Matthew 3:7-17

Last week we took the time to go through some of John the Baptist’s backstory. We saw John walk out into the desert at the end of Luke chapter 1 and then emerge in the wilderness in Matthew chapter 3 preaching a message of sin, and of repentance, and of the kingdom of God. Today we’re still going to get a few of the historical elements of John and Jesus’ story, but as we go through this, I also want to see them for the leaders that they were and really reflect on a few important leadership traits that we see between the two of them in the remaining verses of chapter 3. So, let’s read this.

 

Read Matthew 3:7-12

 

In these verses, John is calling out the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These guys really represent two sides of the religious elite of that time. The leaders of Judaism. It’s believed by some that perhaps these guys were coming down to where John was at, to kind of keep up with religious appearances. These people were down here repenting for their sins, and preparing for the Messiah’s arrival, and so these leaders might not have wanted to miss out on at least making the appearance of these things as well. But really, that was the problem, it was all about appearances with these guys and John calls them out on this in verse 8 when he says, “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance”. What he is saying is that you guys are down here, and you’re making your appearances, and who knows, maybe they were even joining in with the idea of repentance and perhaps even baptism. We’re not told how far their engagement went. But John is like … will we see the fruits of this? Does this really mean anything to you? Will this actually amount to something more then maybe in our day … a selfie opportunity for social media?

 

For us, we can say, we’re this or we’re that, we can even take pictures doing “Jesus things” or “church things”, and none of that is wrong necessarily, it can actually be good in a lot of ways. I think social media can be a powerful tool for the broadcasting of Jesus. But doing all of these things is wrong if there is nothing behind it. It’s wrong if it’s just a talking point or photo op and not the real life that we are living. And that’s what John was challenging these guys on.

 

Because in their scenario, in talking about repentance, real repentance will be a living repentance and not just a talking repentance. John says that this real repentance will bear fruit. But the reality is, that a lot of this was kind of new to this culture. You see as a culture, and as a nation, they had the Day of Atonement that would cover the sins of the nation for the whole year, they were dealing with the sin issue nationally and not as much on a personal level. There were some exceptions to this, but it was different then for these people. Many even had this belief that based on the merits of their ancestors like Abraham, which John points out here in verse 9, that they would simply be just fine in God’s eyes because of them. Like our ancestors were so good and so holy, so faithful and so righteous, that we have nothing to worry about. We get a free ride on their coat tails so to speak. And this really kind of fostered self-righteousness or even a cultural righteousness in some and stopped them from really acknowledging and having to deal with their own sinfulness. Again, John is calling all of this out, because the point of his ministry was to help reveal the individual’s sin and make the call to repentance as they prepared for the Messiah. And Jesus was so close to them at this moment.

 

But as I said at the beginning, I also want to observe the leadership traits that we see in both John and Jesus throughout this passage. And I think even so far in this interaction with the religious leaders, we see a significant characteristic of a good leader in John. And that is that sometimes a leader has to call things like it is or they have to call things out that are wrong. I’m sure these guys didn’t like to hear “You brood of vipers” and “let’s see the fruits of real repentance in your lives”, but they probably needed to hear these things. You see a good leader at times, when necessary, will call out and deal with the problems. And I say, when necessary, because some people, leaders, ministries, especially in the YouTube and social media culture, basically operate with the singular objective to tear down everyone else as much as possible and often times they are speaking out of pure ignorance and are far more damaging to the mission then they are beneficial in any way at all. Many have forgotten what Jesus taught in Matthew 7, let’s go there really quick.

 

Read Matthew 7:1-5

 

It’s like you have this massive log sticking out of your eye, but you’re worried about the guy with a little piece of sawdust and see there at the end of verse 5 the goal ultimately is to get the speck out of the brother’s eye. But the point here being that we need to go about it the right way. Help and correction is necessary and needed and we shouldn’t be against it happening even for us.

 

Proverbs 12:1 says:

 

That’s literally what it says. 2 Timothy 3 tells us that one of the core purposes of the bible is to correct and rebuke us when we need it so that we can be made complete and equipped properly for God’s work. We need correction and sometimes we may have to help correct others, but it has to happen in the right way. But going back to our passage in Matthew 3, even John’s approach might be a little abrasive, but there is good leadership here still because John is pointing out the problem, but he is also simultaneously leading towards healthy growth in that problem area. He was calling these guys out to get past their like charade of righteousness, and pursue real repentance, like all of these other people around them. And with that he gives them a warning as well in verse 10, that if you don’t deal with these things then you, like a tree bearing no fruit, will get cut down and thrown into the fire. That’s scary, I wouldn’t want them to happen to anyone. And then into verse 11 and 12 he’s like i’m just here talking about sin and repentance and baptizing in that, but there’s One that’s way mightier than I am and He’s going to purify and clean house. John may be a little rough around the edges, but this is good leadership none the less. He’s dealing with the issue, he’s warning about the consequences, but he’s directing towards to the healthy path and that’s so important.

 

We need to not be self-righteous like nit pickers of small insignificant things in each other’s lives. None of us are perfect, myself included, and we should all be working on growth, but when there’s real issues, then in love, we need to deal with them with each other. And I don’t put myself or my wife or my family above that, we’re ground level like everyone else and even the second that we portray that we’re anything above that is the moment that we need correction to get even that fixed. But we’re regular people, we can mess up, we can all mess up, but if we all love each other enough then we’ll be willing to help correct each other when it’s needed, we’ll be willing to hear the correction if it comes to us, and then we can rejoice together when we all grow past the issue and God gets more glory from us all being in a better spot.

 

So, we’ve seen a good leader in John that is willing to deal with the issues, but also lead towards healthy growth, but in the middle of those same verses, I think there is another very significant trait to be seen in him. Let’s look at verse 11 again.

 

Read Matthew 3:11

 

The trait that I see here is humility. John says that the one that he is here talking about is far mightier than he is. John says that he is not even worthy to carry His sandals. This is the mindset that a good leader needs, it’s the mindset that all of us needs. To understand the magnitude and worthiness of Christ must suppress the glory of the individual in favor of all of the glory going to God. Sometimes we’re like “oh yeah, God’s the best!”, but then we still put people on these huge pedestals and then it’s like all the common folk under them and that’s just so broken. It’s what was going on with these religious leaders in this passage, and it still very much goes on today. What we all need to realize collectively is that God and God alone deserves all of the glory and we’re all down here on an even playing field meant to work together in just different roles to see that He gets all of the glory that He deserves.

 

There are so many passages about humility, lots in Proverbs like:

 

Proverbs 11:2 –

 

 

 

 

Jesus came humble, and He did so for a purpose, He came this way to be relatable to us, He came this way to set an example for us. And I think one of the best passages ever to see this truth is in John 13, so let’s go there together.

 

Read John 13:1-6 and 12-17

 

Jesus didn’t have to come humble; He chose to come humble. Jesus didn’t have to do this humble job at this moment with the disciples, He chose to. Jesus didn’t have to humble Himself even to the point of the death on the cross like Philippians said, He chose to. And what did Jesus say there in those later verses in John 13? He said … If I am your Lord and Teacher and I can do these things? Then you can to. I have given you an example, you should do what I have done. And the reality of what He is saying is that you aren’t greater than Me, so if I can do these things then why in the world would you not do them? And we should. We do need a lower view of ourselves that sees others before us and more than anything sees Him over everything and everyone else.

 

And so, up to this point, we’ve seen rightful correction or guidance through John, we’ve seen humility through John and also in Jesus, but what about this last part of Matthew 3? Let’s read these verses again.

 

Read Matthew 3:13-17

 

We can look at this and be like why in the world is Jesus being baptized? And honestly that’s a great question. There’s weird, but completely unfounded rumors that His family pressured Him to do it, but that doesn’t even make any sense and wouldn’t even be supported by Jesus and John’s quick conversation here. John understood the irony of this situation. He’s like YOU need to be baptizing me, not the other way around. But Jesus is like essentially “let’s do this John” and “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” We look at this and knowing things that come later know that this moment wasn’t the fulfillment of everything, but this was the moment that marked the start of His ministry. It was necessary for Him to move through this moment on the way to His ultimate objective. And obviously, Jesus didn’t need to be baptized, He didn’t need to repent for anything, He was sinless, but He in this moment did what good leaders do.

 

I believe what we see here, is Jesus leading by example. Jesus was engaging with a culture that He fully understood, He knew that baptism and personal repentance wasn’t really seen as something a Jewish person would engage with. Baptism up to this point was really reserved for gentile people wanting to be baptized into Judaism and it almost kind of carried with it a stigma of like the dirty gentile person needs to be washed clean to be like us. But again, that mindset was rooted in this kind of fictional righteousness that was getting in the way of them dealing with sin personally. And even though Jesus didn’t actually need to do these things, He led by example into that water and told John to go ahead and baptize Him and so John did. I see this as almost a bigger picture version of the lesson in John 13, if I your Lord can do these things, if I can walk through your stigma, and break down your walls, then you can do these things to. And as the sinless Jesus, came up out of that water, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit made very clear Who this was as the Spirit literally descended visibly upon Him while God the Father spoke audibly and said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” He didn’t need to repent or be baptized, but He made a really strong point in doing so.

 

So, the narrative for this morning, or the history of the passage is that John was continuing in his ministry, he was engaging with the Jewish leaders, and then had the opportunity to baptize Jesus. But through these things we had opportunity to observe some good leadership going on. We’ve looked at like rightful correction and guidance, at humility, and at leading by example. And I’ve said a few times that these are leadership qualities, but leadership qualities aren’t just for people with leadership titles. I know every single one of us has people around us that we have some level of influence over, that gives each and every one of us leadership responsibility. And with all of us having different levels of leadership responsibility that means we all need to work on these traits. But there’s one more thing that I see in this passage as really just the final point to end on.

 

And that’s that Jesus involved John in His ministry when He was baptized here. As I said, Jesus didn’t need to repent, He didn’t need to be baptized, He definitely didn’t need to be baptized by John, but Jesus went down there for a purpose. He could have just made a speech, He could have just done something miraculous, but He engaged in John’s ministry and brought more weight and credibility to the whole situation. I think a lot of times in church it can become like these are the few special people that do the ministry things. John was like whoa there Jesus, you need to be baptizing me, which is true, but Jesus was like, no John, you do this. And really, they’re working together for the greater purpose. And you see this a lot in Jesus’ ministry, even as He will soon call His disciples and bring them into active ministry.

 

And I want to end on this point, because it’s great to see in these verses, but also because I want to make a point for this church. Base Church isn’t the David and Eileen show. This is God’s house and we’re all just God’s people coming together on even playing field to serve Him and pursue His purposes. All of us have different gifts meant for different roles, but the beauty of those differences is seeing them fit together like the puzzle that God designed to create a beautiful picture of ministry for the growth of each other and for the reaching of our community. We’re small right now and in a lot of ways that’s a great thing, because we can set and build healthy foundations as God brings the growth in His time. But I just want it to be clearly known, that everyone has gifts, ideas, and a voice. It’s not just Eileen and I, and like Jesus and John in this passage, it’s better if we work together. So, please, by all means if you have ideas, if you feel like God has prepared you for a certain area of ministry in the church or in the community, then let’s talk about it and maybe it’s something we actively develop as we grow as a church. We probably won’t pursue every single thing, but like we talked about in our mission statement week, we’ll test what we’re considering and see if it helps us pursue the mission. And if it does, we’ll rally in support, we’ll be about it together, and then again as our mission statement ends I believe that we will see Jesus move and bring transformation into our own lives, into this church, and into this community. And that’s going to happen as we deal with problems and pursue growth, as we humble ourselves before a mighty God, as all lead by example in different areas, and as we work together for these purposes, because God has uniquely designed each of us to support the efforts in different ways.