The Weekend Word

Matthew 3:7-12

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

• See how John is talking to the masses but then he singles out a particular group who now stand as his congregation.
• Who are the Pharisees and Sadducees?
• (Here you will need to Google or study on your own as I don’t have enough space to elaborate – but we can discuss in the comments.)
• Then follows a confrontation. I find it interesting that John didn’t begin with “we would like to welcome our honored guests this week – some fine leaders in our community.” – nope, not gonna happen.
• Brood of vipers – what is a viper?
• What brought you out of your holes? He is asking “What is your real motive for being here?”
• What was the wrath? Where did they hear of this wrath to come?

⁸ Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

• Acts 2:37-39 – When someone comes with a troubled heart. What is the solution offered by Peter? “Repent and be baptized”
• Why? For the forgiveness of sin and to receive the Holy Spirit.
• Who is this for? ALL
• What is the result of being repented of your sin? Forgiveness; Receiving God’s Grace and Bearing Fruit
• He sees these Pharisees coming but how can he judge the genuineness of their action? “Show me the fruit!”
• What is Bearing Fruit? What is the Fruit of the Holy Spirit? Gal 5:22-23.
• What are the works of the flesh? Gal 5:19-21 –
• Something to think about – we do not produce our own good fruit. It is not if we try harder to live the good life that these fruit will just appear. It is Jesus’ good fruit which He brings forth in us and through us.
• Who controls the bearing of the fruit? – A must read – John 15:1-6
• We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to produce fruit.

⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

• Now we come to the beginning of the condemnation
• “And do not presume to say to yourselves …” don’t you just hate it when someone reads your mind?
• In general give this a thought – Matt 21:23-27
• “And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
• This often gets passed over because of the bigger question of authority
• Note that Jesus was not asking “what do you think of John?” – but what do you think of the Baptism of John?
• What do you think of baptism? Is it from man or heaven above?
• This is a discussion we have with our Baptist friends and all those who hold to decision theology and believer’s baptism.
• Abraham as our Father – In this instance your lineage does you no good.
• The Jews did not think that they needed to be baptized because they had Abraham – this definitely was not going to be an easy sell.
• There are only 2 religions in the world
• ) The religion of Human Achievement = Pharisees & Sadducees
• ) The religion of Divine Accomplishment = Jesus
• To them they were saved by the delivering merits of their Fathers.
• They had their own Treasury of Merit.

¹⁰ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

• Even now you are being judged – judgment is present – not just some far off time.
• The king comes for 2 purposes – to save and to judge
• Is it possible for a good tree to not bear fruit? (hint: NO!)
• “into the fire” – hell
• Judgment – in case it slipped by you, this is a very strong statement.
• Who is getting cut off here? A Christian?
• The good fruit does not come from your good works but by Christ’s work through you
• “In Christ” you are connected to the vine.
• Not “in Christ” = not connected to the vine – no fruit
• Now we see the fire – v. 10 – 11 – 12 end with fire.

¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

• What does the scripture say? Baptism is for repentance – it repents you.
• The coming king is greater than me (John)
• In comparison, I am not even of a servant’s status.
• There are not 2 different baptisms – one of water one of the spirit
• There are 3 elements in the ONE baptism.
• ) John’s baptism = preparation
• ) Holy Spirit baptism = Christ’s coming, he baptizes the Church
• ) Fire = The result of his return.
• Is the power in the water? NO!! it is in the word. This is how the word is applied to the person – physically.

¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

• “…and gather his wheat into the barn,” We have this consolation
• Note that this very much sounds as if baptism is that winnowing. That somehow through baptism this separation is made.
• What is winnowing? Separating the good from the bad.
• Why would you want to separate? Because you want to save the good – put it in the barns / silos.
• The good grain goes into the granary = heaven
• The bad grain and / or the chaff goes into the fire = hell.