17 And a voice came out of heaven, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
I will make clear the Lord's decision: he has said to me, You are my son, this day have I given you being.
While he was still talking, a bright cloud came over them: and a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased; give ear to him.
And there was a voice from the cloud saying, This is my Son, the man of my selection; give ear to him.
See my servant, the man of my selection, my loved one in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him, and he will make my decision clear to the Gentiles.
Father, give glory to your name. Then there came a voice out of heaven, saying, I have given it glory, and I will give it glory again. Hearing the sound, a number of people who were there said that it was thunder: others said, An angel was talking to him. Jesus said in answer, This voice came not for me but for you.
For God the Father gave him honour and glory, when such a voice came to him out of the great glory, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely gave to us in the Loved One:
It was the Lord's pleasure, because of his righteousness, to make the teaching great and give it honour.
And the Father himself who sent me has given witness about me. Not one of you has ever given ear to his voice; his form you have not seen.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Matthew 3
Commentary on Matthew 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
At the start of this chapter, concerning the baptism of John, begins the gospel (Mk. 1:1); what went before is but preface or introduction; this is "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.' And Peter observes the same date, Acts 1:22, beginning from the baptism of John, for then Christ began first to appear in him, and then to appear to him, and by him to the world. Here is,
Mat 3:1-6
We have here an account of the preaching and baptism of John, which were the dawning of the gospel-day. Observe,
The beginning of the gospel in a wilderness, speaks comfort to the deserts of the Gentile world. Now must the prophecies be fulfilled, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, Isa. 41:18, 19. The wilderness shall be a fruitful field, Isa. 32:15. And the desert shall rejoice, Isa. 35:1, 2. The Septuagint reads, the deserts of Jordan, the very wilderness in which John preached. In the Romish church there are those who call themselves hermits, and pretend to follow John; but when they say of Christ, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth, ch. 24:26. There was a seducer that led his followers into the wilderness, Acts 21:38.
Mat 3:7-12
The doctrine John preached was that of repentance, in consideration of the kingdom of heaven being at hand; now here we have the use of that doctrine. Application is the life of preaching, so it was of John's preaching.
Observe,
Mat 3:13-17
Our Lord Jesus, from his childhood till now, when he was almost thirty years of age, had lain hid in Galilee, as it were, buried alive; but now, after a long and dark night, behold, the Sun of righteousness rises in glory. The fulness of time was come that Christ should enter upon his prophetical office; and he chooses to do it, not at Jerusalem (though it is probable that he went thither at the three yearly feasts, as others did), but there where John was baptizing; for to him resorted those who waited for the consolation of Israel, to whom alone he would be welcome. John the Baptist was six months older than our Saviour, and it is supposed that he began to preach and baptize about six months before Christ appeared; so long he was employed in preparing his way, in the region round about Jordan; and more was done towards it in these six months than had been done in several ages before. Christ's coming from Galilee to Jordan, to be baptized, teaches us not the shrink from pain and toil, that we may have an opportunity of drawing nigh to God in ordinance. We should be willing to go far, rather than come short of communion with God. Those who will find must seek.
Now in this story of Christ's baptism we may observe,
Now, when he was coming up out of the water, and all the company had their eye upon him,