Matthew 3:7-12

 ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, ⁹ and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ¹⁰ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹ I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Commentary

Vs. 7-9 ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, ⁹ and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

With the flood of people coming out to John’s baptism there was also many of those of the Pharisees and Sadducees (the two main religious factions of ancient Judaism at that time) who also came out to John’s baptism. Now when John the Baptist saw them coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” For John the Baptist wasn’t fooled by their outward appearances and all of the religious trappings that they wore. No John saw through all of that right to their hearts, and what he saw was a brood of vipers, snakes that slither into positions of power, privilege, and influence so that they might due and pursue their own evil desires. Therefore unlike the repentant sinners who were coming out to John, who believed his word and whom John received and baptized to prepare them for the Lord. These though looking their most “pious” when they came to him did not believe, and so they don’t submit themselves to the Will of God and get baptized with the people, instead they only question John’s legitimacy for doing so (see John 1:19-28).

Now when John said to them: “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” It’s doubtful that any of them would’ve thought themselves as objects of God’s wrath, for they sat in Moses seat, as Jesus would later say of them (see Matt. 23), and thus they wielded all of that God given authority to rule His people. However instead of using it to serve and establish God’s people in His truth, they would lay aside His Word, commandments and truth for their own when God’s Word contravened theirs. And so they were the worst of all men because though they knew and had been entrusted with God’s truth they only used it to keep people in bondage to themselves (consider Matt 16:5-12; Gal. 4:17). Therefore John the Baptist’s rebuke of them, calling them “a brood of vipers” was fully justified, for if they thought they could do so simply because they sat in the Moses seat (i.e. the seat of power), or that they being the descendants of Abraham, they were somehow entitled to an assured place with God, then they needed to seriously reconsider, for as John warned them, (and warns us all) God is able to raise up children from Abraham from stones if He so desires, and so trusting in one’s ancestry is pure folly if ones is living contrary to God’s commandments and Word (consider Matt 5:19-20). For God does not approve of people based on the positions, privileges and power they hold and wield in this life, God receives and accepts as His own each and every repentant and believing individual regardless of where they came from (see Acts 10:34).

Vs. 10 “And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

The metaphor that John the Baptist invokes here to warn them (and us all) Means with the Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival on the scene (in one restricted sense) all that the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees had done to establish themselves was soon to be toppled! For men may establish for a season their own religious works, ways, and decrees, but ultimately nothing that contravenes God’s Word will remain (consider Matt 15:1-9). Now in a more encompassing and fuller sense I believe that John’s word here means that every individual and nation that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire! For the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t uphold unjust nations, regimes, or individuals (Consider Matt 25:31-46). Therefore Johns warning is not just to them, but to us all, because all Authority, Power and Judgment has now been committed to the Son of God and so nothing at His Judgment Seat nothing that does not pass His scrutiny will remain when He sets up His everlasting Kingdom (consider Matt 5:20).

  

Vs. 11-12 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John the Baptist now makes it clear that both his person and baptism does not bring eternal life, for the water baptism done by him (or anyone else) does not bring God’s Holy Spirit and His regeneration of everyone who repents and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ through the Gospel. Therefore John in order to make sure that no one who is baptized by him puts their faith in him now warns the people, all people everywhere, not to look to him, but rather to Christ alone, for as he says: “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” ^{vs. 11} Therefore John is very clear that all people must not to look to him for redemption and salvation, but only to Christ! For it is only the Lord Jesus Christ whose Person and Baptism that brings eternal life to everyone who repents and believes in Him, therefore John absolutely distinguishes his own person and baptism from Christ’s, because the lesser must always give way to the greater (consider John 3:30). Now John mentions two distinct “baptisms” that the Lord Jesus Christ does. The first is the Lord Jesus Christ’s baptism by His Holy Spirit to each and every believing and repentant individual. That is the Holy Spirit baptism of our person that brings us into Spirit union with God and Christ, (Rom 6:3-4; Gal. 3:27) as well it is His Holy Spirit baptism of our persons into His Body (1 Cor. 12:13), and of course it is His Holy Spirit baptism that brings us to Spirit life (i.e. our being born-again by His Spirit) the moment we believe in Him. And so all these things, and so much more, all happen to us by the Lord Jesus Christ who baptizes us with His Holy Spirit the moment we believe in Him. Again John’s water baptism (or anyone else’s) does not bring remission of one’s sins and everlasting life, for this only comes by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ whose Holy Spirit then “baptizes” each and every believing individual into His Body, and so it is the Holy Spirit who then seals us in His Person and for His Salvation for all eternity (Eph. 1:13-14; Titus 3:4-7).

  

Now Christ’s Holy Spirit Baptism of each and every believer which began at Pentecost (see Acts 2) will continue until the Lord Jesus Christ returns for us all who believed in Him, and thus have been baptized by His Spirit because we believe in Him; being then born-again (i.e. regenerated) by His Spirit we are now new creations In Christ and thus united with Christ forever (2 Cor. 5:17). Now the outward Spirit gifts and signs of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Holy Spirit baptism which were so prevalent during the beginnings of God pouring out His Spirit at Pentecost, and later in the early church are not so prevalent today because they were done to fulfill the Word of God and reveal the fulfillment of God’s Word and Promise to the early believers and church about this. And so as they grew in their understand of this, and thus their and now our being established in this truth and reality of remission of sins and everlasting life for everyone by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ there no longer needed to be these visible signs to reveal this to them and us all, for we all now “walk by faith, not by sight” ^{2 Cor. 5:7}

And so that is the first baptism mentioned by John that the Lord Jesus Christ does to each and every believing individual, (whether visible Spirit gifts and signs accompany this or not), because all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have been baptized by one Spirit, one time, for all eternity into His Body (Eph. 4:4-6, 30). For Christ’s death on the cross having paid for all our sins, His resurrection from dead then paved the way for us to all have the same Holy Spirit as He. And so those who hold that one must speak in tongues as evidence of having this baptism should remember that the Lord Jesus Christ never did!

Now the second “baptism” that John mentions that the Lord Jesus Christ will do is by fire! Now that is not a “baptism” that believers will experience (or would want to experience) for that has been reserved for every unbelieving and unrepentant individual who rejects the Word of God for themselves, and thus did not receive the love of the truth for themselves so that they would be saved (2 Thess. 7-12). And so that baptism of fire will take place at the Lord Jesus Christ’s Great White Throne Judgment (see Rev. 20:11-15), after His Second coming, for it will be then that the Lord will execute His eternal judgment here described by John as a “baptism by fire” on everyone who did not repent and believe. Now there will also be a judgment of each and every believer the Lord Jesus Christ will do before He sets up His everlasting Kingdom, at which time each and every believer will be rewarded or suffer loss according to the things that they did in the body (see 2 Cor. 3:12-17; 5:9-11).

And so John’s dire warning is given not just to the scribes and Pharisees, but to us all, to do the Will of God for as John says, the Lord Jesus Christ’s winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (also consider Matt. 13:24-30, 31-32, 36-43, 47-50). Therefore I urge you to be reconciled to God while you can, for God Himself in the Person of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and by His Holy Spirit has made the way possible for you to be redeemed from every sin and transgression and be reconciled back to God, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” ^{2 Cor. 5:21} For the Work of God and the Will of God is that you and I believe in His Son (John 6:29) and then follow Him in discipleship (Matt. 28:19-20). Therefore if you believe, please receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and life asking Him to be your Lord and Savior (John 1:12), for anyone who comes to Him will not be turned away by Him (John 6:37). Therefore don’t wait any longer according to His Word and Promise be reconciled to God today! (John 3:16). 

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.