John the Baptizer; Matthew 3:5-6, 11-12; Mark 1:5, 7-8; Luke 3:15-17; John 1:24-28
Matthew 3:5 Then Jerusalem was going out to him1, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan2; 6 and they were being baptized3 by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.
Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you [a]with water for repentance4, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you [b]with the Holy Spirit5 and fire. 12 His winnowing fork6 is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn7, but He will burn up the chaff8 with unquenchable fire9.”
Mark 1:5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
Mark 1:7 And he was [a]preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. 8 I baptized you [b]with water; but He will baptize you [c]with the Holy Spirit.”
Luke 3:15 Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were [a]wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was [b]the Christ10, 16 John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you [c]with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork6 is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire9.”
John 1:24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the [a]Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet11?” 26 John answered them saying, “I baptize [b]in water3, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 It is He who comes after me12, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie10.” 28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan13, where John was baptizing.
Footnotes (Matthew)
a. Matthew 3:11 The Gr here can be translated in, with or by
b. Matthew 3:11 The Gr here can be translated in, with or by
Footnotes (Mark)
a. Mark 1:7 Or proclaiming
b. Mark 1:8 The Gr here can be translated in, with or by
c. Mark 1:8 The Gr here can be translated in, with or by
Footnotes (Luke)
a. Luke 3:15 Or reasoning or debating
b. Luke 3:15 I.e. the Messiah
c. Luke 3:16 The Gr here can be translated in, with or by
Footnotes (John)
a. John 1:25 I.e. Messiah
b. John 1:26 The Gr here can be translated in, with or by
Commentary
In this study, I wanted to focus on John’s baptism and how the concept of performing a cleansing ritual among witnesses would not have been a foreign concept to people of the day. “John’s baptism in water was not Christian baptism. The death and resurrection of Christ had not yet occurred in order to be depicted by this baptism. John’s baptism was similar to the Old Testament oblations (washings) that symbolized a cleansing of personal repentance on the part of a believer” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1168).
These ancient cleansing rituals have also been called ablutions, and they were observed in almost every ancient faith, but were particularly prevalent in Jewish tradition. While it is clear that in Jesus’ day the Jews were focused on the ablution of hand-washing (Matt 15:1-2, Mark 7:3), this rite is not specifically prescribed in the Old Testament. However, there was a requirement for washing hands and feet before performing priestly duties (Exod 30:19; 40:31), as well as a full body cleansing for those who had become ceremonially unclean and wished to return to the community (Lev 8:6; 14:8; 15:5-10, 19-27; 16:24; Num 19:19) (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible Vol 1, pg. 18). John’s baptism was the full body cleansing, and it makes sense, given the parallel between a ceremonially unclean citizen being welcomed back to the community and a repentant sinner being welcomed into the family of God.
The Jewish community today still observes certain ablutions using a mikveh, or special bath. In these rites, the person seeking to be cleansed must immerse themselves in the water in the presence of a witness, to corroborate that the ceremony was performed properly and completely. Within the Old Testament references, there are several indications that full immersion was performed by the individual seeking cleansing and not by someone else dunking them, which makes me wonder if John the Baptist served as the witness to the ablution of baptism, rather than laying hands on his followers to submerge and raise them from the water. Interestingly, Jesus Himself did not baptize, but He accepted the baptism of John as the fulfillment of righteousness, and He encouraged His disciples to baptize new believers. However, He did send many to be healed by going and washing themselves in the river. Later, Christian baptism took on a different significance when the disciples baptized “in the name of Jesus”.“As the dying of Christ is represented by the physical element of water in which the old [self] drowns, so the rising of Christ is represented by the physical laying on of hands to lift the new man up in the Spirit” (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible Vol. 1 pg. 465).
Per these passages, John had a surprisingly far-reaching ministry. However, when Mark says all the people of Judea were going to be baptized, he simply means many, many people, similar to the way we would say “everyone’s doing it” today. He says they were being baptized and confessing their sins. “Confessing stems from two Greek words which together mean ‘to say the same thing as.’ Genuine confession is not merely admitting guilt,” but it is agreeing with God that your view of the sin is the same as His (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1237). The passage in John shows us “there is a vast difference between what [John the Baptist] is doing with water, which is only a sign, and what the Messiah will do with the real thing, the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1299). John’s prediction that the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire “is repeated by Christ in Acts 1:5” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1269).
As John explained to his followers the difference between his baptism and the baptism that was to come, he expressed humility in his station, as lower than Jesus. Rather than feeling threatened by the coming of the Messiah, he recognized that the strength of his ministry was in his deference to Jesus. “If you regard strength as the power to dominate, you’ll always be intimidated by those who seem to have more than you – more expertise, more experience, more energy, more intelligence” (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1623).
John makes several metaphors regarding the fate of those who repent in preparation for the kingdom of God and those who do not. “The threshing fan refers to a wooden shovel used for tossing grain into the wind in order to blow away the lighter chaff, leaving the good grain to settle in a pile. The chaff would then be swept up and burned” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1169). So we can infer that baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with fire affects two groups of people. Those who receive Christ being filled with the Holy Spirit, and those who reject Christ being burned with eternal flame in Sheol. People often like to ask Christians, “So do you believe I’m going to Hell if I *insert behavior here*?” The answer to that question is, it isn’t the behavior that sends a person to Hell. It’s whether or not that person has accepted Christ and whether that acceptance has led to repentance (which, as we learned last week, means turning from sin).
See the next post here https://onthepath.online/2019/03/21/johns-message/
Scripture References
1,3 Mk 1:5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
2 Lk 3:3 And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;
3,10,12 Mt 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit5 and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
3 Mt 3:13 Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15 But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him. 16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,
3 Jn 1:25 They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.
3 Jn 3:23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized—
3 Ac 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
3 Ac 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
3 Ac 10:37 you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed.
4 Mk 1:4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
4,10 Mk 1:7 And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. 8 I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
4,10 Lk 3:16 John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
4 Jn 1:26 John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
4 Ac 8:36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
4 Ac 8:38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.
4 Ac 11:16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
5 Jn 1:33 I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
5 Ac 2:3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
5 Tit 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
6 Is 30:24 Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
6 Is 41:16 “You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,
And the storm will scatter them;
But you will rejoice in the Lord,
You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
6 Jer 15:7 “I will winnow them with a winnowing fork
At the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people;
They did not repent of their ways.
6 Jer 51:2 “I will dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may winnow her
And may devastate her land;
For on every side they will be opposed to her
In the day of her calamity.
6,10 Lk 3:17 His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
7 Mt 13:30 Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”
8 Ps 1:4 The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
9 Is 66:24 “Then they will go forth and look
On the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm will not die
And their fire will not be quenched;
And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”
9 Jer 7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”
9 Mt 13:41 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
9 Mk 9:43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,
9 Mk 9:48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
10 Jn 1:19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
11 Dt 18:15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.
11 Dt 18:18 I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
11 Mt 21:11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
11 Jn 1:21 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
12 Jn 1:30 This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’
13 Jn 3:26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”
13 Jn 10:40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.
Matt 15:1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
Mark 7:3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders;
Exod 30:19 Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it;
Exod 40:31 From it Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet.
Lev 8:6 Then Moses had Aaron and his sons come near and washed them with water.
Lev 14:8 The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days.
Lev 15:5 Anyone, moreover, who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening; 6 and whoever sits on the thing on which the man with the discharge has been sitting, shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 7 Also whoever touches the person with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 8 Or if the man with the discharge spits on one who is clean, he too shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 9 Every saddle on which the person with the discharge rides becomes unclean. 10 Whoever then touches any of the things which were under him shall be unclean until evening, and he who carries them shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:19 ‘When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. 20 Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 22 Whoever touches any thing on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 23 Whether it be on the bed or on the thing on which she is sitting, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. 24 If a man actually lies with her so that her menstrual impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean. 25 ‘Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean. 26 Any bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her like her bed at menstruation; and every thing on which she sits shall be unclean, like her uncleanness at that time. 27 Likewise, whoever touches them shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.
Lev 16:24 He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people.
Num 19:19 Then the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.
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