The forerunner.
I. HIS ANNOUNCEMENT.
1. His sudden appearance. It is the first mention of John the Baptist in St. Matthew's Gospel. He flashes upon us suddenly, like his prototype Elijah in the Old Testament. St. Luke tells us of his birth, of his solitary life: he "was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel." Now the time was come. "In those days," St. Matthew says, while the Lord was still at Nazareth, living a family life with brethren and sisters—the children, in all probability, of Joseph by a former marriage—taking his share in the family duties, labouring with his hands to support his virgin mother;—in those days, while the Lord was still unknown, unrecognized, in the world that was made by him, comes John the Baptist.
2. His preaching.
3. His description.
II. HIS BAPTISM.
1. The multitudes. There was great excitement. It was a time of eager expectation. John's character, his asceticism, his strange, solitary life, his stern, awful, heart-stirring preaching, commanded attention. Multitudes went out to listen to him—"Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan." The wilderness was lonely no more; it was filled with thronging crowds. There was an attraction not to be resisted in his preaching. Men could not but come; they could not but listen. Alas! they did not, most of them, repent. To the many he was what Ezekiel had been in his time, "a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument;" for they heard his words, but they did them not.
2. They were baptized of him in Jordan. He preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. John baptized with water; Christ, with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John's baptism was a preparatory rite; Christ's baptism was a sacrament of regeneration, the one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). John's baptism was unto repentance; Christ's baptism was into Christ. John's baptism was incomplete; it was not baptism with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13); it did not remove the necessity of Christian baptism (Acts 19:5). But it was a holy rite, performed in accordance with the Divine command (John 1:33), symbolical, like the purifications under the Law, of that spiritual cleansing which the sinful heart needs, and consecrated at last by the example of the Lord Jesus himself.
3. Their confession. The Greek word seems to imply that the confession was complete, not a mere general acknowledgment of sinfulness, but a special confession of definite sins. John's baptism was unto repentance; confession was the preliminary, the pledge of that repentance without which the baptism was an empty sign. God requires confession of us, not necessarily to man, but to himself. There is no word of Holy Scripture more precious than that gracious promise, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
III. HIS RECEPTION OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES.
1. They came to his baptism. It was strange—the Pharisees came with their intense sectarianism, their hollow formalism; the Sadducees with their indifference, their unbelief. But they came; the power of John's preaching, the attraction of his character and ascetic life, the widespread excitement, drew them with the multitudes who flocked to the banks of Jordan. So people come now in crowds to hear a great preacher; but, alas! often their hearts are not touched. They listen, but they are not converted. Did they seek to be baptized? We might have thought that they were drawn to John only by curiosity, but the Greek preposition seems to imply that they sought baptism at his hands. We cannot tell their motive. Perhaps it was simply the strong current of public opinion; they came because others came; as, alas! many come to church nowadays. Perhaps it was the desire to stand well in the sight of the people, who all regarded John as a prophet. Certainly it was not the right motive. John was unwilling to receive them; they were unfit for his baptism; they wanted the baptism only, not the repentance; the putting away of the filth of the flesh, not the inquiry of a good conscience after God; they did not feel the need of that change of heart which was the necessary preparation for the coming kingdom. Probably John refused to receive them. St. Luke tells us (Luke 7:30) that the Pharisees generally were not baptized of him.
2. His address.
LESSONS.
1. Repent. See that your repentance is deep and true, a real change of heart; for only the children of repentance are children of the kingdom.
2. Imitate John the Baptist in his self-denial, in his ardent zeal, in his deep humility.
3. Trust not in external privileges; see that your religion is true—not words, not forms, not mere excitement, but a real active principle of life.
4. Think of the awful fire of judgment; pray for the refining fire of the gracious Spirit.