Follow the Pilot Car
Notes
Transcript
I do a lot of traveling. It’s in my DNA. Growing up, after breakfast, my mom would look at us and say: Do you want to go visit your great-grandma today? Who happened to live 6 hours away. My mom would call my dad and say that we were driving to St. Paul. We’d drive up, spend the night, and come back home. It was great!
There is something about the open road that is relaxing.
But, there is something that is so frustrating also. I mean we could talk about a lot of frustrating things. Complaining from the back seat. Frequent stops. GPS programs that talk. Vehicles that drive 10 miles under the speed limit.
I should stop before I start confessing all my sins.
What I was thinking about was road construction. Most road construction I can handle. But, when a 2-lane goes down to a one-lane, and I have to wait 15 minutes, or more, for a pilot car to guide me where I know that I need to go. That can be frustrating.
However, there was one time, when I was following a pilot car, and the pilot car turned onto another road. I don’t remember where this was, or when it was, it is just a memory. The pilot car turned. And I wanted to go straight, but I couldn’t. I had to follow the pilot car. And all of a sudden, I needed that car to guide where I needed to go.
It is said that this world is made of leaders and followers. It’s called the leader-follower-myth. Actually, we all want to be leaders in some area of our lives. We don’t want to follow.
Matthew talks about this as he introduces a new character in Matthew 3.
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’ ”
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But 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? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Before we can actually dive into this passage, we need to talk about a background to the Gospel of Matthew, because we didn’t get that done during the Christmas season.
We will give that background and then we’ll jump into the passage, talking about how the prophet must be followed.
Will you pray with me?
Hold on, because we are going to go fast.
1. Background of Matthew
1. Background of Matthew
Let’s get into the background of Matthew. We are going to answer 4 questions: Who was the author, who was the audience, when was the timeline, and what is the topic.
A. Author
A. Author
Who wrote Matthew?
We call it the Gospel of Matthew, so everyone figures it was written by Matthew. But, how do we know? Luke and John both put their signatures into the body of their Gospels, but no where in this book does Matthew say: “Hi! It’s me! I wrote this! The autograph line should form to the left.”
We do have a preponderance of evidence from early writers, such as Pseudo Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen, who all firmly state that Matthew wrote this document. Incidentally, they all live sooner to the writing of Matthew than those who state that Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, yet we believe that Homer did in fact write the Iliad and the Odyssey.
We know Matthew was a Jew who was considered to be a traitor to his nation. He was a tax collector, employed by the Romans to break the financial back of the Jewish state. And he was good at it. As a tax collector, he probably took more money that he needed to, and pocketed the rest. That’s what tax collectors did at that time.
No need to make any jokes about the IRS here.
Interestingly, as we read through Matthew, you will notice more references to coins than any of the other three Gospels. He also uses three terms for coins that are found no where else in the New Testament.
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
“But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him.
As a tax collector, it makes sense that he would know the different coins and the costs of different items, to a detail. He would also be interested in keeping records accurately. So, when he followed Jesus, he would be interested in keeping an accurate account.
He shows humility in this book, continually referring to himself as Matthew the tax collector. The other Gospels don’t do this. He omits the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and the story of Zacchaeus, another repentant tax collector. He wants this book to be about Jesus, not him.
B. Timeline
B. Timeline
Church tradition has constantly claimed that Matthew was the first Gospel written, which is kind of why it comes first in our New Testament. Other scholars try to prove that Mark was first. I lean toward the opinion of those closer to the actual writing of the book.
General opinion is that the book was written anytime between 40-70 AD. It had to be enough of time after the crucifixion to justify the writing and it had to be before the temple was destroyed in AD 70.
Conservative scholars narrow this range to 50-68 AD, because of some evidence within the book of time lapsing after Jesus ascension. I lean toward 50 AD, so that it would be the first Gospel. But, that’s just an opinion. The important point, it was written after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and before the destruction of the temple.
Gospel witness is expanding. Persecution is starting to grow. Doubts are beginning to rise about who Jesus actually is, especially among the group that Jesus first came to reach. The Jews.
C. Audience
C. Audience
Which bring us to the audience of this book.
Matthew is a Jew writing to Jews.
The Jews were ruled by the powerful state of Rome. They couldn’t really worship God as he called them to. Their finances were being taken. Their kids were being tempted by the immoral lifestyle and religion of the Romans.
And they hadn’t heard from God through one of his prophets for over 400 years.
Their temple had been destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed again, and rebuilt again.
They yearned for a Messiah who would free them from that bondage, who would show them God’s embrace again as God’s chosen people.
And Matthew had experienced that freedom and that embrace and wanted to show the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah and he wanted to encourage Jewish believers that God was not through with his people. That even though the rest of the Jews had rejected their Messiah, His promised kingdom would yet be instituted with His people at a future time. Jewish believers were charged with bringing the message of faith in the Messiah to the rest of the Jews and the world.
D. Topic
D. Topic
What is the topic of Matthew. Put simply, Matthew is speaking of Jesus as the son of David who establishes the kingdom of heaven.
Mark: Jesus as the Son of God who suffers to ransom others.
Luke: Jesus as the Savior of the world who seeks the lost.
John: Jesus as the Lamb of God who brings eternal life through a new exodus.
But, we are talking about Matthew today.
Showing Jesus as establishing the kingdom of Heaven, Matthew places a lot of emphasis on Jesus’ teaching. No other Gospel has as much teaching. He arranged his material logically rather than chronologically, because he wanted to put forward a certain theme, not just tell about Jesus’ life.
To tell this theme, he fills his Gospel with Old Testament quotes. About 50 direct citations and another 75 allusions, because of the group of people he was writing to.
As he explains the Old Testament, he expounds on what the Kingdom of Heaven really is. Not what the Jews thought, but what the Old Testament did teach. “The kingdom has taken a different form in the present Age, but that the promised Davidic kingdom will be instituted at a future time when Jesus Christ returns to earth to establish His rule.”
A rule that would be over not just the Jews, but over all the earth. As seen in the final chapter of this Gospel. He starts with Jesus as the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, and ends with “go and make disciples of all nations.”
With that introduction, we should use the rest of our time to discuss the passage before us. Matthew 3.
2. The Prophet
2. The Prophet
Let’s talk about the prophet.
The clock mocks me.
A. John the Baptist
A. John the Baptist
Matthew makes a quick transition from Jesus in his early years to almost thirty years later. A man named John. Cousin to Jesus, also from a miraculous birth. Not from a young virgin, but from an older woman, not able to have children.
Matthew presents three pictures that a Jew of that time would instantly see.
a. Elijah
a. Elijah
He gives a picture of Elijah in the man of John.
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
Which is exactly what Elijah.
They replied, “He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”
The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”
Like Elijah, John lived outside civilization in the wilderness. Which of the prophets of old, whenever the nation of Israel was not following God, the prophets always were outcasts in the wilderness. When the nation was righteous, the prophets were in Jerusalem.
There was a prophecy that before the Messiah would return, Elijah would come back.
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
John is a type of that Elijah, preparing the way for the Messiah, or as Isaiah puts it.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Well, John is in the wilderness, dressing like Elijah, preaching a message.
b. Baptism
b. Baptism
What is this message, you ask? Well, first we have to talk about the baptism, before we can get to the message.
People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
It was normal for people to be baptized at this time.
The Jews had a ritual cleansing process that they went through to wash away their uncleanness to worship at the temple and to provide sacrifices. But, that’s not what is being referred to here.
More similar is what was demanded of Gentile converts to Judaism.
Those who converted to Judaism would walk into the Jordan and baptise themselves, reciting the Shema: "Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God, YHWH is one".
Here John is standing in the Jordan, not overseeing self-baptism, but baptizing individuals. And these weren’t Gentiles, but actual children of Abraham. Calling the Jews away from their sinful lives, their idolatry of religion, and back into covenant with their creator.
The baptism of John symbolized that the Jews, though God’s covenant people, were spiritually Gentiles because they had left their God and needed to come back. The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.
c. Repentance
c. Repentance
This baptism was a symbol of what was happening in their hearts. The Jews were confessing their sins and then being baptized.
While this was happening, John turned to a group of Pharisees and Sadducees, religious leaders who didn’t agree with each other, and warned them of their unrepentance, saying:
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Jews new the concept of repentance, that of turning from one thing to another. From sin and back to God. Their Day of Atonement is all about repentance.
The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary John’s Mission to Israel (3:5–6, 8–9)
Yet John’s call is more radical; his “repentance” refers not to a regular turning from sin after a specific act, but to a once-for-all repentance, the kind of turning from an old way of life to a new that Judaism associated with Gentiles converting to Judaism
This was the call of the Old prophets. People of Israel, you have left your God and have begun to worship other gods. Turn back to him before it is too late.
But, in a sense, this message is different than the Old Prophets. Because the one John wanted Israel to turn to was not a sense of God through the temple and the sacrifices, but a person.
B. Jesus Christ
B. Jesus Christ
While John pointed back to the prophet Elijah, John said that someone greater was coming.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Again, Matthew presents three pictures.
a. Moses
a. Moses
This image of a prophet more powerful or greater is something else the Jews would understand.
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
It was understood that the Messiah would be a prophet like Moses, but greater.
Now, I should clarify what a prophet is, Biblically. We think of prophet and we almost think of a fortune teller, someone who tells us what the future will be. The Old Testament prophets used fore-telling as a sign for the truth of their actual message. The focus was never on the future, but on the present, calling the listeners to repent and turn back to God before judgment came.
Put simply, the prophet spoke the words of God and facilitated the listeners to come back into a relationship with God.
Jesus would be that Messiah, the greater prophet than Moses or Elijah who would speak the words of God, because he is the Word of God and would facilitate a relationship with God, because he is God with us.
b. Baptism
b. Baptism
This relationship is symbolized through baptism. But this baptism is not a baptism of water, though later Jesus will call his disciples to baptize with water to symbolize the inner baptism.
The baptism that Jesus uses is
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Holy Spirit is the being who seals believers for the day of salvation. The minute we place our faith in Jesus, we are given the Holy Spirit to cleanse and sanctify us. We see the first fulfillment of this prophecy in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost.
Fire speaks of judgment. Those who do not follow Jesus are promised an eternity in Hell, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, stuck in darkness and eternal fire, separated from God.
c. Judgment
c. Judgment
Which brings us to the third picture. That of judgment.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Charles Spurgeon writes about this passage:
The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Commentary on the Book of Matthew Chapter 3:1–12: The Herald of the King
Our Lord’s teaching would act like a great winnowing fan, leaving the true by themselves, and driving off the false and worthless to utter destruction. It was so in the life of our Lord; it is so every day where he is preached. He is the Great Divider. It is his Word which separates the sinners from the saints, and gathers out a people for himself.
Thus the herald prepared the people for the King, who would be the Cleanser, the Hewer, the Winnower. My soul, behold thy Lord under these aspects, and reverence him!
We have seen the prophet.
3. Must Be Followed
3. Must Be Followed
John came to pave the way for the Messiah. The prophet greater than all others. God with us.
He urged all who would listen: Follow the coming Messiah. He was there to make the road straight and smooth for all who would come to him.
He looked at all the Jews coming to him, those who claimed to be fine because they were children of Abraham: Follow Jesus.
There were two choices: Be baptized with the Holy Spirit or be baptized with fire.
Every generation needs a John. Because every generation struggles with what the Jews struggled with.
They claimed to be followers of the one true God, but they weren’t. Their lives didn’t show it and their heart didn’t claim it. They had the pedigree but not the faith.
John came to bring them back to God by pointing them to the Messiah.
Here in America, in the church, there are plenty of people who would claim to be followers of God. However, their lives don’t show it. There is no evidence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They don’t live like followers of Jesus Christ.
And the passage about John calls to them: If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, live like it. If you have been baptized by the Spirit, allow the Spirit to change you.
If you will not live like it, if you refuse to have a life that shows your cherishing of Jesus, perhaps your heart doesn’t claim him. Perhaps you merely said some words because someone asked you to, Perhaps you have made a life of attending church, but Jesus is not yours, truly yours.
Come be baptized by Jesus. You will one way or another. You’ll either be baptized by the spirit or by fire.
Which is it going to be?
Don’t wait too long. Make a decision for Jesus. And if you have, live like it.
He is the king.
