Matthew 3
3
The Messiah’s Herald
1In those days John the Baptist came, # Mk 1:3-8; Lk 3:2-17; Jn 1:6-8,19-28 preaching in the Wilderness of Judea # Jos 15:61; Jdg 1:16 2and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near! ” # Dn 2:44; Mt 4:17; 6:10; 10:7; Mk 1:15; Lk 10:9; 11:20; 21:31 3For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said:
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way for the Lord;
make His paths straight! # Is 40:3; Lk 1:17,76; Jn 1:23 # Is 40:3
4John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were flocking to him, 6and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. # Mt 23:37; Mk 1:5; Lk 3:3; Jn 15:22; Ac 19:18
7When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees # Mt 16:1; 22:23; 23:15; Ac 4:1; 5:17; 23:6 coming to the place of his baptism, # Lit to his baptism he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? # Mt 12:34; 23:33; Rm 5:9; 1Th 1:10 8Therefore produce fruit # Mt 3:10; 12:33; 13:8,26; 21:19,34,41,43; Mk 11:14 consistent with # Lit fruit worthy of repentance. 9And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ # Lk 3:8; Jn 8:33,39; Ac 13:26; Rm 4:1 For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 10Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. # Mt 7:19; Lk 13:7,9; Jn 15:2,6
11“I baptize you with # Or in water for repentance, # Baptism was the means by which repentance was expressed publicly. # Mk 1:4,8; Jn 1:26; Ac 1:5 but the One who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove # Or to carry His sandals. He Himself will baptize you with # Or in the Holy Spirit and fire. # Is 4:4; Jn 1:33; Ac 2:3-4; 11:16; Ti 3:5 12His winnowing shovel # A wooden farm implement used to toss threshed grain into the wind so the lighter chaff would blow away and separate from the heavier grain is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But the chaff He will burn up with fire that never goes out.” # Is 30:24; Mt 13:30; Mk 9:43,48; Lk 3:17
The Baptism of Jesus
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. # Mk 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22; Jn 1:31-34 14But John tried to stop Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me? ”
15Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him to be baptized.
16After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens # Mt 24:35; Lk 12:33; Ac 17:24; Eph 6:9; Rv 21:10 suddenly opened for Him, # Other mss omit for Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. # Is 11:2; Jn 1:32; Ac 7:56; 2Pt 1:17 17And there came a voice from heaven:
This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him! # Ps 2:7; Is 42:1; Lk 9:35; Jn 12:28
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Matthew 3: HCSB
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© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Matthew 3
3
Thunder in the Desert!
1-2While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”
3John and his message were authorized by Isaiah’s prophecy:
Thunder in the desert!
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!
4-6John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.
7-10When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and flourishing? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.
11-12“I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”
* * *
13-14Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!”
15But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it.
16-17The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.