Sermon Tone Analysis

*About-Face!*

*Matthew 3.1-12*

 

* /About-face!/

Webster defines this term as “a sharp turn in the opposite direction, esp. in response to a military command; a sharp change in attitude or opinion.”

While the specific phrase /about-face/ is nowhere found in the Bible, the concept sure is.

In Scripture the command is summed up in one word: Repent!

* This command is not declared in the Bible by a commanding officer of an earthly army.

Rather, it is the clear and distinct message of all the prophets, all the apostles, and of the Lord Jesus Himself.

/Repent!

Turn around!

Change your attitude and opinions about sin and the Savior!/

* By virtue of the fact it is given in Scripture as a command and therefore not an option, we can be assured that there are negative consequences experienced by anyone who does not obey this command…

* *Pr 28:13 *He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

NKJV

* *Purpose: 3 marks~/characteristics of genuine, biblical repentance*

* *

*Genuine Repentance Results in Life Change (1-8, 10-11)*

* */Conviction of your sin (Jn.

16.8)/*

* *Jn** 16:8 *And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:NKJV

* */Contrition over your sin/*

* *2 Co 7:10 *For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.NKJV

* Worldly sorrow:

·        Sorrow for getting caught; for being exposed

·        Sorrow over the pending consequences

·        Sorrow over restitution that must be paid

·        Sorrow over alimony and child support that’s going to cripple you financially

·        Feeling bad about something because you know it’s wrong, but you keep on doing it.

* */Confession of your sin (v.6)/*

* Confessing sins…using God’s terminology

·        adultery, not an affair

·        drunkenness, not substance abuse

·        immorality, not an indiscretion

·        Call sin by its name; confession literally means “to same the same thing” (i.e.

you say the same thing about your sin that God does in His Word)

* */Cessation from your sin (2, 8, 10-11)/*

* /Repent/ means more than regret or sorrow (cf.

Heb.

12:17); it means to turn around, to change direction, to change the mind and will.

* It does not denote just any change, but always a change from the wrong to the right, away from sin and to righteousness.

Repentance involves sorrow for sin, but sorrow that leads to a change of thinking, desire, and conduct of life.

* Repentance before God is one of the most frequently recurring messages in all the Bible.

No less than 969 times, God thundered, “Repent!”

It was the first message Jesus preached.

Matthew 4:17 says, “Jesus Christ came preaching, ‘Repent!

For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

The last message Jesus left with the church was a message of repentance.

Some people think the Great Commission was His last message to the church, but almost 60 years after Jesus gave the Great Commission He gave this message to the church in Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent!”

* *Pharisees*—They were an association very much in the mainstream of Jewish life and made a point of being noticed and admired.

* *Mt 23:5-7 *But all their works they do to be seen by men.

They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.

They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’NKJV

* The Pharisees formed a self-righteous, “holy” community within the community; they were legalistic isolationists who had no regard or respect for those outside their sect.

They believed strongly in divine destiny and that they alone were the true Israel.

They considered themselves to be superspiritual, but their “spirituality” was entirely external, consisting of the pursuit of meticulous observance of a multitude of religious rituals and taboos, most of which they and various other religious leaders had devised over the previous several centuries as supplements to the law of Moses.

* By their strict adherence to those traditions they expected to reap great reward in heaven.

But they were the epitome of religious emptiness and hypocrisy.

* *Mt 23:28 *Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.NKJV

* *Sadducees*—The Sadducees were at the other end of the Jewish religious spectrum-the ultraliberals.

They were compromisers, both religiously and politically.

* They scorned the legalistic traditions of their antagonists, the Pharisees.

In New Testament times they were still closely associated with the priestly class (see Acts 5:17), to the extent that the terms /chief priest/ and /Sadducee/ were used almost synonymously (as were the terms /scribe/ and /Pharisee/).

But they cared little for religion, especially doctrine, and denied the existence of angels, the resurrection, and most things supernatural (Acts 23:6–8).

Consequently they lived only for the present.

They considered themselves masters of their own destinies.

* The Sadducees were much fewer in number than the Pharisees and were extremely wealthy.

They ran the Temple franchises-the money exchanging and the sale of sacrificial animals-and charged exorbitantly for those services.

It was therefore the Sadducees’ business that Jesus damaged when he drove the moneychangers and sacrifice sellers out of the Temple (Matt.

21:12–13).

* Religiously, politically, and socially the Pharisees and Sadducees had almost nothing in common.

The Pharisees were ritualistic; the Sadducees were rationalistic.

The Pharisees were strict separatists; the Sadducees comprising collaborators.

The Pharisees were commoners (most of them had a trade), while the Sadducees were aristocrats.

Both groups had members among the Sanhedrin.

* During New Testament times about the only common ground they exhibited was opposition to Christ and His followers (Matt.

22:15–16, 23, 34–35; Acts 4:1; 23:6).

* They had one other common religious and spiritual ground.

The Pharisees expected their reward in heaven, while the Sadducees expected theirs in this life, but the trust of both groups was in personal works and self-effort.

* It is clear from John’s response to them that he considered their basic problem and need to be exactly the same.

* They were not seeking God’s truth or God’s working in their own lives.

They were not repentant; they had not confessed their sins; they had not changed at all-as John well knew.

They were the same smug, self-righteous hypocrites they had been when they started out to find John.

* *7b.

*They intended to carry their hypocrisy even to the extent of submitting to John’s baptism, out of whatever corrupt motives they may have had.

·        Luke’s account makes it very clear that the Pharisees and Sadducees left w~/o being baptized (Lk.

7.14-30).

* *Vipers* were small but very poisonous desert snakes, which would have been quite familiar to John the Baptist.

They were made even more dangerous by the fact that, when still, they looked like a dead branch and were often picked up unintentionally.

* The question with which the Baptist confronted them has this sense:  “Who suggested to you that you would escape the coming wrath?”

Thus John’s rhetorical question takes on a sarcastic nuance:  “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath and come for baptism – when in fact you show no signs of repentance?”

* He didn’t candy coat his message.

John is using sandpaper, the real rough kind.

John uses sandpaper to rub the multitudes raw: “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

What is John’s purpose for using this sand paper message?

John is preparing the surface for the gospel so it will stick.

Now, it wasn’t very nice for John to call these respectable Jews a bunch of poisonous snakes.

It would be like me standing before you during the welcome time and saying, “Greetings you bunch of sorry rattlesnakes, who told you to slither in here on your bellies?”

* Their true spiritual father was Satan—as He specifically charges in John 8:44.

* The implication is that the Pharisees and Sadducees were expecting John’s baptism to be a kind of spiritual fire insurance, giving protection from the flames of *the wrath to come*.

True repentance and conversion /do/ protect from God’s *wrath* and judgment, but superficial and insincere professions or acts of faith tend only to harden a person against genuine belief, giving a false sense of security.

* *8.

/Genuine repentance from sin changes a person’s life (10-11)!/*

* The marks of a truly repentant heart are *fruit in keeping with repentance*, or as Paul described them to King Agrippa, “deeds appropriate to repentance” (Acts 26:20).

In his parallel account Luke mentions several examples of the kind of *fruit* John was talking about (see Lk 3.11ff.)

* */True/*/ *repentance*/ not only should but /will/ have correspondingly genuine works, */demonstrated in both attitudes and actions./*