Matthew 3 Discussion

Send us a text

The waters of the Jordan River set the stage for a pivotal moment in salvation history. Matthew Chapter 3 introduces us to the wilderness-dwelling, locust-eating prophet John the Baptist, whose thunderous call to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" echoes across Judea's dusty landscape.

John's ministry serves as the perfect bridge between the Old Testament prophetic tradition and Jesus' arrival. With unflinching boldness, he confronts the religious establishment—Pharisees and Sadducees alike—calling them a "brood of vipers" and warning that spiritual heritage without heart transformation is worthless. The ax is already at the root! As we discuss in this episode, God's most pointed rebukes throughout Scripture are aimed at shepherds and leaders, not because God dislikes them particularly, but because their influence shapes entire communities.

When Jesus appears at the Jordan, requesting baptism from his cousin John, we witness a moment of divine revelation. The Trinity manifests as the Father's voice thunders from heaven, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Son stands in the water. But what strikes us most profoundly is the Father's declaration: "This is my beloved Son, with him I am well pleased." This statement comes before Jesus performs a single miracle or teaching—he is loved for who he is, not what he does. This reality transforms how we understand our relationship with God through Christ. As Jesus prays in John 17, the Father loves us just as He loves Jesus.

For anyone who has longed for a father's blessing or approval, this chapter offers a healing balm. In Christ, you are not merely tolerated but deeply loved by your heavenly Father. You are not a "human doing" but a "human being," cherished for who you are in Him.

Have you been baptized yet? If not, what's holding you back? As we note in this episode, baptism might be the easiest command Jesus ever gave—someone else even does it for you! If Jesus himself was baptized "to fulfill all righteousness," shouldn't we follow his example? Listen, share, and join us tomorrow as we continue our journey through Matthew, one chapter a day.

Episode Transcript

Pastor Plek (00:10):
And welcome back to A Chapter, a Day.

Pastor Holland (00:14):
Keeps the devil away.

Pastor Plek (00:15):
It's Pastor Plek here, along with Pastor Holland,
and we are talking Matthew,chapter 3.
Quick outline you've got Johnthe Baptist beginning his
ministry saying repent, for thekingdom of heaven is at hand.
Then he warns the religiousleaders that show up and he
calls them a brood of vipers,which is always kind of fun.
And then he says listen, Ibaptize with water, but someone

(00:41):
greater than me is going tobaptize with the Holy Spirit and
with fire.
And then Jesus comes to John.
John resists, knowing Jesus isgreater, but he says hey, let's
do it this way.
I love how Jesus is gentle withJohn.
Let's do it to fulfill allrighteousness.
And then the key verse for mein this chapter and I would love

(01:02):
to hear what you think, han hesays this is my beloved son, or
probably a better translationthis is my son, the one I love.
With him, I am well pleased.
And then, finally, he usesnatural signs and divine

(01:22):
revelation.
Sorry, that's how the chapterends, with this kind of like
awesome statement of how greatJesus is.
Okay, so talk to me now,holland, as you read this, as
you kind of lean into whatsticks out to you in this

(01:44):
chapter.

Pastor Holland (01:49):
So baptism is kind of the theme of this
chapter, right?
John the Baptist, oh nice.
Not John the Presbyterian, notJohn the Catholic, okay, john
the Baptist came preaching,preaching, repent, and you know
he baptizes Jesus.
But before he does that, hesays in verse 11, I baptize you

(02:11):
with water for repentance, buthe who's coming after me is my
dear than I, whose sandals I'mnot worthy to carry.
He will baptize you with theHoly Spirit and fire, which is
pretty awesome.
And you know, we see thefulfillment of this in the book
of Acts when the Pentecost,right, the spirit of God comes

(02:31):
down like tongues of fire on theheads of the people in the
upper room, right, and they'rebaptized and filled with the
spirit.
And so I think it's interesting, though I talked to someone
recently who was saying you know, do we really need to be
baptized with water?
Because it says, right, hereJesus is going to baptize us

(02:53):
with fire and the Spirit.
Oh nice, what would you?

Pastor Plek (02:55):
say to that?
I'd say Jesus got baptized.
Fulfill all righteousness, Boomyeah.
So why not just do it, Jesus?
If it was good enough for Jesus, how much more is it?

Pastor Holland (03:07):
good enough for you.
There you go, yeah.
So I agree, I think Jesus isour example, yeah, and him
getting baptized, and you knowwe talked about this a little
bit.
We'll look at Jesus as you know, the true Israel right.
We talked about that inchapters one and two, I think.

Pastor Plek (03:27):
Or the better, Israel Is that?
What do you think?
Is it true or better?
True and better.

Pastor Holland (03:31):
True and better.
How about that?
Yeah yeah, he, if you think ofbaptism as a passing through
water, nice, and then what doeshe do?
In the next chapter we're goingto see, he goes into the
wilderness.
Israel passed through thewaters of the Red Sea before
going into the wilderness, right?

(03:52):
And so, yeah, jesus is in oneway fulfilling all righteousness
as the true and better Israelwho, when he goes into the
wilderness I'm going to savesome of this for next chapter, I
guess but he passes, you know,he's faithful to God, as opposed
to Israel who grumbled thewhole time, faithless, they're
whiners.
But he's also, then, ourexample of for us passing

(04:16):
through the waters of baptism sothat we might walk through the
wilderness of this life awaitingthe promised land of heaven.

Pastor Plek (04:24):
Pretty cool, yeah that's a preach right there.
Okay, here's a couple thingsthat stood out to me.
People are prone to religiouspride.
You've got John is rebukingthem for saying don't say we
have Abraham as our father, forout of these stones, out of
these rocks, he can makedescendants of Abraham.

(04:45):
Yeah, and I think there's aspiritual pride that the
Pharisees and Sadducees had,which I think is interesting,
that Pharisees were the one.
Jesus would have been in thePharisee camp, more on the
conservative side.
Sadducees were more liberal,more like you know what.
It's really one of the firstfive books of the Bible.

(05:05):
Is there really a resurrection?
Probably not.
This is all you get.
You might as well make the bestof it while you're here,
because this is all there is.
And so Jesus, being of thePharisee denomination, was kind
of, but was on with them.
But he's denouncing both ofthem for their claim for

(05:26):
religious superiority of like.
We are descendants of Abrahamand John's.
Like.
The ax is at the foot of thetree, you better check yourself
before you wreck yourself.
That's right.
How about this?
People often need a boldconfrontation to wake up.
Yeah, and John is not.

(05:47):
He is not polite, that's a goodway to put it.
Yeah, brute of vipers.
He calls them a brute of vipersand challenged them to produce
fruit in keeping with repentance, and I think he was using
strong words to shake up somespiritual complacency and
reality of like you are not good, like of your own self you are

(06:08):
not good.
Any thoughts there on that foryour perspective?

Pastor Holland (06:12):
Yeah, the strongest words of rebuke in the
Bible are always directedtoward the leaders, the
shepherds.
Yeah, oh, that's powerful.
And God's prophets alwaysconfronted the shepherds, the
kings, the rulers, right,because they're the ones who are
leading the rest of the people.
So where the shepherds go, thepeople follow.
Where the kings go, the peoplefollow, whether into godliness
or idolatry.
And so here you have theshepherds of Israel as

(06:35):
idolatrous, hypocritical,replacing God's commands with
the traditions of man.
Right, and you have John theBaptist, just like the prophets
before him, calling them out,confronting them directly.
It's not just like an angrytemper tantrum or a young,
immature guy who doesn't knowhow to control his tongue.

(06:56):
This is righteous rebuke towardthe spiritual shepherds of
Israel.

Pastor Plek (07:01):
Okay, here's another one.
God brings grace and judgment.
Notice you, remember we broughtthis verse up a bunch.
Jesus is the one who baptizedwith the Holy Spirit and fire,
symbolizing both purificationand judgment, depending on
someone's response to him.
Yeah, which is sort of a wildthing to think about, Like Holy
Spirit for those who accept him,fire for the ones who don't.

(07:23):
Yeah, I don't know if I everthought of that until we kept
harping on this one verse.
Okay, the other one for me thatjust is so cool is verse 17.
You have a Trinitarian like youhave God the Father's voice
Rest in peace modalists.

Pastor Holland (07:41):
Yeah, you're done.
Yeah, because here, god, theFather's voice Rest in peace.

Pastor Plek (07:42):
Modalists.
Yeah, you're done.
Yeah, because here God theFather is there.
You hear his voice, you see theHoly Spirit alight on him like
a dove, and then you have Jesushimself and the voice says this
is my, or this is my son, theone I love.
With him, I'm well pleased.
And I think, whenever you wonderabout a father's blessing, a

(08:06):
father's love, this is thepicture for me that I want to,
kind of the knowledge that Ineed to if I was going to apply
this.
This comes into my application.
Knowledge to believe here it isthat God loves me like he loves
Jesus.
And I know that from John 17,23, where Jesus says I pray that

(08:30):
, as I am in you and you are inme, I am in me and you in me,
that they may be perfectly one,so that the world may know that
you sent me and love them evenas you loved me.
And this is Jesus not prayingfor the disciples who are
sitting right there.
He says, verse 20, I do not askfor these only, but for those
who will believe in me throughtheir word.
So, in John 17, this, likeJesus prays, you would love them

(08:55):
, father, like you have loved me.
And then, when you read theverse in that context.
This is my son, like I havesonship, I am an heir, I am
connected to God.
He is taking ownership of me asa father, the one I love, and

(09:15):
beyond that, it's not just likehe, you know, it's like, okay, I
guess that's my lousyinheritance son who's just been,
you know, lazy his whole life.
No, this is the one I love.
I am loved by God in the waythat he loved Jesus, and there
is deep intimacy there and Ilove to soak in that thought and
then also with him, I'm wellpleased and remember, jesus is

(09:38):
loved before he's done a lick ofministry.
It is just.
He is love before he's done alick of ministry, it is just he
is not.
He's not a human doing, he's ahuman being and he is love for
who he be.
And so, therefore, god loves me, thank you.
God loves me for who I am.
Yeah, in Christ, in Christ.

Pastor Holland (09:57):
I thought you were going to say for who I be.

Pastor Plek (09:58):
For who I be, and so I appreciate that and that,
that, to me, is powerful.
And no matter who you are, youneed a father's blessing, a
father's love, and if you werenever able to get that from your
earthly father, you can claimit here from your heavenly
father.

Pastor Holland (10:18):
That's good.
My example to follow getbaptized.

Pastor Plek (10:22):
Nice.

Pastor Holland (10:25):
It is the easiest command of Jesus to obey
.
Yeah, it says.
Sends out the apostles, go makedisciples, baptize them To be
baptized.
You don't even do it.
Someone else does it for you.
Easiest command of Jesus toobey you don't even do it.
Someone else does it for you.
Easiest command of Jesus toobey.
I've met quite a few Christiansrecently, though, who have

(10:48):
questioned whether or not theyshould be baptized, and do we
still do that anymore?
Wasn't that just for back then?
It's an area like kind of I wasshocked, but an area of
confusion, I think, and so justto say right now, jesus was
baptized.
He commanded his apostles to goand baptize.
You should be baptized ifyou're a believer in Jesus and
easy command to obey and apowerful sign of the grace of
God, and you know that he washesaway our sins, that we're

(11:12):
united to Christ and his deathand burial and resurrection, and
that we walk in newness of life.
Be baptized.

Pastor Plek (11:18):
Love it.
Go and do likewise.
Thanks for watching.
We will see you tomorrow on AChapter A Day.