Matthew (Part 3)
Bible Study Time 10-7-07
Last week we looked at the fact that King Herod was used as a pawn in Satan’s conspiracy to prevent the coming of Israel’s Messiah. When the wise men failed to return with information concerning the birthplace of the Messiah, Herod ordered the death of all the baby boys in Bethlehem. Matthew points out that this brought about the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophesy, which said:
Jeremiah 31:15 NKJV15 Thus says the Lord: "A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more." But when we go back to look at this prophecy in Jeremiah 31, we see that Jeremiah went on to say:
Jeremiah 31:16-17 NKJV 16 Thus says the Lord: "Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. 17 There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border. In the midst of sorrow, there was still room for rejoicing for the Lord had promised that through tears and sorrow a kingdom would come. This kingdom was promised to the Jews, but it was a kingdom in which the Jews would serve the Gentile nations as a nation of priests.
According to the Law of Moses, the priests functioned as the governing body in Jewish society. The priests were the doctors, the lawyers, the judges, the teachers, the tax collectors, and so forth. They provided everything that good government is suppose to provide.
So when the kingdom does come, the nation of Israel will serve as the priests of that worldwide kingdom, and they will be a great blessing to the Gentile nations. Zechariah says that during that time
Zechariah 8:23 NKJV 23 . . . ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'" Jeremiah indicated that the Jews would experience great sorrow and would shed many tears for their children, but then he said that their sorrow would turn to rejoicing when God brings the children back to the land. At that point, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Matthew was hoping that the Jews of his day would see this connection in Jeremiah’s prophecy and realize that God had a purpose for their tribulation and tears. Matthew wanted them to see that God is in control and that all things do work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.
This was certainly made evident when God warned Joseph in a dream to take Jesus down into Egypt. In this way God protected Jesus from the wrath of Herod. Then, after Herod’s death, God told Joseph that it was safe to return home, and Matthew reminded the people that this too fulfilled the words of prophets for Hosea had said:
Hosea 11:1 NKJV 11 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. Matthew presented an iron clad case for the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah. He was the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin, and He was therefore the Son of God. He had fulfilled all of the prophecies, including the fact that He would be called out of Egypt.
Then in Matthew, Chapter 3, Matthew tells us that John the Baptist came in accordance with prophecy for he was:
Isaiah 40:3 NKJV3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness (saying): "Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert* A highway for our God. John the Baptist knew that he was the forerunner of the Messiah but according to the Gospel of John, he didn’t know exactly who the Messiah would be. It wasn’t until John saw the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus that he knew Jesus was the Messiah. Therefore, from the beginning of John’s ministry, his message was simply that the people should repent of their sins and get their hearts right with God for the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Well, why was repentance so important? If God had promised the kingdom to the Jews, and it was now time for the kingdom, why would they need to repent? The reason was that only the believing Jews would be going into the kingdom, only those Jews whose hearts were right with God.
John made it very clear that when the kingdom did come, God was going to protect and glorify only the chosen few who were willing to humble themselves before God and confess their sins. The rest of the Jews would be cast into the fire and destroyed.
John’s message struck a chord of truth in the hearts of the common people. God blessed the words of John the Baptist, and people came from far and near to confess their sins and to be baptized in the River Jordan.
Oh, how we need the blessing of God today as we share the word of God. Only God can cause our words to resonate in the hearts and minds of the people so that they will sense the call of God upon their lives. We know that as God blesses His word, people will respond even as the people of John’s day responded when they heard the preaching of John.
Unfortunately, many people today have become hardened to the word of God. We have so much information and so much knowledge. But sadly, this human knowledge has caused the hearts of many to grow cold. Many are ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. We can only pray that God will bless our words as He blessed the words of John the Baptist. Only then will we see people responding when the word of God is proclaimed.
As John went out preaching the gospel of the kingdom, many believed, but there were some who came to John with impure motives. Matthew says that when
Matthew 3:7-10 NKJV 7 . . . (John) 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? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 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. 10 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. John knew what was going on in the hearts of these religious hypocrites. They had come to test him and to gather information that they could use against him. John called them a brood of vipers, and he warned them of the wrath to come.
John had to remind them that salvation is truly a matter of the heart and that they needed to humble themselves before the Lord. As the Lord said through Isaiah:
Isaiah 66:2 NKJV2 . . . on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word. It’s not surprising that these religious hypocrites came out to disrupt the work of God. As we all know, where God is working, the devil will also be working. The Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t like John getting so much attention. They saw John as a threat to their own glory and power.
Well, if the Jews felt threatened by John the Baptist, they were certainly headed for a rude awakening, for One who was greater than John the Baptist was about to come on the scene. One day as John was baptizing, Jesus came to be baptized. At first John resisted, saying that he, himself, should be baptized by Jesus. But Jesus replied:
Matthew 3:15 NKJV 15 . . . "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." . . . At that point John agreed to baptize Jesus, and in doing so he prepared Jesus to function as the High Priest of Israel. Many people today stumble over this passage thinking that we too have to be baptized in water in order to fulfill all righteousness, but this statement has to be seen in the light of the message of the day. John’s message was: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The Jews were to be the priests of the kingdom, and Jesus was to be the High Priest of the kingdom. Under the Law, all the priests had to be washed in water before they could perform their priestly duties. The time for the kingdom had come, and so it was time for the High Priest and the believing Jews to be baptized in water in order to fulfill the righteousness of the Law.
John the Baptist baptized believers in water. Jesus and his disciples baptized believers in water. And the Apostles baptized in water during the Acts period. As long as the kingdom of heaven was being offered to the nation of Israel, believers were baptized in water. The earthly ceremonies were a part of God’s offer of the earthly kingdom.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the Jews:
Acts 2:38-39 NKJV38 . . . "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." What promise was Peter talking about? He was talking about the promise of the kingdom, and in keeping with that hope, he called upon the believing Jews to repent and be baptized.
However, when Saul of Tarsus was converted eight years later, everything began to change. Within a year, Peter was sent to Cornelius who was the first uncircumcised Gentile to get saved. When Cornelius believed and spoke in tongues, Peter asked the obvious question: Can anyone think of a reason why we shouldn’t baptize this Gentile? No one could come up with a reason not to, so they did.
Six years after Paul’s conversion, Paul started his public ministry in Antioch of Syria. Within a couple of years, Paul and Barnabas were sent out on their first missionary journey through Asia Minor. When they returned, some Jews from Jerusalem came up to Antioch teaching that the believing Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to be saved.
Paul and Barnabas were not about to stand for that so they went to Jerusalem to discuss the issue. This was now fourteen years after Paul’s conversion, and Paul had seen many Gentiles get saved without ever submitting to the rituals of the Law.
When Paul and Barnabas got to Jerusalem, they met with the Jewish leaders of the Church in Jerusalem, and they all agreed together that the Gentiles should not be required to submit to any of the rituals of the Law. This was partly due to Peter’s testimony concerning the salvation of Cornelius who had been saved without submitting to circumcision.
Within a year after this meeting in Jerusalem, which is often called the Jerusalem Council, Paul went on his second missionary journey which took him all the way over into Macedonia and Greece. Then, within two years after the Jerusalem Council, Paul wrote his first epistles which happened to be his letters to the Thessalonians of Macedonia. From this we see that many significant events had taken place before Paul ever wrote any of his epistles.
Now, if we take a good look at all of Paul’s epistles, we see that Paul never taught anything but salvation by grace through faith alone in the work of Christ upon the cross. Even in his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul proclaims faith in the work of Christ as the one thing that sanctifies and sets believers apart from all other human beings. He said:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NKJV13 . . . I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so (we know that) God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.* According to Paul’s doctrine, faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ was all that was necessary to take a person from death unto life. In I Corinthians, Chapter 1, Paul said:
1 Corinthians 1:14-17 NKJV14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16 Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 NKJV1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony* of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul knew that the power of the cross was the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He knew that no man could ever add anything to what God accomplished through Christ on the cross.
When we look at the book of Acts, we do see Paul practicing water baptism, but it’s also clear from these epistles that he wrote during that time that he never taught water baptism in association with salvation. In Romans 1:16, Paul said:
Romans 1:16 NKJV16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,* for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes . . . In Romans, Chapter 10, Paul said:
Romans 10:9 NKJV 9 . . . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Well, why then did Paul practice water baptism during the Acts period if it wasn’t required? As I mentioned earlier, water baptism was always associated with God’s offer of the earthly kingdom, and it appears that Paul practiced water baptism during the Acts period because God was still offering that kingdom to Israel. Whenever we see the offer of the kingdom, we also see the practice of water baptism. That’s true from John the Baptist to the Apostle Paul.
However, after God set that hope aside at the end of the Acts period, we no longer see any evidence of water baptism in any of Paul’s epistles. In fact, in Colossians, Chapter 2, Paul warns believers, saying:
Colossians 2:8-10 NKJV8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Man’s rituals can add nothing to what Christ has already accomplished for us on the cross, and in this passage Paul describes earthly rituals as mere traditions of men. He goes on to mention circumcision and baptism specifically, saying that we have been circumcised without hands, and we have been spiritually baptized by faith in the operation of God. We are indeed complete in Christ.
Thank you for studying with me this morning. It’s been a pleasure, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/
