JOHN THE BAPTIST. -- Matthew 3:1-12. GOLDEN TEXT. --_ Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance._ -- Matthew 3:8. TIME. --A. D. 25. Tiberius Cæsar emperor of Rome; Judea. Roman province with Pontius Pilate as governor; Jesus Christ between twenty-nine and thirty years old. PLACE. --The Wilde... [ Continue Reading ]
REPENT YE. The great rite of John was baptism but the great duty commanded was repentance. The baptism was the "baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," and the theme of his preaching was "Repent" as. preparation for baptism and the kingdom. Repentance is more than. sorrow for sin; it is.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS. John was called. _voice,_ (1) because the whole man was. sermon; (2) because he would call no attention to himself as. person, but only to the Savior whose way he came to prepare. As Quesnel says of the true teacher and preacher, "he should, if possible, b... [ Continue Reading ]
II. THE KING'S MESSENGER. 4. THE SAME JOHN HAD HIS RAIMENT OF CAMEL'S HAIR. In the time of Christ it was the teaching of the scribes that Elijah was to come as the forerunner of Messiah; but our Lord taught his disciples that he had already come in the person of John the Baptist, of whom it was pr... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WENT OUT TO HIM JERUSALEM AND ALL JUDEA. These expressions must be taken not as meaning every individual, but in their popular sense, as showing the wonderful impression produced by his preaching. The Jerusalemites, or people of Jerusalem, are not distinguished from the Judæans, under whom th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WERE BAPTIZED OF HIM IN JORDAN. Note that the baptism took place not at, but _in_ the Jordan. Mark says "in the river of Jordan." The Jordan, the principal stream of Palestine, rises in the mountains of Lebanon, runs south into the sea of Galilee, leaves it and descends southward along Galilee,... [ Continue Reading ]
III. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND FIRE. 7. WHEN HE SAW MANY OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. The two principal religious sects. The first originated in the time of the Maccabees, and were. kind of Jewish Puritans, but had in the Savior's time degenerated into. set of formalists, who paid far more attention... [ Continue Reading ]
BRING FORTH, THEREFORE, FRUITS MEET FOR REPENTANCE. The manner of life that would prove that. change had taken place, and that they were truly penitent. There is no repentance whatever unless there is. change of life as the result.... [ Continue Reading ]
THINK NOT TO SAY... WE HAVE ABRAHAM TO OUR FATHER. One of the first things. true minister has to do is to destroy false hopes. It is thus that John did when he broke in thus rudely upon the hopes of those who heard him. They were living securely in the fact that Abraham was their father, and their... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW ALSO THE AXE IS LAID UNTO THE ROOT. Laid there at hand for immediate use to destroy the tree, though as yet no blow had been struck; but laid there, also, that this sign of what is threatened may avert the fulfillment of the threat.--_ Trench._ There is in these words. passing on from the notio... [ Continue Reading ]
INDEED BAPTIZE YOU WITH WATER UNTO REPENTANCE. His baptism was only. water baptism. He could go no farther. The King could send the Holy Spirit, and give another and. mightier baptism, in addition to the outward baptism. MIGHTIER THAN I. In that he can _perform_ all that. only _promise;_ he can e... [ Continue Reading ]
FAN IS IN HIS HAND. Rather the winnowing shovel by which the wheat and chaff were tossed together into the air, so that the wind would blow the chaff away. GATHER HIS WHEAT INTO THE GARNER. Granary, or grain depository. The garners or granaries of the East are often excavations in the earth, in w... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. -- Matthew 3:13-17. GOLDEN TEXT. -_ This is my beloved Son, in whom. am well pleased._ -- Matthew 3:17. TIME. --When Jesus was about thirty years old, or about A. D. 26. In the year 780 after the building of Rome. PLACE. --At the river Jordan, probably at the ford near Jericho... [ Continue Reading ]
II. JESUS. APTIZED. 14. JOHN FORBADE HIM. The objection that John made to the baptism of Christ implies some knowledge of him. Their mothers were cousins. We do hot know that they had any intercourse after the birth of Christ and there is no evidence that Jesus and John ever met. The home of Jesus... [ Continue Reading ]
SUFFER IT TO BE SO NOW. The term "now" implies that the relation of Jesus to his work made it proper that now he should be baptized. It is true that baptism was for sinners; Jesus was sinless; the candidates confessed their sins, while he had none to confess; but he had humbled himself, taken human... [ Continue Reading ]
III. JESUS. NOINTED. 16. AND JESUS, WHEN HE WAS BAPTIZED. The baptism took place in the river Jordan, and was doubtless by immersion. Dr. Whitby, of the Church of England, on this passage says: "The observation of the Greek Church is this, that he who ascended out of the water must first descend i... [ Continue Reading ]
VOICE FROM HEAVEN. Three times God speaks from heaven in connection with the ministry of Christ-at his baptism, his transfiguration, and in the temple just before his passion. THOU ART MY BELOVED SON. The very words addressed to the Messiah in Psalms 2:7, and from which the _Son of God_ became one... [ Continue Reading ]