our lives and deserve wrath and judgment and death. This is why we call Jesus Satan.

Why Matthew said of him that he is the one who will save people from their sin. Because

Jesus came all those years ago to take our place, to take our punishment and to take

the wrath that we all deserve on the cross. That's why Jesus came. Not to give good financial

advice, not to set a great example of a spiritual guru but to be crucified for our wickedness

for his people and to purify us with his spirit so that we might be saved from eternal punishment

and an unquenchable fire that is coming. That is good news church. That is good news for

all those who put their trust in Jesus. You have been purified before the living God and

your death sentence has been paid in full. So I have to say this brothers and sisters.

We must like John and the prophets before him have a similar witness in this world.

Not of wearing interesting clothes or doing weird and wonderful miracles but to be a voice

in our generation. To be a voice in the spiritual wilderness that is Australia. Not crying out

about our rights or about our wants or personal preferences with the way we want things done.

But to be a voice that proclaims Jesus is Lord. Jesus is saviour to the world. All the prophets

of God, all the people in the body of Christ, we are all called to point to Jesus because

he is what we are about. The world doesn't need to hear about a national leader, a specific

denomination or a political movement. The world needs to hear about Jesus and that is

because only Jesus, only Jesus saves people from their sin. The church has so many servants

but only one hero and it is before him that every knee shall bow and every tongue will

confess that he is Lord one day. As we saw in Psalm 2, some will do it to their joy but

others to their eternal shame. Might it be our testimony at this church in Armidale that

we are known to hold Christ high in our midst. Not with just what we say but with all that

we do. Would you pray with me?

My God we thank you so much for your word. We thank you that you have revealed to us

through your prophets the spirit of Christ in them revealing to us Christ. And we thank

you for the eternal gospel that has been preached to us. I thank you for your servants Father

that have gone into this world that have taken the commission seriously. For those that have

lost their lives, that have lost their property, have lost their people, sometimes their nation

to hold this message that we hear this morning to the world. I thank you for all those that

have faithfully proclaimed you to us here this morning. That you have worked through

them to save us from an unquenchable fire. Father would you use this church? Would you

use us in the way that you see fit to be a place that holds Christ high among us? Might

we not just talk about it but do it? Might we be a people that love you? We ask that

you would use us in Jesus name. Amen.