The Powerful Ministry of John Is Described (3:1-14).
Many years have passed and the ministry of John the Baptiser, whose birth was described in chapter 1, begins. It is set very definitely in its historical context, and commences with confirmation that he was fulfilling what the prophets had promised. His was a ministry that very much demanded a moral response, and which offered the forgiveness of sins for those who faced up before God concerning their need to have a change of heart and mind (to ‘repent'). It was based on the prophetic descriptions of the Holy Spirit falling like rain on men and women and producing fruitfulness in their lives (Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:1-5; Isaiah 55:10-13), something that he declared was about to come, and was very much based on the need for men and women to ‘bear fruit'.
Thus as can be seen it was fulfilling the angels description of the purpose of his ministry, to ‘turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God' (Luke 1:16) and ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people'.
He acted out this pouring out of the Spirit in prophetic mime through a baptism in water. This did not signify ritual washing (that was the error of Josephus), for in ritual washing men washed themselves, and besides, there is no hint in his ministry of such a significance. Rather it signified the Holy Spirit falling on men like refreshing and lifegiving rain producing fruitfulness, and he continually demanded to see that fruitfulness, and paralleled his drenching (baptizo) of them with water with the overwhelming pouring on them (baptizo) of the Holy Spirit.
Both the opening verse and the general context reveal that John sees himself as introducing the last days. Luke sets him in the context of the power of Rome, and reveals him as the one who is preparing the way for what is to come, the coming of the Messiah and the great anointed Prophet of God. And John sees this as very much introducing the last days, for his eyes are firmly fixed on the final judgment. All must now face up to a choice. One is coming Who will ‘drench' men with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Then those who respond and are fruitful will be gathered into His barn, but those who refuse to hear and do not respond will be burned like chaff in unquenchable flames. In spite of his stress on coming judgment, in the end his message is to be seen as one of declaring the coming of the Salvation of God (Luke 3:6). It is to be seen as ‘the Good News' (Luke 3:18). Against the background of fiery judgment is the description of a new beginning for all who respond to the Messiah
We can compare this great contrast between the surviving righteous and the destruction of the unrighteous with the similar contrast in Isaiah, who reveals the aftermath, ‘For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make will remain before Me --- all flesh will come to worship before Me, and they will go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me, for their maggot will not die, their fire will not be quenched, and they will be an abhorrence to all flesh' (Isaiah 66:22-24). And to the similar contrast in Daniel, ‘and there will be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation until that time, but at that time your people will be delivered, every one whose name will be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt' (Daniel 12:1-2). It is the time of the end. But like Isaiah John makes no mention of the resurrection, and like Isaiah he speaks of unquenchable fire. The warning of Jeremiah 4:4 is to be fulfilled, ‘Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart (repent), you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My fury go forth like fire and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings'.
The first nineteen verses of this chapter can be analysed as follows:
a Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
b And he came into all the region round about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance resulting in (unto) remission of sins.
c As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make you ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low,
And the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways smooth.
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
d He said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptised by him, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, “We have Abraham to our father”, for I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”
e “And even now the axe also lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
d ‘And the crowds asked him, saying, “What then must we do?” And he answered and said to them, “He who has two coats, let him impart to him who has none, and he who has food, let him do the same.” And there came also public servants to be baptised, and they said to him, “Teacher, what must we do?” And he said to them, “Extort no more than that which is appointed you.” And soldiers also asked him, saying, “And we, what must we do?” And he said to them, “Extort from no man by violence, nor accuse any one wrongfully, and be content with your wages.” '
c And as the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ. John answered, saying to them all, “I indeed baptise you with water, but there comes he who is mightier than I, the latchet of whose sandals I am not worthy to unloose. He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and in fire, whose winnowing-fan is in his hand, thoroughly to cleanse his threshing-floor, and to gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
b With many other exhortations therefore preached he good tidings to the people.
a But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done, added this also to them all, that he shut up John in prison.
It will be noted that in ‘a' the authorities of this world are described as in contrast with the word of God going forth from John, while in the parallel their representative shuts up John (and the word of God) in prison. In ‘b' John goes out preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and in the parallel he preaches good tidings to the people. In ‘c' we have a prophetic description of the mighty working of God preparing for the Coming One, leading up to salvation (a concept which in the Old Testament includes judgment on the ungodly), and in the parallel we have the mighty working of the Coming One who both saves and judges. In ‘d' there is the warning to bring forth fruits meet for repentance and in the parallel those fruits are described. In ‘e' we have the central point of warning concerning those who refuse to become fruitful. His central message is a fearsome warning of judgment.