Verses 1-2 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew does not elaborate on what he meant by the phrase “in those days”. Often, time was recorded based on the reign of a king. John the Baptist was approximately six months older than Jesus and John would have been an adult at this time, so it is not referring to the reign of Archelaus spoken of in Matthew chapter one as his brother, Herod Antipas, reigned from the death of his father until around 40 AD. So perhaps it was just a phrase used to describe time in general. Regardless, Matthew records that John came with a message. It was an urgent message in that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. He was letting people know that there was soon coming a royal power that was not to be confused with an earthly kingdom. This royal power was the Messiah, the LORD Jesus Christ.
Verses 3-4 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
The prophet Esaias quoted here by Matthew is Isaiah in the Old Testament and his name means “Jehovah’s help”. John the Baptist did not go to the cities and preach. He fulfilled prophecy by preaching in what would have been solitary, lonely, and uninhabited places. See Isaiah chapter 40. He wore simple clothing made from camel fiber and he had a simple diet. The locusts were bugs (grasshoppers) that the Oriental people dined on, and the Israelites were allowed to eat them too, either raw or cooked with salt. “Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.” Leviticus 11:22
Verses 5-6 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
The inhabitants from all over the geographical region of Judaea traveled to see this unusual man. They knew he was a prophet, and there had not been a prophet in Israel for at least 400 years. God had been silent. This was an exciting event. The word translated as “baptized” is “baptizo” and it means to immerse or submerge. Sprinkling with water droplets is not baptism. Any church that baptizes without submerging the person being baptized is not correct.
Verse 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
The Pharisees were the main religious power brokers of Jesus’ time. They did not follow the Mosaic law, but were practitioners of the Babylonian Talmud which is still used today by Jewish rabbis. Their main love did not seem to be God and His law, but money, power, prestige, and control of the “common” people. They hated Jesus and were the main plotters involved in trying to kill him. They believed that oral law, those not written by men of God, and traditions of men were just as good as the written law. At the time of Jesus and John the Baptist, Josephus stated that there were more than 6000 Pharisees.
The Sadducees were the other main religious group at the time of Jesus and they were equally guilty in their hatred and plotting against the LORD Jesus Christ. In their favor however, they believed that the oral law was not a revelation of God and that only the written law was of divine authority. They did not believe in bodily resurrection and in the existence of spirits and angels.
The word translated as “generation” is “gennema” and it means that which has been born or begotten. John was saying that these men were the offspring of snakes. A viper is a venomous snake with large fangs. The Devil manifested as a snake or serpent in the Garden of Eden. Serpents or snakes have been associated with the occult for centuries. This statement by John was an accurate description of the character and behavior of these religious men.
Verses 8-10 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
John chastised these leaders but then warned them to repent. In the time of John the Baptist, Israel was an agricultural society. Things were understood by the people as they related to farming and all the aspects of making a living off the land. Therefore, the New Testament is full of references to fruit, trees, seeds, harvests, latter rain, weeds and so forth. To bring forth “fruits meet for repentance” simply means to show works, acts, or deeds that demonstrate a sorrowful or contrite heart and a putting away of sin. To repent basically means to do an about face and go the other direction, to change the mind for the better and to hate the sin that was present.
John anticipated the argument that these religious leaders were going to try and use against him. John was baptizing the masses and this would not have gone down well with the Pharisees and Sadducees. He had popularity. They wanted all the glory. John was getting results: people repenting and wanting to change their lives. They were not. Claiming righteous Abraham as their authority was not going to work. John had God as his authority and he knew it. John also knew that these religious leaders were going to be in confrontation with Jesus when he started His ministry. The religious leaders were going to be uprooted, cut down and thrown into the fire. In other words, it they did not repent and start producing good fruits, they would be judged and end up with eternal life in Hell as their reward for deceiving the people they were supposed to shepherd and for disobeying God’s laws.
Verses 11-12 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
John’s mother, Elisabeth, and Mary were cousins. See Luke chapter one. Therefore, John the Baptist and Jesus were also cousins. They would have known of each other, even it they did not grow up together due to Joseph relocating the family due to the political death threat of the rulers in Judaea. Scripture does not tell the reader if Jesus and John had met each other before they each started their ministries. But, according to the verses above, John clearly was expecting the Messiah and was prophesying His coming with power and authority.
He was also prophesying the filling of believers with the Holy Ghost. The first mention of the Holy Ghost is in Matthew 1:18. In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit is called the holy Spirit, not holy Ghost. Why? Perhaps it is because a ghost, by definition, inhabited a human body. A spirit does not have to inhabit a body. So when Jesus died on the cross, His spirit was “given up” and left the body of flesh so that it was indeed a holy Ghost. The Greek word translated as “Ghost” is “pneuma”. The Greek word translated as “Holy” is “hagios” and it means a most holy thing.
The fan in verse 12 was an instrument used to separate the grains of harvested wheat from their outside covering. The wheat, being heavier, would stay on the threshing floor but the outside covering would blow away if there was a wind. The grain was then stored in a garner or storehouse. The picture here is that the LORD Jesus Christ is going to separate His people from the Devil’s people, His people going to a safe place and the Devil’s people going to burn up in a fire that cannot be put out. This is a picture of eternal hell fire that will punish the damned or unrepentant sinner. For those skeptics both inside and outside the Church that argue that the Bible does not teach an eternal punishment by fire, it can only be assumed that they have not read the Scripture.
Verses 13-14 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. 14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
John recognized the Messiah when he saw Him. He knew, either by revelation through the Spirit of God or by the knowledge that his mother and father had regarding who Jesus was, that this man was without sin and not in need of repentance and baptism. He, John, on the other hand, was in need of baptism by the Son of God. This must have been a very humbling and yet marvelous encounter between John the Baptist and Jesus.
Just as Jesus sought out and came to John, so He seeks out and comes to sinners today to call them to repentance and to a life or righteousness in Him. His ministry on Earth is ongoing. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 17:33
Verse 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
Jesus understood where John was coming from, but asked him to “let it be” or to permit the baptism. Why? Because He had to experience everything that mankind experienced, yet without sin. He is the believers’ example.
Verses 16-17 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
It isn’t clear who the “he” is in this verse and if Jesus or John saw the Spirit descending. Regardless, a voice was heard from Heaven. Notice that the voice said “in whom” and not “by whom” or some other preposition. Why? Perhaps because God was “in” the body of Jesus. God is a spirit that is omnipresent and can be everywhere at once. This is hard to fathom by human thinking, but true nevertheless. So God was both in Jesus and in the Heaven speaking at the same time. Jesus was and is God, very God, manifesting in a human body of flesh and bone.