Easter 2024-Repentence and the Resurrection-Matthew 3

Key Elements

In Matthew 3:1-17, Matthew introduced John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Messiah calling people to repentance of their sins and faith in Jesus Christ. He also recorded for us the baptism of Jesus, the Son of God, pointing his Jewish audience and us to the coming sacrifice of Jesus for sin on the cross and His future resurrection from the dead as the Savior of the world.

Main idea of the message: Today, we are reminded through this text that salvation through Jesus Christ requires repentance and is only possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. True repentance leads to real life transformation.

I want my audience to see what it truly means to “repent” and, in light of Jesus’s death and resurrection, live a life transformed by the Gospel.

Intro

Open your copy of God’s Word with me to Matthew 3. Well, it’s Easter Sunday and we have gathered today to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We’ve probably spent time this weekend with family and friends celebrating Easter by eating, hunting eggs, and trying to keep our children from running from the Easter bunny horrified and scarred for the rest of their lives. Or maybe we’ll participate in some of those things today as part of celebrating Easter. But today, as followers of Jesus, we have the ultimate reason to celebrate. Today, as followers of Jesus, we have the ultimate reason to rejoice. For today represents a day that changed history. Today represents a day that marks a dividing line in the sands of time. Today is the most pivotal day of all days. Because today represents and marks the day, again, that Jesus Christ the Son of God rose from the grave conquering death, hell, and sin. It’s a day that we as followers of Jesus look to for hope, it’s a day that we as followers of Jesus look to for assurance that by placing our faith and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord not only will we spend forever in heaven when we leave this earth, but that we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us and because of the death of Jesus and because of the ultimate resurrection of Jesus, we have forgiveness of our sin and a restored relationship with God who created us for that relationship. And because of all of that, because of the life transforming truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can look to Jesus with hope and assurance and faith knowing that this life is not the end for us and knowing how the story actually ends, that as Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, so we will also live forever with Him one day.

And as we open our copy of God’s Word today to Matthew 3, continuing our sermon series in The Book of Matthew, we are going to walk through a very significant event in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ: The ministry of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. Now, this event is significant because it marks the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry but not only that, it serves to point Matthew’s Jewish audience and us to the ultimate purpose for why Jesus Christ came to this earth. It’s what we have celebrated this weekend and we are specifically celebrating today, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And I believe this is where God has sovereignly led us today. I believe it’s no accident that on Easter Sunday we are in Matthew 3 because what we are going to look at today really lays the foundation for why we celebrate Easter. It really grounds us in why we celebrate the resurrection and it’s significance for us as Christ followers, for it is here that we see God’s sovereign plan of salvation and redemption symbolically on display and pointing us to its full realization that will come about in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Message

So, just to catch us up on where we are in the Gospel of Matthew, a few weeks ago we began with Matthew 1, looking at the genealogy of Jesus and talking about the truth that Jesus is the Savior and King of all people. And we pointed out that when we surrender to Jesus as Savior and King, it radically redefines the way we see Jesus, the way we see ourselves, and the way we see others. Week 2, we talked about the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And we said that God sending His Son, the birth of Jesus Christ, is the most transformational event in the history of the world; and when we fully realize what God did for us through sending His Son, it will transform us as well. Last week, we looked at the sovereignty of God and we talked about three events that occurred a couple of years after the birth of Jesus that speak to the sovereignty of God. And we said that throughout every moment of history and in all situations of life, God is sovereignly working for our good and his glory and this includes moments of immense tragedy. And today, we are picking up where we left off last week, walking through Matthew 3. It is here through the ministry of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus that we see the significance of repentance in the life of a follower of Jesus and, in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection, how we as followers of Jesus live a life transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, here’s the main idea of the message today: Salvation through Jesus Christ requires repentance and is only possible because of His death and resurrection. True repentance leads to salvation and salvation leads to real life transformation.

From our text today, we notice three truths about repentance and the resurrection:

1. The silence of God does not equal the absence of God in our lives, but it always serves to drive us back to Him in repentance. (Matthew 3:1-4; Malachi 4:5-6)

Now, I don’t know about you but I’m the type of person who cannot stand silence when I’m around a group of people. And my family makes fun of me all the time for this but silence to me is awkward, it’s weird, I just feel like if I’m in a room with a group of people, someone should be talking. I’m like the guy on the Progressive Insurance commercial that’s on the elevator and just has to talk to people. And if someone in my family is not very talkative, I usually get to thinking in my mind that something has to be wrong because we’re not talking. And after driving my family crazy trying to get them to talk, at that point something actually is wrong. I’m the type of person that just can’t stand silence. I believe that absence should be the only reason for silence.

And as we approach Matthew 3 today, silence is a deafening theme that surrounds the context of what’s happening in the life of the nation of Israel. In Matthew 3:1-4, we are introduced to a man named John the Baptist. Vs. 1-4 says… John comes on the scene in a very abrupt way and in the midst of a very unique situation for the nation of Israel with a very abrupt message. And to really get the full picture of what’s going on and to really understand what’s happening in Matthew 3, we have to go to Malachi 4:4-6. Malachi is the last book of the OT and it records for us the final words of God through a prophet to the nation of Israel. So, a little bit of history for us this morning to set the stage. The people of Israel all throughout the OT are kind of in a bipolar relationship with God. They are up and down. One moment they are close to Him they are seeking Him and the next we see they are rebelling against Him and turning to the worship of false gods. So, God had done what He promised He would do. He led them into the Promised Land from captivity and slavery in Egypt. They had settled there and over a long period of time had finally established themselves in the land of Israel. The city of Jerusalem is their capital. It is where the Temple is located which is their central place of worship. And a lot over the years has gone on. And there are three things that have occurred among the nation of Israel that really set the stage for us to feel the weight of the coming of John the Baptist in Matthew 3. First, prior to the exile of the people of Israel to Babylon in 586 BC; around 591 BC, the people of Israel have once again rejected God. And in Ezekiel 10:18-19, the prophet Ezekiel records for us that the presence of God departs from the Temple in Jerusalem. He sees the presence of the Lord that resided on the top of the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem leave. Second, the place God resided among the people of Israel is removed. God resided on the mercy seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant between two cherubim (angels). And in Jeremiah 3:16, the prophet records for us that the Ark of the Covenant itself has been removed. When the Babylonians attack Jerusalem in 586 BC, not only do they take the people with them to exile in Babylon but they take the Ark as well. God is punishing the nation of Israel by removing His presence from among them and He’s punishing them by removing the place of His presence among them. So, everything they looked to for centuries up to this point that represented the presence of God among them is gone. This is the ultimate form of reprimand from God for the Jewish people. And think about this, when the people of Israel come back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon to rebuild the city and the Temple, there’s a problem because they cannot have a properly working Temple without the Ark of the Covenant (the presence of God) inside the Holy of Holies. So, from the time of return from exile in Babylon all the way up to the time of Jesus and AD 70 when the Romans finally come in and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, they have a curtain covering the Holy of Holies but the Holy of Holies is empty. There’s no Ark. The high priests for years are playing a part and deceiving the people because the presence of God is not there. Which speaks to the corruption of the Pharisees and the Jewish religious leaders that Jesus constantly was pointing out. So, the presence of God is gone, the place of the presence of God is gone, and then, third, God goes silent, He ceases to speak to the people of Israel. Going back to Malachi 4:4-6, we read the final words of God to the nation of Israel through a prophet. Look with me there, it says… These are the last words that the people will hear from God for 400 years. For 400 years, the voice of God will be silent, God will “ghost,” if you will, the nation of Israel for 400 years, but He says there is coming a day when the silence will break. There is coming a day when something so incredible will happen and it will serve one purpose, to call the nation of Israel back to God in repentance. And 400 years later, in Matthew 3, God breaks His silence through a man, a prophetic figure named John the Baptist. And John has one purpose, to prepare the way for the Messiah Jesus Christ by calling the people to repentance.

And there’s a truth here that I believe we all need to hear today and we need to write down and probably put somewhere where we can see it often. The silence of God does not equal the absence of God in our lives, but it always serves to drive us back to Him in repentance:

Think about the the silence of God among the nation of Israel. For 400 years, there’s no word from God. This is a big deal. Think about it like this. Our nation has been around for 248 years. It’s almost double that. It’s centuries of silence. I mean even when the nation of Isreal in the OT was disobedient, God still spoke to them. God still miraculously moved in their midst. But it’s been 400 years since they’ve heard form God. But God has not forgotten them. Even though He is not speaking to them, He’s still moving among them. Even though they are not actively hearing from them, behind the scenes, God is delivering on the promise He has made to them. That one day the silence will break, that one day He will come calling for them again, that one day a Messiah will come who will save them from their sins and save them from themselves. You see, even though God was silent He was not absent. He was working in the lives Zacharias and Elizabeth who would give birth to a son named John who would prepare the way for the Lord one day breaking the silence of God and calling the people back to Himself. Which points us to another time the people of God would experience the silence of God.

The silence of God between the cross and the resurrection. On that Friday before Easter Sunday, Good Friday, the disciples and all of Jesus’ followers would watch as the One they had placed all their hope and faith in would die a brutal death on the cross. He would be taken off the cross and placed in a borrowed tomb and for three days there would be silence. The disciples would scatter in fear, all the followers of Jesus that had spent the last three years of their lives being taught by this man who was unlike any other would be left wondering what the future held, all the hopes and dreams of everyone who had claimed Jesus was the Messiah have now been replaced with fear and doubt. But even though God was silent He was not absent. Because on the third day, the silence was broken as the stone was rolled away from the tomb and the Son of God Jesus Christ was resurrected from the grave. Forever the victor over death, hell, and sin. What seemed to be the worst moment in history became the greatest event in history. In God’s sovereign plan of salvation and redemption, the dark moment of the death of the Son of God, God going silent, gave way to the moment that would make right all the things that sin had made wrong. That dark moment of death gave way to a moment life, eternal life for all who would place their faith and trust in Jesus. For in that moment of silence, God was moving in the most miraculous way to bring salvation to the world.

And the same God who was moving in the midst of the centuries of silence in the nation of Israel, who was moving in the midst of the moments of silence between the cross and the resurrection, is the same God who is moving in the seemingly silent moments of our lives as well. Just because God seems silent in your life doesn’t mean that He is absent from your life. Whether we feel it or not, He is working among the silence to bring peace to our turmoil and victory in our moments of defeat. And He’s doing all of that to draw us closer to Him and maybe even, for some of us, to turn our hearts back to Him seeking Him as Savior and King.

Paul David Tripp frames it so well for us. He says, “When you bless me with what is comfortable, you are loving, you are righteous, you are faithful, you are good; when you lead me through what is uncomfortable, you are loving, your are righteous, your are faithful, you are good; so I will not restrict my worship to the good days; I will not limit my gratitude to what is comfortable; I will not curse the bad days, questioning your faithfulness and love; In darkness and in light, I will worship you and I will rest in your will; and in your silence, I will seek you even more.”

God’s silence does not equal His absence in our lives, but it always serves to drive us back to Him in repentance.

Which leads us to our second truth....

2. True repentance requires the realization that in and of ourselves salvation is impossible, and it only comes in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 3:5-12)

John the Baptist comes on the scene. God raises him up to be the forerunner of the Messiah. In Luke 1, this his how Luke begins his gospel. An angel appears to Zacharias in the Temple and tells him that he and his wife Elizabeth will give birth to a son named John and that John will be the forerunner of the Messiah Jesus Christ. He will come in the spirit of Elijah, just as God had spoken through the prophet Malachi and he will bring a message of repentance calling the people back to God and he will prepare the way of the Lord. And in vs. 5-12, we see every bit of this coming to pass. It says...

So, John has a unique role in God’s sovereign plan of salvation and redemption. He is the one that has been appointed by God to get the people ready for Jesus Christ God’s Son to make His entrance and to begin a new era, the era when God’s saving rule will be exerted and salvation will be accomplished by Jesus, once and for all. And his message is repentance. We see this from the very beginning when John comes on the scene. What does he say in vs. 2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John is communicating a truth that was relevant then and is relevant for all of us now and that is salvation through Jesus Christ comes by repentance.

So, what does it mean to repent? Originally, here in this text, the word used for “repent” means to “change one’s mind.” But, when we dig a little deeper, the kind of repentance John is talking about here and that’s required for salvation goes a little further.

a. First, repentance involves confession of sin-it’s more than recognition of sin, it’s taking responsibility for our sin by admitting to God we have done wrong.

b. Second, repentance involves sorrow over our sin-it’s a deep realization in our hearts that we have sinned against God. It’s not just sorrow because we got caught, but it’s a brokenness over something we know we have done against the one that created us and loves us unconditionally.

c. Third, repentance involves turning from sin-and this is where the change of mind comes in and the change of heart. It’s us recognizing our sin, it’s us being sorrowful over our sin, and it’s all of that impacting us in such a way that we run from sin seeking to do it no more.

And this kind of repentance is what truly saves us. And ultimately, to repent in this way requires us realizing that in and of ourselves salvation is impossible. There is nothing that we possess in our own power that saves us. And that’s the message that John is ultimately communicating. Salvation only comes in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the one who John the Baptist is pointing everyone to. This is the truth that he is ultimately communicating to everyone who heard his message. He says basically, “It’s not about me and it’s not about you, I’m telling you that you have to repent but I am ultimately pointing you to the Messiah to Jesus Christ who is so powerful who is so holy who is so mighty that I am not even worthy to untie the sandals off His dusty feet. He is the one who will save you.”

And John’s message of repentance and salvation is just as relevant for us in this day and time as it was when he proclaimed it on the banks of the Jordan River in the first century. What this message of repentance says to us is that we cannot save ourselves:

a. We are not saved by our family heritage. (vs. 5-6, 9)

And this in essence is what being communicated here in John’s message of repentance. Your family heritage will not save you. We see this in vs. 5-6 and vs. 9. What’s happening here is very significant, John is calling people to repentance and he is baptizing them as a sign of their repentance. And Jewish people are coming to hear this message of repentance and as a result are being baptized. Which is not something that Jewish people did. You see, up to this point Gentiles, non Jewish people, were the only ones being baptized and this was the result of them deciding to embrace the Jewish faith. Baptism for them was a way of saying, “I’m an outsider that’s renouncing my former ways and embracing faith in the God of Israel.” The Jewish people already assumed they were good with God simply because they were Jewish. So, when we see here that Jewish people are coming to be baptized, what they are saying essentially is that their family heritage is not enough to make them right with God. And the same is true for all of us. Just because you were raised in church doesn’t make you right with God, just because you were raised in the Bible belt doesn’t make you right with God, just because you have a particular last name doesn’t make you right with God. Salvation only comes through repentance and is found in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

b. We are not saved by our religious actions. (vs. 7-8)

Look at vs. 7-8, what does it say? The Pharisees were a group of Jewish religious leaders who eventually were responsible for the death of Jesus, but who were known for their keeping of the Jewish law. Their live were based on Jewish laws and traditions and they believed that doing that earned them righteousness before God. And John calls them snakes. And he tells them to truly repent because they were not there for that, they were there to show their superiority and to proclaim themselves as holier than the average person. You see, they believed their religious actions would earn them salvation. And John calls them out in front of the people proclaiming that none of their actions alone no matter how religious would earn them a relationship with God. And the same is true for us. It doesn’t matter what you do for God if you haven’t first recognized what God has done for you. You can serve, you can lead but none of it amounts to anything if you haven’t first repented of your sin and fallen on the saving work of Jesus Christ.

c. We are not saved by our worldly success. (vs. 7)

Not only did John call out the Pharisees but he called out the Saducees as well. These were also Jewish religious leaders that were rich landowners and beneficiaries of profits from the Temple. They based their worth on the worldly success that they earned. And John lumps them in with the Pharisees as he tells them that none of that matters. And today, if we are basing our salvation on the success that we are accomplishing in this world, even in the realm of the church, and that alone, then we are laying a unstable foundation. Because we are not saved by our worldly success, we are saved by repentance and what Christ has done for us.

So, I want to pause here for a moment and ask “what are you basing your salvation on?” You may be considering this for the very first time today and today you realize that there is nothing you can do in and of yourself to find a relationship with God. That depending on yourself and in and of yourself life is hopeless but because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the grave salvation is possible. Or you may have been a part of the church for a while now and you’ve been basing your salvation on your accomplishments, your religious actions, and your family heritage. And today, for the very first time you realize that salvation has nothing to do with any of that but it is based solely on what Jesus has done for you. And today, if you find yourself in either one of those places, I would say repent and run to Jesus.

True repentance requires the realization that in and of ourselves salvation is impossible, and it only comes in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

Which leads us to our final truth...

3. Life transformed by the Gospel is ultimately found in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God. (Matthew 3:13-17)

Look with me at vs. 13-17...

So, what does all of this have to do with Easter? What does the ministry of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus Christ have to do with what we reflected on Friday night and what we are celebrating today on Easter Sunday? Well, it has everything to do with it.

Jesus has now come on the scene. The Son of God, the Messiah, the One they had been waiting for, the One John the Baptist had been pointing people to, the One the prophets of the OT one thousand years before had been prophesying about, He is here. And He comes not preaching just yet, not performing miracles just yet, He comes to be baptized by John. Now why? John knows who Jesus is. John knows why Jesus has come. John has already expressed Jesus’ superiority and here again he says, “I need to be baptized by you.” Remember, John is baptizing people who are repenting of their sins and yet, Jesus has no sin and is in no need of forgiveness. He’s the sinless Son of God. And Jesus responds in vs. 15 with a statement that is the key to all of this, He says… And John consents.

So, what does Jesus mean? Don’t miss this. Jesus says, that His baptism is “to fulfill all righteousness.” And this shows us the big picture of what God is doing. The coming of John the Baptist himself will fulfill the OT prophecies that announce the forerunner of the Messiah. The coming of Jesus will fulfill the promises of the redemption and salvation of all people. And for Jesus to be baptized is one aspect of that fulfillment. As Jesus is baptized, He is pointing to His future crucifixion and resurrection. He is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world. And by submitting to baptism, Jesus is saying “I will become the sin bearer. I will take upon Me the sins of all people. Eventually on the cross I will bear the sins of all people.” On the cross, Jesus will become the final sacrifice for sin, yours and mine. As Jesus is baptized, He is consenting to be counted as if He were a sinner. And He is pointing to our future salvation. On the day Jesus was baptized, He entered the water just as He entered our sinful world. He was lowered into the water just as He was put to death and laid in a borrowed tomb. And He was raised from the water just as He was raised to life by the power of God from the tomb on the third day.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way for us in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

In the baptism of Jesus we see the great exchange that took place on the cross for you and me where Jesus took our sin in exchange for His righteousness. And because of what Jesus has done for us and because of that only, do we have the privilege and the honor and the ability to live a new life found in Jesus Christ and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. For it is only through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that a life transformed by the Gospel is found.

Conclusion