Matthew 3 Commentary
Please choose a passage:
Matthew 3:1-2
Matthew changes the scene from Nazareth to the Judean wilderness. He describes Jesus’s childhood to just before He begins His public ministry. Matthew introduces John the Baptizer and his main message: “Repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven is coming very soon.”
Matthew 3:3
Matthew points out that John the Baptizer is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3.
Matthew 3:4-6
Matthew describes John’s strange appearance and extreme diet. Many from Jerusalem and the surrounding areas were attracted to John and drawn by his warnings to repent. As they came to him they confessed their sins.
Matthew 3:7
Matthew introduces the main opponents of Jesus as Messiah: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They have heard of John’s popularity and have come to be baptized by him. Instead of being warmly received by John, he gives them a startling rebuke.
Matthew 3:8-10
John continues his rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees with a stern warning.
Matthew 3:11-12
John confesses that he is not the Messiah. John is only a lowly forerunner of the Messiah. John shifts metaphors and warns that the Messiah is coming very soon to reap.
Matthew 3:13-17
Jesus arrives from Galilee in order to be baptized by John. John recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and baptizes Him. As soon as Jesus comes up from the water, God’s Spirit descends as a dove and lands on Him. A voice from Heaven announces that Jesus is the Son of God.
Additional Resources
The Gospel of Matthew was written to demonstrate to the Jews of Jesus, the Messiah’s generation that He was indeed the Christ. Matthew thematically substantiates the Messianic identity of Jesus beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, which ran from Abraham, the father of Israel’s people through King David who was promised to have a son who would be on Israel’s throne forever. Throughout his Gospel account Matthew makes use of numerous prophecies both explicitly stated and by way of subtle allusion to support his thesis. Matthew further makes use of parallel events in Jesus’s life to those of Messianic figures from the Old Testament (Moses, Joseph, David, etc.) to bolster his argument.
Jesus came to offer the Jews the chance to participate in the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom. To do this, they would have to receive and follow Him as their Messiah. Jesus’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Ultimately, they rejected Him as their Messiah and condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion. The Jews’ rejection of the Messiah opened the door for Gentiles to enter the kingdom (Matthew 8:11-12, 22:1-10). Matthew’s Gospel is therefore a call for the Jews repent of their murder of Jesus and to embrace Him for the divine Messiah He is.
Matthew shows how their rejection of Him and His brutal death was predicted not only by Jesus Himself, but also was foretold in the Jewish scriptures of the Messiah.
The main proof that Jesus was the Messiah was “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4). This was Jesus’s death and resurrection from the dead. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Because Matthew’s Gospel was written to people who were already members of God’s eternal family by virtue of their faith in God’s promise to send the Messiah, Matthew emphasizes the “reward of eternal life” (aka “The Prize of Eternal Life”) rather than “the Gift of Eternal Life”. In other words, Matthew’s Gospel focuses on how to “enter the kingdom” rather than how to “be born again”.
Matthew’s Gospel demonstrates how Jesus came to fulfill the law and open a way for God’s people to participate in the Messianic kingdom if they would follow His example of worshiping God from the heart by forgiving and serving others.
For “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). If we have faith to follow the example set forth by the resurrected Messiah, whom all authority on heaven and earth has been granted (Matthew 28:18) and take up our cross for His sake (Matthew 16:24-25), then we will become great in His kingdom (Matthew 20:26).
Finally, Matthew provides extensive samples of Jesus’s teachings including “the Sermon on the Mount”, “the Little Commission”, and “the Olivet Discourse” and many parables, alongside accounts of numerous miracles and wonders, personal moments with His twelve disciples, interactions with seekers, and increasingly as his Gospel account progresses: challenges and confrontations with His adversaries – the Pharisees, Scribes, and Priests.
The scene shifts in this chapter from Jesus’s lineage, birth, and upbringing to the start of His ministry as a thirty-year-old man. Matthew introduces us to the strange figure of John the Baptizer (Jesus’s cousin) before describing the political opposition Jesus will encounter throughout His ministry as the Messiah. Sadly, these antagonists include the Pharisees, the religious heroes of Israel; and the Sadducees, the priestly elites. Chapter 3 culminates with John baptizing his cousin. As He rises from the waters, Jesus receives a very public seal of approval from the Father God and Holy Spirit.
View Matthew on the Timeline