2-5-2022 Seventh Day BAPTIST Edgewater, FL Pastor Keith “REPENT” Matthew 3;1-15

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2-5-2022 Seventh Day BAPTIST Edgewater, FL  Pastor Keith “REPENT” Matthew 3;1-15

 

 

In chapter 3, Matthew has jumped ahead 30 years from the end of chapter 2. We are told about John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness. In Malachi 4;5-6 God says He is sending Elijah before the coming of the Lord. There was a silence of 400 years with no prophet until John shows up. He preaches the repentance of the people and that a greater one than he is coming. John says he is not the Christ but the greater One is coming.

John was a prophet like Elijah but not the actual Elijah from centuries ago. John said repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus began His ministry saying the same then when He first preached. Repentance is very important. It is the beginning of our relationship with God. Repentance is to turn away from evil and the world and instead turn to God. It’s like when we are kids and we did something bad to our brother or sister. Our parents made us say we were sorry. Sometimes we really did feel bad about what we did to them and we were sorry. So repentance is the same thing.

John the Baptist was like a heralder, one who announced the arrival of King Jesus. John himself lived a simple life living poorly and eating poorly. But John was bold and fussed at the scribes and Pharisees when they came to him. John saw them as professional hypocrites and called them snakes and vipers. He said the Pharisees had to really repent and produce fruit in their life. You can tell if a person is real by their fruits and what they actually do.

John the Baptist said he was not worthy to untie Jesus’s shoe. He was there to tell people of the coming of Jesus. John’s biggest thing he did was to baptize people for the repentance of their sins. To be baptized meant you were all into the repentance with a change of your actions and a change of your heart. They were confessing their need to be made right in the eyes of God. They wanted to become a part of God’s family. In verse 11 John tells us that Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Ghost.

In verses 13 to 15, Jesus came to be baptized of John. John said he needed to be baptized by Jesus. Jesus said it was to be done to fulfil righteousness. Baptized means down in the water is death and up out of the water is life. Jesus died and rose again. And it’s just like when we will die and rise again because we put our trust in Jesus. When Jesus was baptized, God said “this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”. John the Baptist’s ministry was the same as Jesus’s ministry; calling people to repent of their sins, to die to their sins and to live with God again. Following God again is what John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ want us all to do by repenting of our sin and having a relationship with God. We need to put to death our old self and rise again with Jesus in a new life with God the Father.

 

AMEN

Edited February 5, 2022 by MizKJVOnly