Jesus and His cousin John the Baptist came on the public scene
at about the same time. John showed up first with a spectacular ministry of
preaching down by the Jordan River in a wilderness area not far from the north
end of the Dead Sea. Thousands of people came to see him and upon hearing him
they repented of their sins and were baptized by him. It was there that Jesus came
from Galilee to be baptized by John.
John's voice rang out, and its echoes filled the Promised
Land. The people of Israel were under the rule and oppression of the Romans and
lived in expectation of the coming of the Messiah to deliver them. I can
imagine that over the past thirty years the stories of the birth of Jesus by
the shepherds, the appearance of the wise men, Herod killing all the boys under
two years of age in Bethlehem, and the appearance of Jesus at the temple astounding
the religious leaders, had spread across the land and when John showed up preaching,
“The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:1-2), must have caused that
expectation of the Messiah’s coming to rise even higher!
Luke tells in verses 15, that the people “were in
expectation” and some people were confused by his crusade and wondered if maybe
he was the Messiah. No doubt, the authorities were afraid of his influence with
the multitudes, who believed him to be a prophet. Although he performed no
miracles, his voice had an Elijah-like ring and his message had an unmistakable
authority. As the days passed, more and more people even speculated that he
might be the very Messiah Himself. In verses 16-18, John did his best to put a
stop to their thinking this as he described the difference between his ministry
and the ministry of Jesus.
John said, “He indeed baptized with water”, because it
was the seal of repentance that he required of his converts. But there was more
to it than mere baptism in water. That was all well and good for a ministry of
repentance. But he was there to announce the coming of One who would baptize
with the Holy Spirit and with fire (3:16).
Between John and Jesus was a great gulf. John was a voice;
Jesus was the Word. John had come in the spirit and power of Elijah; Jesus
would come in the spirit and power of Jehovah. John's baptism related to
repentance; Jesus' baptism related to regeneration (John 3:3-7).
Had the nation responded to the ministry of John and the Messiahship
of Jesus, then the baptism of the Holy Spirit would have been for Israel. As it
was, that side of things was postponed for some two thousand years, and the
Gentiles came into the blessing that the Jews had spurned.
The baptism that John foretold took place on the Day of
Pentecost when a small nucleus of believers were baptized by the Holy Spirit
into the church, the mystical body of Christ (Acts 1:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:12-27;
especially v. 13). John, of course, like all of the Old Testament prophets,
knew nothing of the mystical body of Christ which we know as the church. All he
discerned was that if Israel missed the baptism of the Spirit, they would be
faced with a baptism of fire, which would be a judgment of fire.
John made this clear in verse 17: “His winnowing fan is
in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather
the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable
fire."
Yes, my friend, Jesus and His angels will gather “the wheat”,
the genuine believer, into His dwelling place in heaven one day as He promised
in John 14:2-3: “In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so,
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am,
there you may be also.” But if you reject Jesus and His salvation, like the
“chaff” you will face the judgement of “unquenchable fire”!
To reject or receive Jesus is your choice! May the Lord
help you to make the right one today!
God bless!
