Matthew 3

1 – 3

About that time John the Baptist came and began preaching in the desert area of Judea. John said, “Change your hearts and lives because the kingdom of heaven is coming soon.”

John the Baptist is the one Isaiah the prophet was talking about. Isaiah said: This is a voice of a man who calls out in the desert: Prepare the way for the Lord. Make the road straight for him.

It is the same with us. People can tell that there is something different about us. All that we can tell them is that we believed the Gospel and it was like a light came on and we are not the same as we were before. We can show them how God takes a twisted life and makes it smooth again. We can beg them to ask the Lord to do the same for them. Isaiah 40:3

4 – 6

John’s clothes were made from camel’s hair. He wore a leather belt around his waist. For food, he ate locusts and wild honey. Many people went to hear John preach. They came from Jerusalem and all Judea and all the area around the Jordan River. They told of the sins they had done, and John baptized them in the Jordan River.

God comes to earth and He does not send an important person to prepare the way for Him. God uses people that we do not think He will use. Jews do not get baptized but they baptize non-Jews who want to become believers. John is telling them that they also should be baptized to show that they are turning from evil and setting themselves apart for God.

When John baptized them they did not have God’s Spirit living inside of them. John was getting them ready to understand that Jesus would fill them with His Spirit if they would come to Him.

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. 1 Corinthians 1:27

7 – 10

Many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to the place where John was baptizing people. When John saw them, he said: “You are snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming? You must do the things that show that you have really changed your hearts and lives.

And do not think that you can say to yourselves, ‘Abraham is our father.’ I tell you that God could make children for Abraham from these rocks. The ax is now ready to cut down the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

The Jews were always thinking that God would never leave them because they came from the line of Abraham. God did not leave them but they left Him. We need to call evil by its name and not try to make it sound normal.

11. “I baptize you with water to show that your hearts and lives have changed. But there is one coming later who is greater than I am. I am not good enough to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
John is saying, "I am not important. All I can do is point you to Jesus." We should be thinking this way. We are filled with the Spirit who also burns away anything in us that needs to be taken out of our lives.

12. He will come ready to clean the grain. He will separate the good grain from the chaff. He will put the good part of the grain into his barn. And he will burn the chaff with a fire that cannot be put out.”

The grain was thrown in the air many times until the bad parts were separated from the good. When a king is coming all the people get together and clean the streets and their houses. We should make sure that our hearts are clean when we come before God.

13 – 15

At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River. He came to John and wanted John to baptize him. 14 But John tried to stop him. John said, “Why do you come to me to be baptized? I should be baptized by you!”

Jesus answered, “Let it be this way for now. We should do all things that are right.” So John agreed to baptize Jesus.

Some churches teach that we become saved at the moment we are baptized. If this was true then it would make it look like Jesus needed to be saved.

When we are baptized we are showing the world that we are dead to the things of the world. This is what Jesus was showing. Maybe nobody told you that the water of baptism is a grave that you were buried in?

We now live our lives as a man who sees his old self in a grave. The world brings garbage such as money, immoral things, or evil pictures and they are not interesting to us because we are in the grave.

If you see that these things keep coming back to your mind then kill them by telling God, “I am making a decision not to look at them.” You will feel His power. Colossians 3:5

16 – 17

Jesus was baptized and came up out of the water. Heaven opened, and he saw God’s Spirit coming down on him like a dove. And a voice spoke from heaven. The voice said, “This is my Son and I love him. I am very pleased with him.”

The people may not have understood the voice of God speaking. There was another time that God spoke from heaven, and people just thought it was thunder.