Text: Matthew 3:5-10 – “Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
So, yesterday, we considered the message that John the Baptizer presented. Today, as we continue in this chapter, we will see to whom he preaches. There are to recipients of his message.
First, consider that he preaches to the people of Israel. We see this in verses 5 and 6. Many accepted his message, repent of their sins, and are baptized. Consider the large crowds that went out to him. In this way, we see the results of a spirit-led message of God.
On a side note, we need to understand what we mean by Baptism. In the Greek used here, the word is baptize and it means to immerse or to dip. When the men translated the King James Version of the scriptures, King James, who was head of the Anglican Church, told them they could not translate anything that would conflict with the Church’s doctrine. So, since the Anglican Church sprinkled, they transliterated the word and made a new one – baptize. Because it became an Anglicized word it has therefore lost its true meaning for many today.
The second recipient of his message was the religious leaders of Israel. We see John’s description of these wicked men in verse 7 above. The two groups were the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
The word Pharisee means “separate.” They held themselves as separated from the common and from sin. It was a sect of Judaism. They believed in strict letter of the law, with their interpretations of what it meant. They were moral, zealous, and self-denying. They were self-righteous and destitute of any sense of sin or need. They would be the Legalists of their day.
Then there were the Sadducees. Their name means “the righteous.” They were another sect of Judaism. They denied the existence of angels, spirits, miracles, and resurrection of the body. (Some of said this was why they were sad you see). They were the rationalists of their day – if it couldn’t be rationally explained it didn’t happen. We would call them the Liberals of their day.
John refers to them as a brood (offspring) of snakes. Not exactly the most tactful in his approach, but spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit. Basically, asking who told them they needed to repent? Do you detect a hint of sarcasm in this statement?
Let’s end this section considering the leaders’ demand from John. He warns them to truly repent and do good works or be destroyed. They claimed a right by birth – but basically denied this claim by life that lived. John warns them that they will be destroyed because they do not live what they claim to have. He is saying, if you have what God desires for eternal life, your life would demonstrate it – not by legalism or liberality, but by a genuine response to God.
Ponder this challenge today – Does your life show what you claim is
in your heart? What do others see?
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