Matthew 3:1-12

How many remember the first concert they attended? I never went to any concerts in high school so the first concert I went to was when a student at Johnson Bible College. That should tell you the kind of concert I went to. I remember going to hear Sandy Patty and David Meece. David Meece was a very talented pianist who traveled the United States and Europe till he left it to play contemporary Christian music. We have two of his songs in our hymnal.

I remember going to his concert in Knoxville. The lights go dim and a band walks on stage and begin to play but there was no David Meece. After five or six songs there was still no David Meece. Do you know why? Do you know who this band was? It was the warmup band.

The warmup band you probably never heard of and probably wouldn’t pay to go hear, but comes out before the band you came to hear to get you read for the band you really paid to hear. It’s like the appetizer before the meal – which I’ve never understood. The reason I go to a restaurant is because I’m hungry. I don’t need a small dish of food to get me ready to eat the meal. I was ready to eat when I walked in the door.

Concerts are the only ones with warmup acts. There are warmup acts for comedians. There are even warmup matches in boxing and wrestling. They don’t call them the warmup acts, but they do call the real reason people show up “The Main Event.” The boxers who fought the first matches were just getting you ready for the big fight.

Do you know what every warmup act desires to become? They desire to become the main event. They desire is to become the main focus and draw of the crowd.

This evening we are in Matthew 3 we come to our fourth Old Testament prophecy being fulfilled and we’re introduced to a new character, a relative of Jesus named John (aka John the Baptist). This may be a crude way to put it, but John was the warmup act for Jesus. John purpose was to prepare the crowds for Jesus. That’s what the prophecy said in Isaiah 40.

John was warmup act for the Messiah and that was fine with him. John never wanted to become the “Main Event.”

In the third chapter of the gospel John we read how some followers of John came to him complaining that Jesus was drawing larger crowds than they were. John replied,

He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:30)

John understood that it wasn’t about him, it was about Jesus. His only job was to point people to Jesus. He was the warmup act.

That’s our job as well. Our job is never to become the main event. Our job is to point people to Jesus. The way we live and the things we say should make people want to know Jesus. Are you a warmup act for Jesus? Do people want to know Jesus because of you?

We are in Matthew 3 this evening. Between chapters 2 and 3 almost thirty years pass. Chapter 2 ends with Joseph taking Mary and Jesus to Nazareth. The only story we have of Jesus in his childhood is found in Luke 2 when Joseph and Mary take Jesus to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. You’ll remember that on the journey home they suddenly realized Jesus wasn’t with them and after searching for three days found him in the temple courts sitting with the teachers of the law asking questions. Luke then says:

51Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:51-52)

That’s all we know about Jesus growing up.

Matthew 3 this skips ahead a few decades and the ministry of John the Baptist who is now baptizing along the Jordan River. It’s believed that at some point John moved to the desert and lived with the Essenes. While we don’t read about the Essenes in the New Testament they were around when Jesus lived. They were a group who decided that city life was too corrupt so they moved out to the wilderness to live together. They are most famous for their scrolls. Wanting to preserve the Old Testament scriptures they made copies of them and stored them in caves just west of the Dead Sea. These scrolls, the Dead Sea scrolls lay undisturbed until the late 1940s when they were discovered. They now provide the oldest copies of the Old Testament.

So it’s believed that John may have lived with this community until he began his ministry of preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah.

That’s the background for our passage tonight. Before going over it, let’s watch the video of our passage from Matthew 3.

Matthew 3:1-12 VIDEO

Peter Cartwright was a fiery old revival preacher in the early 1800s who was famous for “telling it like it is.” His congregation, which was located near Washington D.C., heard that Andrew Jackson was coming to visit them. So they pulled Cartwright aside and said, “Listen Peter, the President is going to be here on Sunday and we know that sometimes you can get kind of offensive. So, would you tone it down? We don't want to upset the President.”

Peter got up in the pulpit the next Sunday and his first three sentences were these:

I understand that the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson is with us this morning. I have been asked to be guarded in my remarks. Let me say this, Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn't repent.

The church was appalled, but when the worship service was over President Jackson grabbed Cartwright's hand, shook it, and said: “Sir, if I had an army of men like you I could whip the world.”

God’s people often need courage to speak the truth. John was one who had the courage to speak God’s truth.

Did you notice where John ministered? You would think that he’d go to Jerusalem. After all, Jerusalem was not only the political center of Jews it was the religious center as well. That’s where the temple was. That’s where the people came to celebrate the festivals each year. Jerusalem was the most populated city of the Jews. If you wanted to have the biggest impact, if you wanted to reach the largest crowd doesn’t it make sense to go to where the people are? And that means going to Jerusalem or at least one of the towns around the Sea of Galilee. But that’s not where God sent John. God sent John to the uninhabited areas along the Jordan River. If people wanted to hear they had to come out into the wilderness and find him. And they did. Matthew says that:

5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. (Matthew 3:5)

John’s message can be summed up in just one word: repent. It is John’s first recorded word found in verse 2:

1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:1-2)

We may be tempted to think that this is not a very important word, but it is the same first word Jesus used when he began his ministry after returning from his forty days in the wilderness:

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17)

We find Jesus calling for repentance throughout his ministry. He denounced towns in which he done miracles and the people did not repent.

Repentance was the message of the apostles. On Pentecost Sunday, when the crowds asked Peter what they should do:

38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Repentance is an important word. It isn’t just a word we can throw out with yesterday’s trash. And while it may seem old fashioned, it still needs to be proclaimed in churches and street corners around the country and around the world. Forgiveness comes through repentance. But we don’t hear much about it today.

Several years ago a book hit the charts across the nation. The book was in the New York Times best seller list for almost two years selling more than thirty million copies. What was most remarkable about this very popular book is that it’s a Christian. However, in the book the author states:

The Bible says whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything -- life complete and forever. Wherever you are reading this I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity, “Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you.” Go ahead. If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations. Welcome to the family of God.

The only problem with these instructions is they aren't biblical. The Bible says that we must repent. Jesus told his hearers in Luke 13 that unless they repented they would perish.

What does it mean to repent? The Greek word “repent” means “to change one’s mind.” But it’s more than just deciding to decide to eat at Fatz instead of Applebees. Some have taught that repentance only deals with a change in the way you think, but it’s more than that as well. In the New Testament is a change in mind about our relationship with God and his laws. It is a recognition that we have sinned and are in need of God’s forgiveness.

But we don’t want to offend anyone. We don’t want to make anyone feel bad. We only want to encourage others and make them feel good about themselves. We don’t want to talk about hell or judgment. As a result the topic of repentance is left out or ignored. However, if we aren’t talking about sin and God’s remedy for it how are we any different than the Optimist Club? If all we talk about is doing good deeds for others while ignoring Christ’s death on the cross because of our sins we may as well be gathering with the Kiwanis Club. There’s nothing wrong with those clubs, but we have a different purpose. We are here to tell people what they must do to get right with God and it starts with repentance. Repentance is necessary for salvation.

Have you ever known someone who made a profession of faith only to fall away from the faith months or maybe only weeks later? They start living like God didn’t care about their sin and there is no judgment for sin. I believe it’s because when the gospel was shared with them nothing was said about repentance. Nothing was said about their sin and their need to confess it before God. When alight and superficial version of the gospel is preached it makes light and superficial Christians.

Instead of calling unbelievers to repent there are calls to come and discover God’s purpose for your life. Come and receive God’s abundant blessings. Accept Jesus into your life. Jesus is just something we add to our lives.

In his book Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?, Walter Chantry says:

Our ears have grown accustomed to hearing men told to accept Jesus as your personal savior, a form of words not found in scripture. It has become an empty phrase. These words may be precious words to the Christian – personal savior, but they are wholly inadequate to instruct a sinner in the way to eternal life. They ignore an essential element of the gospel, namely repentance, and that necessary ingredient of gospel preaching is swiftly fading from evangelical pulpits while the New Testament if filled with it.

Repentance is admitting our sin. It is acknowledging that God was right when he said that lying, stealing, gossiping, adultery, envy, and malice and wrong. It is confessing before God that we have done wrong before God and that we deserve his judgment. After all, if we haven’t done wrong then we don’t need to be forgiven and Jesus didn’t need to die on the cross. Can you truly appreciate salvation if you don’t understand what you’re being saved from? If we are not calling people to repent of their sins we are not preaching the gospel.

Repentance begins with a change of mind about who God is and what God has said.

But repentance is more. True repentance leads to a change in the way we live. That’s what John told the religious leaders.

7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:7-8)

The illustration I like to give when explaining salvation to children is turning around. Repentance is like going the wrong direction and turning around. If I want to walk to the piano I need to walk to my left. If I walk to my right it takes me away from the piano and towards the organ. The first step in going the right direction is realizing I’m going the wrong way. The second step is turning around. If all I do is admit I’m going the wrong way but don’t turn around I won’t get any closer to the piano than I was when I was living in ignorance of the fact. I must admit it my mistake and then I must turn around.

Like Peter at Pentecost, the crowd asked John what they should do.

11John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” 12Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” 13“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. 14Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:11-14)

Repentance demands a change in the way we live.

When on trial Paul said:

19So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. 20First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. (Acts 26:19-20)

And Paul told wrote about the connection of repentance and a changed life when he wrote to the Romans saying:

4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. (Romans 2:4-7)

Like faith, repentance is demonstrated by our deeds.

In Matthew 21, in the last week of his ministry, the Jewish leaders were questioning Jesus trying to trip him up in his answers. So Jesus told this story.

28“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ 29‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. 31“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32)

It is not enough to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. James says that even demons believe. Nor is it enough to admit that we have sinned and need forgiveness. Repentance demands a change in our lifestyle.

Speaking of John, Jesus said:

I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John. (Luke 7:28a)

What made John so special? It was his willingness to speak the truth. The crowds came to hear him, but his only purpose was to point the way to Jesus. His only purpose was to prepare the way. And he did it by calling people to repentance. He called them to examine their lives, recognize their sin, and repent.

We still need to hear that message. Are we aware of the sin in our own lives? Are we repenting of it?