Matthew 3:11-12 The Baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Mat 3:11  I baptize you with water so that you will change the way you think and act. But the one who comes after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Mat 3:12  His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clean up his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into a barn, but he will burn the husks in a fire that can never be put out." GW

Notes:

Mat 3:11  I indeed am baptizing you in water on a profession of repentance; but He who is coming after me is mightier than I: His sandals I am not worthy to carry for a moment; He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire. WNT

Mat 3:11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: KJV

John the baptist said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.”KJV  I indeed am baptizing you in water on a profession of repentance. WNT Johns Baptism was closely linked with the profession of repentance.

“This is what John did. He taught people to leave sins behind, to repent and get ready for the Messiah. "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"" (Matthew 3:1-2 was a no-nonsense preacher who was quite blunt in his scoldings (Luke 3:1-18).

John's baptism was stated to be unto repentance; that is, it led up to repentance and   the forgiveness of sins (Matthew  Christ3:11)”Church of Christ La Vista

but He who is coming after me is mightier than I:

So what does John mean by this phrase? John understood that his cousin Jesus was more than just a prophet like he was, but that he was the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, Yeshua Hamashiach Hebrew, the Son of the Living God. Born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.

Jesus was more powerful than John.

John was the last of the OT Prophets. Jesus came to usher in a new Dispensation and a New Creation. In Adam all die but in christ all shall be made alive. John was a Proclaimer and a preparer of the Way of the Lord, calling people to Repentance and baptism washing away their sins. Jesus was the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

I am not worthy to remove his sandals GWI am not worthy to carry his sandals NIV.

Chabochi sandals

Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear - The word translated here as “shoes” has a signification different from what it has in our language. At first, in order to keep the feet from the sharp stones or the burning sand, small pieces of wood were fastened to the soles of the feet, called “sandals.” Leather, or skins of beasts dressed, afterward were used. The foot was not covered at all, but the sandal, or piece of leather or wood, was bound by thongs. The people put off these when they enter a house, and put them on when they leave it. To unloose and bind on sandals, on such occasions, was formerly the business of the lowest servants. The expression in this place, therefore, denotes great humility, and John says that he was nor worthy to be the servant of him who should come after him. Barnes

And with fire.

The fiery baptism  The Biblical Illustrator

I. The Holy Ghost is fire. Baptism with the Holy Ghost is not one thing and baptism with fire another, but the former is the reality of which the latter is the symbol.

II. Christ plunges us into this fire. What a grand ideals conveyed by the metaphor of the completeness of the contact with the Spirit of God into which we are brought! How it represents all our being as flooded into that transforming power. Christ’s personal agency in effecting this saturating of man’s coldness with the fire from God.

III. The fiery baptism quickens and cleanses.

1. Fire gives warmth. It comes to kindle in men’s souls a blaze of enthusiastic Divine love, melting all the icy hardness of the heart, etc. For a Christian to be cold is sin. Marked absence of this “ spirit of burning” in the Christian Church.

2. This baptism gives cleansing by warmth. Fire purifies. The Spirit produces holiness in heart and character. All other cleansing is superficial. The alternative for every man is to be baptized in fire or to be consumed by it. (Dr. MacLaren.)

Mat 3:12  His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clean up his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into a barn, but he will burn the husks in a fire that can never be put out." GW

Mat 3:12  whose fan is in His hand, and He will cleanse His floor and gather His wheat into the storehouse; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. MKJV

winnowing fan or shovel

His fan - The word used here and rendered “fan” means a winnowing shovel instead. It was used for throwing the grain, after it was threshed, into the air, so that the chaff might be driven away by the wind. This mode of separating the grain from the chaff is still practiced in the East. It is not probable that the fan, as the term is now used, was known to the Orientals as an instrument for cleaning grain. See the notes at Isa_30:24.

Winnowing with Fork in the wind

In the Old Testament, a threshing fan was a wooden shovel or screen.  The harvester would pick up a load of wheat and toss it into the wind in order for the lighter chaff, which was useless, to be blown away.  The chaff would then be swept up and burned, while the good grain settled into a pile. This process was winnowing the wheat.

The winnowing process took place on a threshing floor.  It was a space that had been hardened by the years of use from the worker’s feet, often using oxen to pull a winnowing sled across the floor; it was the place of both blessing and judgment.  To purge the floor was to completely cleanse the wheat from all chaff, weeds, and other unclean materials. Often the wheat was pounded to separate the useful kernels from the waste, picturing God’s judgment in separating true believers from the dross of Christendom that claims the name of Jesus but does not truly know Him.

Threshing floor

So John uses an agricultural event that was familiar to all the Israelites to portray both the imminent coming of Jesus into His public ministry, and the far future final judgment of the end times, when God will separate the wheat (true believers) from the chaff (those who have a form of religion, but not the power). https://lindasbiblestudy.wordpress.com/?s=matthew+3%3A12

Are you wheat, good men who will be gathered from the barns to His bosom? Or are you chaff, which will be left behind and burned with unquenchable fire? Do not wait for the very end to find out. Pray to Jesus today and ask to be forgiven of your sins, and He will do so. Ask Him to be the Lord of your life, and He will be so. Then when the time of judgment comes, you will know with certainty where you stand in the winnowing. http://the-end-time.blogspot.com.au/