Matthew 3:1 - Meaning and Application

This passage tells us about John’s preaching and baptism, which marked the first light of the gospel day. He appeared “in those days” (Matthew 3:1), long after the events in the previous chapter, when Jesus was still an infant. This was the time the Father had appointed for the gospel to begin, when “the fullness of time” had come. It was also the time spoken of in the Old Testament, the last part of Daniel’s seventy weeks, when the Messiah would confirm the covenant with many (Daniel 9:27).

Christ always appears at the right time. Great things were said about John and Jesus before they were born, so people might have expected bold public signs from them in childhood. Yet, apart from Jesus speaking with the teachers at age twelve, nothing notable is recorded about either of them until they were about thirty. Their childhood and youth are mostly hidden from us. This shows that God often works in a quiet way, and that faith must look mainly at Christ’s work and office, where his power is shown.

It also teaches young people a lesson. Even when they are gifted and prepared, they should not rush to put themselves forward in public work. They should stay humble, modest, and careful, quick to listen and slow to speak. Matthew does not tell us about John’s birth, as Luke does. Instead, he presents John at full grown, as if he had suddenly appeared from heaven to preach in the wilderness.

For more than three hundred years, the church had no prophets. Those lights had been out for a long time, so the people would value John more when he came as the great prophet. After Malachi, there had been no prophet, and no true claim to prophecy, until John the Baptist. So Malachi points directly to him when he says, “I send my messenger” (Malachi 3:1).

John first appeared in the wilderness of Judea. This was not a completely empty desert, but a sparsely settled area with towns and villages. John preached in those places, near where he had lived before, since he was born close by in Hebron. He had spent much time in quiet reflection there, and even in public ministry he still showed his love for solitude as much as his calling allowed.

The word of the Lord found John in the wilderness. No place is too far away to keep us from God’s grace. In fact, some of the sweetest fellowship with heaven comes when people are farthest from the noise of the world. David had such communion with God in the wilderness when he wrote Psalm 63. The law was also given in a wilderness, and Israel was first found in desert land before God led and taught them (Deuteronomy 32:10).

John was a priest from Aaron’s line, yet we find him preaching in the wilderness and never serving in the temple. Christ, who was not a son of Aaron, often appeared in the temple and taught there with authority. This matched the prophecy that “the Lord whom you seek” would suddenly come to his temple (Malachi 3:1). It showed that Christ’s priesthood was to replace Aaron’s and push it into the background. The gospel beginning in a wilderness also brought hope to the barren world of the Gentiles. The prophets had promised that God would plant trees in the desert, make the wilderness fruitful, and turn the desert into a place of joy (Isaiah 41:18, 41:19; Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 35:1, 35:2).

John’s main work was preaching. He did not come fighting or arguing, but preaching (Matthew 3:1), because Christ’s kingdom must be set up through the “foolishness of preaching.” The message he preached was repentance (Matthew 3:2): “Repent.” He preached this in Judea, among people who were called Jews and already had a form of religion, because even they needed to turn from sin. He preached in the wilderness, among ordinary country people, because even those who think they are far from city temptations still need repentance.

John was calling people to think again about their sin. Repentance means a change of mind that leads to a change of life. A true penitent sees God, Christ, sin, holiness, this world, and the next world in a new way. People who are truly sorry for what they have done wrong will also be careful not to do it again. Repentance is required because God commands it (Acts 17:30), and it also prepares the heart for the comfort of the gospel. If human hearts had stayed upright and clean, they could have received God’s comfort without this painful change first. But since we are sinful, the wound must be searched before it can be healed. God says, “I wound and I heal.”

John backed up this call with a strong reason: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The Old Testament prophets called people to repent so that they might receive national blessings and avoid national judgments. Here, the call to repent is the same, but the reason is new and fully shaped by the gospel. People are now addressed more as individual souls than as members of a nation, and they are told, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2).

This is the gospel era of God’s covenant of grace, the time when the kingdom of heaven is opened to all believers through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ is the King of this kingdom, and we must become willing and loyal subjects. It is a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. Its source is heaven, and its aim is to bring people to heaven.

John preached that this kingdom was near, and at that time it was right at the door. In our day, it has come through the Spirit being poured out and through the full display of gospel grace. This gives us a strong reason to repent. Nothing softens the heart like God’s grace, both because of sin and away from sin. That is gospel repentance, repentance that rises from seeing Christ, sensing his love, and hoping for pardon through him.

Kindness wins the heart. When kindness has been abused, it also humbles and melts the sinner. A person then says, “What a wretch I was, to sin against such grace, against the law and love of such a kingdom!” Repentance is also encouraged by the promise of pardon. “Return to God in duty, and he will, through Christ, return to you in mercy.” When pardon is announced, it draws out the guilty person who had been hiding. We are drawn with human kindness and the cords of love.

John is the one spoken of in Isaiah’s prophecy, especially in the section that looks ahead to gospel times and gospel grace (Isaiah 40:3, Isaiah 40:4). He is described as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Matthew 3:3). John said this about himself too, “I am the voice” (John 1:23). That is, God was the real speaker, and John was only the voice by which God made his mind known. We should receive God’s word in that way (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Paul and Apollos were only voices.

John is called “the voice of one crying aloud,” which is sharp and attention-grabbing. Christ is called the Word, which is clear, full, and instructive. John, as the voice, awakened people. Then Christ, as the Word, taught them. Some have also noticed that Samson’s mother was told not to drink strong drink, though her son was to be a strong man, and John’s father was made silent, though John was meant to be the voice of one crying. When the crier comes from a dumb father, it shows that the power is from God, not man.

John also came to prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. This had been said before he was born, that he would make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17). He was Christ’s forerunner, the one who went ahead to prepare hearts for him. He did not come with the showy dress of a royal herald, but with the plain look of a desert prophet.

He prepared the way among that generation by dealing with the people’s real condition. The Jewish church and nation were badly out of order. Piety had declined, and the heart of religion had been corrupted by the traditions and commands of the elders. The scribes and Pharisees, who were among the greatest hypocrites in the world, controlled both knowledge and rule. The people were proud of their privileges, sure they were justified by their own righteousness, and blind to their sin. Even though they had recently been humbled by becoming part of the Roman Empire, they were still not humble in spirit. John was sent to level those proud hills, expose their sin, and make Christ’s teaching more welcome and effective.

John’s message of repentance and humility is still needed to prepare the way for the Lord. There is much to be done before Christ enters a soul. The heart must be bowed to receive the Son of David (2 Samuel 19:14). Nothing is more necessary than seeing sin clearly and learning that our own righteousness is not enough. Whatever holds the way must be removed. Prejudice must go. Proud thoughts must be brought low and made obedient to Christ. Gates of bronze must be broken and bars of iron cut apart before the everlasting doors open for the King of glory. The road of sin and Satan is crooked, so the paths must be made straight to receive Christ (Hebrews 12:13).

John’s clothing, appearance, and way of life all matched his message (Matthew 3:4). People who expected the Messiah to come as a worldly prince would have imagined that his forerunner would appear in great splendor. Instead, John was great in the Lord’s sight and small in the world’s eyes, much like Christ himself, who had no outward beauty or majesty. This showed from the beginning that Christ’s kingdom would be spiritual, and that its people would often be poor and despised, drawing their honor, pleasure, and riches from another world.

His dress was plain. He wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He did not dress like the scribes in long robes, or like courtiers in soft clothes, but like a country worker, fitting his clothing to his life in the wilderness. It is good for us to live in a way that fits the place and condition God’s providence has given us. John dressed this way to show that, like Jacob, he was plain and set apart from the comforts and delights of this world. He showed that a truly humble person should not make dress a matter of pride, and should not judge others by what they wear.

The way John dressed showed that he was a prophet, because prophets wore rough clothing as signs of a life of self-denial (Zec 13:4). It also pointed to the promised Elijah, since special note is made that Elijah was a hairy man, which may mean he wore hairy garments, and that he wore a leather belt around his waist (2 Ki 1:8). John the Baptist was no less strict in self-denial, so this was the Elijah who was to come.

It also showed that he was a man of firm purpose. His belt was not the fine kind people commonly wore, but a strong leather belt. Blessed is that servant whom his master finds ready when he comes, with his belt fastened (Luke 12:35; 1 Pe 1:13).

John’s food was plain. He ate locusts and wild honey, not meaning that he never ate anything else, but that he often lived on these foods, especially when he withdrew to lonely places for long stretches of reflection. Locusts were a kind of flying insect that was good for food and counted as clean (Lev 11:22). They needed little preparation and were light and easy to digest. Wild honey was the kind of honey found in Canaan, a land that flowed with it (1 Sa 14:26).

This plain diet showed that he ate sparingly. A person could not easily overeat on locusts and wild honey. John came neither eating nor drinking in the usual social way (Mat 11:18). He was so absorbed in spiritual things that he could seldom spare time for regular meals. This matched the message he preached about repentance and the fruit that should follow it. Those who call others to grieve over sin and turn from it should themselves live seriously, with self-denial and a loose hold on the world.

John’s way of life also matched his role as Christ’s forerunner. By living this way, he showed that he understood the kingdom of heaven and had experienced its power. People who know divine and spiritual joys cannot help looking with holy indifference on the pleasures and show of this world, because they know something better. By setting this example, he helped prepare the way for Christ. A clear sense of how empty the world is makes the heart ready to welcome the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Then Jerusalem and all Judea went out to him (Mat 3:5). Great crowds came from the city and from all over the countryside. People of every kind came, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, Pharisees and tax collectors. They went out as soon as they heard him preach the kingdom of heaven, wanting to hear more of what everyone was talking about.

This was a great honor for John, because so many people came to hear him and showed him respect. Often those who care least about honor receive the most of it. People respect those who live humbly, deny themselves, and are dead to the world, even more than they may realize. It also gave John a great chance to do good, and it showed that God was with him. People were beginning to crowd into the kingdom of heaven (Luke 16:16), and it was a beautiful sight, like the dawn of the gospel with the young people coming willingly (Psa 110:3), like a net cast where there were many fish.

This was also a sign that people were expecting something great. Many thought the kingdom of God would soon appear (Luke 19:11). So when John showed himself to Israel and lived and preached in such a different way from the scribes and Pharisees, people were ready to wonder if he might be the Christ (Luke 3:15). That helped draw the crowds.

Still, anyone who wanted the benefit of John’s ministry had to go out to him in the wilderness and share his reproach. Those who truly long for the pure milk of the word will seek it out if it is not brought to them. Those who want to learn repentance must step away from the rush of this world and become still. The result showed that, among the many who came to John’s baptism, only a few stayed with it. Christ later received a cold welcome in Judea and around Jerusalem. There can be a large crowd of eager listeners where there are very few true believers. Curiosity and a taste for novelty can bring many to hear good preaching and feel stirred for a while, yet they never come under its power (Eze 33:31, 33:32).

Those who accepted his teaching and submitted to his discipline were baptized by him in the Jordan (Mat 3:6). In doing this, they confessed their repentance and their belief that the Messiah’s kingdom was near. They showed repentance by confessing their sins. It was probably a general confession to John that they were sinners, polluted by sin, and in need of cleansing. But to God they would have confessed specific sins, since he was the one offended. The Jews had been taught to justify themselves, that is, to defend themselves as if they were righteous. John taught them to accuse themselves instead and not to rely on the yearly general confession made for all Israel on the Day of Atonement. Each person needed to make a personal confession of the wound in his own heart. A repentant confession of sin is necessary for peace and pardon, and only those brought with sorrow and shame to see their own guilt are ready to receive Jesus Christ as their righteousness (1 Jo 1:9).

At baptism, the blessings of the kingdom of heaven that was now near were sealed to them. He washed them with water as a sign that God would cleanse them from all their sins. The Jews were used to baptizing people when they admitted them as converts to their religion, especially those who were only converts at the gate, since they were not circumcised like full converts. Some think that people of special religious standing, who set themselves up as teachers, also used baptism to admit students and disciples.

When Christ asked about John’s baptism, “Was it from heaven, or from men?”, he meant that some baptisms came only from human authority, without any divine call. John accepted the outward practice of baptism, but his baptism came from heaven. It stood apart from every other kind because it was a baptism of repentance (Acts 19:4).

All Israel had been baptized into Moses, that is, brought under his leadership and covenant rule, by passing through the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2). The ceremonial law also included many washings, or baptisms (Hebrews 9:10). But John’s baptism belonged to the better way of grace, the law that calls people to repent and believe.

Matthew says John baptized in Jordan, the river known for Israel’s crossing into the promised land and for Naaman’s healing. Yet it is likely that John did not begin there at first. As the crowds grew, he may have moved to the Jordan so he could continue baptizing the many who came to him.

By baptizing them, John also called them to live holy lives that matched their public confession. We should remember this: confession of sin must always go with holy resolutions, made in the strength of God’s grace, to turn away from sin and not return to it.