Matthew 3:1-12: Bear Fruit

If you have your Bible, open it to Matthew 3...

If you remember from our first week in Matthew, we spent some time setting the scene for what Matthew has written about, particularly the historical context into which Jesus was born.

Which brings us to our passage this morning. Let’s read Matthew 3:1-12

Matthew 3:1–12 ESV

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ” 4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume 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. 10 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. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

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I grew up as a pastor’s kid and I was pretty good at it, in fact I made every effort to be the perfect Christian kid I could possibly think of. We watched veggietales and Bibleman growing up, I led the Fellowship of Christian athletes in my high school, I helped organize See You at the Pole events, I was the Chaplain’s Aide for my Boy Scout troop, I went on a mission trip to another country, I wore a purity ring, I tried keeping my wilder siblings in line as we represented the pastor and the church, I was a regional student leader for my denomination, I even led the youth group for a while as a senior in high school.

But I was a hypocrite. I was overcome with lust and addicted to porn before I even got to high school, an addiction that took years into my marriage and a support group to deal with. I was prideful and vain desiring for others to notice my good deeds and tell me what a good Christian I was being. I was envious of other students who seemed to be better Christians than me and then I would often slander them in my thoughts and speech in order to create faults in them. I was I was arrogant, looking down on others because I thought I was better than my siblings and classmates because of my “Christian” actions. I was a hypocrite, coming time and time again for a supposed repentance that would only include my gathering up all my meager resolve to “change my life around”, with no specific acknowledgement of what I need to change and no lasting fruit.

John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus,

There’s a pretty good chance I would have been turned away by John with the Pharisees if I would have come to him for baptism at that time in my life.

The title for this morning’s sermon is “Bear Fruit” and my basic outline is

Repent and Confess

Bear Fruit

1. Repent and Confess

v. 1,4 Wilderness as home, Camel’s hair as clothes, and locusts and honey as food...

John was the first prophet in centuries and he would be the last prophet to Israel in the fashion of the Old Testament prophets. His wilderness home and his exotic clothes and diet were intentionally reminiscent of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in all of Israel’s history.

v. 2 Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand...

This is the call of John and it should be our call as well. But it should never become just a call to others. We must first repent and then we must call others to repentance.

v. 6, 11 they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins; I baptize you with water for repentance...

What is Baptism?

What does baptism entail?

Why should I be baptized?

What does

What goes hand in hand with baptism? Confession and repentance.

2. Bear Fruit

v. 8: Bear Fruit in keeping with repentance

v. 3: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight...

Is. 40:3 The task of John the Baptist, as well as the task of the church, is to be the instrument that God uses to clear the path to heaven of all obstacles.

How often do we get distracted from our task and instead of clearing the paths of the Lord we build great distractions that end up

v. 7: When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduccees coming to his baptism...

Pharisees - Religious leaders who, in trying to bring the nation back to God, added hundreds of laws to what God had given to His people

Sadduccees - Jewish political leaders who were inspired greatly by Greek philosophy

v. 7: “You brood of vipers...

This is an enormous insult

John separates his crowd between those who are truly there to repent and those who are looking to escape the judgement that is to come.

v. 9 “Don’t presume… ‘We have Abraham as our father’”

v. 10: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire

How can we bear good fruit? Through repentance.

What leads us to repentance?

0. Believe

Belief leads us to repentance. Repentance leads to bearing fruit.

Who, or what, are we to believe in?

Matthew 3:11–12 (ESV)

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

v. 11 He who is coming after me is mightier than I

Who is John speaking of? Jesus!

Whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

John recognizes that he, like everyone else, is completely unworthy to even be a servant of Jesus. In fact, what would carrying the sandals indicate? That he was the lowest servant because sandals would become absolutely foul over the course of the day as they interact with the ground. John, like each of us is completely unworthy to even be Christ’s lowest servant, touching his sandals. And yet, the ground is worthy to carry Jesus’ sandals. Why is this? Because the ground never rebelled.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire

If you’ve spent any time in Pentecostal or Charismatic circles, you’ve probably heard this verse quoted multiple times. Most of those who are in the Charismatic movement misinterpret this verse. They think the “and” equates “Holy Spirit” with “Fire”, meaning that they think the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of fire.

The problem is that the sentences immediately before and after this one use fire as a depiction of the judgement of God. And this next sentence separates those who are baptized by the Holy Spirit and those who are baptized by fire.

v. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand

Who is the one who is spoken of here? Jesus!

What’s a winnowing fork? A tool to separate the wheat from the lighter husks.

Who does the work? The wheat? No! Christ does the work.

He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn in unquenchable fire

Christ gathers his wheat into the barn, saving it from the fate of the empty husks of the grain that have no fruit. When grain bears fruit what does it produce? Wheat!

In the same way, Christ is actively separating and setting aside His people so that they will not bear the consequences of those who do not bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Christ does the work, not us. If Christ did not separate us out we would be stuck amongst the chaff with no hope of ever getting ourselves into the barn. It is through the work of Christ that we are brought inside, but what is the variable that separates those who are brought in and those who are thrown in the fire? Fruit.

And again, what is the root that allows us to bear fruit? Belief.

We could break this concept down into three words. “Belief requires action”....

Application

You might be saying, “Well, I believe. I said the Sinner’s Prayer and I’m at church. I even sing the songs I know. So what if I don’t really have fruit?”. Then I say to you brother or sister, you have never repented and likely have never believed. Because if you believe this, if you believe the Gospel, then you will repent. If you repent, you will bear fruit.

So again, as my final exhortation to you Church, Believe this Gospel.

What then does it mean to believe the gospel?

What does it mean if you believe Yahweh is a good, and loving, and all-powerful God?

What does it mean to believe that all people are utterly unworthy of Him because of their cosmic treason against Him by choosing for themselves what is right and wrong?

What does it mean to believe that we deserve wrath, death, and Hell because of our treason?

What does it mean to believe that in God’s loving-kindness He sent His Son, Jesus, to live the perfect life we could never live and die the sinner’s death we deserve?

What does it mean to believe that Jesus was resurrected, defeating death itself, and then ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf?

What does it mean to believe that all we must do to be saved is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

It means repentance!

If Jesus is the Son of God who lived the perfect life, died our sinner’s death, defeated death and was resurrected, and a sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for us so that we will not receive the wrath and punishment we would otherwise justly deserve, then we must repent of all the ways we have tried to make ourselves God by choosing for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.

What does that look like? What does bearing fruit in keeping with this repentance look like? What does that change about our lives?

Believing the Gospel leads you to love the Gospel. And loving the Gospel changes everything in your life!

It changes what we love, from the things that bring us glory and pleasure to the things that bring God glory and pleasure!

It changes what we work for and how we spend our money. Work, retirement, toys, missions

It changes how we interact with our spouses

It changes how we raise our kids

It changes how we interact with the church.

It changes how we deal with conflict

It changes how we interact with our neighbors

It changes how we drive our cars

It changes how we interact online

It changes how we do ministry

It changes what songs we sing

It changes how we interact with politics

It changes how we deal with false teachers

Believing the Gospel, leads to loving the Gospel, which should lead to an overflow that changes your life.

Let’s Pray.