Matthew 3

₁In those days John the Baptist started to preach in the Judea Desert. ₂He said: ‘You must turn to God and start to live as He wants you to live, because God in heaven rules over all and now all people will know it.’ ₃The prophet Isaiah had written about John when he said:

₄John's clothes were made of camel hair and he had a leather belt around his hips. His food was locusts and honey from the desert. ₅The people of Jerusalem and Judea and from places near the Jordan River went to John. ₆They said they were sorry about the sins they had done and John baptised them in the Jordan River.

₇Many Pharisees and Sadducees also came to be baptised. John said to them: ‘You are cunning like snakes. You try to flee from God, but you can not run away from Him. He will punish you. ₈No, you must show that your lives have turned to God and you must start doing the things that He wants. You must show you are like trees that have good fruit. ₉You say to each other: “We are the children_of_Abraham”, and you think God will not punish you. But I tell you: God can say to these stones they must become children_of_Abraham and that will happen. ₁₀God has already started to judge. It is like someone with an axe who has started to cut down every tree that does not have good fruit. He will cut them down and throw them into the fire. ₁₁I baptise you with water and that shows that you want to live as God says. But later Someone will come who can do much more than I can do. I am not important enough to carry his sandals. He will baptise you with the Holy_Spirit and with fire. ₁₂He will judge everyone. It will be like a person who takes a threshing-fork and separates the wheat from the chaff. He will put all the wheat in his store room and He will burn the chaff in a big fire that will burn forever. It will never stop.’

₁₃Jesus went away from the province of Galilee and He came to the Jordan River. He went to John and told John to baptise Him. ₁₄But John did not want to do it. He said: ‘It is not right that I baptise You. You must baptise me. Why did You come to me?’ ₁₅But Jesus said to John: ‘Do what I ask and baptise Me. We must do what God wants us to do.’

Then John did what Jesus asked. He baptised Jesus. ₁₆After John had baptised Jesus, Jesus came up out of the water. Then the heaven opened to Jesus and He saw the Spirit of God come down on Him like a dove that comes down from the sky. ₁₇Then Someone from heaven said: ‘This is my Son. I love Him. He pleases me.’