Real Life Ministries Newport
**JAN 4** Repentance & Baptism (Matthew 3:1-17)
  • The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)
  • Battle Belongs
  • Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me
  • Living Hope

  • Sermon

    Key Passage

    Matthew 3:1–17 NIV
    In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

    Introduction

    First of all, I want to welcome you to our first service of 2026!
    It is a new year, but it is my hope that we don’t chase after the illusion of anything “new”
    The Gospel is the same
    Our hope is the same
    Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
    I don’t want to usher or create anything new. I want you to know exactly what you are going to get when you come to church.
    Nothing new, but rather, the same message that has changed lives for 2,000 years.
    2026 may be a new opportunity, but it must remain the same message.
    In our passage today, we have a pretty significant gap in time between our last passage about Jesus, Joseph and Mary returning from Egypt to our passage today.
    The gap is possibly 25-30 years.
    This is a reminder of Matthew’s intent in writing this Gospel account.
    It is not a comprehensive biography. Rather, it is a selective biography.
    It is an account of the life of Christ that is intended to reveal who He is and the purpose of His arrival.
    We just covered His arrival in the flesh during our Christmas season
    Then there was a gap of time where Jesus grew up.
    Now, we will see Jesus’ arrival for His purpose of ministry in this world.
    The OT had left off with the prophecy looking ahead to a person like “Elijah” who would prepare the way for the Messiah.
    The book of Matthew had begun with the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth becoming pregnant with a small baby named John.
    We see the return of John, now as a young man, in our passage today.

    Sermon

    Matthew 3:1 NIV
    In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
    This is the same John whose birth was prophesied in the temple.
    The gospel account of John is very clear that the people likely thought that John was the Messiah.
    Three times, John has to say, “I am not the Messiah”
    Here is a guy who had likely outlived his parents at a very young age.
    Likely raised by a group called the Essenes in the wilderness
    They were a sect of deeply religious men in the wilderness who copied Scripture and strictly held to the law.
    This is where we get our Dead Sea Scrolls, from the Essenes in the wilderness south of Judea
    It wasn’t a deeply populated area. There were shepherds, Essenes and not much else.
    John is identified as John the Baptist by Matthew, because he was baptizing people
    Don’t look too deeply into that name. It was what was unique about him.
    Matthew 3:1–2 NIV
    In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
    JTB had a sermon and this was his sermon:
    Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
    This may seem like an odd sermon to preach to a deeply religious people whose entire lives were consumed by the law.
    What did they have to repent from? They had the law, they had the temple, they had their priests and their practices.
    When we look at the word “repent” we usually look at it through the lens of “stop sinning and start doing the right things”
    But John was calling them to more than just “sin less”
    Repentance in this context is connected to the purpose for the repentance
    The purpose of the repentance is that the kingdom of heaven had come near.
    Literally: The Kingdom of Heaven is approaching
    For generations, God had made promises to the people of Israel
    Through Abraham, the whole world would be blessed.
    There would be an eternal kingdom in the line of David
    God would send a savior for his people
    Now, JTB shows up. He has deep credentials in the Jewish eyes.
    Prophesied about in the temple
    Priestly lineage
    Abraham-like story.
    He says, “It’s time to make changes! God’s prophesied kingdom is approaching”
    It was not a call to the law. It was a call to the nature of God.
    People would look at their lives and say, “If God’s kingdom is approaching, this is the guy who would announce it. I need to be ready.”
    In a way, this was a prophetic role for JTB
    All prophecy in Scripture is there for a primary purpose, to prepare the hearts of people for God’s future activity.
    People didn’t approach JTB and say, “So tell me the details so I can figure out the puzzle.
    They repented from their hearts because God’s Kingdom was coming near.
    Matthew interjects into this passage and points to the OT as a foundational proof of JTB’s role
    Matthew 3:3 NIV
    This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”
    I love this about Matthew. Even though his writing is inspired by the Holy Spirit, he still points to the Word of God and prophecy as evidence for what he writes.
    He says, “Don’t just believe me. What I say is rooted in what God has already said.”
    Matthew 3:4–6 NIV
    John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
    John was dressed in a unique manner and had an odd diet.
    But people came from all over the region to hear him preach.
    When he preached about the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven, the people responded.
    How did the people respond?
    They repented because the Kingdom of Heaven was near.
    These people would confess their sin and get baptized
    The baptism was symbolic of their repentance in preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven, the Messiah and King.
    This is an important introduction to the person, JTB.
    We’ll get to him more as our book progresses.
    Matthew 3:7 NIV
    But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
    Who was approaching JTB as he preached in the wilderness?
    Well a bunch of people from the surrounding areas, but now we see two groups of professionals arrive as well.
    The Pharisees and Sadducees are mentioned here
    We will also see that there are teachers of the law, priests, scribes, and other influential groups.
    I will take care to introduce each of these groups so we can grasp their roles in the culture.
    I think that we often lump the Pharisees and the Sadducees together in the same bucket. But they are anything but the same.
    Pharisees- “Separate Ones”- Influential Jews who worked to interpret and encourage life in line with the law.
    Sadducees- “Righteous Ones”
    Rejected immortality of the soul
    All human activity is free-will (no activity from God)
    Did not believe in angels or demons
    Rejected many Jewish traditions
    Influential with only a few wealthy families, not influential with the people
    Boorish social interactions
    Encouraged conflict rather than respect for the rabbis
    Comprised of priests, wealthy people and powerful community leaders who sat in the sanhedrin
    Good relationship with the Romans
    Deep influence from the Greek culture
    Almost exclusively in Jerusalem
    We will run across the Pharisees more frequently than the Sadducees, so I wanted us to get a grasp of the Sadducees here.
    This being said, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were on massively different ends of the political spectrum.
    They did not like each other.
    So for us to lump them into the same bucket, would be a bucket that neither the Pharisees nor Sadducees would be happy with.
    But when it came to JTB, neither of them were happy.
    I imagine these two groups of people were walking side by side down the road from Jerusalem, arguing the whole way.
    They show up to the river where JTB is baptizing and preaching and JTB sees them come over the hill.
    He calls them out.
    Matthew 3:7–10 NIV
    But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
    JTB calls out these religious people on a handful of merits
    Their belief was clearly that the promise of God that He would bless the whole world through the seed of Abraham. Because of this, they just needed to prove they were Jews, then they would be a part of God’s Kingdom and that they were approved of God.
    JTB says, “Being a child of Abraham means nothing. Your heart is what matters.”
    He says that they are a brood of vipers.
    They had missed something very important as Pharisees and Sadducees.
    Just because they are Jewish did not mean that they were entitled to anything.
    JTB didn’t say they were in or out. He called them a brood of vipers
    A viper is not neutral. A viper is dangerous, venomous and deadly.
    They had become a threat to the people of Israel. Not just a threat to themselves, but anyone who would be around them.
    They were not repentant. They were entitled.
    Because of this, there would be a surprising judgment of those who were not repentant.
    Matthew 3:11 NIV
    “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
    John has preached about repentance
    He said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” And he was preaching a baptism of repentance.
    Repentance is his thing. Don’t talk about it. Don’t simply preach about it. Do it.
    The people didn’t know what repentance looked like
    We can see more detail in John’s sermon about repentance in the book of Luke
    I love that John didn’t give details about how to follow this instruction.
    Repentance isn’t a law that needs definition
    Repentance is a condition of our heart that needs to be discovered.
    Wherever you are in life, you need to find how to align yourself with the heart of God.
    Is repentance salvation?
    No. Not in this case. This is why Joh’s baptism wasn’t a baptism of salvation
    It was simply recognizing that they were sinners and they were preparing their hearts for the arrival of God’s Kingdom.
    Jesus’ baptism was a baptism with power. It was recognizing that we are hopeless and lost without Jesus. It is a baptism that identifies us with the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy spirit.
    This is important for us to know who we are. Our baptism paints that picture for us.
    There is an important point here, though.
    What does it look like to live a repentant life?
    God doesn’t like sin.
    We seem to think that because of the work Jesus did on the cross, our sin doesn’t matter anymore.
    Sin is wrong and it is why Jesus came to die.
    He didn’t come to die, so we could sin
    He came to pay the heavy penalty for our sin, so we could be free from sin and its consequences.
    A repentant life is the life Jesus calls us to in discipleship
    We follow Jesus. We are changed by Jesus. We are obedient to Jesus as we go on mission with Him.
    Repentance is leaving our nets and learning a new life in the Kingdom of God.
    Matthew 3:12 NIV
    His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
    JTB tells us of the truth.
    Jesus did come in love, mercy and grace
    He did come to save sinners.
    But Jesus is also a just judge.
    Jesus told any stories about this idea of the upcoming judgment.
    There are TV shows all over our culture about the end of days.
    If you want to sell books, movies, or sermons, start preaching about what will happen in the end times. Our world eats this stuff up, but we often miss the whole point.
    People want to focus on what will happen, not why it was written.
    Later in Matthew, we are going to look at a passage that I want us to read today:
    Matthew 25:31–46 NIV
    “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
    If we want to sit and focus on the who/what/when/where of this passage and not look at the main point that Jesus is calling us to a life in the Kingdom.
    A life that is transformed by His nature
    A life that is surrendered to the King and repentant of the way we were and now we are lights in a dark world for His glory, we will have knowledge and no repentance.
    This is why we make the call of the Gospel every week
    It is to call this church, this community and this world to repentance and to the hope of Jesus
    We are not here to build theologians and scholars.
    We are here to make disciples of Jesus who will follow Him, be changed by Him and make more disciples
    We are called to have life-changing power through Jesus Christ to be salt and light in this world.
    Repentance matters. Our lives as we live among one another matter.
    Again, I want to highlight that this is not a set of rules to follow.
    You might incorrectly hear me say, “You’d better do nice things for others, so you can go to heaven.”
    Jesus is how we go to Heaven.
    If you follow Jesus, that discipleship is played out in every relationship in your life.
    That is what this passage is talking about.
    Jesus is the Judge
    He asks us to follow Him. He is the judge as to whether we are doing it or not.
    Don’t convince me. Live for Him.
    BAPTISM
    We are going to do a little exercise where we assemble a few of the Gospel accounts together so we can clearly see this event and its importance.
    Again explain the Gospels
    All four Gospels share the account of the baptism of Jesus, but each of them highlight the story from a slightly different angle.
    You can find the stories in Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 and John 1.
    I am going to try and patch them together chronologically so we can grasp this picture:
    John 1:29–31 NIV
    The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
    · The apostle John, not to be confused with John the Baptist, made a massive statement here.
    Jesus was called the “Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.”
    This likely sounded like a strange statement from John. But everything he said was strange, so people probably didn’t think too much of it.
    The Jewish people would have been very familiar with a lamb taking away the sin of a person.
    This was the custom that God had created for them.
    · They would sin
    · They would have to go to the Temple
    · They would have to bring a perfect lamb
    · That perfect lamb would have to be slaughtered for their sin
    o The wages of sin is death
    o When John yelled out about Jesus that he would be the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, he made the greatest prophecy of all time
    § John said that Jesus would be perfect
    § Jesus would be slaughtered/sacrificed
    § For the sin of not just the Jews, but for all the world
    o John’s statement was the gospel!
    § It was the Good News!
    · John revealed Jesus and His purpose to Israel before Jesus had even began his ministry.
    Matthew 3:13–15 NIV
    Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
    · So John sees Jesus and says, “I’m a sinner.  You aren’t.  You need to baptize me.”
    o Jesus said, “We have to do this.” Then he uses the phrase, “To fulfill all righteousness.
    § Jesus wasn’t a sinner, so what does it mean, “To fulfill all righteousness?”
    · There were purification rituals for the animals sacrificed at the temple. One of the practices were that they needed to be ceremonially clean in order to be a sacrifice.
    § Jesus was coming to fulfill the OT law in its entirety.  No one would be able to come to him afterwards and say, “Thanks for dying on the cross, Jesus! But since you weren’t ceremonially clean, that sacrifice you made didn’t count.”
    · He had to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law.
    · We also see that Jesus came up out of the water.
    o What was the mode that Jesus was baptized?  He went under water, then he came up out of the water.
    o At Real Life, we practice baptism by immersion.
    § Why?
    § Because when Jesus said to be baptized, what do you think he meant?
    § Getting dunked under water, like John did to him.
    Luke 3:21 NIV
    When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened
    · After coming up out of the water, Luke makes this note, that no other gospel writer makes.
    o Jesus was praying.
    · While praying after his baptism…
    Matthew 3:16–17 NIV
    As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
    · Another translation says that the skies tore open.  How amazing.
    o Then we hear the voice of God come from Heaven.
    § I imagine being there, but I cannot even compare it to anything I have ever experienced.
    · This is one of those, drop everything moments and follow Jesus.
    o We have Jesus getting baptized.
    o We have the Father speaking
    o We have the Holy Spirit present.
    · This is a backhanded allusion to the Trinity
    o God is there.  But God is three
    John 1:32–34 NIV
    Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
    · In the book of John, he gave this testimony. 
    o I was an eye witness.  I was there baptizing this guy and I heard God speak from Heaven. I saw the Holy Spirit descend on Him.
    · I was sent.  I heard the voice of the Lord send me to baptize.
    o When he sent me, he said, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”
    · John then made the conclusion: Jesus is the Messiah.
    o As if all the other stuff didn’t count.  This was the defining point.

    Conclusion

    There is a lot to cover in our sermon today
    There are three primary points I want us to wrap our heads around
    This is not a game. This is eternity.
    JTB knew the circumstances of his calling
    He announced that there was a Messiah coming.
    He also reminded us that there is a real judgment day.
    Eternity is a long time.
    We must live lives of discipleship
    I want to simplify this
    There is the Kingdom of Heaven
    There is repentance
    All of this is summed up in Jesus’ call to discipleship
    We will find that call in a couple of weeks
    Jesus calls us to leave our nets
    This includes a heart of repentance
    Not a legal understanding of repentance like the Pharisees
    Not an embrace of sin and false teaching like the Sadducees.
    A heart that conforms to Jesus.
    Inclusive and exclusive discipleship
    Baptism
    Our picture of Jesus’ baptism is an important understanding for us
    We must follow in Jesus’ example in baptism
    But Baptism is also a reminder of our new identity in Jesus
    The old self was put to death, we are a new creation in Jesus Christ
    May we not embrace the idea of salvation.
    May we embrace the salvation that was purchased for us at the cross.
    Gospel
    Communion/Directed Prayer

      • Matthew 3:1–17NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:1NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:1–2NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:3NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:4–6NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:7NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:7–10NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:11NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:12NIV2011

      • John 1:29–31NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:13–15NIV2011

      • Luke 3:21NIV2011

      • Matthew 3:16–17NIV2011

      • John 1:32–34NIV2011

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