EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/21/2026 8:56 PM
My Worship
Time Focus: PT-4 “The Theological Setting”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Luke 3:3b
Message
of the verse: “preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins;”
In this evening’s SD we will be talking about the baptism
and it is not Christian baptism, which symbolizes the death, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, because it had not yet been instituted, so what
we are talking about is the baptism that John did to those who came out into
the wilderness to hear him preach. John’s
baptism did not produce forgiveness, for no ritual can accomplish that. And while there were various ceremonial
washings in Judaism as seen in Hebrews 6:2 “2 and of instruction about washings, the laying
on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” Now there was no baptism of Jews. But while there was no baptism of Jews in
Judaism, the Jews did baptize Gentile converts to Judaism. Thus, those who “were being baptized by
[John] in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins” (Matt. 3:6), were
publicly acknowledging that they were no better than the Gentiles. Their sins had separated them from the true
and living God (cf. Isaiah 59:2) and cut them off from the covenant
blessings. For Jewish people to place
themselves on the same level as the despised Gentiles was astonishing, and
demonstrated the power of John’s preaching.
(Matt. 3:6)
“6 and they were baptized by him in the river
Jordan, confessing their sins.”
(cf. Isaiah 59:2)
“2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that
he does not hear.”
MacArthur goes on to write “Unfortunately,
few being baptized by John were truly repentant. The nation would later reject Jesus when He
failed to meet their expectations of a political Messiah, who would deliver
them from the Romans. Others were
superficial from the start. Thus when
John
‘saw many
of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood
of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with
repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham
for our fathers’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise
up children to Abraham (cf. John 8:37-40]. The axe is already laid at the root
of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. As for me, I
baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is
mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and fire. His
winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing
floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matt. 3:7-12)
Now we will go back to look at John 8:37-40.
“37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet
you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 ¶ I speak of what I have seen with my Father,
and you do what you have heard from your father." 39 They answered him, "Abraham is our
father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham’s children, you
would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has
told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.”
MacArthur concludes this rather long
section from his commentary on Luke: “But
those few (Matt. 7:13-14) who acknowledged their sinful condition and
alienation from God and turned to Him in repentant faith were saved.”
(Matt. 7:13-14)
“13 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate
is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by
it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow
and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
At the end of his commentary on this
section MacArthur mentioned two books that he has written, “The Gospel According
to Jesus, and The Gospel According to the Apostles.”
Looks like I can finish this chapter
in tomorrow morning’s SD.
4/21/2026
9:18 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment