LUKE 3:7-18 - God's Gonna Cut You Down

“A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all of its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official said Tuesday. Four monks, including an abbot, at a temple in [FETCH-a-boon] province's [BUNG SAHM FAHN] district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, a district official told the [American Foreign Press]. ‘The temple is now empty of monks and nearby villagers are concerned they cannot do any merit-making,’ he said. (Merit-making involves worshippers donating food to monks as a good deed....) The official said the defrocked monks had been sent to a rehab facility, and more more monks were being sent to the temple to allow villagers to practice their religious obligations. (Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/monks-meth-temple-thailand/ Accessed 11/20/2022)

The villagers believed they were “making merit” for themselves by donating food to so-called “holy men” who, as it turned out, weren’t so holy after all… It is a stark reminder, isn’t it, that there is a world of difference between looking holy and being holy. Those monks in that temple were able to pull off the illusion of their holiness for a while, but eventually it all caught up with them, didn’t it?

That is what John is trying to get across to the crowds that were coming out to see him in our passage this morning:

Luke 3:7 (ESV)

7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

John’s statement here is a direct follow up from his call to repentance in verse 3:

Luke 3:3 (ESV)

3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

But not all of the people who were coming out to see him were interested in repentance—some came out of curiosity, some came believing they had no need of repentance, that their record of good deeds or religious background meant that God already approved of them.

But John’s announcement of the coming of the Kingdom was accompanied by a warning—a warning that self-righteous refusals to repent and self-deluded assurances of personal goodness would not survive the coming of this Kingdom. That you can pull off the illusion of a right relationship with God only for so long—eventually, it will catch up with you. So, as we consider John’s message this morning, we need to hear his warning:

Only TRUE REPENTANCE will stand at the appearing of Christ

In verses 7-9 we see

I. The CALL for true repentance (Luke 3:8-9)

Luke 3:8–9 (ESV)

8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

We’ll look in a few moments at what John means specifically when he calls on his hearers to “bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (v. 8). But first notice with me here that John accompanies his call for repentance with two warnings, two facts that his hearers must understand about the condition they are in. John is trying to “wake them up” to their predicament, and the first warning he gives them (and us!) is:

Don’t TRUST your ROOTS (v. 8)

John says at the end of verse 8:

Luke 3:8 (ESV)

8 ...do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

The majority people who were coming to hear John were likely Judeans—Jews who had been living there since the return of the exiles with Zerubbabel and Ezra centuries earlier. And for them, hearing that the Kingdom of God was at hand meant that things were finally going to start going their way! They simply presumed as a matter of course that when the Messiah came, He was going to affirm them, that He was going to be on their side.

They had grown up their whole lives with the assumption that they were God’s people; His own chosen race. The pagans around them had no real understanding of who God was or how to relate to Him, but they had been taught the prayers and songs and Scriptures, they were already on the right side of a relationship with Him. Repentance was for Gentiles— for outsiders—they were Jews; they were “in”.

And this is the complacency that John was trying to wake them from—contrary to their self-confident assurance, being descended from Abraham did not automatically put them into a righteous relationship with YHWH. I don’t know how many times when I have asked someone about their relationship with God their first answer is, “Oh, my grandmother was such a wonderful Christian—she used to pray and read her Bible every day!” Being a grandchild of a pious woman does not impress God. Being a child of Abraham does not impress God since, after all, God created Abraham and all his children! He can make children of Abraham out of the rocks on the side of the road!

John wanted his hearers to understand that only true repentance would stand at the appearing of Christ—they must not trust in their roots to make them right with Him. And in verse 9 John warns them to repent because

There is no TIME to LOSE (v.9)

Luke 3:9 (ESV)

9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

The image John uses here is meant to express how close the judgment is. Over the summer one of the things our family likes to do is go to Parker Dam for the Wood Hick/Wood Chick competition—along with all of the competitive events there is an exhibition from professional lumberjacks. When they are ready to begin chopping, they lay the edge of the blade right against the spot they are aiming for—measuring their swing. When the razor-edge of that axe touches the wood, it is only moment before the main force of the blow is coming.

This is what John is saying here— “You don’t have time to think any longer about this; the axe is about to bite into the root of all of your confident assurance! It may have been four hundred years since you last heard the voice of God speaking through His prophet, but time has run out! Come in repentance now, before it is too late!”

As John is announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God, he is intent on waking his hearers out of their complacency, calling them to confess their sins before God and call on Him for forgiveness, coming down into the waters to be baptized as a demonstration of their desire to be cleansed from their sins. Only true repentance will stand at the appearing of Christ and His Kingdom; in verses 7-9 we see John calling for true repentance. In verse 10 it seems as though the people begin to grasp the seriousness of his message:

Luke 3:10 (ESV)

10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?”

And so, in the next five verses John describes

II. The APPEARANCE of true repentance (Luke 3:10-14; cp. Luke 6:43-44)

Luke 3:11–14 (ESV)

11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

Now, at first glance, it sounds like John is just telling the people to change their outward behavior, as if repentance just means that you stop doing one thing and start doing something else. Instead of hoarding your clothes, give some away. Instead of embezzling tax money, be honest. Instead of extorting money, be content with your wages.

But, as we will see in a few moments, what John is calling his hearers to do is far more than just a superficial change. But here in these verses notice two characteristics of the kind of repentance that will stand at the appearing of Christ and His Kingdom. First,

True repentance will be OBVIOUS (cp. Luke 19:8-9)

A heart that is “playing” at changing while still wanting to hold on to that old behavior is likely to change in modest ways: “OK, I suppose I should be more generous—tell you what: I’ll loan my neighbor my extra cloak for the afternoon. Unless it gets really cold...” “Well, I suppose instead of charging 200 percent of their tax bills, I’ll only charge 150 percent this year...” That kind of “change”—tapering off, indulging in that sin less than you used to, trying harder to stop—that isn’t what John was calling his listeners to.

John says that true repentance causes changes in behavior that would have been, frankly, shocking to observers of the day. Tax collectors were notorious for charging exorbitant rates over and above what was owed so that they could pocket the rest. An “honest tax collector” was, as your grandma used to say, “as scarce as hen’s teeth!” This is exactly what happened, for example, in Luke 19, in the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector:

Luke 19:8–9 (ESV)

8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.

Jesus could say that salvation had come to Zacchaeus because his repentance was remarkable, obvious, and total. No half-measures, no “tapering off”, no modest, low-risk changes. True repentance—the kind that will stand at the appearance of Christ and His Kingdom—is obvious.

And not only so, but John indicates in his statements to the people in Luke 3 that

True repentance will be LASTING

It is easy to make a temporary change to your behavior, isn’t it? Millions of people will make a change to their behavior when on New Years’ Day they start their diet, right? And about a week later, their lives have changed right back again!

You can imagine a soldier hearing John’s sermon and saying, “OK then, I will stop collecting the ‘protection money’ from my street in Jericho...” And then a month later decides that he really does miss the money! But another mark of true repentance is that it sticks. Your behavior has changed for good.

Your behavior is consistent when you are alone and no one else is watching. True repentance holds even when you find yourself under stress and out of your element. True repentance causes you to see your past behavior in a new light—not secretly longing to go back to it, but repulsed and grieved by it, since it was behavior consistent with a disregard for God and rebellion against His will.

John was not calling his listeners to a temporary change, or a minor adjustment to their lives. He was calling them to a radical, irreversible transformation of their lives. To live a life that bears the constant, obvious fruit of generosity instead of greed, the fruit of honesty instead of lies and treachery, the fruit of kindness and integrity instead of violence and threats. The King was on His way, and—as John would go on to warn:

Luke 3:17 (ESV)

17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Only true repentance from their sin would enable them to stand on the Day the King appeared—and starting in verse 15 John gives us a description of

III. The ROOT of true repentance (Luke 3:15-18)

As John warns his hearers about the coming judgment, they begin to sense the power and authority in his words—they begin to wonder if he himself is the Judge (v. 15). But John makes it clear in verse 16:

Luke 3:16 (ESV)

16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John made it clear that all he did was baptize with water—he did not have the power to actually grant repentance and forgiveness. True repentance is

Not found in RITUALS of RELIGION (v. 16; cp. Acts 18:24-26)

In Luke’s other New Testament book, Acts, we see individuals who had to be instructed in the difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism:

Acts 18:24–26 (ESV)

24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

John’s baptism was meant to demonstrate someone’s desire for repentance—it could not actually grant that repentance! It demonstrated someone’s desire for a righteous standing before God—it could not give them that righteous standing.

There are no rituals of religion, no disciplines or washings or fastings or good habits or 12 step programs that will bring about real repentance, that will result in genuine, obvious, lasting transformation. At best, those things will bring about temporary change—and in some cases, “temporary” might mean the rest of your life—but not one moment after the rest of your life when you stand before the holy, consuming fire of God’s holiness. All of those outward efforts to produce the fruits of righteousness are like tying store-bought apples onto a pear tree and then calling it an apple tree.

The problem isn’t just the bad fruit on the branch—the real problem is the root that produces it. This is why John said that his hearers couldn’t trust in their roots to put them in right relationship with God—because their roots were the problem! Luke records Jesus’ words later in his Gospel:

Luke 6:43–45 (ESV)

43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

The only way to have real, lasting repentance—the only way to bear good fruit—is to be transformed right down to the roots! The only way for true repentance is

Found in NEW BIRTH by the SPIRIT (cp. Titus 3:5-6)

The baptism that Jesus provides isn’t just being washed with water—the baptism Jesus provides saves us

Titus 3:5–6 (ESV)

5 ...not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

The Biblical doctrine of regeneration—what Jesus calls the “New Birth”, is

REGENERATION - The transformation of a person’s SPIRITUAL condition from DEATH to LIFE through the work of the HOLY SPIRIT

John washed people with water as a way of expressing their desire to be cleansed from their sins—Jesus Christ accomplishes that cleansing in your life through the work of His Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn’t just wash you with water; He purges you with the fire of His holiness. He doesn’t just fix a few of your bad habits here and there, He burns out the very root of your bad fruit by the work of His Spirit!

Centuries earlier, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of God’s promise that the day would come when God would

Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV)

33 put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

When the Holy Spirit does His work in you, He doesn’t just fix up your behavior on the outside; He remakes you from the ground up!

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

He doesn’t just enable you to tie apples onto your pear tree with stronger cords—He transforms you right down to the roots to make you into a tree that bears good fruit!

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This is the “Good news” that John was declaring on the banks of the Jordan that day (v. 18)—and that is the Good News that we rejoice in today. You really can be free! You really can be holier than you ever thought possible. You really can be more free than you ever knew you could be. You really can be transformed into the image of the holiness of God in Christ! You really can have the true repentance that will stand on the day of Christ’s appearing.

Surely for many people who heard him that day, John’s exhortations were the best news they ever heard—that their desire to be right before God really was possible through the Spirit that Christ would baptize them with. But John made it clear that there were others who heard him that day who were in grave danger—the ones who automatically disregarded his warnings in their complacency.

The ones who had the unassailable reputation of belonging to a religious family, the ones who never missed worship, the ones who had a perfectly justifiable reason for all of their behavior, even if “some people wouldn’t understand”. The ones who gave big money to the Temple, the ones who made the biggest show of their piety. The ones who could listen to John’s message and think, “You know, it’s too bad so-and-so isn’t here today; she really needs to hear this!” The ones who had been memorizing Scripture and had it posted on their doorway, the ones who made sure their kids always attended worship even if they were too busy, the ones that thought the warnings didn’t apply to them because they made a commitment to God twenty years ago, and even though it never really made much of a difference in their life they felt as though it made them a “better person.” The ones who had all the right “family values” and read all the right books and listened to all the right speakers—they came all the way out into the Jordan wilderness, after all, didn’t that demonstrate how sincere they were?

But for all of those self-righteous, self-assured listeners, for all of those who don’t really think they have that much to repent of, or that they can clean up their act enough before they stand at that Judgment Day—for you who are enduring this part of the sermon because you know we’re about to finish and you can go home and stop hearing all of this talk about repentance before God again—if you will not bear fruits in keeping with repentance, God’s gonna cut you down. You can make a real good show for a long time—but sooner or later your time will run out. God has been calling you to repent, and He’s brought you to this place at this moment to give you one more chance. So bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Surrender your pride, submit to Him, let go of all those things you want so bad to hold on to. The blade of the axe is resting at the root; the blow is coming. Flee to the only refuge you have—your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Revelation 1:5–6 (ESV)

5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What are some ways that people are prone to evaluate their relationship with God on the basis of their family’s history? What does Luke 3:8 show you about trusting in the spirituality of your family in your own standing before God?

In Luke 3:10-14, John describes what true repentance looks like for different people in the crowd. Is John merely telling them to change their outward behavior? Why or why not?

What is the difference between John’s baptism, and the baptism that Jesus provides? How have you seen the work of the Holy Spirit in your life to transform your heart and the behavior that flows out of it?

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