Sunday Sermon Matthew 3:7-12

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FCC Outreach Meeting to be scheduled soon.

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There is prayer and Bible study every Sunday morning at 9:15am. It is led by Patti Pointer who is a dynamic teacher. Please come and grow!

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC, where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time, one verse at a time.

Thank you for the message of music and for the Bible study that happens each Sunday before church.

What a blessing it was last week when brother Juan shared the Word and how he taught on waiting and patience. Thank you!

We have come as far as verse 7, in Matthew 3. So let us open our Bibles there.

Read Matthew 3:1-12

Prayer

Review

In looking back over the first 6 verse we discovered:

That when John the Baptist showed up on the scene, it had been 400 years since Israel had heard the prophetic voice of God.

That is 400 years church, and look at what the Lord had this radical, politically incorrect preacher preach:

Matthew 3:2 NKJV

and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Israel had fallen away from God and the first word was repent.

We know that the Greek word here is metanoia and it means to turn from sin to holiness, from self to God.

It means a change of heart, a change of mind, and a change of direction church, but it does not come easy most of the time. In fact, much of our repentance comes through great pain and sorrow. Much of it comes through us making bad choices over and over and choosing death rather than life.

We will learn a little later more about repentance shortly.

2. Thousands were coming to John to hear is message and the message cut to the heart church.

Did you know that a surgeon must cut, in order to heal?

Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

They were cut to the heart, the Lord led them to John, he preached a message of repentance and let them know that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.

This means that the long awaited Messiah was coming and that their hearts needed to be prepared.

3. Remember, that when a King was going to visit a certain area that he would send a forerunner to proclaim the King is coming. He would also clear away any obstacles that might be in the way.

Here church, I think it is important for us to take a look at our own lives and clear away any obstacles that are stopping us form worshiping God whole heartedly!

Not only that, but remember that John was in the wilderness and we talked about the wilderness being a quiet place in our lives, a place where we can leave the city and the busyness of life to hear and heed the voice of God church!

For we do not want to be like Israel who had not heard the voice of God for 400 years because of their disobedience.

John was baptizing and because this was true repentance that was happening, they started to confess their sins.

Please remember, that confessing and forgiveness are not the same thing.

To confess our sins, means that we are in agreement a with what that Holy Spirit is telling us about our sin. It means we acknowledge that we have sinned and then we seek God for forgiveness.

1 John 1:9 NKJV

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Israel had been trapped in religion that could not reform reform the flesh!

Praise God for his mercy, for it is the guilty that needs mercy, and let us remember:

Mercy begotten, is mercy bestowed.

This means that we give away what God has given us.

The people were responding to John’s ministry by the multitudes

Baptism was a ritual practiced in Judaism by those who were Gentiles converting to Judaism. They would also have to be circumcised as well.

John’s baptism wasn’t into Judaism, the people he baptized were already Jews. His baptism was in a sense a statement that the people were adopting something new, they were moving away from their sins toward righteousness.

Matthew 3:7 NKJV

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

The religious leaders caught wind that John was preaching a message they needed to hear.

I wonder if the Lord used someone that returned from this revival to tell the Pharisees and Sadducees? Or did the Spirit speak to them and say go!

We see here that Pharisees and Sadducees came to the the baptism.

Why?

Did they come to be baptized or to stir everything up?

Where they concerned that this man John was going to take away there power?

Let us remember church that the people that were coming to Jesus were very religious. They prayed three times a day, went to the synagogue on Sabbath and payed tithes and made offering church. But they had left their love and they were just going though the motions.

The Pharisees were the legalist, while the Sadducees were the liberals.

The Pharisees were the ritualists and the Sadducees were that rationalists.

The Pharisees were separatists, while the Sadducees were compromisers.

These two groups usually fought each other for control of the nation, but when it came to opposing Jesus Christ, the Pharisees and Sadducees united forces.

Pharisees- 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 God’s sovereignty and 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.

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

This sect also arose during the intertestamental period, but from among the priestly aristocracy.

They were compromisers, both religiously and politically.

They cared little for the Greek intellectualism of the day, and was attracted to the practices of Rome.

The Sadducees claimed to accept the law of Moses as the supreme and only religious authority, and 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, getting everything they could from whomever they could—Gentiles and fellow Jews alike.

They believed in extreme human autonomy and in the unlimited freedom of the will.

They considered themselves masters of their own destinies.

The Sadducees were much fewer in number than the Pharisees and were extremely wealthy. Among other things, under the leadership of Annas 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).

Because of their great wealth, Temple racketeering, and affiliation with the Romans, the Sadducees were much less popular with their fellow Jews than were the Pharisees, who were strongly religious and had some measure of national loyalty.

So here we have it church, John is preaching a politically incorrect and not a seeker friendly message of repentance and the religious leaders showed.

And John Said:

Matthew 3:7 NKJV

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

The text does not say John said, Hi, how are you? But he called them straight out brood of vipers!

Vipers (echidna) 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.

That is exactly what Paul did on the island of Malta when he went to gather wood for a fire after the shipwreck. As indicated by the response of the natives who were befriending Paul and the others, the bite of the viper was often fatal, though Paul miraculously “suffered no harm” (Acts 28:3–5).

Brood of vipers means off spring, therefore John was saying that they were descendants of snakes and he was calling out their religious hypocrisy that was deadly.

There is a picture here that I think is important for us to see.

When the desert grass would catch fire, or farmers would burn there fields, these little vipers that looked just like sticks would flee the fire. They would scurry along on the ground and run from of the flames.

Note, that fire or wrath represents the judgement of God.

Can you see how the venom of the religious leaders were impacting the people?

By the way, we all need to have truth tellers like John in our lives.

People that are not afraid to speak hard truths that must be spoken because they love us ands want to see us be holy for He is Holy!

Matthew 3:8 NKJV

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,

John is not just saying repent!

He is was saying that true repentance, if is is genuine and not just words spoken, that your will bear fruit.

Fruit comes in all shapes and sizes, but we could correlate this with:

Galatians 5:22–23 NKJV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

There is the fruit of holiness, the fruit of moving from a taker to a giver, from an unforgiver to a forgiver, from hate to love, from talking all the time to listening well.

From being harsh and critical, to becoming full of gentleness and kindness1

From pride to humility!

From isolating to fellowship.

From laziness to working hard!

From distorted thinking patterns, to thinking on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.

From depression to submission.

And the list goes on and on and one.

Fruit is the proof church that we are saved and that our repentance is true.

How many times have we attempted to repent, but no fruit was produced?

Do you remember back in the day they started producing plastic and ceramic fruit church?

PULL OUT THE FAKE FRUIT

It looks real, but if you bite into it you would discover that it is not!

The proof is in the pudding.

When we truly repent, there will be fruit in our lives, fruit that others can see!

What are you having trouble with getting free from? What is the sin that so easily ensnares you?

Is it being impatient?

Is it being harsh?

Is it being selfish?

Is it self-pity or laziness?

Is it lack of prayer and Bible study?

Is it that you are isolating and not connected to the Vine?

What is kairos and chronos?

It is one of two words that the ancient Greeks had for 'time'; the other being chronos (χρόνος).

Whereas the latter refers to chronological or sequential time, kairos signifies a proper or opportune time for action.

In this sense, while chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature.

God showed up through John at a specific time and he said repent!

I believe that all the repentance being done was not the same, but similar in nature church.

True repentance that produce fruit has three elements in it. And by the way, always remember that within fruit are seeds that reproduce after it kind!

Intellectual

Emotional

Volitional

Intellectual- we have conviction and we know that we have sinned against a Holy God. It is here that we are in agreement or we acknowledge our sin.

Emotional- we have an emotional reaction about our depravity, or sin, or our actions toward God and others. There is sorrow, despair and brokenness.

2 Corinthians 7:10 NKJV

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Our sorrow must be toward God and not because of the pain of the consequences because this will only produce the sorrow of the world.

Our sorrow must be toward God and the others we have hurt. Not because of the consequences.

This is where we say, “Oh wrechted man that I am!”

If this step does not happen, then true repentance will not happen.

We can be sorry for our sin, but not truly repent church:

A hardened Pharaoh in Exodus, chapter 9 and verse 27, says, "I have sinned."  A double-minded Balaam, in Numbers 23:34, said, "I have sinned."  A remorseful Achan, in Joshua 7:20, said, "I have sinned."  An insincere Saul, in 1 Samuel 15:24, said, "I have sinned."  And a desperate, despairing Judas said, "I have sinned."  But in none of those cases does the Bible ever record that true repentance took place, because the intellectual element is only the beginning of it, not the end of it.

3. Volitional- this is an act of the will. This is were we move into action church. this is where we stop doing whatever sin that we are doing and turn towards holiness. It is here that you remove the self-redemption possibility that will never ever work and you turn around and become totally dependent upon the grace of God.

So we have a change of heart, a change of mind, and a change of direction and becuase

The story goes that Lady Huntington was invited, or rather invited, I should say - the Duchess of Birmingham - to come to hear George Whitfield preach.  The duchess responded in this manner, quote, "It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth.  It is highly offensive and insulting," end quote.  Well, Lady Huntington was insulted when George Whitfield attempted to call her to the recognition of sin, and consequently she never entered into the act of repentance.

Mr. Moody, after preaching to the prisoners in a Chicago jail, visited them cell by cell.  In the first cell he found two men playing cards, and they said, “We're here because false witnesses have testified wrongly against us.”  In the second cell the man said that the guilty man had escaped and “I was only an accomplice and I am here.”  And in the last cell only, Mr. Moody found a man crying over his sins, and there it was that Mr. Moody stopped.  You see, the recognition of sin intellectually is where repentance begins.

Matthew 3:9 NKJV

and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Here John is calling them out again, he is saying that they are depending on their genealogy church, that because their moms and dads, their grandmas and grandpas were good Jews going all the way back to the lineage of Abe that they believed that because they were descendants of Abe , members of God’s chose people, that they were spiritually secure.

Salvation came first to the Jew and the to the Gentiles church.

Heritage is of no value. The righteousness of others cannot make a person acceptable to God. Each person has to stand before God as an individual.

Matthew 3:10–12 NKJV

And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Note: The ax is laid to the root of the trees:

John was speaking truth over the people, over the religious leaders, and he is peaking to us.

He is using metaphorical language with regard to agriculture.

The ax is at the root of the tree and that tree is Israel.

John was saying judgement is imminent church!

About 40 years later church, Jerusalem was destroyed in AD70. The ax had fallen!

The tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Farmers used to grow various crops like vineyards and other trees that produced fruit. If these trees did not produce fruit, the farmer would cut these trees down because they were not producing. Besides suckers branches suck the life of the rest of the tree or plant.

Jesus said it like this:

John 15:5–6 NKJV

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

3. The Jews baptized Gentile converts, but John was baptizing Jews! His baptism was authorized from heaven (Matt. 21:23–27); it was not something John devised or borrowed. It was a baptism of repentance, looking forward to the Messiah’s coming (Acts 19:1–7).

His baptism fulfilled two purposes: it prepared the nation for Christ and it presented Christ to the nation (John 1:31).

John mentioned two other baptisms: a baptism of the Spirit and a baptism of fire (Matt. 3:11). The baptism of the Spirit came at Pentecost (Acts 1:5, and note that Jesus said nothing about fire).

Today, whenever a sinner trusts Christ, he is born again and immediately baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, the church (1 Cor. 12:12–13). In contrast, the baptism of fire refers to the future judgment, as Matthew explains (Matt. 3:12).

4. The winnowing fan and threshing floor. The fan was like a flat shovel that would scoop the remains and throw it up in the air and the mediterranean wind would separate the grain form the chaff.

In verse 10,11, and 12 the word fire is mention 3xs.

The word fire in the bible means judgement and you can correlate this all through the Bible.

God is a consuming fire, fire also can mean purity.

God sent fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Every thing on this earth that is not of heaven will burn.

Matthew 3:12 NKJV

His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John is saying that god wants to clean out his threshing floor church and he want to gather his wheat into the barn and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

The barn is heaven church and the unquenchable fire is hell!

What is does God want to clean out of the threshing floors of our hearts? What is the Holy Spirit saying to repent of?

Jesus is our answer church. He was crucified for the sins of the world and died for you and for me! He was raised on the third day so that we could have life everlasting church.

Prayer

Benediction

Romans 15:13 NKJV

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

THE LORD BLESS YOU!

YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW!