Matthew 3:11-12 Bible Teaching

Matthew 3:11-12 Verse by Verse with Shawn McCraney

Transcripts:

Again, we're doing this because we lost the recordings two times before, but I'm finding it really a blessing because I'm learning so much again and even more things about this book and the characters and themes in it. We left off at verse 11. It's February 15th, 2026. We left off last week at verse 11, where John the Baptist, he's out there baptizing, and he says to the Jewish leaders who came out to see him, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to

bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And I have to admit that we are going to get into the weeds a bit here because the statement just by itself is difficult and so we have to use a contextual understanding of the scripture to make it make sense if we were to stop right there there are a number of biblical ways that we could understand the last line that the Messiah, Yeshua, that John is talking about, would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Okay, so what are those ways? Well, first, John says that the one who would come after

him would baptize with two things, not just the Holy Spirit and not just with fire. So there's two things involved, and just to read this, we have to decide what the through line of the Bible says about baptism, being baptized, being baptized by different things, Holy Spirit, being baptized by fire, because all facets of baptism are present here in this verse.

And so that means the baptism of water that John mentions is present, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is present, which John mentions, and the baptism of fire is present through what he mentions. And we've talked about water baptism last week, but essentially it was a ritual established as a type when the nation of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground.

That's how it puts it. And baptism, that was like the first baptism that you might see that was instituted for the nation of Israel. And that symbolic act is mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10.1 when he wrote, Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, listen, Listen, how that our fathers, the Jews, were under a cloud and all passed through the sea.

Listen, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all did eat the same spiritual meat and did drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Probably one of the best definitions of a preexistent Messiah. And he said, But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Talking about the nation of Israel who God was unhappy with. for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Talking about the nation of Israel who God was unhappy with. So later that imagery was used by the nation when an individual wanted to convert to Judaism, baptism.

And so while the specific Christian ordinance of baptism is not laid out clearly in the Old Testament, there's a Hebrew word that lends to it, table or tabal, and it means to dip or to plunge something and is often translated in the Greek Septuagint, to baptize. Okay, so table or table means to dip or to plunge, and it's translated in the Greek translation of the Old Testament as baptize. Now, as a precursor to John the Baptist's baptism, we have the story in 2 Kings 5 of a man named Naaman, or it's really probably Naaman, and he had leprosy.

And he was told by the prophet Elisha to go to the Jordan and wash himself in it. And that advice made Naaman... Naaman initially very angry because in his mind, and this is stated in the text, there are many other better rivers he could have gone to to wash himself rather than the Jordan. And so it was almost like Naaman was like saying, Naaman was saying, you know, that's bad advice.

I could go to any river of water. Why do I have to follow Elisha's? But someone came along and encouraged him to follow Elisha's advice. And we read in 2 Kings 5.14, So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Now, that's a miracle of water ablutions all the way back in 2 Kings, and it's a type for water baptism that John was going to bring. That word translated dipped in that passage is table or tabal, and it is translated to baptize again in the Septuagint of the Tanakh. So we have a literal Old Testament baptism that happens in 2 Kings 5.14.

Now, as we said last week, John came performing this watery act for Jews, which was for them to indicate that they were repenting. And perhaps some of them had the heart of Naaman and were insulted by this mundane act that John was offering them. I don't know. Could be. Maybe the leaders were like that.

John was offering them. I don't know. Could be. Maybe the leaders were like that. The whole point, however, is water baptism was just a symbolic act a person would do as a means to be identified with a cause or a mindset.

Okay? So by following Moses on dry ground with the water of the Red Sea piled up on both sides of them, so they go through a mist of water, but the ground's dry and the water of the Red Sea's on the side of them, that made those who did it, followed Moses, a disciple of Moses, and as a disciple who was removed from bondage by Moses of sin. So when they passed through the Red Sea, it was a type of washing and identification of the nation going through water, being identified as being emancipated from the sins of Egypt.

A convert to Judaism was dipped to illustrate the washing away of their pagan practices, their allegiance to pagan gods and, and rising up like a newborn, re-identified, just like the clothing and textile industry would take a piece of cloth, let's just imagine this is a white t-shirt, and they would baptizo it into red dye, and it would come up with a brand new identity of being red.

come up with a brand new identity of being red. That's the whole imagery behind water baptism in the Old and the New Testament under John. So John's water identifier, as we said last week, was unto repentance. They were baptized showing they were repenting from their former ways as a preparation for the arrival of the promised Messiah and his kingdom, which was at hand.

And then because they were Jews and were used to this form of watery identification, Yeshua's disciples came in, and after John was put in prison and put to death they were rebaptized in water by the disciples the disciples of John were rebaptized in water by the apostles of Christ because they received him as the Messiah and that watery practice among the Jews would come first and that caused John the Beloved to write in John 4. Now when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Yeshua was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples baptized. Yeshua left Judea and departed again to

Galilee. So why didn't Yeshua perform water baptisms, especially if they're so important? Well, John, first of all, said that he was going to come baptizing with a different substance, or substances, really. Water was not one of them. So while the apostles took the earlier disciples of John and they re-baptized them unto faith in the Messiah, Jesus himself didn't do it.

We might suggest that if Yeshua had performed water baptism, he would have done what all material rituals do. They divide people. We could probably imagine that had Yeshua baptized 10 people, those 10 people, after he died and resurrected and showed himself and the church started to grow, would have said, I was baptized by Yeshua. My baptism is better than a baptism that came about through Paul or through anybody else.

You get it? But this wasn't the main reason Yeshua didn't baptize with water, in my estimation. I suggest that this material act was important and consistent with the former age economy, the Jews, and the import to have a smooth transition of practices between the Jewish economy and what Yeshua was calling them to be.

But the reason that Yeshua never baptized with water is because that baptism was not what he came to do. Simple as that. And so he didn't do it. And that's why we have that parenthetical reference in John 4, 1 through 3, that says, you know, how be it Jesus, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his apostles.

In other words, his baptism that he brought, as John says clearly, In other words, his baptism that he brought, as John says clearly, was far more efficacious, effective in re-identifying a person to himself. Okay? The baptism of water, it re-identifies in a material sense people because they go in dry and they come up wet and they're re-identified according to whatever baptism they're experiencing.

But water baptism is just a symbolic baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is far, far, far more effective in bringing about actual, real, genuine identity in a person. Now, let me give you an example from my own life. Over the years of doing ministry here and in the past, we used to hold what are called open water baptisms.

And I've done hundreds of them, probably, over the course of 20 years. It used to be very popular with us, but we don't do them anymore unless someone comes up and asks. But I've had probably of those hundred, probably maybe less, maybe 90, of those souls who I've baptized come back another time and want to be re-baptized.

And in water, because for them it was a tactile experience as a material being that had meaning to them. In the interim, from when I first baptized them to when they wanted to be baptized again, they had fallen into what they thought was sin. And so therefore, they wanted re-baptism in water as a means to be able to say to themselves, okay, this is a fresh start.

It's almost like when you see married couples go and renew their vows, it's because as a couple, they probably have gone through some gnarly stuff, and that redoing of the vows helps them try to feel like they're getting a fresh start. But you know as well as I do that water baptism on the heart of somebody who has a problem with their flesh and sin, it only serves as kind of like a little short-term helper. Just like a couple who renews their vows, if they haven't fixed the problem that caused,

that they've had in their marriage, that renewal of the vow is just a ceremony that they indulge in. So it might serve water baptism to make us feel like we have a new start like we've been reborn by our mothers and we've come out into a new life and we feel like we've committed to something new but genuine water baptism is just an outworn material act that's supposed to reflect an inward change of the heart.

That is what Christ brought to the nation, was the inward change through the Holy Spirit. It's that that he brought, because when you have had that change, you don't need the water baptism rituals anymore. Because you know inwardly that he has renewed you, which is why I think it's another main reason he didn't do water baptisms.

As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, listen, pay careful attention to what he wrote to the church at Corinth in the first chapter, verses 14 through 17. Now, this is an apostle to the Gentiles. Hear his words. If you've listened to a pastor or preacher or church, say you've got to be water baptized.

Okay? In 1 Corinthians 1.14, he says, I thank God that I baptized none of you. Thank God that I baptized none of you. That's the value of water baptism when it comes to real discipleship, real conversion. That Jesus didn't even do it. And Paul says, I thank God I baptized none of you. He adds, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name.

And I baptized also the household of Stephanas, besides I know not whether I baptized any other. Now listen to this line. For Christ sent me not to baptize. Ready? But to preach the gospel. And because he says that, we have a clear delineation between what the gospel is about, faith, the Holy Spirit, and love that comes from that, and not water rituals.

So Paul says, Christ sent me not to baptize, we could add with water, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made to none effect. So we can clearly see that the gospel being preached did not, in Paul's mind, even include water baptism.

And we could go out into the world of religion right now, and if we could teach this from the pulpit of 20,000 churches, we would have a kickback from 19,995 of them, because they want to take the biblical narrative and put everything in its place as they play church today. It was also a ritual in Rite that was going to fade fast, even evaporate, pun intended, in the age of the Spirit, which began when? The age of the Spirit began, well, officially at Pentecost, when what happened? What happened at Pentecost? Former age, including John the Baptist, water baptism, water

baptism, water baptism. But John said, someone's coming, I can't even tie a shoe, he's going to bring baptism of the Holy Spirit and a fire. The Spirit of Christ fell on them at that day at Pentecost. That was the promised baptism that he came to bring. The falling of the Spirit was the introduction of the faith, religion, shifting from outward material stuff, like water baptism, once very much part of the former economy under the law of material expressions, to a new economy now. One of the spirit. One that comes by virtue of God and not man. And so it was one of the Spirit,

and that was to govern those people by itself. The Spirit, who was with John, was not worthy to die. So John was just saying, what he brings, I can't even get close to. Now, in that day and age of the mortal Messiah coming into incarnation, living a mortal life with his own, he plainly said to one of their leaders at night named Nicodemus.

He was a religious leader who came to him by night under the cover of darkness, probably because he didn't want to be seen. And we read very clearly in John 3, 3-7, Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

All right? Now note that those words were said by Yeshua to a leading Jew of that nation. And these words have little to do with a message of Christ to the Gentile world, especially today. They have to be interpreted into the context of who came to him, that economy, and Yeshua's specific advice to this Jewish leader.

And in that context, Yeshua was saying to Nicodemus, a man today, right now, can't even see or perceive the coming kingdom unless they have been born from above, is how to translate it from the Greek. And that references the baptism Yeshua would bring, spiritual baptism, being born, coming up out of the Spirit. And when that happens, you'll be able to see the Kingdom of God. That was his baptism.

Nicodemus said to him, listen to this, how can a man be born when he is old? So Nicodemus purely thinking in the terms of material, everything Yeshua was saying, because they were a material religion. Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now that is obviously kind of a tongue-in-cheek comment by Nicodemus, because he knows he can't do that, but he asked Yeshua that.

And it was Nicodemus' way of saying, of clarifying what Yeshua meant by being born from above when he's old. And he brought it back to Yeshua in the form of a literal application. How can a man be born again when he's old? Does he climb back into the womb of his mother? When he's old, does he climb back into the womb of his mother? Right? Now listen to what Yeshua says in response.

Verily, verily. Whenever you read two verilies, it means truly, truly. It means I cannot be more emphatic about this, Nicodemus. Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Now, it's up to you how to decide if Yeshua was saying to Nicodemus that a man has to be baptized, which is how most baptizing religions interpret that.

He must be born of water and of the Spirit from me and from water baptism. Or was he saying only a man can enter the kingdom of heaven if they are born of water from their mother and of the Holy Spirit from me. Now, again, religion teaches, he's saying they have to be baptized in water. I say that Yeshua, in the context of this conversation, was not saying that at all.

He was just referencing John's comment, do I climb back into my mother's womb? And he just said, look it, a man has to be born of water from your mother's womb and of the Holy Spirit. Most major religions on the world, in the earth today, do not teach that. And I believe it's a false tradition.

I believe that he was saying the latter to Nicodemus, borrowing from Nicodemus' question, going back to his mother's womb. And now listen to what Yeshua adds at verse 6, which makes it really clear. Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is the flesh, hearkening back to being born of a mother, being born of water. That which is born of flesh is flesh. And that which is born of spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again. One, born first from the water of your mother, but two, being born from the Holy Spirit. In the end, however, the only water birth necessary for anyone outside of that time and that day is from their mother. You don't need water baptism anymore. What you need, you can do it. And it adds that what I call the chiropractic of religion. It's like you go to your chiropractic practitioner and you have these aches and pains and he examines you and things and he x-rays you and he says, I can't find anything. And you go with those same things.

pains to a chiropractor and they lay their hands on you and they dig their fingers into your body and you walk away and say, I got more out of that than I did for my general practitioner. Same with water, baptisms, and rites. They make you feel like something's happened. But the reality is it's the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Christ gives that matters and not the former.

Now, we have to get even further in the weeds here because even before Pentecost, when the Spirit of Christ would fall, people in Yeshua's day were apparently baptized by the Holy Spirit of God. This adds complexity to the whole thing. For instance, in the Old Testament, Bezalel was filled with the Spirit of Wisdom and crafting the tabernacle, filled with the Spirit of God, which gave him wisdom to design the tabernacle.

him wisdom to design the tabernacle. Joshua is described as a man in whom the Spirit resided. The Spirit of God resided. Samson was empowered by the Spirit of God giving him supernatural strength. Saul received a new heart filled with the Spirit of God all the way back. And prophets like Micah and Daniel were empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak divine messages, as were the prophets.

But even pre-Pentecost, in the apostolic record in the New Testament, the following examples of the presence of the Holy Spirit in and among people is mentioned. Elizabeth, John's mother, was filled with the Holy Spirit to prophesy when Mary visited her. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. I mean, that's radical.

Mary had the Holy Spirit come upon her before for the incarnation, and it caused her to pronounce a prophecy, right? A man named Simeon had the Holy Spirit upon him, prompting him to go to the temple. Holy Spirit upon him, prompting him to go to the temple.

And a prophetess named Anna praised Yeshua when he was brought to the temple where she lived, brought to the temple where she lived day and night. She essentially lived in that temple and she prophesied when she saw the baby that was brought to be circumcised that the Messiah was among them. By what? The Holy Spirit. Finally, and this is the radical one, before Pentecost, Yeshua, between his time of being resurrected and ascending into heaven, he breathed the Holy Spirit on his apostles, He breathed the Holy Spirit on his apostles, and that enabled them to forgive sins and perform miracles before Pentecost.

We don't talk about this one that much. This was done between, as I said, after his resurrection and before his ascension and return, and it is a second powerful demonstration of his deification as a man in flesh after his resurrection. Listen to what it says beginning at verse 19. It says, and the same day at evening, remember this is after Yeshua had died and been resurrected, being the first day of the week, that would be a Sunday for them.

When the doors were shut, where the apostles were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Yeshua and stood in the midst. Again, the doors were shut. Came Yeshua and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be unto you. So it seems like he and that resurrected body was able to go through walls. Okay. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side.

Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Yeshua to them again, Peace be unto you, as my father has sent me, even so I send you. Ready? Now listen to this. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained.

Okay, so this is what gave the Apostles the power and authority in His name before Pentecost, okay? Because it was bestowed upon them by Christ Himself, and it was given in a way that was entirely of the Spirit. without any transference of authority by the laying on of hands or oils or washing. And the Spirit of Christ that fell at Pentecost and experienced by all there did not give the others the power to remit sins or to retain them.

So we see this was a special breathing of the Holy Spirit by the resurrected Christ showing he was fully God. Fully God after his resurrection. It's a fantastic support for his deity. The interesting thing about this act that he does is the Greek word used for breathed on is emphuseo, and it's never used in the entire New Testament apostolic record, but it's used in the Old Testament Septuagint a number of times, including the Genesis account when God breathes into Adam. In the Septuagint version, it's emphusio. Same word as when Jesus

breathed on his disciples. Same word as God breathing into the nostrils of Adam. And it's the same word when Ezekiel stands over the valley of dead bones, where we read, Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Wind, breath, spirit, pneuma, ruach, all the same in Scripture.

Say unto the wind, And Thus saith the Lord, Yehovah, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. It's new life given. This is what John the Baptist referred to when he said that the one coming after him would baptize them with the Holy Spirit. And we see that the actual literal fulfillment of this at Pentecost, where he is preached first, the Holy Spirit fell and on all that were there of the disciples, baptizing with a rushing wind, the same breath, ruach, pneuma, that Christ was bestowing on man without

hands. So this event between the risen Lord and his disciples and him breathing on them alone seems to be him giving them a sampling of the spirit that would fall at Pentecost, which was different. That was the spirit of Christ that fell at Pentecost, and it was given to all those who believed and received him by faith, because it's written in what is called the first aorist active indicative in the Greek, and that means it was just a temporary sampling of what would fall at Pentecost and not a lasting thing. So we have talked on this before, and it is

novel to any discussions we have heard before, but we as Yeshuans maintain that the Holy Spirit of God in the Old Testament was one of power, dunamis, and the Holy Spirit that fell at Pentecost was of another power or dunamis, and that it is best known after Pentecost or at Pentecost and thereafter as the Spirit of Christ that he could give after his victorious incarnation. And we'll discuss this another day in more detail.

But remember that John did not say that the one who would come after him, would only singularly come baptizing with the Holy Spirit. But he added, and with fire. So let's break this down because it bears with it some meaning in different ways. The first actual reference to the Holy Spirit and fire is at Pentecost, literally fulfilling what John said about the Christ to come, because Pentecost was the baptism of the Spirit and of fire in the name, cause, and power of the risen Lord. How can I say that? Listen to what we read in Acts 2.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So, the presence of this flaming tongue-like divided flickering flames on them was emblematic of the presence of the living God who is a consuming fire, but we know they were not consumed. This is what faith in Christ does, is it enables us to be in the presence of God as sinful people, by faith, without being consumed.

Because the wind came on them, the fiery tongues fell on them, but they weren't consumed. All the way back in Exodus, we remember Moses encountering the burning bush bush and him saying that it burned, but it wasn't consumed. Very similar. The symbolism of this cannot be overlooked, my friends. See, throughout Scripture, God is called a consuming fire, and that is a terrifying description.

Terrifying. I don't usually insert these things, but there's a film called The Lighthouse. Graphically scary, horrible, but the end of it is really, really interesting in terms of consuming fire. So if you just rent that movie or look at it and skip to the end and get through all the mishmash of the director, that consuming fire exposure was really profound.

But in my estimation, the fire that fell at Pentecost was a symbolic of the heavenly fire of God being able to rest upon human beings that look to God's Son in faith without them being consumed, proving that the wrath of God was not abiding on anybody of faith from the house of Israel who believed and received his Son. But the wrath was not appeased entirely because it was promised to fall on those who rejected his Son in a great and dreadful day.

That was promised in the Old Testament on out to John and Christ and all the apostles. So in this way, we can see that when John says that the one who came to prepare the way would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, the fire part would represent a dual capacity. The fire that would come for those of faith would be a powerful, purifying presence of God in them, over them, on them. But to those who rejected his own, those of his own who rejected him, that fire would be consummately destructive.

This is the thing about fire and God, who is, again, a consuming fire. In and through faith on Christ alone, human beings are made so clean and pure by his blood through our faith that there is nothing impure to consume in them. You got to understand that. In our spirit, there's nothing impure to consume.

Our identity is clean, pure, because of faith in his Son. And their faith renders them impervious to the consuming fire of God. All right? In our estimation, this is what helps actually define the heavenly habitation of God. Those that can't, who die, are fitted with a body for life, can enter into the heavenly realm, even into the gates of the new Jerusalem, where God and Christ dwell and are the light thereof.

And that light is all-consuming, but they're not touched. You get it? But there are those who rejected faith on him, are equipped with a body of damnation. That doesn't mean they go to hell. It means they're limited. They are damned in their ability to move forward.

of God in his New Jerusalem might be an experience of experiencing the fiery wrath of the fiery person of the living God. So, the evil or those who sowed to their dark souls and wills and ways here, access to the Father and therefore entrance into his presence, may be an event that they will not partake in because it's too consuming of the things they love. So they stay away from that kingdom instead of pursuing toward it.

" The other thing about the fire that Christ baptized with seems to have application to trials that believers face in this life when we choose to walk by faith. The Apostle Peter wrote to them then and said, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you.

You know, you're just going along and suddenly you're under this fire of life, as if some strange thing has fallen upon you. He says, Rejoice in so much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you.

Those were the trials they were under. They were treated poorly because they had received the identity of Christ in their person. He says, if that's the case, be happy, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you, and their part he is evil spoken of, on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. The bottom line, we as Jeshuans suggest that in the relationship between God and man, everyone has to pass through the fire.

Whether here, willingly, in your flesh, as a believer, going through the trials that purge your soul of the things that get in the way. And last Sunday, I shared with you a fiery trial I went through where my soul was purged. Not fun, brutal, cannot be more grateful for it today.

And or wait for the invitation for a purging in the afterlife if you want to pursue God and his location in the kingdom above. I would imagine, can't prove, that if a soul waits for the afterlife to come to truth and willingly submits to the passing through the fire, there's something about it that is very different, perhaps very difficult, that is very different, perhaps very difficult, compared to the trials that we have while we are mortal.

That's just me, because it seems like there has to be a difference, because what would be the purpose if there's no difference? Or if it's easier in the kingdom above, if it's easier, what would be the purpose of going through it here, if God just makes it easier and less painful there? So I tend to think that God is just. He says, if you want to walk in my name while you're mortal, this is you're going to experience a baptism of fire.

If you don't want that and you want me later, you're going to experience something different. Now, because the people of Pentecost spoke tongues at this event. Many Christian believers associate being baptized of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues. In fact, I know churches today that say, you have not been baptized of the Holy Spirit unless it is followed by your speaking in tongues.

And therefore, they assign kind of some of the things that are said in the Scripture, but they assign them to themselves wrongly. I knew a guy years ago, he was raised in a Christian cult, and he said from the time he was like five all the way till he was like 10, they were always telling him, come forth and be baptized of the Spirit. Come forth and be baptized of the Spirit.

And he would go forth and he said, I would feel like the Spirit, but I didn't speak in tongues. And they would say, you weren't baptized of the Spirit. He said, finally, when he was 10 years old, he went in front of the congregation. He said, I sense it. And he faked speaking in tongues so that they'd leave him alone. This is something that religions do.

Listen to what Yeshua said, however, giving reason why many people today think certain things have to be proven to show that you possess the Holy Spirit. You ready? Yeshua said in His day, He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. To the Jews, remember. But he that believeth not shall be damned. He doesn't say and is not baptized.

He just says believeth not. And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name. They will cast out devils. They'll speak with new tongues. They'll take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Remember? And so people read the scripture today with Yeshua saying that to the Jews of that day, prior to Pentecost, and the power of the Holy Spirit, which was abundant at that time, and they go into'll pick up snakes and they'll speak in tongues.

And it's just fleshly rehearsal of what plain religion looks like. Again, those were the words of Yeshua to his own and in that time. Secondly, and speaking of tongues, which was literally at that moment at Pentecost, all the people from the different lands who had come to Jerusalem for the high holidays, they had gathered there, they spoke in different dialects, different tongues, and Luke lists all the different nations that were there, and what they did was when the Holy Spirit fell on them, it was them showing that the miraculous gift of tongues for a person who was

not trained in a language to speak that language was present among them. I tend to believe that this was God fulfilling in a good, positive way what he did at Babel. Because remember, at Babel, the men and the women said, nothing can stop us. And God said, I got to confound their language.

So they can't understand each other and they won't be able to continue on with this barbaric work of trying to reach me with slime and mortar. But at Pentecost, we have the reverse happen. The people of all the different languages that God had once dispersed out at Babel had now come together and they were able to understand each other.

Then, in a most prophetic statement of Yeshua coming with judgment, in the last days of that former economy, Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 28, 9, Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall be made to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, for with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to his people, to whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest. And this is the

refreshing, yet they would not hear. This is prophetic stuff. But the word of Yehovah was unto them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they might also go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken.

Wherefore hear the word of Yehovah, you scornful men that rule this people, which is in Jerusalem. This is prophetic. Because you have said you have made a covenant with death and with hell, are we at agreement when the overflowing scourge shall pass through? It shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves.

This is apocalyptic language speaking to the great and dreadful day Christ said was coming your way. And he said, for the time that it goes forth, it shall take you for morning by morning shall it pass over by day and night, and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrow than he can wrap himself in it. For Yehovah shall rise up in the Mount of Perizim.

He shall be wroth as in the Valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. For I have heard from the Lord Jehovah, the host of consumption, even determined upon the whole earth." If you take time to work through those, you'll see all of it fulfilled.

and through these things happening in the apostolic record. Then finally, at the event of Pentecost, it's cited by Peter as it being the fulfillment of Joel. In Acts chapter 2, verse 28 through 32, it says, and it shall come to pass afterward. You know the story. The Jews around them said, you guys are drunk.

He said, it's the third hour of the day. How can we be drunk? And he said, this is that. This is that, which was spoken of by the prophet Joel. And he cites Joel 2.28, and he says, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

And also upon the servant and upon the handmaids, in those days I will pour out my spirit. That's what happened at Pentecost, and that's what has happened on the world since Christ finished his work with the nation of Israel. That's why we say everybody has the Spirit of Christ poured out upon them.

And then Peter cites how Joel said, and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. In that day, at the destruction of Jerusalem, not in some future event we keep reading the Bible and assigning it to. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of Yahava come.

And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of Yahava shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as Yehovah has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." And here is the contextual meaning of John's words that Yeshua would come and baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

and with fire. Why can we say this? Because if we read beyond verse 11 of chapter 3, John himself catches the statement as having application to the fire Yeshua would bring to the wrapping up of that age. This is the context of verse 11. Listen again, I'm going to read 11 11 and then listen to what he says thereafter, giving us context of what John actually meant about fire literally.

Ready? I indeed baptize with water unto repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." And then he adds, "...whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

That is the definition of how Christ would come with the Holy Spirit and with fire that John gives us. It's relative to the fire that was going to come in judgment upon all the nation of Israel that did not receive him by faith as the apostles were out trying to get them to do. We remember that John in verse 7 above said that the Pharisees and the Sadducees that came out to him, you generation of vipers who's warned you to flee from the wrath to come. We have people who believe that wrath has still being held somewhere and waiting

to fall upon the earth of people who have never known God by his law. Don't let the traditions of man trick you and move you around. We also remember that John also said, hearkening back to the prophetic words of Malachi, and now also is the axe laid at the root of the trees, therefore every tree which brings forth not good fruit, what's good fruit? Faith and love.

Every tree of this nation that does not bring good fruit, faith in me and love for God and man is hewn down and cast into the fire. And so in this context, we could see that in addition to all the ways Yeshua would come baptizing with the Holy Spirit and with fire, all those ways that the fire referenced by John was directly tied to Yeshua ultimately bringing judgment, even vengeance, upon that people and that world before wrapping it up altogether and having the ultimate victory upon which Yeshuans promote and stand. Isaiah prophesied yet again of that day, saying in Isaiah 5 24, There

Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, remember that's the word Malachi used, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root, there's that word root used by Malachi, Isaiah, and John the Baptist, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust, Oh God, I don't know how to make prophecy make more sense, you know.

And that he also said in Isaiah 61, 1 through 3, which Isaiah cited as being fulfilled in their ears the day that he read in their synagogue. Listen to what Isaiah said. The spirit of the Lord Yehovah is upon me, because Yehovah has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance. I proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and a vengeance of our God to comfort all those who mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes and oil of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they might be called trees of righteousness not rotten trees of bad fruit

being hewn down chopped off at the root and falling into the flames they might be called trees of righteousness the planting of Yahava, they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahava, that he might be glorified. We proudly proclaim that Yahava is planted in this world in the hearts of every human being and that the victorious work of Christ found in the scripture, old and apostolic record, are fulfilled.

And this is the way to proceed forward in the faith now, not the way religious men and women have gone for 2,000 years and constructed around us. And at the very end of the book of Isaiah, the very last chapter, the book of Isaiah, the very last chapter, the last verse reads from Isaiah 66, 24, and they shall go forth and look upon the carcass of men that have transgressed against me.

For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be abhorring to all flesh. And all of this was being referenced by John in his words to the Jewish leaders of his day, that the one coming after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So much that John adds in our last verse for today, whose fan, talking about Yeshua, is in his hand.

And he will thoroughly purge, listen to this word, his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner, the container to hold good fruit. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Now, it's important that you really hear what this verse is with reference to the Messiah that John is describing.

So I want to read it in a different way. Whose winnowing fork is in his hand? Now, a winnowing fork, you can see them. They're like these long pronged forks. And what they would do is they'd go into a barn that had a floor and they would take the wheat and they would take the winnowing fork and they'd throw it into this piles of wheat and throw it into the air and then they would watch things settle and they would take all the the heavy wheat good fruit and they would put it into a container and then they'd

sweep up all the light airy chaff and pieces that weren't edible and they would put it into a container and then they'd sweep up all the light airy chaff and pieces that weren't edible and they would burn them. That is the imagery that John is using there. The winnowing fork is in his hand and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor. What was his threshing floor? It was his brethren and people, the Jews.

He was going to thresh through them, pull out the good-fruited ones who looked to him in faith, and burn the rest up at the great and dreadful day that fell on them in 70 AD. That's the imagery. This is called sifting in other places of Scripture.

We remember that even Yeshua said to Peter in Luke 22-31, wheat, separate you apart, divide you, right? John takes that imagery known in that agrestic community, and he assigns it to the promised Messiah coming with fire. And note that when John says, whose winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, that's his bride.

But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire, which is linked to every single parable and teaching Yeshua makes about the end days. That the riffraff is going to be thrown into the fire. Isaiah says in 41 15 through 16 behold I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth this is prophetic thou shalt thresh the mountains Israel Jerusalem all mountainous thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shall make the hills as chaff verse 16 that thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away which it

did and the whirlwind shall scatter them and thou shalt rejoice in Yehovah and shout glory in the holy of the holy one of Israel Beautiful imagery of exactly what Christ came to do among that nation, gathering his bride of good fruit, good wheat, and burning the rest of it up. And that is the primary way John is describing him coming and baptizing with fire.

is describing him coming and baptizing with fire. And so that was the prophecy. And John says, listen, religious leaders, you're vipers. Your father is Satan. And Jesus said to them, how are you going to escape the fires of Gehenna, which he used as an emblem of the coming day where they would be torched. Their bodies would be burned up and consumed.

And all of that consummation through fire and all the prophecies of Old Testament, prophecies in the apostolic record, and prophecies and explanations of Revelation point to all of that being fulfilled like Christ promised. point to all of that being fulfilled like Christ promised in Matthew 24, 30, Matthew 24, 34, all of the things I've warned you four apostles about will happen before this generation passes.

And guess what? It did. We're going to continue on next week in Matthew chapter 3 at verse 13, and it's going to remove us for a time away from all this prophetic stuff and bring Yeshua into he and John's ministry among the people. you