Sermon Tone Analysis

, , ,

, ,

,

Luke 3 21-23

There was an expectancy in the air perhaps because of John’s preaching or maybe they had heard the story of his birth that had been announced by an angel and born to elderly parents, kind of reminiscent of Abraham and Sarah.

Or it may have been the situation the Jews found themselves in under the hand of an oppressor, the Romans.

Whatever the case there was an anticipation and hope was rising.

And in the midst of this John the Baptist was baptising.

Was this the Man they were expecting?

Was this the Christ?

Was this the one who had been prophesied right from the beginning, found in and in and and and numerous other passages?

Well, we saw last week he was indeed prophesied of in that he was the preparer of the way, the herald, the Town Crier.

Repent and be baptised!

He was pointing the way to One other than himself.

Every time someone mentioned it or said to him are you the One to come?

Are you the Christ?

Are you the chosen one, the Anointed One?

He would always reply in the negative.

No! I am not.

Oh, yes, I baptise you with water but He, on the other hand, will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

What I do is symbolic but what He can do is powerful and authentic for He is the real deal.

He is coming not only to bless but to judge.

John paints a picture of Jesus as One who is awesome for not only is He mightier than him but it is He who is coming to reap from the harvest field.

The wheat gets put into the barn and whatever is left over is consigned to the fire.

There will be nothing left for the threshing floor will be swept out so that no grain gets lost and all the dust ends up being destroyed.

[SLIDES] It is a fitting picture for an agrarian culture for everyone in those days would have seen a threshing floor and wheat fields and the process for making bread.

It is a vivid picture.

And what is it a picture of?

It is of a Judge who is coming and finding out if the people are ready and the result of this coming will be to designate the destination of all that is in the field, that is, the world.

Only two places are mentioned, no refining fire of purgatory, no second chance: as wheat is gathered into a barn so the prepared are gathered into Heaven and as the chaff is dumped into the fire so the unprepared will be cast into Hell.

Like many Old Testament prophecies there are two parts: one that will be fulfilled now or soon and the other still distant; one will will be fulfilled in the first advent and the other in the second.

The prophecy will be presented as one prediction but has two parts.

How do we know?

Well, we know that in the first part many Old Testament prophecies have already been fulfilled…about 300 literally fulfilled in Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection.

This is our history, prophecy fulfilled.

We know that Jesus has not yet come to reap his field for we are still here and when Jesus came the first time He said:

There is a judgement to come but it did not happen during Jesus’ lifetime on earth but it will come as assuredly as Jesus’ first advent was predicted.

Why did so many come out to John?

We wondered last week whether it was his demeanour or clothes but really it was really his preaching.

And many did repent of their ways.

His message was that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.

It is on its way.

He was a hell and damnation preacher.

Yes, we should preach about the love of God for God is love.

But the consequences for rejecting Him are severe, in fact, they have judged themselves unworthy of salvation and worthy of hell.

Am I a hell and damnation preacher?

Yes, I am.

I have warned many, many people of the consequences of rejecting Jesus in face-to-face conversations as well as from the pulpit.

Why?

Because life is not a game…it is certainly not a game of chance.

The stakes are too high and has far more serious outcomes.

I cannot believe that there would be those here who have not asked Jesus into their life to be their Lord and Saviour but there might be.

God loves you enough to give His Son to take your place, to pay the price for your sins, your faults, your error, your guilt.

He paid it in full.

Don’t wait another day, not another minute for one day to the next we do not know what is going to happen.

Those in that tower block in London did not know it was going to be the last day on earth.

Life is so fickle and unpredictable.

Don’t die before giving your life to Jesus and following Him.

Why pay for your sins when someone else has already done so?

You can be forgiven.

You can have life with no fear of death.

Ask Him right now into your life.

As for those of us who have Jesus as Lord in our lives already know that this is the message, the good news that we can share with our neighbour, our friend, our colleague, our relatives, our Swansea - that Jesus died to save people from a fate worse than death.

This is why John was so humble a man knowing His God and the One to come.

I am not worthy to unstrap His sandals.

I am not worthy to carry His shoes.

In those days of slaves and masters the slave was expected to take off the sandals of their masters and carry them away but here is One who is more than a master.

Before Jesus all pride dissipates, there is no room for it, for before One as mighty as He then there is the realisation that, in comparison, we are as nothing.

Whilst John had come baptising and calling people to repentance and get ready for the One who was on His way he knew that he himself was not perfect.

And suddenly Jesus was there, right in front of him.

How can I baptise you?

You need to baptise me!

This is all back-to-front.

I am the sinner.

You are the perfect lamb of God! No! I will not baptise you!

This is all wrong!

Why do you need to be baptised?

And a curious answer is given: to fulfil all righteousness.

What do we think that this means?

Why was Jesus baptised?

The explanation is multiple but the overriding one is that Jesus was identifying Himself with all of sinful humanity bringing together God and people.

That is what baptism is all about - identification.

He had no need to repent, obviously.

But it was so that His purpose in coming was to place Himself in our place.

To fulfil all righteousness is about obedience to God’s will.

What does baptism signify?

Going down under the water is a sign of death something He had come to do, to die.

Christ’s death was a baptism as He alluded later in Matthew in:

So, He was baptised to completely identify with humanity and to enter into death for you and me.

We, ourselves, are commanded to be baptised.

It is in this act that we are showing our obedience to Him.

It is showing our identification with Christ.

When you have accepted Jesus into your life then you are to be baptised.

As was said by an old sailor to a young one: it is duty or mutiny.

It is our duty to be baptised otherwise we are saying my rules, not yours, which is mutiny.

We are to fulfil all righteousness by obeying God’s will, which is to repent, believe and be baptised.

John consented to Jesus being baptised for it was a necessary act to show the purpose to all humanity why He had come.

And coming back up out of the water revealed that He would also be resurrected.

And so as Jesus prayed the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in physical form like a dove.

The dove, a symbol of peace.

Where did this idea come from?

Well, most people would not know the answer these days but it comes from Noah’s ark.

The world had been devastated by a flood and at the end of it Noah released a dove that came back with an olive leaf signalling a new dawn for all life on earth.