"Repent!"_Matthew 3a_Apr 21 2024
God With Us - Discovering the Gospel of Matthew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsThe importance of repentance
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Redemption Church Nashville
Redemption Church Nashville
Introduction / Illustration
Introduction / Illustration
Welcome…
Series: God With Us
If you need prayer, come talk with us afterwards
We’re doing communion right after the message
Bibles: Matthew 3
(Pray…)
Before we get to Matt 3 - I want us to use our imagination as we peel back the curtain...
Imagine charges are brought against you
You are standing before the judge in court…(highest court in the universe…)
You are charged as a guilty sinner...
Two options:
plea guilty
plea not-guilty (no contest)
Guilty plea - no trial - you pay an immediate penalty
Not guilty - no way you can win this trial - you pay the penalty
Either way, you cannot avoid the charges against you
You notice the Judge’s Son in in the courtroom
Someone told you: the Son already paid the penalty for your sins
You heard there is an amazing Eternal Life for you
A life full of faith - an abundant life
Not only that - but you know that if you could access this life -
Believe it or not, the Judge himself would literally adopt you to be his very own child
If there is only some way to access this Eternal Life!
But the charges are still against you -
you cannot access Eternal life through either pleading guilty or not guilty
You also learn
If you could somehow access this new life, he would literally make you a new person
And for the first time in your life, you would be given a true purpose in your life
And the Son himself would forgive you of all your sins
He would literally take on, and take away, your sins
And forever after, the Father would see only his Son’s righteousness in you
You would give him all your sins, all your guilt - and he would give you his righteousness
If only there was some way to take advantage of this Eternal Life
Question: How do you compel the Judge to apply his Son’s payment to your credit?
Luckily, this court allows for a special legal provision
This legal provision can simply be added to a guilty plea
All you have to do is plead guilty - and repent!
Today, I want to talk about repentance
When I was growing up - repentance was taught as something almost scary
The angry preacher would shout, “Sinner repent!”
God was angry at me - and my punishment was to repent
Repentance was something shameful that was made public
When I was a young adult, I was shocked to discover Rom 2:4...
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Every kind and merciful thing God does for us is to lead us to repentance
Suddenly, repentance is not the bait & switch part of a salesman’s pitch
Suddenly, repentance is sweet & beautiful
It is by God’s grace that he even allows us to repent and come to him
We need to stop and ask: What is repentance?
In a broad sense, repentance is agreeing with God
You are agreeing with God - that his way is the only way
It’s turning away from your old life - towards Jesus
It’s the denying of one’s self - and making your life all about Jesus
As J. Vernon McGee says, “It’s when you and I take our proper place as a sinner before God”
But think about it - when you repent, you are agreeing with the Lord -
that you are guilty -
and your sins are death - but also that you are in complete need of him
That’s what it means to stand in our proper place before God
When our kids were younger -
I took them out to go on a walk near Percy Priest Lake
The further we went, the more hungry I got - But I didn’t say anything
We neglected to bring snacks
Then they started to complain about being hungry
And our conversation turned into recent memories of seeing food places a few miles up the road from where the car was
Then I used it as a teaching moment: repentance
If we could stop and turn around - and hike back to the car...
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
Repentance brings freedom -
Because we no longer have to continue down the same road
Repentance really is sort of a legal provision
Because the Law of God is not violated when he shows us mercy
In fact, Paul said the righteous requirement of the Law was fulfilled in us - because he condemned our sin on the cross
Jesus fulfilled the Law and died on a cross - we receive what he did for us when we repent & turn to him - and place our faith in him
God doesn’t just “look the other way” when it comes to our sins
God forgives us because a price was paid - he dealt with our sin
But not everyone is forgiven
God’s wrath against our sins was already displayed on the cross
And the cross was the business end of his justice for us
God gave us repentance as a way for us to cry out to him -
to confess our sins -
and to humbly say, “I’m sorry - I agree with you Lord, I need you -
I turn from my sins and ask that you forgive me -
I believe -
I place my faith in you
So God, in all his infinite holiness and righteousness - allows us to turn to him
He sees our sinfulness, but he allows for the provision of us asking for his forgiveness
In the process, his Law is never broken - his holiness is never in question
But he allows us to turn to him - His Son paid the penalty
And that payment is made available to anyone who responds in humility
Before you became a Christian, you stood guilty before a holy God
You can never plead not-guilty
You have to admit you’re guilty - but you’ve been given the provisional option of repenting
Repentance is distinctly different from faith - but the two go together
You can’t have true repentance - and then not live by faith
Nor can you live a faithful life for the Lord without ever repenting
You can’t truly even bear fruit in your life without repenting
In order to live for the Lord, you need to get right with the Lord first
Repentance is “getting right” with the Lord
In order to walk with Christ - and have Eternal Life - you need to show a true repentance
And that’s what we’re going to look at today
Main Message
Main Message
Matthew 3 is an abrupt change in this Gospel’s narration
So far:
Genealogy of Jesus
The birth of Jesus
The Wise Men
The attempt at Jesus’ life
His family’s escape to Egypt
Herod kills all the children in that region
And then - Joseph & Mary settling down in Nazareth
And now, Jesus is an adult - safe to say, he’s about 30 years old
And almost seemingly out of nowhere - John the Baptist comes on the scene -
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 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.’ ”
So, here’s John the Baptist - the cousin of Jesus - we’ll see next week that he baptizes Jesus
But he’s preaching a strong message - repent!
And within these first 12 verses, the writer of Matthew tells us what repentance is - and what it’s not
The words, “repent” and “repentance” found three times in these first 12 verses
There is a great sense of urgency in what John says - “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
In other words - John is out in the wilderness - and all these people are coming to him -
And his message is - there’s no time to waste - get right with the Lord right away - don’t procrastinate - don’t put this off any longer - don’t blow it - the time is now
There needs to be a sense of urgency when we preach the gospel to others -
There’s no time to waste - repent right away - don’t procrastinate - don’t put this off any longer - don’t blow it - the time is now
We need to be calling others to repentance
Let’s take a quick peak at Matthew chapter 4
After Jesus is baptized, he’s tempted by the devil - and then he officially begins his ministry
And look at the first message - the same words as John - with the same sense of urgency
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The most obvious thing we can get out of this - is that this is important!
If John the Baptist preached a message, and Jesus repeated it -
I want to take note of it - and make it important
Go back to chapter 3 - verse 4
It’s pretty clear that many people were coming out to him - “Jerusalem, and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan” - that covers a wide area with a lot of people
But verse 7 focuses on the Pharisees and Sadducees - and what does John call them? “You brood of vipers!”
It’s an insult - and a way for him to be brutally honest with them - that they’re faith is not sincere
Coming out to see John to get baptized had become sort of the “thing to do” - and the Pharisees wanted to see what was up
As John was something of a spiritual rock star - a prophet in the wilderness - the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted a part of this
I think they came out to the desert to see John the Baptist because they were jealous of all the attention he was getting
The Pharisees and Sadducees could see that many people loved this John character -
the strange man who dressed funny and ate locusts
But I’m sure the people were blessed from him because he was full of the Holy Spirit
If the Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t come, they could be accused of not accepting this blessing
So now here come the experts - they have come to look at this spectacle of a man - to look down their noses at him -
And probably even get baptized - in order to say they did it
It must have been really hard for them to come all the way out there - to see this crazy prophet
But it would have been hard to ignore John the Baptist forever -
John the Baptist is considered to be among the greatest OT prophet -
even though we’re reading this in the NT, the OT was still in effect
And the Pharisees and Sadducees would have seen him as a prophet too - they couldn’t afford to dismiss him
Also, John was extremely popular with the people - if they refused his baptism, the people could turn on them
So here they come - on their pompous train
They probably even felt that they could teach this weird, homeless dude a thing or two
At the very least, they could straighten him out
But John holds nothing back from them
And verse 8 is one of my favorite verses of all time - it sums everything up
It is a key lesson in what true repentance is all about
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
So simple - so profound
He’s saying, “If you’re truly repentant, then you’ll truly bear fruit - if not, then you’re not of God”
You can’t just say, “I repent”
You can’t merely tell God you’re sorry, if you really are not
I love this because this theology is so consistent with the rest of the Bible
This doctrine simply says that our faith must be real - real repentance produces real faith which produces real fruit
It’s consistent with Galatians 5 - that we’re not under the Law, but we have the fruit of the Spirit
That this fruit doesn’t even come from us - it comes from the Spirit
It’s consistent with James - that “faith without works is dead”
It’s consistent with Eph 2 - “For by grace you have been saved - not a result of works - for we are created in Christ Jesus for good works”
It’s consistent with what Jesus said in John 15 - and in verse 4 he says,
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
We did nothing to earn our salvation
It is a free gift through the grace of God
But if we receive that gift - and turn to God - and repent
Then he gives us his fruit
It’s all him
Our faith is from him
Our salvation is from him
Even the fruit we bear comes from him
Nothing implies that this comes from our self-effort
We can’t bear fruit by ourselves - because it’s not even our fruit
The Father prunes us in order to produce more fruit [v. 2]
True faith produces real fruit that comes from God
Have you ever done anything for the Lord - that if you were not a Christian, there would be no way you could ever do it?
Have you ever had to deal with a difficult person - but you still displayed love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and or self-control?
That’s from the Holy Spirit
John saw these weasels coming towards him and he called them out as phonies
The Pharisees liked to say they were the sons of Abraham
Remember in John 8? And the Pharisees were trying to impress Jesus by saying Abraham was their father?
And then Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Look at Matthew 3 again
John the Baptist tells them:
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.
If God wanted more “sons of Abraham” he could produce them from the rocks on the ground
That’s like saying, “I go to church, so I’m a Christian”
I had a friend of mine - he was British...
“My mother was a vicar of the Church of England”
“You’re not listening to me - a vicar of the Church of England”
I looked at him and said, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance”
Our credentials do not come from a church, or any good works we do...
Listen to this section of Matthew 3 from the Message:
When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and flourishing? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.
I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”
John the Baptist is drawing a comparison - between himself and Jesus
John said he’s not even worthy to carry his sandals
Craig Keener said, “Matthew’s readers would not need to know Hebrew to realize that John was preparing the way for 'God with us’”
Matthew 3 is an ultimate warning - get right with the Lord, or there will be eternal consequences
But Matthew 3 also contains ultimate hope: It’s not over - you CAN get right with the Lord - the Lord has given you a way to get right with him
Does your life bear fruit in keeping with repentance?
Do you have a real faith?
There is a chronological order here -
In verses 6 and 8 -
There is confession of sins - there is baptism - and there is bearing of fruit
It all comes after repentance
Do you want to walk according to the flesh, or according to the Spirit?
Do you want an abundant life which bears the Spirit’s fruit?
Your new life in Christ must start with repentance - everything starts there - but your repentance must be real
I’m going to close in prayer - and then we’ll have communion right after
(Pray…)
Communion
Communion
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(Pray…)