The Message of John (the Baptist!)
Notes
Transcript
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 96.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 96.
Good Reformation Day Morning! For this day 504 years ago Martin Luther changed The world when he nailed his 95 Theses to the Door of the Church in Wittenburg Germany!
Let us praise how this Psalm instructs us to!
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:1-5
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:1-5
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Sermon
Sermon
Good Morning Church!
I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!
Well today we are turning our attention to Matthew 3. And this is one of the larger sections we will preach through as we preach through Matthew, we will be looking again, at all of chapter 3, so verses 1 through 17. The passage we will be looking at is about John the Baptist, his appearance, like how he appeared on the scene, and his appearance, like what he looked like, the baptism of Jesus which was done by John the baptist, and importantly for us today, what his message was, what he preached.
Before we even dive in though, we should probably preface what we are going to talk about today in Matthew 3. WE will be talking about a very difficult and in many ways controversial portion of Scripture. Often when we get to these sort of “big” passages I joke that “whole books could be written on this subject. well this chapter specifically it almost feels like not just books could be written, but entire denominations of churches have been formed because of the content of this passage. John the baptist the one who baptized will make an appearance.
In terms of Narrative as we look at Matthew we are making an approximately 30 year leap. Decades have past between 2:23 and 3:1. Matthew had the genealogy, then the infant narratives and then he just skips all the way to grown up jesus. We don't have the “child narrative” that we find in Luke, there is nothing between Infant Jesus and Grown up ministry Jesus. nothing chronologically at least, we do have something: we have John the Baptist!
But I want to note that when we talk about John, it is very easy for us to sort of think of John as, for lack of a better way to put it, the “opening act” for Jesus, that he comes and he, well even the ESV translators labelled Matthew 3 “John the Baptist prepares the way”. and the thought ath we kind of have is that John the baptist kind of gets the crowds hyped up, he pre[pares the way and then Jesus bursts on the scene. And Jesus is hugely, infinitely important, the most important figure in the history of the UNIVERSE, let alone the book of Matthew. He is THE focus of this, but to view John as just the “opening act” minimizes who this man was. Jesus will say of John in Matthew 11:11
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
John is a big deal, he is a huge deal and what he says is of critical importance for us. SO with that being said lets read Matthew 3 in its entirety.
READ!
These are the Words of the Lord for us this morning, lets begin with a word of Prayer.
PRAY
If I am confessing and being fully open and honest this is a difficult passage for me to preach. Not that it is difficult in it’s content the narrative is fairly tight, the reason that it is difficult is what John is doing, and what Matthew is doing through the person and the words of John it’s not necessarily what I would want to preach in this passage. There is a temptation for preachers right we read “john the baptist” he is baptizing so I need to do a sermon on Baptism. But to do so misses the point I believe, of this passage.
Could I do a sermon on why you should be baptized? of Course, and you should! Could I teach and do a lesson and preach on why the proper correct mode of Baptism is immersion? Why we baptize believers, those who can and do confess with their moth that Jesus is Lord, of course I could, but that is not the point of this passage. so do do any of those things would be unfaithful to Matthew 3. So I cannot.
John comes preaching what we can call a “baptism of repentance.”
John preaches a baptism of REPENTANCE
John preaches a baptism of REPENTANCE
The mode, is not what is at issue, the timing is not what is at issue here, what we need to focus on and what we need to hear is the message of John which is the message of repentance. And the word repentance falls upon, if we preach that, if we preach repentance to the world around us, you will quickly find that it is not a word that people like to hear. But I would argue that it is a word that the world must hear. If you were to ever do a study and look specifically at the sermons preached in the book of Acts one thing that yo would note is that in all of the sermons preached there every one has the application of repentance made. Just quickly so we can see how important repentance is:
Acts 2:38, this is the end of Peters sermon at Pentecost
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 3:19, peter speaking again at solomans portico
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
Acts 5:31 this is the apostles freed, they preach and this is what they say:
God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
Acts 8:22, this is the conversion of Simon the Magician, Peter and John there preaching to him
Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
We could go on, Acts 17:30, Acts 26:20, Universally the proclamation of the NT Church is to repent and it starts here with J the B. What is repentance? well we just read it, in the message to Simon the magician: turn from this wickedness. It is to confess your sin, to realize the depth and depravity of your sin and to turn from, look away from, and to reject that sin in your life and instead to cling to your savior. J the B message in Matthew 3:2
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
J the B message when he was preaching to the Pharisees and Sadducee in Matthew 3:8
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
His message, the same as the apostles, it should be the same as us :YOU MUST REPENT OF YOUR SINS. but as we think through that as we look at this passage wherein J the B is calling us more than any sort of water baptism, but to REPENT i want to start by asking a very important question, and it is a question the world might ask: WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
Why do we need to repent? Why do I need to repent of my sins. Not in this passage i would argue is one of the more fundamental reasons, which is a our sins are an affront to a Holy God. We must repent because we are sinful wicked people. A people who have snide against a Holy God, that is the Primary Why, but John couches this among something very important and Matthew will pick up on that and highlight it and really take it to the next level.
The reason we must repent is that “the KINGDOM IS AT HAND”
The KINGDOM is at hand
The KINGDOM is at hand
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Repent For, repent Because, the reason that you must repent, that is what that “for” means. FOR the kingdom of heaven is at hand. the almighty kingdom of God is here. It has entered into the earth and we must respond. and so the message the heart is that no one impure can be in that kingdom. No one who is unjust who is unrighteous can be a part of the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of HEAVEN is marked by its heavenly nature its holiness its separateness its different-ness.
And so J the B message is clearly you must repent because God’s kingdom is here. To say it is at hand is to say that it is within grasp it is “right here” and if you do not repent you are unworthy and therefore unable to enter the kingdom. This is the message of John, as we said, “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, but interestingly, it is also seen in the person of John.
John the baptist is in a lot of ways a weird question. this is a bit of trivia that you can ask to trip people up. who is the last prophet of the OT. and you might think and say the last book is Malachi so he’s last, but really the last OT prophet is J the b. so in his person as the last of the OT prophets he is proclaiming something different is happening, but even his appearance makes that something different is happening. John was an OT prophet, the one spoken of In Isaiah, so again already looking back to the OT, and enter John. Wearing camel hair and a leather belt, not living the life of luxury he is wearing uncomfortable and funny looking clothes. His food is locust and honey. he doest live some extravagant lifestyle instead he feels called because the call has been placed on his life BY GOD to proclaim and preach Repentance because the kingdom is at hand. And as John preaches this message of repentance and the kingdom coming people begin to take notice. J the B is the precursor to Christ in A LOT of ways. his message is vital it lays the groundwork for Jesus. he fulfills prophecy which is critical. but he also he draws a crown, but as we saw he will call out the P and S. he does not, like jesus, play games with the religious elite. He does not mice words and yet he can draw a crowd, and like Jesus we will see that his propensity to tell the truth and follow the call of God will get him killed.
And so J the B preaching in the wilderness begins to show us the differentiates of the kingdom that is coming. One of my commentaries said this about the idea that the kingdom is at hand: “The time of God’s effective sovereignty has arrived, [god is working God is moving his hand is clear as day] and now is the time for decisive action in response.”
So why must we repent? because God is working and God is moving and so we do not get to say I will look at that and figure that out later. the message of J the B and therefore what should be our message is that you cannot play games you cannot dilly-dally or wait you must choose this day (to quote some OT) choose this day whom you will serve, God’s kingdom is here what is your response to it? The call J the B makes is to say: what side ware you fighting on. there is no room for neutrality no room for hemming and hawing, will you serve the kingdom, be a part of the kingdom of god be a part of the kingdom of God or will you reject him. We must repent to join the kingdom. the first why is that the kingdom is at hand but Matthew pushes this, and the way that this narrative flows this thought is pushed.
J the B starts by saying repent for the kingdom sat hand. But his message changes in verse 11. he begins to talk about one who is to come, one greater than John. One who is so much grater that John dost even deserve, john the one who, we read it, was the greatest ever born of women, john the great prophet, john the one used by God, John looks at himself and declares: I am not even worthy to carry this one’s sandals. Which was the lowest of low jobs for servants.
SO he says I baptize with water, he is going to be much greater and baptize with the HS and fire, then immediately Matthew 3:13
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
in response to John saying there is one coming THEN JESUS CAME!
and so the reason we must repent is the kingdom is at hand yes, and we must pick sides, we must choose if we will join with the kingdom or reject it, but more fundamentally than the kingdom is at hand is that THE KING HAS COME!
The KING has come.
The KING has come.
How can we describe this king? he is mighty, he is powerful, he is the high king of heaven. This is why, as much as I want to get into modes of Baptism, why it is right to immerse not dunk or sprinkle, I cannot in good faith say that that is the point or purpose of this passage, because the point here is that Jesus was the high king of heaven who came down testified by John. John said there was one coming and here he is. and then, not only was this king testified by John, but also the HS and the Father testify that this is the king of heaven.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Thus the king is the second person of the trinity. in the baptism of Jesus the king we have the picture of the trinity in perfect unity. wherein the son is baptized the sprint descends and the father declares: this is the king!
SO why must we repent because, and now we are going to pack just a whole bunch of theological facts into this one: because the light of the world shown in king jesus has come. Because john 1 he came into the world and to all who did receive him who called upon his name he gave the right to be called children of God who were born not of the the will of man, or of the flesh but by the will of God! That is why. the king has come. God made man, revealed to us, he’s here, what will you do with him>? You must repent!
In fact, jesus being baptized fulfills righteousness such that we can see not only is he the sovereign perfect king of heaven, he is also the righteous king.
this is Jesus words about himself: Matthew 3:14. When John says: I cant baptize you. that's backwards. You are the king I am the low low servant I don't deserve and I have no right to baptize you. Jesus says no. let it be so now for it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus the perfect righteous sovereign king of heaven and earth. Why must we repent? why must we hear Johns message to repent and to turn away? because the kingdom is here but more importantly the king has come. and he has shown us what it means to serve and love and follow God. And so we do not, we cannot ignore that the king has come. and so again your options are laid bare. and it is more keen and more pressing here. its not just the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that God is moving and working and you must pick sides, but it is that the KING has come! what will you do with this jesus? will you repent and follow him, or will you please your own self, life a life for yourself? Will you live a life that seems right in your own eyes or will you follow king jesus? That’s it! and to follow him is to repent, to turn away.
SO if we make the decision that I will, as the song says “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back” the next question is HOW WILL I DO THAT?
HOW?
HOW?
There are three things here that I want s to see in this passage that illustrate for us how we can repent. What this can look like for us. the first two are fairly universally tied together in scripture which is the beginning of the argument for why we believe that you should be a confessing believer to be baptized. But for anyone who can hear and understand listen and know that this is how you can repent. 1 you CONFESS YOUR SINS!
CONFESS YOUR SINS
CONFESS YOUR SINS
Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
The way that this is phrased is very interesting, you also have a clue as to what the second thing will be because we just read it, we will get to that, but first lets focus on the fact that they were “confessing their sins” the last three words of verse 6.
the way that this is framed is that it is very individualized. It is that each one was going and each one was confessing their own sins. and so they would come to John and they would come to the river Jordan for the baptism of repentance. and in doing so they would confess their sins.
There is something deeper here than just confessing that I am a sinner, which yes I am, it is more keen where you look to your hear and you look to your life and you realize “No, I am a sinner because...”! I lie! I don’t glorify God the way I should! My heart is filed with Lust! I participate and even instigate gossip! I am a sinner because sin, here they are! they confess their sins.
they are open and real about the brokenness that is in their life and in doing so forgiveness, restoration healing and salvation begins. I have been a pastor long enough to know and been doing this long enough to see that a trite like “I know I need a savior” does not get you where you need to be. Instead you need to be honest, look and say: this is where I have sinned And THAT is why I need a savior so you cry out: God forgive me AND HE DOES.
John, not the baptist, the Apostle, in the book of 1st john 1 John 1.9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SO as we confess we don’t do so heaping more guilt and shame upon ourselves, as we confess we are cleansed and purified so we can now say like Paul in Romans: there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those in Christ Jesus! But we have to start here.
God knows them anyway. He is omnipotent, omniscient, he knows the hairs on our head and he knows the thoughts rattling around inside that same head. He knows the intentions of our heart. So when we confess our sins to God it is for him nothing new or shocking, we can’t surprise God with how bad we are, and he has told us that we must confess our sins! And when we do we find full and complete pardon.
Hear my heart on this one church. I have shared this with some, but expect to hear this more and more in the coming days and weeks and months. I came back form annual conference with two burning passions in my heart. Burning co-equally and I believe informing and shaping one another. The first is I have a desire to plant more churches. to see the Gospel spread through more gospel preaching communities all around us. But the second one, and the one that is more personal to me is to preach the grace of God. Grace unbridled and unbound, if WE CONFESS OUR SINS HE WILL CLEANSE US! His grace is greater than all our sins! All of them ! It will pardon us completely, we no longer bear the guilt and shame of our sins if we lay them at the foot of the cross you have been set free!
And so we confess, and he cleanses and makes us new. and to quote one more song, that's why we can sing with boldness and passion: My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin NOT IN PART BUT THE WHOLE, was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more praise the Lord Praise the Lord oh my SOUL!
That’s what repentance gets you, you must confess your sins! But the second, and these thin gs if you pay attention to scripture the way these things are preached, what happens in acts and ever here, that these two things are inextricably linked, that you confess your sins and you BE BAPTIZED!
BE BAPTIZED
BE BAPTIZED
here they were baptized by John in the Jordan river and confessing their sins. If anyone here, you have never been baptized by immersion subsequent to a confession of faith, I will pull out the baptismal next week and we can do that. I believe that following the commands of the Lord in believers baptism is vital in the life of every believer, it is SUPER important, do not hesitate or tarry, be baptized.
But here we are talking about a baptism that is much more incredible. John tells us in Matthew 3.11 that he will baptize with water for repentance that is what we believe is symbolized and sealed in the act of water baptism, but John continues he who is coming after John, the great king that John is unworthy to even carry his sandals, that great king is coming and he will baptize in the HS and fire! This is the baptism that we must find!
this phrase, this weighty thought of being baptized with the HS and fire points to a more searching and spiritual reality. Deeper than just a water baptism J the B is calling us to see a baptism of salvation and judgement. and Water baptism becomes the outward sign and symbol of a deeper greater spiritual truth. So here me today when I call for you today to be baptized this is more fundamental! For it is the baptism that only Jesus Christ can do.
J the B knew this, this is why the message in 3:11 and even more so when he is arguing with Jesus in verse 14 and saying “i need to be baptized by you!” what J the B is saying is I only have this surface water baptism and I need, even the great J the B he said even I need the baptism that comes from Jesus. and we have two pictures here that are difficult and i said denominations are formed with this portion of scripture, dare I say that denominations are formed with this very VERSE. the pictures are The Holy spirit and Fire.
Lets start with the Holy Spirit. I don't want to dive into this completely, if you have questions or want to talk about this later my door is always open so I will just say that this not talking about some event that happens later in the life of the believer wherein the Holy spirit comes in a different and forceful way, instead to say “baptized by the Holy Spirit” is to talk of the moment of conversion. this is the HS coming and making us a new person. this happens at the moment of conversion whereby we are made new, that is the baptism of the Holy spirit. It is to live and have and be gifted with the Holy spirit. The Holy spirit comes cleanses us, saves us lives inside so that we may now live righteous lives. he gives us gifts such as: love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self control. (Galatians) He calls us to serve in that he gives us apostles prophets evangelists shepherds (pastors elders) teachers. (Ephesians) he gives us what we need. he brings words to our thoughts and tongues so that we may preach the gospel, it is a filling and empowering that is the baptism of the Holy spirit and it is the privilege joy and power at work within EVERY believer, not just some special class.
Now we can look at the baptism of fire. this one is a little more difficult, some claim this is a unique even at pentecost, Acts 2:3
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
but I believe that misses the context of Matthew 3 and it is more right to rad this as judgement. Lets dive into this.
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.
Being thrown into the fire, being chopped down and thrown into the fire is judgement language and then IMMEDIATELY we read in 3 11 we read that the one is coming to baptize in fire, so Judgement before this we should possibly be in judgement mode and just to make sure John ends with this in Matthew 3:12
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
again unquenchable fire = judgement no way around that.And so the baptism and what John is saying here in Matthew is that Jesus is coming, and in fact, and we have to be careful how we say this, but with this context you will understand EVERYONE in some sense will be baptized by Jesus. Either you will receive the HS in repentance, he will come make you new, righteous set free from sins OR you will face the baptism of fire that is the judgement. and the chaff will burn away the trees that don’t bear fruit will be tossed into the fire. this is when we come down to what we talked about before in the kingdom and the king. To reject those is to court judgement.So how do you repent? what does it look like? you confess your sins, the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you are made new. And when this truly happens you WILL BEAR FRUIT!
BEAR FRUIT
BEAR FRUIT
In the middle of this section in John’s Exhortation, we will say it nicely, his condemnation really, of the Paraphrases and Sadducee, it turns out that this is what they are doing wrong. It is interesting to note that this is the first place in the book of Matthew that our villains of the book, the Pharisees and Sadducee show up. (and rally they are not the only villains, the villain is sin, satan, death, etc… but you get what I mean) The P and S play a part in this and this is the first place that they show up together like this. And they come to John. they show up. But they do not come to John with repentance. They come verse 7 “fleeing the wrath to come”. it is very important that we see this dichotomy that is being painted.
Growing up there is a sort of interesting historical and theological phenomenon that I think is fascinating. I have been to about every type of denomination over the course of my life, but I would say the greatest part of my spiritual formation is Baptist. The youth ministry most formative in my life was baptist I spent the first 9 years of my life in pastoral ministry in a baptist church and I hold to a lot of “baptistic” beliefs. So in some sense there is a part of me that says “yeah I am an old baptist Guy” so what I am about to say against Them comes from a place of love. But Baptist pride themselves on being in the heritage of J the B. That is part of why they claim that name. J the B that's who we want to be like and identified with! and that is laudable. But often what is preached is a sort of turn or burn, fire insurance sort of salvation. It is that Hell is coming and hell is bad, so come to jesus so you don’t go to hell.
and there is so much truth in there. Hell is real. hell is coming. and if you do not come to Jesus that is your fate. But that is not the reason to come. The Pharisees were “fleeing form the wrath” but yet they were, in the words of J the B a “brood of vipers”. Because they were just fleeing the wrath they were not actually repenting. because true repentance it is confessing your sins it is being baptized and then living a life that bears fruit. Matthew Chapter 3 verse 8. Matthew 3.8
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
We must bear fruit in keeping with repentance! True repentance will ALWAYS lead to this! true repentance will always lead to our lives bearing fruit. and so it is interesting, we proclaim that salvation is all a work of God it is in no way of works. Ephesians 2: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not of works lest any man should boast.” We have no way that we could work or be good enough to earn salvation. but when we are saved, far from just fleeing the wrath to come, our lives are transformed. again to look to Paul in Ephesians 2 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS that he has prepared in advance that we should walk in them. Faith without works is dead. any quote-unquote faith that does not bear fruit in keeping with repentance is not faith and it cannot save. Matthew 3:10
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.
We must live righteous lives. Not in our own power and might, for that is impossible, but by the power of the holy Spirit at work within us. That is the message of John the Baptist. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. be baptized, And I can’t help myself yes be baptized in water for that is the command that we have been given but here be saved and baptized by the Holy Spirit be filled and indwelled by him and then bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Let us pray!
Pray!