Repentance Prepares the Way

Introduction

Good morning I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 3:1-14 that is Luke 3:1-14. If you are using a Bible scattered throughout the chairs that is on page 806 that is page 806.

When I say the word repentance I wonder what comes into your mind. Perhaps you imagine the crazy guy on the street corner dressed like Jesus holding a sign that reads, “repent the end is near.” Maybe you envision a red faced preacher wearing a 3 piece suit hollering from a stage demanding that you repent. Or perhaps you think of the definitions you learned in Sunday School, that to repent is to turn away, or an illustration about doing a 360 degree turn. Maybe the word repentance has become common place in your life, and it doesn’t hold the weight it ought.

This morning I want us to see that the call to repent is an invitation. When God tells us to repent of our sin, he is inviting us to turn away from death and walk toward life. Repentance is a hard thing, but it is a good thing. The opportunity to repent is only make possible by grace. Repentance can exist in a world in which grace is available. Repentance can only exist in a world where change is possible. Repentance is the pathway toward hope, it is the result of grace, and the call of love. God calls us to repent because He loves us. Repentance is only possible if our God is a God who loves sinners. God’s love for sinners makes repentance possible.

Today we will read of John the Baptist and his preaching of a baptism of repentance which God used to prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus. We dive deep into what repentance is and what repentance accomplishes. Today, this text will call you and I to repent. And that might be a hard thing. But I want you to know it is a good thing, only made available because our God is a good God. And uses repentance to prepare the way for Christ. Read Luke 3:1-14

Repentance is Real v. 1- 3

Luke 3:1–3 “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea (It-yoo-RAY-uh) and Trachonitis (Trak-oh-NYE-tis), and Lysanias(Lye-SAY-nee-uhs) tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Luke introduced us to John the Baptist earlier in this book by telling us of his birth and through the voice of an angel we learned that John would make ready or prepare the way for Jesus. In Luke 3 we are told how John actually did this as an adult. He prepared the way for Jesus by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And Luke reveals this to us, by first giving us the context for John’s ministry. John proclaimed this baptism of repentance during a specific point in time and in a specific place.

He did this during the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Now, we do not when Luke counts the beginning of Tiberius reign because Tiberius was a co-regent, that is he ruled with his predecessor Caesar Augustus for about 2 years. So, John performed his ministry around 26-28 AD. Luke names these world leaders like Tiberius and the three of other regional leaders Pontius Pilate, Herod, and Philip and the high priest Annas and Caiaphas, Caiaphas being the actual high priest and Annas being his predecessor to remind us that these events happened in real time and real space. This is a historically accurate account of the life of John the Baptist and Jesus.

John preaches in the wilderness, that is people had to leave their comfort and go out to hear John preach. And he did this wilderness preaching all throughout the region of the Jordan. He preached to real people in real places because his message was about real repentance for real forgivness.

The doctrine or teaching of repentance, like all christian teaching, is not meant to be some intanigle philosophy lesson. Repentance is not to be ethereal, it is not to just be an idea, but rather it is to have real impact our lives. He preaches in the midst of great world leaders from the gentile and Jewish context. Yet, in this context people would leave the city and go out into the wilderness to hear John preach. They were looking for what only John’s preaching could give them. Real hope in the ability to actually be changed. The world’s system and the religious hypocrisy of the Jewish elites could not compete with John’s message. You see, John had what these world leaders did not have, he had the word of God. So, the people prompted by God, left civiliaztion and went out into the wilderness to meet with the living God through John’s preaching.

The people of Israel left Egypt, the center of worldly power for the wilderness, where in Exodus they met with the living God at Mt. Sinai to receive his word through the giving of the 10 commandments. God’s word is worth leaving this world’s systems and power. It is away from worldliness that we encounter the living God through his living word. That is only true because God is not the invention of human imagination. The false gods of Egypt, the Roman occult that demanded worship of Caesar, and the godless legalism of the Jewish leaders were false religions. They could only they offer the gods of human imagination. False gods, created in the image of their worshipers, false gods who could not speak, and thus could not demand real repentance.

But when the word of God came to John, it came with power that moved people to the wilderness. And when he spoke the word of God he spoke a word which demanded repentance. Because repentance prepares the way to God.

Repentance Prepares the Way v. 3-6

Luke 3:3–6 “And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ””

John preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins as a means of preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry. And Luke quotes from Isaiah 40:3-5 to drive this point home. My question is “how does the preaching of a baptism of repentance prepare the way for Jesus?” I believe there are 4 answers. 1. John’s preaching tells us that sin exists. Human being are guilty of breaking God’s law, and therefore we are in need of forgivness. You live in a world in which one way to deal with sin is to simply believe that sin does not exist. Relativism, the idea that there no absolute truth, makes sin a farce. If there is no truth, then their can be no moral standard that all men must live up to. Sin, can simply be ignored because it functionally does not exists according to the worldview of relativism. However, John reminds us that there is a moral standard, God’s law. And that we have failed to live up to that standard. 2. Sin is a problem. Now, that might seem strange, but it one thing to acknowledge sin exists. It is another to recognize that our sin creates a real problem. Sin separates us from God. Sin is not only real, it has real consequence. God will judge all sin, and therefore if you are not forgiven of your sin. You have a very real problem. Preaching repentance, makes these two realities clear. You are a sinner, and that is a problem.

But that in not all that preaching repentance does. When John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness, he also preached 3rd. That sin can be forgiven. Sin is a problem, but it is a problem that has been overcome in the death and resurrection of Christ. The reality the repentance is possible is the declaration that there is forgiveness of sins! Preaching repentance is preaching the glory of grace. Sinners have a way to escape! By God’s wonderful grace, you can be forgiven of your sin. Repentance means there is hope… Hope to change, hope to grow, hope to no longer be enslaved to sin. Hope, knowing that sin has been defeated!

And this hope 4, is available to all. When John preached a baptism of repentance he preached that Luke 3:6 “and … all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”” From Tiberius Caesar to Caiaphas, to humble men in the wilderness like John the Baptist, salvation is available to all men. These for truths are how preaching repentance prepared the world for the ministry of Jesus. The world needs to know that Sin is real, Sin is a problem, Sin can be forgiven, and Forgiveness is available! This prepared the way for Christ.

John preached this baptism knowing that the water in the river was not the agent of change. He preached this baptism as a way in which those desiring the forgiveness of God could cry out to God through faith to appeal to God’s mercy for the forgiveness of their sin. 1 Peter 3:21 “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Peter is comparing baptism to the flood waters of Noah, which represent the judgement of God. Noah and his family passed through God’s judgement protected by the ark, which was closed by the hand of God and which Noah built in faith to God. They were carried through God’s judgement by God’s promise to keep Noah’s family safe in the ark. Which Noah built as act of faith. In the same way, we are baptized after we place our faith in Jesus Christ to save us from sin. Participating in Baptism is an act of faith, which is why the baptized must have faith at the time of their baptism. The baptism itself doesn’t save, just like removing dirt from your body doesn’t save you. Rather the act of baptism is the display of saving faith as an appeal to God for a good conscience. John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins was such an appeal. It was way for sinners to appeal to God for the forgivness of sins.

This appeal to God, an appeal made by faith and repentance is the only way a person can be saved. Not the act of baptism itself, but the appeal that it represents. And nothing else can save us. If sin is real and a problem then there is only one solution. There is only one way to forgiven, we must appeal to Jesus who died for us and we must repent of our sin and believe the gospel.

Repentance is the Only Way v. 7-9

Luke 3:7–9 “He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin 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. 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.””

As people came out to be baptized by John he speaks to them and calls them a brood of vipers. Being called a snake is a horrible thing in Bible after all, in the first appearance of Satan he appears to Eve as a serpent. He is calling these people devils. And asked them who warned them to flee from God’s wrath. Now, the answer I would assume is John. He’s the one preaching about repentance. Yet, he is telling them that to repent means to actually change. It is not just a spur of the moment decision, it is a life change in which you turn toward Jesus and continue to live a life that reflects that turning. This is what it means to bear fruit that keeps with repentance. Christians struggle, christians fail, christians still sin, but Christians also change. They give their lives to Christ and little by little we do change.

And Christians only appeal to God through faith in order to justify ourselves before God! The crowds, being predominately Jewish, were tempted to appeal to their ethnicity for their right standing before God. John heads them off at the past and as a bold preacher tells his audience, listen you devils who warned you to flee God’s wrath. If you are to be baptized then you are committing to a lifetime of service to God. You are to bear fruit in your life that reflects this act of repentance through baptism. And if you do this, don’t you dare appeal to your ancestry as a means of right standing before God. God can raise children up from Abraham from stones. Even now his judgement, his axe is laid at the root of your tree. If you don’t bear fruit, if you don’t actually change you will be cut down. I know you want to appeal to your Jewishness, but this preacher isn’t having it. You are make right before God through repentance and faith. And as you are baptized you are baptized as means to express your repentance and belief. That is it! And that is enough…

What must you do to be saved? Romans 10:9 “…. if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord requires repentance. True belief that Jesus Lord means that you surrender your life to Jesus. You decide, I am not going to live life the old way anymore. I belong to Jesus, He is my Lord. I believe in my heart, that is with all that I am that God raised him from the dead… This statement is not a magic spell that you recite one time in your life and then you are good. It the honest admission that your only hope is that Jesus would save you from your sin. It is the acknowledgment that your need the forgivness of sins.

Repentance from sin and faith in Jesus is the only way to be saved. It’s all you have. It’s all I have… We cannot appeal to anything else. We can’t appeal to our American citizenship, that does not make you a Christian. You cannot appeal to the faith of your parents… I grew up in church… you cannot appeal to church attendance, volunteerism, Bible reading, logged prayer hours… nothing… All we have is an appeal to God for a clean conscience through the sacrificial death of Jesus. All we have is the repentance of sin and faith in Christ. You see because real repentance results in real fruit.

Repentance Bears Fruit v. 10-14

Luke 3:10–14 “And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.””

At this confrontation they don’t go running. They don’t walk away from this man in the wilderness, they hear the word of God in his preaching and the crowds ask, what then shall we do? And John answers them, if you have two tunics give to the one who has none, and do the same with your food. We are to be people who give to the poor and hurting. We are considerate and open to the pains of others. We give to the point of giving the clothes off of our backs to those who do not have clothing. John is telling them to live out their faith. They are to be changed because of their commitment to God. Repentance is not just in word, it is in deed as well. When you give your life to Jesus you change. We should be able to look at our lives and say, “I am different in these ways because of my relationship with Christ.” I am more generous and open to giving to the poor because I have repented of my sin and put my faith in Jesus.

And as the crowds are asking we learn of two unlikely kinds of people who also desire John’s baptism: The Tax Collectors and the Soldiers. This is a great reminder that salvation is for all flesh…. Jews and Gentiles and even those who would never expect to hear repent. Tax Collectors were seen as traitors against the Jewish people. They made their living by demanding forcing people to overpay in their taxes. They worked for the Romans, the oppressors of their people. They worked for the godless government that tormented their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. And yet, where there are heavy sins there are heavier consciences. Those who have sinned much are often the ones who feel most acutely the weight of their sin. These tax collectors have come out to the wilderness to hear John’s preaching and upon hearing the word of God they want to know, what must we do to be free of our guilt! We want to be baptized! For those of you who have people in your life that you think will never repent, remember salvation has come for all flesh.

John responds to these men and doesn’t tell them to go away. He doesn’t tell them that God isn’t interested in traitors. He doesn’t even tell them to quit their jobs. Rather, the tells them to continue in their profession. But to conduct their business in an honorable way. Do not collect more than you are supposed to. Now, this command may have consigned these men to poverty. They made their money collecting more than was due, and pocketing the excess. That was the nature of the job, but John is telling them to change the nature of the job. They are to collect no more than what they are authorized. They are to stay in their job, but do it in a God-honoring way.

Soldiers, probably Jews who were a part of Herod’s forces, would be armed men. They would have the power to bully money out of people or “charge” for protection. They again are not told to quit working for the enemy, Herod. But rather they are told to stay in their position, but to be content with their wages. Repentance frees us to do something incredible. It allows us to redeem what might seem like unredeemable positions. Christians do not leave their secular vocation just because they come to Christ. But in coming to Christ, we might change the way we conduct ourselves in our jobs.

Repentance will change the way you live your life, and it will change if for the better

Conclusion

Repentance is an invitation. The wonderful and kind invitation of God to change and receive the forgivness of sins. If you are bearing the weight of sin and shame then dear brother or sister know that you can lay your burden down. The Lord Jesus Christ took our shame and our guilt when he died a death we deserved on the cross. He rose from the dead and put to death your shame and guilt. Jesus died in order to grant us the gift of repentance. God invites you today, to lay your burdens down. Come to him and walk in the newness of life.

If you are here today and you have never been baptized then know that you are invited to repent of your sin and be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. You are baptized into the family of God in the name of the Tri-une God. You die to sin, but live to Christ.

Maybe you come this morning and you are a Christian, but sin has gotten a tight grip in your life. You are ashamed, you keep it secret, you think to yourself: I am stuck. I will never move past this. Repentance is available to you today. You can share your sin with others, because God already knows. And God, the righteous judge looks on you and sees the righteousness of His son. So, flee from sin and run to Jesus. Call or text a pastor, community group leader, mature Christian and come clean. Be free from your sin. You are invited!

All of us this morning can celebrate the reality that in Christ Jesus we are free from sin! We have been invited to repent of sin. The process is often hard. It requires admitting you are wrong, it requires letting others into your shame, it can be embarrassing and awkward… But it is worth it. Change is possible. Repentance is an invitation to know the Living God and be known by Him. Come to Jesus today. I will be at the back. You can come and talk to me during the Lord’s Supper and final songs. I am happy to talk.