Exposition of Matthew (Matthew 3:1-6)

Part I

The Ministry of John the Baptist

Questions to be answered in this study

1. What was Bar Mitzvah?
2. What was the main work of carpenters in Jesus’ day other than working with wood?
3. Names have meaning in Scripture; what do the names of John the Baptist’s father and mother, Zacharias and Elizabeth, mean?
4. What was the relationship between Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist?
5. How old was Jesus when He entered His public ministry?

Introduction

Today we move into Chapter 3 in our study of the gospel of Matthew. The narrative jumps forward 30 years between chapter 2 and chapter 3, skipping the childhood and part of the early adulthood of Jesus. At this point, we find Matthew beginning with John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, and then continues telling the story of how Jesus entered into His public ministry in Matthew chapter 4.

The Bible does not give us much detail about the early life of Jesus. Luke only records a single story of Jesus when He was left behind in the temple by His parents. Based on our understanding of ancient Jewish life and customs, we can assume that at age 13, Jesus would have undergone His Bar Mitzvah, which was the Jewish rite recognizing a boy’s entering into manhood. At age 12, Jesus’ trip to the temple for the Passover was probably preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. At age 17, Jesus probably became an apprentice to Joseph’s trade of carpentry.

Carpentry was different because much of the construction was of stone; carpenters were stone cutters and worked with wood. As instructed by Joseph, Jesus needed to learn how to work with His hands because although He was 100% God, He needed to know as a man to relate with humanity. If Jesus was to die for the sins of humanity, he had to be 100% human as well as 100% God.

On the spiritual side, Jesus was also given instructions by His Heavenly Father, preparing Him for His earthly ministry. Jesus was entirely God, not descendent from Adam; therefore, He lived a perfect, sinless life. But being fully human, He had to learn as we all do, and He also had the Holy Spirit as His teacher, as do we. It required years for Him to get prepared for His ministry.

At a given point in time, the heavenly Father gave Jesus the go-ahead to reveal Himself to the world and commence His public ministry. We will see in Chapter 4 that Jesus begins to speak concerning the gospel and perform miracles to demonstrate His deity. His teaching was with great authority and insight, and His miracles were supernatural. He had a perfect understanding of God the Father and also knew the thoughts of man. He knew what the Pharisees thought before they spoke as well as His disciples.

The Pharisees were astounded by the miracles of Jesus because human beings could not replicate them. Nevertheless, they refused to accept Him as the Messiah. The main opposition of the Pharisees to Jesus was His claim to be the Son of God. Jesus acknowledged that He received His power from above and that the Heavenly Father enabled Him to do the things He did.

In Chapters 3 and 4, the narrative jumps forward about 30 years to the time Jesus enters into His public ministry. It starts with the person the Bible refers to as the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Names in Scripture have meaning. Zacharias means “God remembers,” and Elizabeth means “His covenant.” God always remembers His covenant. He always does what He promises to do. In Luke, we read that Zacharias doubted the angel Gabriel when the angel said God had answered his prayer concerning a son, and as a result, Zacharias could not speak until the child was born. Ironically, Zacharias prayed that God would give him a son, and then when he promised to do so, he had trouble believing it. I suppose he was no different from us. Today, we pray for things, and when God answers, we cannot believe it has happened.

Matthew 3:1-6 “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make his paths straight. 4And the same John had his raiment of Camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”

John’s mother, Elizabeth, and Jesus’ mother, Mary, were first cousins; that makes John the Baptist a once-removed cousin to Jesus or second cousin. Both Elizabeth and Mary knew their sons were special. They would be Men who would serve God in ways that fulfilled Bible prophecy. John was born about six months before Jesus. John and Jesus probably were acquainted. Mary had spent three months with her cousin Elizabeth during her pregnancy.

John and Jesus lived some distance apart. John resided in Juda, and Jesus lived in Nazareth. Their families had different ways. The earthly father of Jesus was a carpenter in Galilee. John’s father was a priest who served twice a year. In the temple at Jerusalem. John did not know his cousin Jesus was the future Messiah when growing up. No one outside Mary and Joseph knew the whole story about Jesus. After Joseph died, only Mary would have known this truth. Both Jesus and John grew up in obscurity.

The evidence of this is recorded in John’s Gospel when Jesus and Mary attend the wedding in Cana. They were running out of wine, so Mary asks Jesus to perform a miracle and make wine. Jesus rebukes her for this because it was not yet time to reveal Himself. The critical point is that Jesus was on a divine timetable being shown to Him by the Father. Some people considered Jesus none other than a carpenter’s son in Galilee until the Father revealed His Son. Even then, the people of Jesus’ hometown refused to believe even when it became apparent to the world Jesus is the long-promised Messiah, savior of the world.

Jesus was about 30 years old, according to the Gospel of John, when he entered His public ministry. “In those days,” according to Matthew, John began preaching in the wilderness of Judea. My wife, Margaret, and I spent some time in the wilderness of Judea. Part of the wilderness is like being on another planet, void of any signs of life, as barren as the pictures sent back from Mars.

In the middle of Judea, a mountain range called the Judean Mountains run north-south along the dead sea and the Jordon River. The prevailing winds blow east from the Mediterranean Sea to the west, bringing rain into the plains of Western Israel. Those winds collide with the mountains, and the air cools, which releases its rain on the western foothills. As the air passes over the mountains, it becomes hot, dry winds, creating a vast desert wasteland on the Eastern side of the mountains down to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. That desert is the Judean Wilderness.

This area is where John chose to begin his ministry. He grew up there, but at some point, he moved to this harsh desert region. It was here in the lower Jordan River valley that John spent most of his time. This area where John spent his time was north of the Dead Sea and northeast of Jerusalem. John was an unusual character. He survived off the land; Matthew tells us in verse 4, he was dressed in Camel’s hair and a leathern girdle, living as a recluse, eating wild honey and locust (Locust and grasshoppers look the same and are both from the Acrididae family). By the way, as you are probably aware, chocolate-covered grasshoppers are available for food. They are high in protein, but I don’t think I want any.

To hear John’s message of redemption, people heard about John, who lived in this remote location and walked great distances from Jerusalem, Judea, and other regions. John was an influential preacher preaching repentance. They began to repent of their sins and entered the Jordan river with John for baptism as they listened. It was quite an experience for Margaret and me to be at the location where that could have taken place, and we were excited to be baptized a short distance from there in the Jordon River.