Scriptural text: Matthew 3
John the Baptist’s Call to Repentance (Matt. 3:1-3). When John called Jews to repentance, he called them to return to the national relationship with God for which God had prepared them to believe in their Messiah. His call was not a call to eternal salvation. Repentance is about harmony and relationship with God. It means to change one’s mind about God and sin. In summary, the command is to repent is a call of harmony with God. It is a call for the unbeliever or the believer to change his thinking about God and sin and so turn from one’s sin.
The kingdom of heaven stresses the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the future kingdom while the kingdom of God stresses God’s rule or kind of kingdom that is in view.
The Mission of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4-6). First, he was with a divine mission of preparing the way before the face of the Lord. Whoever had such a trust committed to him before or since? No man. Secondly, he was entrusted with the important mission, and it was required of his hands, to baptize the Son of God. Thirdly, John was the only legal administrator in the affairs of the kingdom there was then on the earth, and holding the keys of power. The Jews had to obey his instructions or be damned, by their own law; and Christ Himself fulfilled all righteousness in becoming obedient to the law which He had given to Moses on the mount, and thereby magnified it and made it honorable, instead of destroying it.
Words of Warning to a Brood of vipers (Matt. 3:7-10). The surge of response to John’s message provides Matthew with an opportunity to present the religious leaders in a negative light, as seen through his gospel. Along with the crowd comes many Pharisees and Sadducees, but John stops them short with a blistering attack. The leaders demonstrate failings that are detested by the gospel. When John calls then vipers, he means that they are spreading poison like a serpent. Who warned you to flee, says Jesus, the coming wrath and come for baptism, when in fact you show no sign of repentance? The wrath of God is not just anger but the inevitable condemnation by a holy, loving God of any sin which defiles God’s creation, which destroys the dignity of humanity as part of that creation. The Jewish leaders turned against God’s plan associated with the Coming One. The Coming One will baptize the repentant-those who are prepared to receive Him-with the blessing of the Holy Spirit. But the unrepentant-those who are not receptive to the Coming One-He will baptize with the judgment of eternal fire.