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The Preaching of John the Baptist
Luke 3:15-17 and 21-22
Good News Translation (GNT)
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;15 People's hopes began to rise, and they began
to wonder whether John perhaps might be the
Messiah.
;16 So John said to all of them, "I baptize you with
water, but someone is coming who is much
greater than I am. I am not good enough
even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and fire.
;17 He has his winnowing shovel with him, to
thresh out all the grain and gather the wheat
into his barn; but he will burn the chaff in a fire
that never goes out."
The Baptism of Jesus
;21 After all the people had been baptized,
Jesus also was baptized. While he was
praying, heaven was opened,
;22 and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in
bodily form like a dove. And a voice came
from heaven, "You are my own dear Son.
I am pleased with you."
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
and the Baptism of Jesus
Luke 3:15-17 and 21-22
Many of the Jews began to think that John was the Messiah Himself. But he quickly told them that he was not. "... one more powerful than I will come," said John (verse 16).
John was the greatest and most powerful of all the Jewish prophets (Matthew 11:11).
Yet he was not worthy to untie the thongs of the One coming after him - Jesus.
According to Jewish custom, even the lowliest slave did not have to untie his master's sandals; it was too demeaning a task for even a slave to perform.
But here the greatest man born of woman was not worthy to do this lowly task for Jesus, because Jesus was not just a man - He was God Himself.
John only baptised with water, but Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit
(Isaiah 44:3: Ezekiel 36:24-27; Joel 2:28-32).
John's baptism with water was a temporary outward cleansing of sins.
Water washes only the surface.
But Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit is a permanent inward cleansing, a changing of the heart and the creating of new spiritual life within.
The purpose of John's baptism with water was to prepare men to receive the greater baptism of the Holy Spirit.
In the corresponding passage in Matthew 3:11, Matthew writes that Jesus will not only baptise with the Holy Spirit, but He will also baptise with fire.
Fire, like water, is also a sign of cleansing, of burning away the chaff, the impurities, the burning away of our old sinful nature
(Matthew 3:10,12; 1 Peter 1:7).
Fire is a sign of God's presence. Fire is also a sign of judgment. Those who accept Christ will be saved on the day of judgment.
Those who do not accept Christ will be condemned (see John 3:16-18,36).
Jesus was raised in Nazareth, a town in Galilee, the northern province of Israel. He came with all the other Jews to be baptized.
Jesus Himself had no sin.
Therefore, He did not need to be baptized for His own sake.
Rather, He was baptized for our sake. Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself.
He took our sins upon Himself.
He came and received the death penalty for sin in our place.
He was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12).
According to Matthew 3:13-15, Jesus was baptized to fulfill all right-eousness.
It was God's righteous will that Jesus come to earth in the form of a man, take man's sins upon Himself, and suffer the punishment for sin in man's place.
Therefore, because Jesus came to take man's sins upon Himself, it was necessary for Him to be baptized like other men.
According to Matthew 3:14, John at first did not want to baptise Jesus.
He somehow knew that Jesus was sinless, that He was different from all the other sinful men who were coming to be baptised.
Compared with Jesus, John felt like a sinner who needed baptism himself.
As Jesus was coming out of the water after being baptised, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.
The Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove (Luke 3:22).
Then God spoke from heaven saying to Jesus: "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased".
In this way God manifested to John and to all men that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Saviour, the Son of God
(Psalm 2:7).
Jesus did not suddenly become God's Son and receive the Holy Spirit only at the time of His baptism.
He had always been God's Son from before the beginning of the world (John 1:1-3).
The Holy Spirit had always been with Jesus; the Holy Spirit was Jesus' own Spirit.
But at His baptism Jesus was made manifest as the Son of God publicly before men.
Therefore, in the beginning of his Gospel, Mark has made clear that the Jesus about whom he is writing is no ordinary man, but is the sinless Son of the living God, who has come to baptise men and women with the Holy Spirit and to save them from their sins.
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