Matthew 3....
John the Baptist was Jesus cousin.
Verse 3 is from Isaiah 40:3
Ok this guy ate wild honey and locusts for meals..,...how weird, but important. His simple lifestyle of living in the desert and eating insects was an example of him being a humble guy. He wasn't out to impress anyone....just live life without self indulgences.
Lots of people came to john for baptism. His baptism was for sin cleansing.
Verse 7... A lot of the religious leaders were coming to see what john was doing and questioning him. They were mad cause they felt they were the only righteous ones to do any religious work for God. Here John tells them to back off. They felt they earned salvation just by being so religious but that isn't the case. Salvation is not a birthright we get just because we are born into a certain family.....but a relationship with Jesus...( I know you already know that....but the leaders of that day didn't)
Verse 11.....John tells them he baptized with water for repentance of sin. He tells them Jesus is coming who will give the Holy Spirit one day and Jesus is more powerful than anyone.
Verse 13.....Jesus wants baptized by John. John finds this weird since Jesus is Jesus and he never sinned so he doesn't need it....but we do. Jesus set the example for us. He never asks us to do anything he didn't or won't do.
I love verse 16-17.....heaven opens and God speaks about His son. How beautiful!
And this very moment the Trinity is here. It speaks of the Son, Father and Spirit all aT once.
My two favorite verses in this chapter is verse 8. We can tell by your fruit. My second favorite verse is 16-17, could you just imagine that view and moment.?. What is sadducees?
ReplyDeleteThat moment would have left anyone there breathless I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteAnd my notes say that Sadducees were a group of men who were known for their denial in all things supernatural.....like angels, and the resurrection of the dead. They only accepted the first 5 books of the Old Testament as authority. They were political and opposed Jesus and all he was trying to do. Jesus took the focus off the, and their control of the people.