What Does Real Repentance Look Like? - Matthew 3:7-17 (Session 4)

John the Baptist was not impressed by outward religion, family heritage, or public appearances. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him, he challenged them to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” In this session, Glenn and Steve examine what genuine repentance means and why changed thinking should eventually produce changed actions. 

John’s message also contains strong warnings of coming judgment: the axe at the root, the winnowing fork, the chaff, and unquenchable fire. We discuss the difference between baptism with the Holy Spirit and baptism with fire, why religious heritage cannot substitute for faith, and how John’s warning fits with both the justice and love of God.

The session then moves to the baptism of Jesus. Why was a sinless Savior baptized? We consider how Jesus identified with humanity, how baptism points toward death and resurrection, and how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all revealed together at the Jordan River.

Matthew 3:7–17 | The Book of Matthew — Session 4

  Questions discussed in this session include:

• Are there modern-day Pharisees and Sadducees?
• Can someone be a true Christian without showing the fruit of repentance? 
• Does Jesus ever do unpleasant and violent things? 
• Is the doctrine of Hell found in the Old Testament? 
• When will be the baptisms of the Holy Spirit and Fire?

Transcript

Setting Up Matthew Chapter Three

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Welcome back to Reasoning Through the Bible, our podcast where we go verse by verse through the Word of God. We're in the book of Matthew, one of the Gospels of Jesus Christ, and we're in chapter three. Last time we had talked about this man, John the Baptist. He was introduced. Although he's in the New Testament, John the Baptist is often called the last of the Old Testament prophets simply because he acted like an Old Testament prophet. He was a strange man doing strange things with strange food. And he had a bit of an unusual message. He would be out in the wilderness baptizing people, asking them to repent and turn to God. He had large numbers of people following him out into the wilderness. That's where we pick things

John’s Herald Message and Repentance

SPEAKER_00 0:58

up. We're going to start in Matthew chapter 3, verse 7. John the Baptist's message was to be basically a herald, is what it would be called. A herald was somebody who would go before a king, announcing that the king is coming or announcing the king's presence. And so Jesus had a herald too, only in a royal herald. The herald would be dressed in fine clothes and perhaps blowing a trumpet and there'd be a big entourage. With Jesus, he came in a way that people did not expect. His herald wore camel's hair, ate locust and honey, and was out in the middle of nowhere. But he was going before King Jesus, announcing his coming. His message was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And people were coming to him, confessing specific sins before God, which is always good to confess before God. So, Steve, if you could pick us up in Matthew chapter 3, verse 7, and read down to verse 12.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father, for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees, therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 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 Spirit and fire. 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.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

So

Pharisees and Sadducees Defined

SPEAKER_00 2:49

in verse 7, we're introduced to these two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And what do we know about these people? We pick up some clues from later in the New Testament, but what do we know about them?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

So the Pharisees were a studier of the law. They believed in a resurrection. The Sadducees didn't believe in a resurrection. They were part of the Sanhedrin, which was the kind of like the Supreme Court. There was a Sanhedrin of 70, made up of these Pharisees and Sadducees. They interpreted the law, they studied the law, they knew the law, and they were the final court of any type of appeals or anything like that that had to do with the law. And of course, I'm speaking of the Torah, the law of God, not the Roman law or other types of secular law.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

The Pharisees were legalists. They truly had a passion about the Word of God, trying to make sure it was followed exactly to the letter. They were legalists in the sense that, yes, they believed in the inerrancy of scripture. They believed it word for word, but they would also, as legalists tend to do, they added to the word of God. They added their own set of rules. If the Bible said one thing, then three times that much is probably good as well. So they would always add things to the scriptures. In the Bible, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of tying up heavy loads and laying it on men's shoulders because they would amplify commands and make it burdensome. The Sadducees were more of the modern liberal. They taught, as you said, that there was no afterlife. Matthew 22, 18 that says they didn't believe in resurrection. They came to Jesus with a trick question, trying to argue theology about the afterlife rather than try to find the truth. Remember, that was the people that came to Christ and asked them the question. The Sadducees arrested the apostles in Acts chapter 5. These two groups were part of the leadership of Israel. The Bible says about the Sadducees aligns with what the secular historian Josephus said about them, which is that they don't believe in the afterlife. And I always think of in Acts chapter 23, Paul was arrested and brought before the high council. And when Paul recognized that there were both Pharisees and Sadducees there, I think he intentionally created an argument so he could get out of there by saying, Gentlemen, I'm here because of the resurrection. And they started arguing with each other, and he ended up getting out of the room at the time. So these are our two groups. It says in verse seven, many of them were coming out for baptism. What does John say at the end of verse seven?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

He calls them a brood of vipers. And he says, Who warned you to flee from the wrath of God? The picture there is kind of like snakes scurrying from a fire, a brush fire. And of course, the question is, why are you coming out to be baptized? In other words, John's message was repent, which we've talked about means a changing of the mind and turn towards God for the kingdom of God is at hand. And here are these Sadducees and Pharisees, this body of legalists and overseers of the law and overseers of the people coming out to be baptized. And I'm using their quotes because the response that John gives here, he's obviously doesn't believe that they're serious about it.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

And get the picture. John is out in the middle of nowhere, and there's all these different people, this cross-section of society that had come out to hear him. There were very poor people, there were shopkeepers, there were soldiers, and then there were these Pharisees and Sadducees who were really the leaders of the community. These people would have had fine clothes, were in a position of leadership and power. John is not soft and gentle here. He's very blunt and very straightforward. Calls them a brood of vipers. That's going up to the leadership of Israel, the ones with the power, and calling them snakes. Very blunt statement.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

And I believe Jesus at one time also refers to them as snakes, too, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, read Matthew 23 and 24. We'll get there before the end of the book and we'll find out what happens when Jesus was passionate about the truth and what he does. Then

Fruit That Proves a Changed Heart

SPEAKER_00 7:10

in verse 8, John tells them, at least tells the people out there, bear fruit worthy of repentance. To show that you've actually changed your mind. Is it possible for somebody to repent without some sort of fruit demonstrating their repentance, some sort of evidence that they have repented?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I don't think so, because your actions follow wherever your mind and your heart is.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

That's really what the word means, right? If my actions are taking me one direction and I change my mind and decide to change them, but I keep doing it, then I'm still going the same direction. I haven't truly repented. So at a minimum, one's attitude and actions about sin should change. At a very minimum, we can't really say, I changed my mind and I reject this thing, but I'm going to keep doing it.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I mean, that's not a logical An apple tree is going to bear fruit of an apple. If you become an orange tree and you're still bearing apples, the evidence shows that you're still an apple tree.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

As Jesus said, you don't get figs from thistles. Thistle is a sticker vine, and a nasty, prickly sticker vine doesn't give you a good fig. And then in verse 8, John says, bear fruit worthy of repentance. Then he has this message that is primarily of God's judgment. He talks about the axe already laid at the root of the tree. You know, the axe at the root of the tree is for cutting it down. And he says, the axe is there, and the winnowing fork is in his hand. What's a winnowing fork and what's it for?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Well, the winnowing fork, and and we talked about this when we were talking about Gideon back in uh Judges, winnowing fork. They would take the wheat and on their threshing floor they would beat it out to get the kernels of the wheat out of it. And of course, you'd be left with the bigger pieces. And then to get even separate more of the wheat kernels from the chaff, they would take that winnowing fork, much like a pitchfork, scoop it in there and throw it up in the air. And the wheat kernels were heavier than the chaff, and the wheat kernels would fall down and the chaff would blow away in the wind. So it was a tool that was used to mix up, throw up the wheat in order to separate the wheat, the good part that was wanted to be kept from the chaff, which was the bad part that did not want to be kept.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

So the winnowing fork would beat the wheat. You would hit it with this fork, and it would remove the useless part, the chaff. If we look at this passage, John has a message that's full of wrath and judgment. He has a severe message. Verse 7, he talks about the wrath to come. Verse 10, the axe is laid at the root of the tree. Trees that don't bear fruit are going to be cut down. Verse 11, Jesus is going to baptize with fire. Verse 12, the winnowing fork is in his hand for beating out the useless part. And at the end of verse 12, the chaff is going to be burned up. So we have here a message that's a severe message. It's a message that this great and terrible situation God is going to bring about. And he says it's right there. The axe is already at the root of the tree. Judgment is about to happen. That's what John saw.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

And it's a message that's in line with or along with the kingdom is near or the kingdom is at hand. So the kingdom is a good thing. The Messiah is coming and the kingdom is about to be here. That's a good thing. But there's going to be wrath associated with it as well. And that's part of his message. So both good and bad are going to come out of that.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

And in the Old Testament, it talks about both. It talks about God coming in wrath, what it calls the great and terrible day of the Lord, where punishment is dealt out to those that need it. But it also talks about this glorious day where the king will be there and there's going to be this great kingdom. What John didn't see, and many of the Old Testament prophets didn't see, was the in-between time, the church age that we're in now. They saw the two mountains. They saw the mountain of judgment and the mountain of the great kingdom. What they didn't see was in between. And I don't think John even saw it here because he said the acts is right there.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

And the kingdom is near. And the wrath part is dealing with the sin. That's the judgment. And the judgment is the sin of the people, of the nations, of the world, the sin of disobedience of God, doing what was right in their own eyes, doing things that are not associated with God and God's will, going against God. All of that is sinful. And there's going to be a day when God deals with that. That's the wrath that is to come. We have some forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and our sin debt has been paid. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, Jesus took that sin, paid that debt. But if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ and you haven't expressed your faith in that his death was a sacrificial death and you're dependent on the blood of his sacrifice, then the sin that you have is going to be dealt with by God at some point in time.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

The first time Jesus came, he gets on a gentle donkey and rides in the triumphal entry to a lot of cheers and waving of palm branches about the king arriving. And it was a gentle time. What does the book of Revelation tell us about what Jesus is going to be like? He's riding the second time. He's riding a war horse. Riding a war horse. And he has fire in his eyes, and he's there to kind of take names. He's there to clean their clocks. And that's what John is talking about here. He has winnowing forks in his hand. He's going to clean the floor. He's going to get rid of the chaff. But it also says in verse 11 that Jesus is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. When

Holy Spirit Baptism Versus Fire

SPEAKER_00 12:46

is that? Is that the day of Pentecost? The baptism of Holy Spirit and fire, I see as two different instances. Simply because Acts chapter 2, verse 3, day of Pentecost was not fire. Day of Pentecost was indeed the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And it talks there about a sound of wind and tongues like fire. But on the day of Pentecost, there was no wind. It was the sound of wind, and there was no fire. It was tongues like fire. And this was the baptism of the Holy Spirit part. So that's the first part. Day of Pentecost was the baptism of Holy Spirit. It was not the baptism of fire. The baptism of fire that John's talking about here is when we burn up the chaff. Remember the parables that Jesus taught about the wheat and the tares? Eventually the angels will come, pull out the tares, the useless weeds, bundle those up and burn them. That's going to be the baptism of fire. Now the wheat and the chaff are growing together.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

And I'm with you on that. I agree with that. Couple of points here. One in my notes that I have regards to fire, I have here as being a purifying and refining fire. So it's kind of like the word picture of what you do in a crucible, whenever you're melting metals, you get it red, red, red hot, and then you melt it, and then you put something in it to take the slag off. So you purify it. You get all the impurities and everything else like that out of the metal, take it out away so that when you're left with is a purified piece of metal, whether it's gold or or whatever type of metal that you have. Another thing is that this is something that we also see in scripture, and that what you just described as he being the Messiah or the one to come, which we know is Jesus, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. That's two separate events. So even though it's said together with a conjunction here in one sentence, there are two events that are happening thousands of years apart.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Two different baptisms. Yeah. Two different baptisms. There's the baptism of the Holy Spirit that happened on the day of Pentecost. That's when Jesus came the first time. When he comes the second time, it's going to be the baptism by fire. I would agree with you that when you talk about the metal and purifying the metal can only happen if it goes through the fire. And John the Baptist says in verse 11, he was not even fit to carry Jesus' sandals. In many cultures, the feet are considered filthy and dirty, and anything to do with the feet are considered kind of dirty and nasty. John is giving a very descriptive way of saying how elevated Jesus is. He said, Jesus, the one comes after me, is so high and lofty, I'm not even fit to do the dirtiest servant job, which is to carry his sandals. That's how high he's lifting up Jesus. And again, we talked about already in verse 12, winnowing forks in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor. That's a violent act of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Why Heritage and Tradition Fail

SPEAKER_01 15:36

So I have something here from verse 9 when he's talking about don't suppose that you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. I believe what he's saying there is that they can't claim that we are descendants of Abraham, the descendants, the chosen descendants through Isaac and Jacob, and that that's a good thing, and that we're approved, and we have special privileges and all of that because we're of that line and we're the believers of the line that believes actually in the one true God. God's chosen people, yeah, Yahweh, because John is saying, God, God can take stones, he can take anything and praise but just like he raised up the nation of Israel out of nothing through a man and a woman who were barren, couldn't have children, Abraham and Sarah, and brought that nation up. John's saying is God can do things on his own. So they can't lean on tradition.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

They can't lean on their heritage, just my blood heritage genealogy doesn't get me into the kingdom.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

And it goes to the point of what his message was repent, change your mind. And his approach to them is of looking at them and saying, What are you doing out here? It's obviously you're not going to change your mind. So what are you doing out here? You're the snakes trying to flee from the wrath. I think it's interesting there and how John puts that in verse nine.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

And likewise, today there's many people that think just because I'm a human, then therefore God's going to love me and let me into his kingdom for no more or no less than I'm a human being. That's not the case. That's very clear here and other places.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

I think a common saying is we're all God's children, and that's not the case. The children of God are the ones that have faith in him and belief in him, and especially through his son Jesus Christ, who had the sacrifice.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

So the very last part of verse 12, what kind of fire will there be? Does it describe there as part of God's judgment when he comes in the second time?

SPEAKER_01 17:35

In verse 12? Yeah. It's talking about the fire that's burning the trees that bore bad fruit that have been thrown into that fire.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. This is a fire that will not be quenched. And this term comes again, John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. That term comes from a couple of places in the Old Testament. He's not quoting them directly, but I submit to you that there's at least a couple of places in the Old Testament it specifically talks about an unquenchable fire. I've heard people say that the doctrine of hell is a New Testament doctrine not found in the Old Testament. And it's just not true. Isaiah 66, 24 says this, and they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. And then in Jeremiah 7.20, therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, mine anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn and shall not be quenched. Jesus came the first time in love and compassion. John is presenting this judgment here. And Jesus will indeed come in judgment. It says that very clearly in the book of Revelation. The first time he came was of the message of love. He came gently. Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you, for my way is easy. And he came in love, gave us a chance to get into the kingdom through accepting him in a way of love. But there will come a time when the clock is over with and he comes back, and there'll be a day of judgment. The doctrine of hell is in both the New Testament and the Old Testament, and the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, because of the love of God, is in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

You know what this reminds me of, Glenn? It reminds me of our session that we did on whether or not God was moral in relation to pushing out the people of Canaan. And in that session, you brought up the fact that God's nature and through other scriptures, with the example of Jonah and others, that God had given them hundreds of years to repent and a chance to worship Him. And they didn't do it. And in fact, they had even gotten even more evil in the gods that they worship the doing child sacrifice. This is similar. Jesus has come 2,000 years ago or more as we sit here and his first coming, just like you described. Mankind has a chance to repent, but there's going to be a day of judgment that's coming. So to me, it's I I kind of see a similarity between those two.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

I think there is. And God is so loving that he sends Jesus the first time with a message of love, gentle man, that wouldn't even pull out a smoking wick. He wouldn't even put out a smoking fire that was just annoying. He was so gentle. Again, the donkey that he rode on had never been ridden. He was so gentle that the animals didn't even balk at his being on there. We did have gentle Jesus, meek and mild, the first time. And he came with a message of love because God is so loving. But just like any parent, he wouldn't be a just parent if he didn't ultimately punish sin.

Jesus’ Baptism and the Trinity

SPEAKER_00 20:47

So the next verses start with verse 13. And it says here, Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent him, saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? 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. 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. And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now, of course, we have all three persons of the Trinity here. The Father speaks from heaven, and the Holy Spirit comes out as an embodiment of a dove and lights on him. The doctrine of the Trinity says that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son, the Father, as persons, but they are the one God. The Father speaks, and the Son here is a separate person. This is just one of the places where it shows us a demonstration of the Trinity. Notice here that everyone else repented and was baptized. Jesus did not need to repent, he was baptized, but he He had no need to repent. It says nothing of Jesus repenting or confessing. He had nothing to confess.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

I think that's part of John's preventing him, saying there isn't there's no need to baptize you. You don't need to be baptized.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

And he realized who it was. He said, Yeah, I'm the one who needed to be baptized. What was Jesus' reason? Why was he baptized?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

So that it'd be fitting for everything to fulfill all righteousness, so that all that is right would be fulfilled in Jesus' mission that he was there for. That was all part of it.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Jesus wanted to fully and completely identify as a human. To be a mediator, he had to be perfectly human and perfectly divine. From that, he needed to do everything a human would do. Vernon McGee said this: Jesus was a king who identifies himself with his subjects. But that's really what he's doing here. He is the king and he is the righteous king. He's identifying with us this way. Isaiah 53, 12 says the Messiah will be numbered with the transgressors. He was not a transgressor, but he put himself in our shoes in all ways. And the other reason why I think is baptism is a symbol of death and resurrection. Jesus knew he would die and resurrect. He was baptized here. It's a symbol of dying and rising again. What's interesting to me here is that Jesus identified with us in every way, including baptism, so that we can then identify with him in salvation.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

You know that last verse there in 17 is from Isaiah 42.

Isaiah’s Prophecy and a Gentle King

SPEAKER_01 23:29

And I'd like to read just nine verses from 42. It kind of gives a little bit more context related to that. This is Isaiah 42, starting with verse 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth that comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will take you by the hand and keep you, I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name, my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and now new things I now declare, before they spring forth, I tell you of them. And I just read that because there's other parts here of this Isaiah 42 and other things that we'll see that Jesus refers back to, uh freeing the prisoners, making the blind to see. It refers to what you pointed out in his coming, gentle, not being able to point out a wick. So these are all things that were spoken of by the prophet Isaiah hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus actually coming.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

I think of that smoking wick part. If you have a candle that's making light for the room, you blow it out, but it's still smoldering and just smoking. There's no light, no heat, it's just annoying, it's just smoking, it's not doing anything for us. He was so gentle. Won't even put that out. That is our loving Jesus. He was so much wanting to identify with us that he came as a human being, came as a little baby, grew up as a man, and did everything to identify with us. He lived a simple life. He was even baptized, so he wanted to identify with us. We get baptized so we can identify with him in death and resurrection. Also, note here, he came up out of the water, it says in in Matthew here, which means it was immersion. Not a huge major issue, but that was what was practiced was full immersion. Then he was at the river. At the river. So that gets us to the end of chapter three, and we'll stop there for today. And I hope you'll enjoy these lessons as much as we are as we go through Matthew. Keep with us next time here on Reasoning Through the BiPath.