Chapter 3 verses 1-10 Read the Bible verses
John was a cousin of Jesus. (Luke 1:36) John’s mother was a cousin to Jesus’ mother.
John had been a miracle baby, too. His mother had been too old to have children but God made her body so she could give birth to John. God told her husband that this baby would grow up to be a special person who would announce that Jesus the Messiah was coming. He was to preach to the people and tell them to repent (turn from their sins).
From the time John was born, the Holy Spirit was in him. As John grew he knew God’s plan for him. He left the village and went to live by himself in the wilderness. He wore clothing made from camel skin and he ate wild honey and locust (a kind of grasshopper). Eating insects is common for many parts of the world, especially in hot countries and where people are poor.
John lived a simple life. There was nothing to take his attention away from the job he was to do.
John preached near the Jordan River. When the people repented of their sins, John baptized them in the river. Baptizing meant walking down into the water up to your waist and then John dipped the person down into the water and lifted them back up.
John called the Pharisees and Sadducees “snakes”. These two groups of men were leaders in the Jewish church. They had studied the scriptures and knew them well. They also had studied the many laws the Jewish people had. These leaders were very proud of their knowledge and their place in leadership. They also were quick to criticize other people for the smallest breaking of the law. They were proud that they kept all the laws.
Really they did not keep all the laws. They just liked to think they did. They put on a show that they were holy, but in their hearts they were unkind and were quick to judge others.
That’s why John called them “snakes”.
Chapter 3 verses 11-12 Read the Bible verses
John said that someone was coming who was greater than John.
John baptized in water, but the person coming would baptize people in the Holy Spirit and fire. In the book of Acts, chapter 2, when God baptized people with the Holy Spirit, there were like little flames of fire that appeared on top of their heads.
John said that Jesus would come and separate the wheat from the chaff. Separating wheat from chaff was something that was done in a field after the wheat had been cut and brought in. The only part that people eat are the wheat seeds or grains. Each grain of seed has a covering called a hull. People do not want the hull. They want to separate the grain from the stem and from the hull. These hulls are the chaff.
The workers pick up big armfuls of wheat and throw it up in the air. The grain is heavy so it falls back to the ground, but the hulls are light and the wind blows it away. The workers keep throwing the wheat up in the air until the grains of wheat are off of the stems and the hulls are blown away.
John was using that as picture of Jesus coming to separate the people–the good people (godly) and the bad people. It would be like the workers separating wheat from the chaff.
Chapter 3 verses 13-17 Read the Bible verses
Jesus came down to the Jordan River to see John. Jesus wanted John to baptize him.
John felt that he was not good enough to baptize Jesus. He said that Jesus should be baptizing him (John).
Jesus said that he wanted John to baptize him because he wanted to show that baptism was the right thing to do.
As Jesus came up out of the water a wonderful thing happened! The heavens opened, the Spirit of God came down like a dove, settling on Jesus, and a voice from heaven spoke, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
What happened here should have reminded the Jewish people of something that they knew about in their church ceremonies (special times of prayer and remembering).
Ever since the Old Testament times, when it was time for a new man to begin working as a priest they had a ceremony to anoint him. After he was anointed, he could then work as a priest. The tribe of Levi was the only tribe that could be priests. That was the tribe Aaron, Moses’ brother, belonged to. When a priest became 50 years old, he retired from doing the the main work and his son became a priest in his place. The father would bring his son into the church and the son knelt in front of the father. The father poured olive oil over the son’s head, and the father said, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.”
When the Jewish people heard those words from heaven it should have made them remember the ceremony of the priests. God, the Father, was making Jesus a priest. The Holy Spirit, as a dove, coming down on Jesus was like the oil being poured out on Jesus. The heavenly Father said the same words the priests said over their sons.
Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi. How did he get to be a priest? In the Old Testament, King David makes a prophecy Psalms 110:4 “Thou art (are) a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Melchizedek was a priest in the Old Testament. Abraham brought offerings to him. No one knows who Melchizedek’s father, grandfather or great-grandfather were.
To be a priest you had to be able to tell who your fathers were way back to long ago. You had to prove you had a right to be a priest.
Melchizedek could not prove this–yet he was a priest. Even Abraham gave him honor as a priest.
David’s prophecy said that someone would be a priest in the future who could not prove he was a priest.
Jesus did not have an earthly father. He could not tell people the line of his fathers and great-grandfathers to show he could be a priest.
Jesus was like Melchizedek.
So two things here showed the prophecies about the Messiah had just come true. God’s voice said, “ This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” These words were just like other ceremonies of priests. And the fact that Jesus could not prove that he was from a family of priests.
The Jewish people again missed these “signs” that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
Jesus was thirty years old. Men had to be 30 years old to be a priest. This was another sign.