Good afternoon, and good morning, everyone! Good to see all of you here today. Today we'll be continuing with our series of studies on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, continuing with the story of John the Baptizer and the baptism of Jesus Christ.
First of all, let's go back and do a quick review to catch us up to speed here over what we've talked about recently. Last time we talked about what John's mission would be as revealed before his birth by the angel Gabriel, who, if you remember this story, appeared to the priest Zechariah there in the temple as he was giving the incense offering and told him that he would have a son. The son's name would be Yohanan or John, as we would pronounce it in English there, and he would be the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.
We also talked about, considerable length, the corruption that existed among the Jerusalem priesthood at that time. Here's an illustration of Anas and Caiaphas, the high priest and his father-in-law. We talked about that quite a bit, how corrupt the priesthood had become at this time, and how John, to use a term I coined, might be called the anti-priest, because a lot of the things he was doing were the direct opposite of the way the priesthood in Jerusalem was doing it. They lived in very fine houses there. We showed some illustrations of that. John lives out in the desert, probably doesn't even have a tent to sleep in.
They're eating fine foods, living a very lavish lifestyle. John is eating locusts and wild honey, or perhaps a date jam, as it might be translated there as well. That sort of thing. So John was everything that the religious establishment was not, and vice versa. That's why I termed him the anti-priest. We also discussed John's mission, that he was to come to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord, and to make straight paths in the desert.
We talked about what that meant in the culture and context of that day, that when a king would be inaugurated or come over his kingdom, that they would send out messengers to the parts of his kingdom and tell them to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, to straighten out the roads, in other words, to make the roads level and smooth, because the king is coming. He's coming to visit this area. We talked about the implications of that for our lives as well, whether our lives are straight or crooked paths for God to work in there.
We also talked about the picture that John used of the desert vipers there, and how when there would be a wildfire in the desert, that the vipers would flee from the coming fire there. That's an analogy, a word picture, that John used to those who came out to listen to it. He told him to flee. The brood of vipers flee from the wrath to come there, which is prophetic in its implications there, considering what would happen later, in a few decades with the Roman invasion there. We also talked about his messages to the three types of people who came out there to hear him. The regular multitudes, and then the tax collectors, and also the soldiers.
There's two types of soldiers talked about in the Gospels. There's the Roman military forces, which are not the ones being talked about here. Then there were what's called soldiers, but they would occupy the roles more or less of national guard, police, sheriffs, that sort of thing, to keep and maintain peace and order on a more local level there, and who were not a part of the Roman military.
So we talked about those definitions as well. Before we continue further, I want to address a little further a question or comment that came up last time. I did some more research about John. This is regarding, if you remember, we talked about two passages last time, Matthew 3, 4, and Mark 1, 6, about John's clothing. He was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. I hadn't looked that up before I gave that. I thought of it just that morning and didn't have time to research it there. I was focusing on the leather belt there.
We discussed how the leather belt was a rimmez, a hint, or a clue, or a look back to something that appeared earlier in the Bible to Elijah, who also wore a leather belt. We find that back in 2 Kings 1, verses 7 and 8. We won't go through that all again, but Elijah, as it says here in verse 8, was a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist. Earlier in the sermon several weeks ago about rimmez talked a lot about that concept, how it's something we find continually in the Gospels. We find Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All using that is a written form. We find John the Baptist using this. We find Jesus Christ using it.
We find God the Father using it. It's a very common technique to point people back to things that had happened in the Old Testament or were recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures there. I did some more research on that, and I wanted to share that with you here. I'd like to thank Paul Price for his help on some of this as well. I don't know if I mentioned this in Denver or Springs, or both last time, but comparing the Hebrew language to the English language, Hebrew is what you might call a vocabulary-poor language.
By that I mean in English we have about 700,000 to 800,000 words in English. 700,000 to 800,000. Hebrew, by comparison, has only about 150,000, which is approximately one-sixth the number of words. So what we have then is in Hebrew you have words that have multiple meanings. I'll give you an example we may be familiar with, Ruach, which is translated Spirit, as in the Ruach ha-kodesh, the Holy Spirit in Hebrew.
Ruach also means, in addition to Spirit, means wind. It means breath, breathing in and out. This type of thing, the breath that goes in and out. You can see they're related, Spirit, wind, and breath, but they all have distinct meanings, and you need to understand the context to know the meaning of the Hebrew words.
This is one thing that I can see this gave translators fits here, and tried to translate this particular passage, 2 Kings 1 and verse 8, which is translated here, a hairy man, describing Elijah, wearing a leather belt around his waist. The king, Amaziah, said it is Elijah the Tishmite. In the Hebrew, that literally is master, owner, or possessor of hair, which means nothing to us in English. It makes no sense there, but that's what it literally is. Actually, even more literally, it's ba'al hair. Ba'al being the Hebrew word for Lord or master, owner, possessor, and so on.
So how do you translate that? So you can see why they would say, well, that means he's a hairy man. However, most of the commentaries I checked, and I checked about a half dozen or so, most of them don't give any explanation about it at all.
However, four of them, and if you want to write these down, the JFB, Adam Clark's commentary, the Bible Knowledge commentary, and the MacArthur Bible commentary, all indicate that this is actually talking about a hairy garment, that Elijah is wearing a garment of hair. And when it says he is a master, owner, or possessor of hair, that that's talking about the garment that he's wearing there. And again, here's an illustration of what that might have looked like. And I would have to agree that this is probably the correct translation of that there, because again of the literal wording there. And what would be the point of stating someone is a possessor of hair if it's not talking about something that he owned that was made of hair.
In other words, a hairy garment there. So I do think we can conclude that John the Baptizer was wearing a leather belt, just like Elijah did, and he's also wearing a hairy garment of camel hair or camel skin. Also, it is a Rimes pointing back and reinforcing the point that he is the Elijah to come.
So it's not just the leather belt that's a Rimes, but also the garment that he's wearing is also a Rimes back to Elijah there. So I thought you'd appreciate that little explanation there, because it illustrates two things. One is that this is apparently a stronger action Rimes that John is doing here with the garment and the leather belt. And second, it illustrates some of the challenges, frankly, that translators have to deal with in going from one language and culture to another, trying to translate from Hebrew and make it make sense to us today in English.
And in a sense, if you think about it, it's really what this whole series on the Gospels is all about, because what are we doing? We're actually translating words and events and customs from the other side of the world 2,000 years ago in a culture and lifestyle that is very, very different from ours. It's primarily an agrarian culture at that time, and trying to translate that into modern terms and applications that we can understand and apply in our day today.
Because – and this is a point I've mentioned several times, and keep this in mind as we go through these series – we can't fully understand what the words mean for us today if we don't first understand what they meant to the original audience of that time and culture. That's not to say we can't understand it, but it's saying that if we just think about it in our modern terms without understanding the culture, we're just going to have a shallow, very shallow understanding of it.
We're going to miss a lot of the story, as we've seen going through what we've covered so far. There's much more to the story there as we get in and understand the culture and the context and the background. It gives us a whole lot deeper understanding of the meaning there that is recorded there for us. So now we'll pick up the story and continue on where we left off last time. If you brought your harmony with you today, we'll be on page 10, starting at the top of that. Let's see, does anyone not have one? You can use mine today if you'd like to.
It is helpful to have the harmony because we'll be switching back and forth. Now we're getting into a part where we have Matthew, Mark, and Luke all talking about the same events. We'll be swapping back and forth from one account to the other as we go through this today. Please bring that with you when we have this in future times. Sometimes it'll be easier because we'll cover something, for instance, just from John.
That's all there is. A lot of times from here on out, we'll be talking about things that appear in several of the Gospels at once. So picking up the story here, beginning in Luke 3 and verse 15, Now as the people were in expectation, and all reason in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ, the Messiah, or not, and one of the questions that I sent out last night was, what does this verse tell us about the social climate in Judea at this time?
What big social current, you might say, is sweeping through the area that Luke mentions here? Anyone? Yes, Faye? They're ready for the Messiah. Absolutely, yes. They're ready for the Messiah here. The people were in expectation. Expectation of what? Of the Messiah showing up there. Very good. They were expecting this because of various prophecies. One being the 70 Weeks Prophecy of Daniel, which we'll talk about in another few weeks coming up here when we get to the beginning of Jesus Christ's ministry and the timing of that, because that 70 Weeks Prophecy does tell us the year in which the Messiah would appear.
They were aware of this. They knew this. They understood this. The timing of the coming of the Messiah is imminent. It's going to be happening any time now. People were wanting and expecting a Messiah to appear to cast off the Romans, to throw them out of there, and re-establish an independent Jewish kingdom. They are a continuation of the Kingdom of David with a descendant of David on the throne, again in accordance with many, many prophecies. Also, this verse here, they reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ, the Messiah or not. This tells us something about the power and the influence of John, that his preaching, that his message was so strong that people were wondering, hey, is he the Messiah?
John is not just some out-of-the-way figure, the typical view of a wild man out in the desert doing strange, crazy things and so on, as we talked about last time. No, he's a very influential figure. Josephus, the famous historian who writes in the 90s AD, talks quite a bit about John.
We'll cover that in a little bit of a future here, a quote from Josephus and see what he has to say. But he makes it clear that John was a very influential figure, very highly respected there. And again, as we read here, some people were thinking that he was perhaps indeed the Messiah to come. Verse 16, continuing on, John answered, saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to lose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And another one of the questions I sent out last night for us to consider was, what are the three baptisms mentioned here and what do they mean?
And as we can see from this, John talks about baptizing with water. There's one. And then also, baptism with the Holy Spirit. There's two and with fire. There's three. There are the three types there. And to better understand these, I won't spend a great deal of time on it, but to better understand it, I want to look at a couple of Greek words. I try to avoid this, so I don't want to get bogged down in technical details, but it is important to understand what is being talked about here.
The first of these is the word that's translated, baptized. And this is the Greek word, baptizo. And it's spelled up here. It's actually not translated. It's what's called transliterated in English. In other words, they just took the Greek spelling and brought it over into English there. And it means to completely immerse or to completely submerge in water. It's used in other Greek writings of the time of, for instance, ships sinking, being baptized in the sea, meaning they sank to the bottom. So that tells us what the meaning of this word, baptized, is.
It means to sink, to be completely submerged and covered in water there. And obviously that eliminates the methods of sprinkling or dabbing with water, this sort of thing, which various denominations use for baptism there. Also, again, if you have any questions, we go through this. Please raise your hand here. The second word to understand is the word translated with, as in, I indeed baptize you with water. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
And this is a preposition, unlike any single preposition in the English language. It's the Greek word, in, e-in, and it actually encompasses the meanings of a number of our English prepositions. It can mean with, in, on, or by.
And several others as well that I didn't include here. So it basically can mean the relationship of one thing to another in space, as in, if I say this glass of water is with me, you know, that would be one of the meanings there. This glass of water is by me up here. This glass of water is in me, if I drink it all.
The Greek word encompasses all of these meanings, whereas in English we have a number of different words to cover the same thing. It can mean the same thing, relationship in time there as well. It can also refer to the cause of something, the action or the method of something being done. Let me find it in my notes here. So, for instance, if I move this glass of water, it was moved by me, which is one of the meanings there as well.
So it can also refer to the manner or the method in which something is done. And I mention this to make the point that when this says baptized with water or with the Holy Spirit or with fire, it can just as easily mean baptized in or by water or in or by the Holy Spirit or in or by fire. The Greek word encompasses all of those meanings. And again, you have to really look at the context to understand exactly what's meant.
And I mention this because I think where this word is used here, it would probably be better translated this way. John answered and saying to all, I indeed baptize you in water because it is what he's doing. He's baptizing people in water, immersing them in water. There, or also baptizing you in or into the Holy Spirit and baptizing you in fire there. I think that's really probably a better way to translate this. So with that background, then, let's take a little closer look at this.
So baptism in water, I think we all understand what that means, what that refers to, John is baptizing in water in the Jordan River, in this case, where there's a lot of water, where it's deep enough to completely submerge somebody in that. So we won't spend time going into that. But what about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire that's talked about here? Let's begin talking then about the baptism of the Holy of or in the Holy Spirit, which is different from what John is doing.
Let's turn over and look at an interesting verse over in Acts 19, verses 1-5 here. Read through this. It happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. Ephesus is up in Turkey, an Asia Minor. So this is the setting of this. In finding some disciples, Paul said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So they said to him, We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And Paul said to them, And to what then were you baptized?
So they said into John's baptism. John the Baptizer. This again shows you some of the influence of John, that here are people living up in Ephesus, an Asia Minor. This is hundreds of miles from Jerusalem and the Jordan River Valley there. Apparently these are people who are Jews who had come down for the pilgrimage feasts that we've talked about, Passover Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles. And apparently on one of these trips they had met and listened to John preach and were baptized by John, baptized into John's baptism, as it says here.
Moving on, then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance. Very important here. Saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So several things to pick up on here. We see that John's baptism is a baptism of repentance only. And what was, again, John's mission? John's mission is to come and to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, to prepare a people for the coming of the Messiah.
And how would he do that? He would do that by preaching a message of repentance so that some would hear and repent and be ready for the coming of Jesus Christ. There, he would be ready to listen. You might say he was plowing and fertilizing the ground to prepare it for the coming of Jesus there. And John did not carry out a baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Why? Well, when did the Holy Spirit come? You look at the last Jesus' messages to his disciples. He said, After I go, I will send the Comforter, or the Encourager, the Holy Spirit. And if I go not away, it cannot come to you. So the Holy Spirit would not be available until after Jesus died, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven again.
So John could not give the Holy Spirit to people there. His baptism was only a baptism of repentance, where people would be prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ, prepared to receive his message there. So that is an important distinction. Yes, John baptized us with water. Jesus' disciples baptized with water. The early church, up till today, we baptized with water. There is also repentance involved in both baptisms. Obviously, you have to repent and be baptized, as Peter told the people there on the day of Pentecost there in Acts 2.
And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So there are those two things in common, repentance and baptism with water. But the added element that Jesus, that is introduced after Jesus dies and is resurrected, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Because people have to repent, be baptized, and then have hands laid on them by a true minister of God to receive God's Holy Spirit, as we see there from the Scriptures.
We don't have time to go into all of those verses. We're familiar with those. So I just wanted to make that clear there. And the Holy Spirit is given then so that people might truly be converted by that Spirit, living again within them, and eventually in the resurrection, be resurrected as the sons and daughters of God.
So what about the third type of baptism mentioned here, the baptism of fire? Yes, Bill? In a limited manner, certainly there are some people who had God's Spirit. David, Psalm 51, praise to God, take not your Spirit from me. I think we can conclude that some individuals well, even Saul appears to have been given God's Spirit. Abraham, I would say, probably, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph probably had God's Spirit. The big difference is God is working with, in Old Testament times, on an individual and personal level with individuals, not in a group setting or context as he is the church today.
That's not to say he didn't work with the nation of Israel. He clearly did, but on a physical level, not in a level of offering them salvation in his kingdom and sonship and that sort of thing. Very good question.
Yeah, good point. Yes, with the prophets of God's Spirit. Yes, certainly. Yeah, they're certainly moved, motivated by God's Holy Spirit, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Malachi, the various prophets there. Yeah, good point. Thanks for pointing that out, too. Yes, Dave? Don't you think there were unique ways that God's Spirit would get to you? Mm-hmm.
Right.
Yes, yes, I think so. Good question. Yeah, good question. Verse 5, where it says, they were then baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. They certainly had been baptized in John's baptism. So they are, from all appearances, being baptized again here. And this is a precedent that we use in the church from time to time, where someone has been baptized. And in most cases, they are sincere, if they understand that. Our sincere have repented to the understanding and degree that they do understand there, and do it in good faith. Whether and under what circumstances God honors that and conveys His Spirit into them is kind of an individual, case-by-case judgment there. So, yeah, it's a somewhat difficult issue to deal with sometimes there, because of that. Well, many, many people, yeah, obviously come into the church after adulthood, and maybe they've been baptized as an infant or something, which is obviously not valid there. An infant doesn't know enough to repent and understand and, frankly, isn't making the decision anyway. It's the parents who are making the decision. Other times and ages and so on, it's just something you need to discuss with the individuals themselves. And it's interesting, too, I think we covered this last time. Part of John's baptism was to bring fruits worthy of repentance. And I'd say that is really the determining factor there. Do they have the fruits of God's Spirit at work in their lives to show that, yes, God did honor that baptism and give them His Spirit, and are they showing the fruits of that? So, good question. Complicated, Wendell.
I just had one other phenomenon. By the type of immersion that's done, you would lead one to believe that, yes, that you have someone that you can help. Yes, yes. Right. No, you take a little child and suddenly dunk them underwater. Yeah, they're not going to appreciate that at all. Also, there's the essence of pouring some belief that pouring water over someone is the way that that's in which the word doesn't really apply. Yes, yes, good point. Yeah, pouring would not qualify. And it all ties in with understanding the symbolism of baptism, because what is the point? Paul spends considerable time in Romans going through and explaining the symbolism that you were buried with Christ and raised to new life.
Well, baptism represents a lot of things, but one of the things it represents is you're going down in a grave. You're being buried. The old man is left there in that watery grave, and you come up out of the grave to a new life, as a new person, as a new creation, I think is the terminology that Paul uses there. So, yeah, that symbolism is just not fulfilled by sprinkling or pouring or or anything like that. Yes, it means, again, to be immersed, to be buried in that grave, and the new person coming up out of the grave. Good questions there. It's obviously a big subject. Yes, Bruce?
Yeah, the question is, did the people who were baptized by John, do we think they would have later become some of the members of the church or followers of Jesus Christ?
I absolutely believe that. As a matter of fact, at least two of John's disciples—John was a rabbi.
He had his own disciples, his Talmadin, just as Jesus did, and two of them left John and became followers of Jesus. So there is at least two that we know that happened there. And again, what is John's mission? John's mission is to prepare people for the coming of the Lord.
And, yeah, through a message of repentance and telling them that one is coming who is greater than I am. So, yeah, I think probably a lot of John's followers, particularly after he is in prison, which we'll get to in another few classes here, probably started following Jesus then. I think John did his work of preparing the way, preparing the groundwork, laying the groundwork, preparing a people there. And many of those people then came on to follow Jesus. And later, in Acts 2, became a part of the early church as well. So, yeah, I think there's a logical progression that we see in the Scriptures there. Yes, Anna? I was baptized by the public eye, but for the wrong time, it was baptized. I was baptized by the public eye. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, good point. And I think, you know, I think probably this happens to, this is true Confession's time, maybe, but I think maybe that happens to all of us at some point in our Christian life. We've been baptized in three, four, five, six, ten years down the road. We start thinking, man, am I really converted? I just got these ugly problems that I can't overcome.
These things that I haven't changed, I haven't grown as much as I should. It was my baptism ballot. Did God really give me His Spirit? Do I really have God's Spirit working in me? And I've had people ask me about that before. And my usual comment is, well, look at it this way.
The fact that you have these questions may well be a good indication that, yes, you do have God's Spirit, because how are you seeing these problems and things that you didn't recognize before? You're seeing them because God's Spirit is at work within your life and helping you to see and understand these things that you didn't see before. So rather than it being a sign that you're not converted, it's a sign, actually, that God's Spirit is at work within you and helping you see the areas that you need to change and grow and overcome and clean up your life. Now we're going to hear true confessions from Faye here.
Yeah, for the tape. That was Faye's observation that the old man is buried at baptism, but sometimes he's a good swimmer. That's true. Yeah, he can hold his breath for a long time or whatever it takes there. Yeah, very good. Reminds me of another one. Don't feel totally useless. You can always be used as a bad example. So, yeah, obviously a big long discussion there, but it wasn't planning to get off into these. But good comments, good questions and observations here. But, yeah, want to make sure we understand these. So now we're up to the baptism of fire. Is there anybody here? You don't have to raise your hand if you're embarrassed by this, but is there anybody here from a Pentecostal background and an understanding of what baptism of fire meant among them?
Any of you? No true confessions here? Okay. I remember back when I came into the church in 1970 when I was in high school, and two of the men there that I got to know pretty well, they were probably in their late 20s by that time or something. Both of them had come out of a Pentecostal background. And we used to drive about 70 miles one way to Spokesman Club together for a year, and they would tell me and my dad some of the stories of what it was like in the Pentecostal church. And this baptism of fire was something that was very important to them.
Yeah, let me go back here.
Yeah, he will baptize you with or in the Holy Spirit and fire. The Pentecostal view of that is called a baptism of fire when the Spirit possesses you, for lack of a better word.
And I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit either. But they described a Spirit that would come on them. They would start speaking in tongues, just gibberish that nobody could understand. They would roll on the floor, which is where you get the term holy rollers, if you've heard of that before.
They would just uncontrollably start leaping and running around the room at full speed, almost at superhuman speed there, when they're taken over by the Spirit. They viewed it as being God's Spirit at work. It was not God's Spirit. It was a different Spirit. One of them described—I don't know if you remember some of these. This is very common in the South. I'm not sure in other parts of the country, but there used to be a type of window. This was in our schools in particular. You'd have a big pane about four feet square, and it would pivot like this to let the air circulate in and out. Got a question coming up here. This particular church that they had both attended had windows like that. One of the men described one day somebody getting filled with the Spirit and running full speed around the inside of this building and not noticing one of these windows was partially rotated down and just ran full speed smack into the forehead like that, knocked him out cold, and as soon as he woke up, just started doing it again. It had no effect on him at all, which is quite impressive there. No blood, no bruise, no nothing there. But being baptized with fire, that is what they call this phenomenon of being baptized with fire and doing all these crazy things. That's the way they viewed that. But what is John actually talking about here when he talks about being baptized with fire? Let me move on here. Actually, John goes on to explain that here. Before I get into that, let me get a question here. We're experimenting with something else today, and this is allowing people to send in email questions during the Bible study. This is from Stephen Mapes up in the mountains there. Malachi 3.1, we're told, Behold, I will send my messenger. Jesus said that this passage referred to John the Baptist. Is there any indication in the Scriptures that this prophecy might also be dual and relate to an end-time messenger?
Yes, indeed there is. We will cover that. I don't recall exactly where it is in the Gospels, but there is a place, to paraphrase loosely, where Jesus says, you have heard there was to be an Elijah to come. I say that, yes, John was that Elijah to come, but yet there is another to come after him. So, yes, there is a clear duality to this prophecy that John was the first messenger to come, the first Elijah. Then Jesus referred to him as the second Elijah as well. Then, of course, we know prophetically that there is another end-time prophesied Elijah who will again, fulfilling partially the role of John again in preparing a way for the coming of the Lord and making straight paths and so on. We have long applied that to the church as part of the church's mission of preparing a people. That's part of our logo or motto for the United Church of God, preaching the Gospel and preparing a people there. What are we preparing them for? We're preparing them for the same thing John did, for the coming of the Lord, preparing people to be a part of God's kingdom there. So, yes, there is duality in that. We'll get to that in considerably detail when we reach that particular portion of the Scriptures here.
So, continuing on with the baptism of fire here, Luke 3 and continuing in verse 16.
Actually, we covered that. Let's go to verse 17.
Well, actually, let's go back to the context since we've digressed a bit. John answered, saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal scrap I am not worthy to lose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
So, what's this talking about? Well, John basically says here what the baptism of fire is. There is to be burned up like chaff in unquenchable fire. In other words, talking about the lake of fire, or gehenna. It's talking about the punishment of the wicked, who will be burned to ashes because they are being baptized, immersed into a sea of flames there. So, that's what's being referred to as the baptism of fire. John is literally saying they're going to be immersed in fire. They're going to be tossed into fire and burned up. In other words, there. So, that's the real meaning of that. Yes, Dave? There's kind of a duality, I would agree with that, but there's also kind of a duality with what happened on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when God's stir was given, said there appeared to them, divided comes as a fighter than were a fighter.
Yeah, a good point, pointing out that on the day of Pentecost, there were tongues of fire came down on people there. That may be a duality there. I agree with the point, yes, there is clearly a parallel there. But in the context here, John is talking about the chaff being burned. So, I think that's the more obvious application there. Yes, Paul?
True, yeah, they weren't immersed in it, they weren't submerged in it. It just came, and I don't remember the exact way that it's worded there. But yeah, those who are cast into the like of fire, they're going to be submerged in the fire and burned up there.
So, now let's back up a little bit here and talk about the symbolism here that is used, because there's actually a lot of examples of rimes in here. One of the questions I sent out last night is, how many examples of rimes can you find here in these words? And it's astonishing how many there are here. So, let's talk about this winnowing fan and the weed and the chaff, and understand what this is talking about. Because if you were a farmer back then, once you gathered in your wheat or your barley, same process for both, your job is only half done, because you still had to find a way. This is the way the wheat came out of the field, but you had to find a way to separate the wheat kernels here from the chaff, from the husks that they ran, which are pretty tough. You can see these little modules here, and they've got a wheat kernel inside each of those. So, you've got to find some way to break those husks open to let the wheat get out, to separate the edible wheat kernels from the inedible chaff there, which is not good for eating there. So, to do this took several steps. First of all, you had to break open these husks again. And this was generally done either by taking something and literally beating the wheat, you know, physically pulverizing it, you might say, to crack open the husks and let the wheat out. The more common way was to use what was called a threshing sled.
And here's a photographic illustration of one drawn by a Mueller donkey. And it's a sled, and you can't see it here, but embedded in the bottom of this are a bunch of stones about the size of end of your thumb or something like that, embedded into the bottom to create a textured platform there. And generally what would happen is the farmer would put a couple of his kids on there, sometimes stand on it himself and let it be pulled across the wheat, which you see here, and that moving that sled across it would crack open the husks and let the wheat kernels fall out. Here's another illustration of it that illustrates several aspects of this together. Here you can see the farmer's bringing sheaves of wheat here, tossing them around the, or laying them around the outside of what's called a threshing floor. And you see this farmer here riding on this sled with a couple of his kids here being pulled by a couple of boxers. And what they're doing is they're riding this across the wheat and breaking open the husk to let the wheat fall out. And notice this, you may remember the story of how David bought the property that would become the temple, the location for the temple. He bought a threshing floor, which was up on the ridge top overlooking Jerusalem. And this is what this is depicting. Here's the city of Jerusalem down here.
And David bought this threshing floor that's up here on top of the hill. Well, why on top of the hill? This was also an important part of the process because once you'd run over this with a threshing sled or sledge there, you had this big mass of wheat and chaff all mixed together.
So then what you would do is wait or hold for a windy day, and you would take something like a shovel and shovel it up and toss this up in the air. And you can see what's happening here. The wheat is heavier, so it's going to fall back to the ground. And the chaff, this dust-looking stuff, is going to be blown away. There. And this is the picture that John is using. And this is actually a modern-day photo. This is in Afghanistan, if I remember correctly, and a couple of farmers. They still use this method 2,000 years later. They don't have the John Deere threshing machine machinery and that sort of thing. They're doing it by hand. You can see the mounds of other wheat waiting there to be threshed. The winnowing fan is very similar. A winnowing fan is kind of like a big, flexible basket about three, four feet in diameter. You'd essentially do the same thing. You'd fill this basket with this mixture of wheat and chaff. And then when a breeze is coming along, you toss it up in the air. And you can see the wheat being heavier, falling back down to the ground, and the chaff being blown away. So it's using the wind. That's why you'd do it on a hilltop, where there's more wind blowing through. And that's how you would separate the wheat from the chaff, which is a biblical metaphor, you see a number of times. And then over here, you've got another guy here with a broom made of brush. And you can see he's sweeping up the wheat here. And then that would be gathered into the barn. And the chaff is either going to be blown away, or if there's still some around, then that would be gathered up and burned as fuel. Because in an area where you didn't have a lot of wood, a lot of forests there, you would use your wood for valuable things, for furniture, for doors, windows, things like that. And you'd use other things as fuel for your fire there, rather than waste that valuable resource here. So this is what this whole process is talking about here. And again, this is a modern-day photo. It's still used in that part of the world 2,000 years later here. So I mentioned in last night's update that there are a number of examples of Rimes here in this passage, several of them in just this one verse. So let's see if you found any of these. So 1, Jeremiah 15, verse 7, And Garth is here, And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people, since they do not return from their ways. And as we talked about in the Sermon on Remes several weeks ago, the people would have instantly got the point of this when John talks about one coming with a winnowing fan in his hand. These people, having memorized large portions of Scripture, would have thought back to Jeremiah 15, verse 7. And God's saying, I will winnow them with a winnowing fan. And this, of course, ties in very much with John's point that he's making, that, hey, you need to wake up and repent. You need to wake up and repent because God is coming. He's going to judge his people and separate the wheat from the chaff, and the chaff is going to be destroyed.
Another point from the Sermon on Remes, I didn't emphasize this a lot, but that is that the intent of a Remes is to point the hearer or the reader not just to the immediate phrase, like winnowing fan or wheat from the chaff, but the greater context of the story as well.
Keep in mind that our modern chapter and verse divisions we see in the Bible, those weren't created between the 1200s and 1500s, a couple of thousand years after the scriptures were actually written. So when they heard these phrases, they would think, oh yeah, that's from Jeremiah, and he's talking about this whole context, which to us might be a chapter long. They would be thinking of that greater context of the story there. And whenever you come across an example of Remes, it's always a good point to read maybe a good half dozen or dozen verses before it and after it to see the whole point that is being made, because the Remes, again, is a hint. It's a look back. It's a clue, not just to the immediate two or three words, but the whole section that's being talked about. And when we do that, we learn even more about the point that is being made. I'll give you an example of this, Jeremiah 15 and verse 7. Let's read a few verses before and after this verse to understand that. So let's back up to verse 5.
And Jeremiah says, For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing? You have forsaken me, says the Eternal. You have gone backward. Therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you. I am weary of relenting. And then here's the Remes that John the Baptist used. And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people since they do not return from their ways. And let's go forward now a few verses. Their widows will be increased to me, more than the sand of the seas. In other words, their husbands are going to be killed. I will bring against them, against the mother of the young men, a plunderer at noon day. I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
She languishes, who is born seven. She has breathed her last. Her son has gone down while it was yet day. She has been ashamed and confounded. And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the Eternal. So a very strong and powerful message here. So when John is talking about a winnowing fan, the people in his audience wouldn't have just thought of that one verse. They would have thought of the preceding verses and the verses after that, which tell a more complete story. This is what would have been flooding into the minds of the people hearing this. Another interesting point relating to this is, who is doing the talking here in John 15? It's the Lord, the Eternal, the God of the Old Testament, the one who would become Jesus Christ. And who does John say is going to come with a winnowing fan in his hand? Same being, the God of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ. So what's the unstated message here? Well, John's unstated message to this Rimes is that the Messiah who is coming, Jesus of Nazareth, is the God of the Old Testament there. Again, that's one of the points of the Rimes. Let's look at a few more examples because there are a number of them here. Some of these I'll need to go through fairly quickly. Another Rimes that people would have thought of in hearing John's words, Psalm 1 and verse 4. The ungodly are like the chaff, which the wind drives away.
Hosea 13 and verse 3. Therefore, they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away. Things that, well, morning clouds, talking about morning fog that burns off a few minutes after the sun hits it, or the early dew that evaporates as soon as the sun hits it, that's his point, like chaff blown off from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney.
Hosea's point is all these things are just there and they're gone in an instant when God brings His judgment on them there. That's the whole point. Another one, Isaiah 5 and verse 24. Again, this is just filled with Rimes here that John is using here and talking about the winnowing fan and the wheat and the chaff and unquenchable fire. Verse 24 of Isaiah 5. Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, same words that John is using, so their root will be as rottenness and their blossom will ascend like dust, because they have rejected the law of the Eternal Host and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. So here we see three or four Rimes, Rimesim and Hebrew, that John would have been referring to. John then goes on to talk about unquenchable fire. Is that a Rimes? Yes, yes it is. Let's look at a few examples of that. Isaiah 66, 23, and 24. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Eternal. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is unquenchable, or not quenched, as it's translated here. They shall be an abhorrent to all flesh. This is a millennial prophecy here talking about what happens after the Messiah, Jesus Christ, returns and establishes His kingdom here on earth. And another one, Jeremiah 7, verse 20.
Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, my anger and my fury will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched. So again, these are the verses that have been flooding into the minds of the people hearing John when he talks about a winnowing fan and separating wheat from chaff, an unquenchable fire that's going to burn the chaff, and so on. This is what they would have been thinking about. They would have realized that these are the verses that John is referring to there. And when we come across, again, an example of Rimes, one of the questions we ought to ask ourselves is, what's the point? What's the message for the audience there? What's the hint? What's the clue that they're supposed to pick up on and understand it? How would they have understood it again in their culture and context of that day? So put yourself, you know, these examples that we've read, what are they talking about? What's the real point? They all have one thing in common here. So put yourself in their sandals as a member of John's audience there.
You're Jewish. You knew that these prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and others there, from whom these prophecies are taken, what was their mission? What was their job? Their job is to come and warn the kingdom of Judah, specifically in the case of Isaiah and Jeremiah, to turn to God, to repent. So they wouldn't be destroyed by the Assyrians, which was Isaiah's warning message, or the Babylonians, which is Jeremiah's warning message there. And what happened to those people?
Did they repent and turn to God? No. So what happened? They were taken away as slaves, exiles, captives, to the land of the Babylonians. Who is John's audience? They're Jews. They're the descendants of these people, whose several centuries earlier had been taken away into captivity by the Babylonians, and whose ancestors, some of whom had returned under Ezra and Jeremiah, and so on, which is another whole story here. So John is talking to the descendants of those who didn't listen and had to be punished by being carried away into captivity here. So what's the point of the Rimes?
It's rather obvious. I'm sorry. It's a warning.
Look, you guys know what happened to your ancestors. I've given you these Rimes of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Your ancestors heard their messages and didn't listen. What happened to them? They were carried away in captivity. So what's the point of reciting these points again? I'm going to come with a winnowing fan. I'm going to separate the wheat from the chaff, and the chaff is going to be burned up in unquenchable fire. It's a very powerful warning message to repent, or the same thing is going to happen to you.
It's happened to your ancestors. And indeed, that's exactly what did happen with the Romans 40 years later. The Romans came through and did the same thing. Wiped them out and took them away into slavery. So again, that's the Rimes there. And to wrap up this section, which kind of reinforces the point, in a way, Luke 3 and verse 18, and with many other exhortations, John preached to the people. In other words, gave them more and more of the same, the same type of message to repent. Turn to God. Change your ways. Prepare yourselves for the coming of the Messiah.
And if you don't, this is what's going to happen to you. So all of these Remesim have a common message to them, which again ties in with John's message of repent. Turn to God. Prepare yourselves for the coming of the Messiah. Now, let's... I've actually gotten quite a bit behind here, but we'll go ahead because I need to stay on this schedule here. Let's switch over to Matthew to talk about the next section. Since now, Matthew is giving more detail from Luke. And again, we're going to see several examples of Remes here. And this is why I gave that sermon I did several weeks ago because we're coming up to a section of the Bible that's just loaded with Remes, as we've seen here today. And continuing on, now we'll see several examples of Remes by Matthew, by Mark, by Luke, by John the Baptist, by God the Father, and by Jesus Christ. Here are all within just a few verses here. So continuing Matthew 3, and verses 13 through 15. Then John came from Galilee, again, up to the north, to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And this would have been down near the... it didn't bring a map, but you can look on the back, near the northern end of the Dead Sea is where this would have taken place. Let's see, yeah. So Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you. And are you coming to me?
But Jesus answered and said to John, Permitted to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then John allowed Jesus to be baptized. Is there a Remes here? Actually, there's more than one. There's probably at least two.
Notice that Jesus said he would fulfill all righteousness. There at the end, fulfill all righteousness. This word fulfill means basically to fill to the full. It's like a cup or glass. You fill it to the brim and running over. That's the word that is translated fulfill here. You fill something to overflowing. You fill it so full nothing else can fit in.
There. So Jesus is saying that he is going to be filled to overflowing with righteousness.
In other words, he's going to embody or personify righteousness. He's going to be filled with righteousness. And that's where the Remes is here. Let's look at a couple of passages here. Jeremiah 23, verses 5 and 6. Behold, the days are coming, says the Eternal, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness.
Again, branch. Netzr in Hebrew. We talked about Netzrath, the town where Jesus grew up. He would be a branch, the prophesied branch. A branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is his name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness. Notice, just right here, three different times, branch of righteousness. He will execute judgment and righteousness. His name will be the Lord our righteousness.
What's his telling us here? What's the remiz? What's the point? Well, Jesus said that he would fulfill all righteousness. He would be filled. In other words, he would personify. He would exemplify righteousness. And what's the message with this remiz? It's simple. Jesus is referring to this and saying, He is the Messiah. He is the fulfillment of these verses here. Let's look at another one. Jeremiah 10, verses 15 and 16.
This is worded essentially identically, In those days, and at that time, I will cause to grow up to David a branch of righteousness. He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness. Here, again, what's the message? The message is that Jesus is referring to this too and saying that He is the Messiah. He is the one who will fulfill all righteousness. He will be the Lord our righteousness, the one who will execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. That's the point. That's the Rimes.
Now, let's switch over to Luke briefly here. Notice another Rimes.
Luke 3, verse 21. When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. In Greek, this is saying that a number of people, a crowd of people, had come there and were being baptized at the same time that Jesus is being baptized. So, the point being that this is a crowd of people who are there at the same time Jesus is baptized.
In other words, there are many witnesses there to what happens next. And I'd like to focus in on the next part. And while he, Jesus, prayed, the heaven was opened. And Mark, being, I've mentioned before, was the writer of action. He's the guy who records all the action. He uses a lot of action verbs. Mark says literally, the heavens were ripped open, were torn open, like a piece of fabric, cloth, that you rip, like that. That's the word that's used here, something to be torn open or ripped open there. Again, Mark is very much an action writer there. And this is another Rimes that all three of the writers use, but they use different verbs to describe what's going on here. But I think Mark says it best that the heaven being ripped open or torn open here.
And that is the Rimes here. That is the Rimes. And what's it a Rimes back to? What's being referred to here? Again, all three writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, describe this, but who's doing the action? God the Father is doing the action, ripping open the heavens.
So God is in on this this Rimes too. He's doing something deliberately to make a point here.
And all three of the Gospel writers mention it. And what's the point? I say, verse 64 and verse 1. Notice this. Oh, that you would rend the heavens, rip them open, tear them open, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, as fire burns brush wood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. And again, what's the point? What's the Rimes?
When Mark writes about the heavens being ripped open here, and Isaiah says, oh, that you would rip open the heavens and come down. What's the point? The obvious point is God is fulfilling this prophecy. God is coming down from heaven because the heavens are ripped open, He's come to earth, and who is He? He's Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, standing right there before them.
It's a remarkable fulfillment of this prophecy here. Remarkable fulfillment.
So when Matthew, Mark, and Luke all write about the heavens being opened, this is the Rimes. This is what they want to remind people of. Isaiah 64.1. Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and come to earth. That's their point, that God just did this. He ripped open the heavens and came to earth in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, David. I think it's significant that Jesus does something of such a magnitude like this, that He does in such a dynamic way, that He gets not a comfy hidden. Right. Very powerful, very dramatic. It's so significant that all three of the writers wrote this. Matthew, Mark, Luke, all of them wrote it and noticed that.
They all might get a point to mention that. A very, very powerful Rimes. And again, as I mentioned in the Sermon on Rimes, if you don't know the text, you can't play. If you don't know the Old Testament, you miss the story. You miss the things like this. You miss God saying, I'm coming to earth in the form of Jesus of Nazareth here, my son. You miss all of that.
If you don't know the text, if you don't know, this is a Rimes pointing people back here to Isaiah 64 here. But we're not done yet. There are several other examples of Rimes here. Let's switch now to Matthew 3 and verse 16. So again, here's the point of that Rimes, that God has now come to earth, fulfill this prophecy in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. So skipping over now to Matthew 3 and verse 16. When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, came up again, showing that He has submerged in water. He's not being sprinkled or poured on there. He came up from the water. And behold, the heavens were open to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. I've ever wondered about that.
And all I have is Luke 3 and verse 22 adds another detail.
And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him. And I know some have wondered whether this descending like a dove is referring to the manner of descending. And you've probably seen doves come and flutter in and land on something, or whether it's describing the appearance. I think from Luke's word here, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove, is telling us pretty clearly, yes, it's physically manifested as a dove. And I think Matthew's description, descending like a dove and alighting on Him, that both are true. Yes, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove and alighted on Jesus Christ. But if you wondered about that, I know I have. Why did God do that? You know, God's Spirit, which we understand as God's power, is invisible. Yes, sometimes there are manifestations like wind and fire and things like that. But this is the one and only time God's Spirit is appearing in a physical manifestation as a being or a creature, in this case, a dove. Why? Why here? Why now? What's the point?
What's the rim as? What's the rim as here? Isaiah 11, familiar passage, verses 1 and 2, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch, Nethsir, shall grow out of his roots. This is the prophecy that Jesus would be a descendant of Jesse, the father of David. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest, and this word rest in Hebrew means to literally rest or to settle down and remain on something, like a dove, a lighting on something.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest, alight, settle on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. So what's the message? The message is that God the Father is doing a physical rim as to show the people that this prophecy is being fulfilled.
He can't do it if the Holy Spirit is invisible, because nobody's going to know it. So he has the Holy Spirit manifested as a dove, come down and rest upon Jesus when he comes up out of the waters of baptism. You may be thinking to yourself, well, that's a stretch. I don't know if I can buy that or not. Well, that's what I initially thought. And then I read two other prophetic passages.
Isaiah 42 and verse 1. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, and whom my soul delights.
I have put my spirit upon him. Notice we would word that I put my spirit in him, but that's not what it says. I put my spirit on him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
So God says here that he put his Holy Spirit on his servant, Jesus the Messiah.
Still think that's a stretch? Well, I thought so, too, until I came across the third passage.
Isaiah 61. A very familiar passage, and of course, one that Jesus himself quotes later on.
Notice this. Notice how it starts. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.
Again, not within me, upon me. Because the Eternal has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Eternal and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. So what have we seen? We've seen that Isaiah says the Spirit of the Lord will be on the Messiah. We've seen that God says He will put His Spirit on the Messiah. And this Messianic prophecy, written from the perspective of the Messiah, says that God's Spirit will be on Him. So we see the same thing worded three different ways, but all making the same point, that God's Spirit is going to be on the Messiah.
And again, at Christ baptism, Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe God's Spirit as descending and alighting on Jesus in the form of a dove. So what's going on? God the Father is doing a physical Rimes to show the fulfillment of these three prophecies that He would send His Spirit and place it on the One who would be the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth there.
God sending a very clear message here, one that obviously Matthew, Mark, and Luke got, because they wrote it. They wrote it all down there. And again, He had to do it in a physical form with a physical dove that descends and alights and rests on Jesus because God's Spirit is invisible. Otherwise, no one would have known that. No one would have seen the fulfillment of that had God not chosen at that point, at that time, in that place, to manifest His Spirit as a dove there. It's a remarkable, remarkable Rimes, three of them there, actually, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record for us. But the Father isn't done yet.
He gives another Rimes, or two, or three. Luke 3, verse 22.
And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, You are my beloved Son, and you I am well pleased. And I might point out that this is apparently an angel speaking because John 5, verse 37, Jesus says, And the Father Himself, who sent me, has testified of me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.
So obviously, what's going on? This is not God the Father Himself speaking, but probably speaking through an angelic messenger. As near as we can tell, that would be the easiest way to resolve those scriptures there. Often, again, you don't get the point of the Rimes in just the verse that is quoted, but in the context of at least several verses before and after that. And we see that here because in this verse, Luke 3, 22, there are three separate examples of Rimes here.
But the point is not made in just one verse, but in several verses or an entire chapter. So let's look at these three again, keeping in mind that these are the words of God the Father through an angel. So where does the part, You are my Son, where does that come from?
It comes from Psalm 2, and specifically verse 7, I will declare the decree, the Eternal has said to me, You are my Son. This is again speaking from the standpoint of Jesus.
You are my Son. The Eternal has said to me, You are my Son. Today I have begotten you.
And then it goes on, and this is where the context is important. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your position. What's this talking about?
Talking about His millennial rule on the earth, His Messiah.
Verse 9, You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. So this is all wrapped up in what the message of God the Father through the angel says, that You are my Son. He says that He will give Him, You are my Son, I will give you the nations, I will give you the entire earth as an inheritance. And you will reign over them. Again, it's talking about Christ's millennial rule over the earth. That's part of the message that God the Father is giving. When He says this phrase, You are my Son, and the people would have understood that. Again, at the time. Let's see, for lack of time, I'll skip over the verses leading up to that. You can read them yourselves, verses 1 through 6, which again reinforce the point that this is making, that Jesus is the Messiah. So let's go on to the next part of the Rimes that is given here, where it says, My Son whom I love. And this one's more subtle, but a distinct rim is, as various people point out. And what's this referring to? It's referring back to Abraham and Isaac, and specifically to the time when God told Abraham to sacrifice His Son, Your Son whom You love.
Same terminology there. Genesis 22, verses 1 and 2. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And Abraham said, Here I am. Then God said, Take now your Son, your only Son, Isaac, whom you love. Same terminology that God is using there in Luke.
And go to the land of Moriah and offer him there is a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I shall tell you. Quick side note, Mount Moriah here is actually the hill or mountain on which Jerusalem is built. Most Jews believe, and I do too, that probably the spot where the temple was built was this hilltop where Abraham was told to sacrifice his son, Isaac, there because he would normally sacrifice on the highest point around there. So there's a consistency there that God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. Later, David chose that spot to build a temple. That's where Solomon built the temple there, the first temple. That's where the temple stood during Jesus Christ time there. It's amazing how God works throughout these same themes throughout centuries, millennia of time there, getting a little bit beside the point. But this, again, here is a subtle but remarkable rim as here. Again, consider who Abraham and Isaac are types of. We've talked about this in the church for years. Who is Abraham a type of? God the Father.
Who's Isaac, the sacrificial son, a type of? Jesus Christ. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son as an offering here and then exempts him from that. So Abraham was willing to give his only son. That was the test that God placed on him, offered to give his son as a sacrifice, not for himself, but for... Well, God the Father did give, in fulfillment of this type, his son as an offering, as a sacrifice for all of humankind. So there are clear parallels there. And for a Jew, hearing these words coming out of heaven about a beloved son, they would have thought about this because this is the first, and to my knowledge, the only place where these words are ever used in the Bible of a beloved son, as in this example of Abraham and Isaac there. So again, a subtle Ramesh, but another one that God is telling the people there. And they would have thought back to Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham being willing to give his son.
There's a third Ramesh, who's here as well. I'll talk about this very quickly.
And this is when God says, My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And I mentioned this one in the Sermon on Ramesh several weeks ago, Isaiah 42, verses 1-4. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, in whom my soul delights, or in whom I am well pleased, as would be translated into Greek.
I have put my spirit upon him, which we just read about earlier, he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail, nor be discouraged, till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastland shall wait for his law. And again, when you read the nearby verses here, the adjacent verses, the context here, what is God the Father saying? He's saying that his son, in whom he delights, is the one who will come to earth, and who will bring forth justice to the Gentiles, to the nations. That's what the word translated Gentiles means. So he's talking about him coming as the Messiah. Again, same point we read earlier here. So what we have here is the Father testifying through an angelic voice from heaven at Jesus' baptism, that Jesus of Nazareth is his beloved son, and that he will ultimately reign as the Messiah over the entire earth. So again, a lot of heavy-duty material here in this study today. A lot of examples of Rimes that really add a lot of depth of knowledge and understanding. We understand what's going on here in this technique that the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke use, that John the Baptizer uses, that Jesus himself uses, and that God the Father uses. And again, if we're not keeping our nose in the Bible and understanding and looking up and seeing where these references come from, we miss a great deal of the story. We really do. So I just encourage you to keep reading, keep studying, and when I spin out these questions, follow that, go through, think about it, dig out your concordance, think about the other ways, the other places these words are using, and seeing how many of these messages, these ribbons, these clues that God is giving us here and what they mean.
The rest of the story, you might say, that God is trying to tell us through this.
So any questions on any of this? Or if you have some, you can come up and ask later. Yes, Tim? Yeah, any chance we can get the questions earlier? I've been trying that for the last year, and it hasn't worked so far. No, my workload is just so packed. I've been intending to do that, but yeah, it just hasn't worked out. Yeah, Malawi report, right.
So that's why you've been dozing off here, Tony said.
You're excused this time. Yes, David? I think there's quite a comparison here. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, you got this dramatic ripping open of the heavens. And what happens? Yeah, the most gentle creature, a little dove, comes down and lands. We had a couple of doves out in our backyard that raised a young one this last couple of months. And yeah, just seeing the gentleness, the meekness, the humility of a dove, you can see that personified very well. That's a good reason why God uses that as a symbol of His Spirit at work, what that Spirit would be compared to. Yes, Tim?
Right. Right. Right. Good. Yeah, good. Good point. And if you read that carefully, He rides, I'll talk about this, but about five years from now when we get to that. But there's this, He rides, one commentary wrote this, and I believe it's accurate. To emphasize, to re-emphasize the humility, it says He rides on a colt and the foal of a donkey. Apparently what He's riding is not just a donkey, but a female with her little colt alongside, which just reinforces the whole picture of peace. He's not riding a mighty strong warrior horse like the Romans would have ridden.
He's riding the most humble farm animal, and not just a humble farm animal, but one with a little baby tagging along there with its mother there, just the picture of peace there. But again, yeah, that's not the way He's going to come when He returns. So yeah, good point there. So, okay, we'll be around afterwards. We have any other questions for about a half hour afterwards, and then heading down to spring. So with that, we'll conclude services.
