MATITYAHU (MATTHEW) 3:1-12

Have You Changed Your Mind?

PART 3: WHY NOT SPELL IT OUT?

Now we already know what proselytes said when they changed their minds:

So what did the Jews say when they changed their mind?

Since Yochanan the Immerser was announcing the Mashiach, then part of the change of mind for the Jew had to be:

Also we know that whenever Yochanan the Immerser was pointing to Yeshua HaMashiach, he would say:

The lamb was the substitutionary sacrifice for worshippers of Y-H-V-H. Symbolically, the individual would transfer his sins to an unblemished lamb. Then the lamb was slain, because G_d requires death for sin.

The worshippers were confessing their sins:

And Yochanan would say:

They would respond:

Then the individuals would receive the message everybody gets back who comes to G_d on that basis:

I believe Yochanan was saying more. Let us think about the Jews changing their minds. The Jews thought:

• They had to keep bringing animals for sacrifice daily.
• They had to keep obeying the Law everyday.
• If they had a good day and they were obedient to the Law, G_d would accept them a little bit more. However, if they really had a bad day and they disobeyed the Law, they would fall down in their acceptance before G_d and they had to bring more animals.
• They were never sure that they were in the Kingdom.

However, Yochanan had a new message for the Jews. He said:

I imagine some of them asked:

And Yochanan would have said:

And if they said:

And Yochanan would have said:

Yes, that would have been a powerful message because that would have met the needs. And that is something that people would have gone back and told their family and friends about:

Now that would have drawn the crowds!

People who have not changed their mind, who do not think they need to be redeemed, do not get the private message.

Yochanan the Immerser was giving the need before he gave the remedy. He was saying:

Of course, there were some people at the Yarden River who chose not to be forgiven…

The P'rushim (Pharisees) were the legalistic religious leaders, and the Tz'dukim (Sadducees) were the worldly-minded leaders. Normally, they were bitter enemies; however, at odd times they came together. Later on and during the ministry of Yeshua HaMashiach, their mutual hatred of Him brought them together. But for now, they were together because they wanted in on this spectacle.

So the leaders went out to Yochanan the Immerser who welcomed them in his own, unique way:

I do now know about you, but I sense a negative connotation here!

That is easy. It was the garb that they wore, especially the P'rushim. They wore t'fillin (two phylacteries -- black leather boxes containing Scripture which were affixed to the hand/arm and forehead) and tzitzit (tassels attached to the hemline of the tallit -- the cloak or robe), so they were easy to spot.

I guess Yeshua HaMashiach liked this analogy because He also used it with the P'rushim.

Remember that Yochanan was not a city boy and he knew how things worked out in the country. He knew that there were two sowings when the workers planted the seeds for the grains, including (1) a summer sowing and (2) a winter sowing. Before each sowing, the workers would burn the fields. During this burning, all of the snakes and other slimy creatures would slither off to escape the fire.

Yochanan was saying:

Again, it seems to me that they are running in the right direction, toward Yochanan the Immerser, but he rejects them. Let us see why…

Now we know why Yochanan rejected the P'rushim and Tz'dukim. They came for immersion, but they did not bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. Again, how did he know that? What were they doing and how did Yochanan know that they did not change their mind, which would have brought forth fruit?

We know that some people at the Yarden River were showing the fruit of repentance. Yochanan accepted them and he gave them a private message of redemption in Mashiach.

The P'rushim and Tz'dukim did not show the fruit of repentance. What was that fruit? Was it behavior? Was it performance? That could not be it because Yochanan saw them out there, but he could not tell in that brief time if somebody had repented by his behavior.

It could not have been good works because the P'rushim were the ultimate good workers. If good works were the basis to prove that somebody had repented, they would have beaten anybody. Obviously, that is not the fruit that proves somebody has changed his mind.

Let us look at verse six again:

To understand what the fruit of repentance is, the first thing we have to do is make it very clear that confessing was not a condition for being immersed. The text does NOT say:

The text does say:

Yochanan is standing at the Yarden River and he is announcing the coming King, the Mashiach, and conducting the functions of the herald. The people come to be immersed. Yochanan asks no question. He starts immersing and, as he immerses the individuals, they spontaneously start confessing their sins.

During the process, Yochanan is observing this automatic confession of sins. He is seeing people come forward to be immersed. While the immersion is going on, and as a response to their immersion, they voluntarily (of their own free will) admit that they are sinners and they begin confessing their sins.

I am sure that everybody said that they had repented (changed their mind). And I am sure that all of their external performance was just about the same to Yochanan during the brief window he had to see all of these people. But he knew the individuals who had repented and he knew those who had not repented by their fruit. What was the fruit? Very simply, the fruit was:

That was the fruit that the religious and secular leaders were missing. And that is why it was so obvious to Yochanan that they had not changed their minds about Mashiach. The P'rushim and Tz'dukim were immersed, but something was missing. What was missing? During the immersion they did not spontaneously confess their sins. And based on his previous observations, Yochanan knew they had NOT turned to Mashiach.