John the Baptist and Judgment Matthew 3:1-12
The Times group in the United States conducted a survey revealing that four out of five Americans think ‘we will all be called before God at judgment day to answer for our sins.’ This is significant but more important is the fact that Jesus has described this as an absolute certainty.
The judgment of God should be a terrifying prospect.
This is the message that John the Baptist reminded his hearers of in his preaching. His message was a forceful one yet thousands travelled many miles to listen to him.
Jesus later boldly talked about John the Baptist, his cousin, in glowing terms, even though he had been beheaded by Herod Antipas:
“ . . . no-one greater.” Matthew 11:11
It was John the Baptist who reminded people to see themselves as God sees them and not to look at themselves from a human perspective. Jesus said:
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it.” Matthew 11:12
God’s message to us is not sweet and comfortable – it is robust. It demands radical changes in our lives. To become a Christian requires courage, vigour and determination.
In the Desert
This passage begins with John preaching in ‘the desert of Judea’ (v.1), It is an interesting stress. Jesus later made this same emphasis about the environment John was preaching in,
“What did you go out into the desert to see?” Matthew 11:7
It is possible that this emphasis alludes to the spiritual state of the Jewish people at this time. In a similar way we read that Nicodemus came to Jesus ‘at night’, which suggests that he was ‘in the dark’ spiritually. This stress on ‘the desert’ does suggest a spiritual dryness which is why there was no spiritual fruit.
Matthew summarises John the Baptist’s ministry with the words:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 3:2
The statement about God’s kingdom would have been shocking to many as they thought that, because they were Jews, they were already in God’s Kingdom. John is saying that two steps are essential if anyone is to be accepted by God into his kingdom. There needs to be a Saviour and we must all repent. This is a timeless message that is the emphasis of the whole Bible. There is a condition if God is going to save us.
This message still needs to be widely proclaimed. Hardly any turn back to God just through seeing the behaviour of God’s people – they also need to hear the message about how they can also become members of God’s chosen people. Many today are in a spiritual desert.
Isaiah’s message
John the Baptist’s message was not new but was the same as that of Isaiah the prophet, who had lived around 700 years earlier. Matthew says about John:
“This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”” Matthew 3:3
It is interesting that Isaiah has 66 chapters – the same as the number of books in the Bible. Isaiah is divided into three sections. Chapters 1 to 35 major on God’s judgment that is coming both on those who claimed to be his people but also on other nations. There are some glimpses of the mercy that God wants to show and the need that we have for God’s grace but the terrible denunciation of God’s people is central. Isaiah himself, like John the Baptist, was chosen by God and commissioned to warn people but also to give them hope.
Isaiah chapter 36 to 39 gives a historic description of the dealings with Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, and the reasons for God’s judgment. Chapter 39 completes the first half of Isaiah. Chapter 40 starts the second half of Isaiah.
Interestingly the 40th book in the Bible is Matthew. Matthew, like Isaiah 40 starts with a description of the Messiah’s forerunner.
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for. . . A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” Isaiah 40:1-3
Isaiah’s message is the same as that of John the Baptist’s. People are in a desert, they must ‘repent’ and ‘make way for the Lord’.. They must each make a spiritual u-turn and enter into a personal relation with the Lord as their Lord and then live as he requires. The motif at the beginning of this article depicts this u-turn of repentance that is essential for any to be admitted into God’s kingdom.
From Isaiah chapter 42 on we learn about the Lord’s Messiah and includes the four ‘Servant Songs’ that tell us so much about him and how he will die as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of his people. The first servant song begins:
““Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.” Isaiah 42:1
God’s Messiah will have a universal following!
John the Baptist’s message
John message is the same as that of Isaiah and it was just as boldly proclaimed. God’s kingdom is near. The king is going to be enthroned and ‘lifted high’. In order that people may be part of this kingdom they must repent and recognise the rule of the king. Now a new age was beginning, a new movement, which is much more than a system, it is a new life in which members of the kingdom live in personal harmony with the king.
John himself was an earnest man, he was not a religious dabbler who was in it for himself. Everything about him shouted that he really meant what he said and the way he lived demonstrated this. He was not self indulgent. It was his decision to dress like Elijah and other Old Testament prophets and he ate simply, cooked locusts and wild honey. Locusts were a clean food (Leviticus 11:21-22). Everyone could see that he was genuine - a sincere follower of God. John had been born into the priesthood so had been destined to be a priest but he realised that teaching people was more important than serving in the temple so he became a preacher of God’s Word – a prophet, the first prophet for 400 years.
His message was simple:
1. Repentance is vital
2. Jesus is God’s Messiah
There is something attractive about John’s passion. He was clearly an earnest sincere man. Something wonderful was going on. People were saying to others, ‘Come and see this man and hear what he has to say.’ People travelled for miles to hear his message. Even the religious leaders came to hear him.
The Pharisees were ritualists – they did believe in the supernatural but expressed this belief in ritual.
The Sadducees were rationalists – they were more interested in politics, in controlling people in this world, in the here and now. They didn't believe in angels, spirit or a resurrection.
Note how uncompromising John is when he speaks with these false teachers. They claimed to be leaders of God people but repentance to God was not an emphasis of their message. John warns them in a very direct way;
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Matthew 3:7-8
Repentance is vital
Being religious, going to church, being a church leader will be no use if we haven't committed our lives to live for God. How often this is emphasised in Scripture. At the end of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself stresses this point:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
The Jews, like many religious people, thought they were eternally saved because they were members of a select group, they were, after all the physical descendants of Abraham. What they had failed to understand was that there must be a personal repentance, a personal commitment to trust and obey the Saviour of the world if any are to be accepted by God.
Paul emphasised that it is only a personal faith that admits anyone into the kingdom of God:
“Understand then that those who believe (that is in Jesus) are children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7
I remember meeting a young man and his four sisters in a Mall in Bandung, Indonesia. The girls were all wearing hijabs, indicating that they were a Muslim family. We got talking and I showed them a conjuring trick with rubber bands which teaches that there is only one way to be forgiven our sin. I reminded them that in the Qur’an, Jesus is mentioned ninety-three times, often being described as the Messiah and Saviour. His reply was not unexpected,
“We’ll be alright because we are Muslims.”
We then got onto discussing the atrocities committed ISIS and people like Jihadi John, who had murdered some captives. He explained:
“They were not true Muslims. You see there are seventy-two branches of Islam and only one of those is going to be saved.”
I asked him which group he was in.
“I’m in the group that are going to be saved!”
He hadn’t grasped that salvation is personal. John the Baptist warns religious people that God’s judgment is coming on them because ‘the fruit’ God requires is not being produced:
“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Matthew 3:8
In the Bible the analogy of ‘fruit’ has several meanings that overlap. John is using the tern to mean a life centred on living as God wants. In John chapter 15 Jesus teaches that the branches of the vine tree, representing himself, that do not produce good fruit will be lopped off and other branches grafted in. He goes on to explain that this fruit includes helping others to become his followers by telling people about him. Jesus said to his disciples:
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” John 15:16
He explains how this fruit will come about:
“You also must testify.” John 7:27
The fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22 is all about gifts that help relationships. It is these gifts that will build a strong church and will also help draw others to Christ.
Sham Christians are a disaster, they drive people away from the Lord Jesus.
Baptism, in John’s time, as today, was not easy. It is a public declaration of the new path a person is embarking on, a public statement about repentance but it is only a public picture. What matters is the underlying mindset that is behind the act.
Man’s role in his salvation starts with repentance.
A Saviour is vital
Repentance is like the key that starts a car. The key can take you nowhere unless there is a car. What is essential is the powerful means by which we can be saved. How can a person become as righteous as God and so be acceptable to him? The message of John the Baptist and the whole Bible is that God himself will provide the means for us to be forgiven and to be credited with the status of being righteous, a status no one deserves. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, he was the ‘lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29).
Even before Jesus began his public ministry, John pointed forwards to his coming:
““I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matthew 3:11
Jesus can only pass on to others the Spirit of God because he is God. True conversion starts with a recognition that we are on our own road without God but then we make a u-turn to start a Jesus-centred new life. God gives each of his people his Spirit so that we can then continue his work - what a privilege. ‘Fire’ in the Bible often represents the presence of God – he will be with each of his people.
The prophet Jeremiah understood that this was God’s message to humanity. God described through him the three steps in a Christian’s life:
“If you repent, I will restore you, that you may serve me.” Jeremiah 15:19
Our role is to turn back humbly to God, to repent, he then restores us and gives us the status of being righteous, a child of God. The purpose of this is that we then become his people to serve him obediently.
John the Baptist pictures Jesus as having a winnowing fork in his hand. This illustration would be understood by everyone in his day. After the corn is harvested, it is then threshed by animals or people walking on it, to loosen the grain from the chaff. This mixture is then thrown up into the air with a winnowing fork so the wind blows away the chaff leaving the wheat grains behind.
John draws a dramatic picture describing the fate of people:
“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.” Matthew 3:11
Note there are only two fates for people.
Jesus ‘gathering his wheat into his barn’ is very personal. The word ‘gathering’ is a beautiful word. The prophet Zephaniah is a book about God’s judgment of the nations, including Judah, because they have turned their backs on God. He also urges them to repent, with the promise:
“Then I will purify the lips of the peoples that all of them may call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder.” Zephaniah 3:9
He goes on to say:
“At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home.” Zephaniah 3:20
Here is a father gathering his family together so they can enjoy each others’ company.
The alternative is awful – John describes the fate of those who refuse to return to their God and Saviour:
“. . . and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11
Hell is a reality
Jesus himself has repeatedly warned us about the reality of an eternal hell where there will be ‘a wailing and gnashing of teeth’ For example in Matthews gospel alone we read:
“Anyone who says, ‘You fool’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Matthew 5:22
“It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Matthew 5:30
“But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 8:12
“It would be better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” Matthew 18:9
“Then they (the goats, who did not serve Jesus) will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:46
Such warnings about our coming judgment and the offer of hope is so important that everyone needs to hear about it. Christians need to be praying every day that God will give us opportunities to either share this news or to invite people to come and hear it explained. Something is seriously wrong if Christians can’t be bothered to do this. This is urgent. We must be wise and graceful, as Paul said in the context of sharing our faith:
“Let you conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6
The message about Jesus must get out into our present day spiritual ‘wilderness’, our own land that God appears to be ‘deserting’.
The following incident is vouched for by a Church of England clergyman who knew all the circumstances. A young woman, who had been brought up in a Christian home and who had often had very serious convictions in regard to the importance of coming to Christ, chose instead to take the way of the world. Much against the wishes of her godly mother, she insisted on keeping company with a wild, hilarious crowd, who lived only for the passing moment and tried to forget the things of eternity. Again and again she was pleaded with to turn to Christ, but she persistently refused to heed the admonitions addressed to her.
Finally, she was taken with a very serious illness. It soon became evident that the case was hopeless and death was staring her in the face. Still she was hard and obdurate when urged to turn to God in repentance and take the lost sinner's place and trust the lost sinner's Saviour.
One night she awoke suddenly out of a sound sleep, a frightened look in her eyes, and asked excitedly, "Mother, what is Ezekiel 7:8,9?"
Her mother said, "What do you mean, my dear?"
She replied that she had had a most vivid dream. She thought there was a Presence in the room, who very solemnly said to her, "Read Ezekiel 7:8,9." Not recalling the verses in question, the mother reached for a Bible. As she opened it, her heart sank as she saw the words, but she did read them aloud to the dying girl:
“I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. I will not look on you with pity; I will not spare you I will repay you for your conduct and for the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the Lord who strikes you.” Ezekiel 7:8-9
The poor sufferer, with a look of horror on her face, sank back on the pillow, utterly exhausted, and in a few moments she was in eternity. Grace rejected will ultimately result in judgment.
Is God unkind to warn us so starkly about the two eternal destinies? Not at all. This is a repeated message in the Bible. Thus the Apostle John wrote:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” John 3:36
The Bible message is clear. Paul summarised this in one of his letters:
“He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.” 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10
Just as a caring doctor will warn his patients about the consequences of neglecting symptoms or dangerous life styles, so a caring Christian will remind his family and friends about the consequences of the decisions they make. God is a God of love who longs to save people. The apostle Peter wrote about this nature of God:
“Instead he is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
Question
In the light of what the Bible teaches, why are many church leaders so reticent to warn people about the need for everyone to repent if they want to be accepted by God?
BVP
