Matthew 3:1-12
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
God Doesn’t Need You
John was an interesting man. Luke tells us that he was the son of a priest and Jesus’ own relative. His birth was announced by angels and you could make the case that he was the first person to recognize Jesus as the Savior of the world – and that before he was born, while he was still in the womb!
We don’t hear much about him until 29 years later. Matthew writes about it wistfully, “In those days John the Baptist came.”[1] It’s like a fond family memory from “back in the day.” You don’t need the whole story – just to remember the important piece of information, i.e. that he was preaching in the wilderness of Judea.[2]
Who does that? Who – if they want an audience – will go where there are no people? What pastor preaches to an empty room, or what missionary starts out in a wheat field? If a tree falls in the forest without anyone to hear, does it make a sound? But that’s where John set up camp. And despite having camel’s hair clothes and locusts for lunch, John drew a crowd.
The Word is powerful. It doesn’t care what clothes you wear. It doesn’t matter what the setting is. God’s Word makes a noise, even in the wilderness, in an uninhabitable wasteland, preached by an uneducated nobody, whose appearance was unattractive and whose diet was unappetizing. John broke all the rules about marketing, and it didn’t make a difference. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.[3]
John drew a crowd, because the Word is powerful – powerful enough to produce fruit. It may have started as a sideshow by the shores of the Jordan River, but when they heard what he had to say, the Word inspired them to action. John’s message is pretty basic: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[4] But the people responded: Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.[5]
That’s what “repentance” means. The Greek word that Matthew uses in his Gospel paints a picture of a literal “change of mind.” Repentance means that we change our way of thinking about sin, about ourselves, and about the choices that we make in this life.
Neither John in his very brief sermon, nor Matthew in his gospel write out a detailed definition for repentance, but based on what the rest of God’s Word says as a whole, we can assign four parts to it:
1. Awareness of wrongdoing
2. Sorrow over sin
3. Confession
4. Faith in God to forgive
We can see all four of those criteria demonstrated by the people who came to hear John. They didn’t just listen along and nod their heads in intellectual agreement. His words struck a chord in their hearts and moved them to action. They saw their sin, confessed it before John and each other, and were baptized in the hope of the forgiveness that God promises.
Friends in Christ, that’s the same hope that we have. Our church was literally built around the stone that sits as our baptismal font. Our names are drowned in water every Sunday to remind us of our constant need for repentance and forgiveness. And then these tiles carry your repentant hearts from the font to the cross, where all your sins are forgiven in Jesus.
John preached a powerful word in the wilderness to great effect – an effect that we continue to feel today. It’s not about the clothes we wear or the place we worship. It’s about the Word that gathers us here from Spruce Grove and Morinville and Windermere. It’s about the Word that, like John the Baptist, prepares our hearts for the coming of Jesus. It’s about the Word that moves not just our hearts, but our hands in action as we repent and confess our sin to God and receive his forgiveness. It’s about the Word that teaches us that repentance is a lifelong change of mind and change in life.
If you’re like me, then this is the hard part. I’m on board for everything I just said (which is good, because I’m the one saying it). It’s hard to actually do it – to live a life of repentance. It’s so much easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, right? How many times have you asked for forgiveness for the same sin? Has it gotten to the point that you’ve stopped asking? Have you begun to justify yourself and your behavior? Are you even aware that what you’re doing is wrong?
Or do you sometimes end up like these Pharisees and Sadducees who came out to be baptized by John? They did everything observably right. They performed all the functions you’d expect from a faithful believer, and yet, John still calls them a “brood of vipers”[6] and asks sarcastically, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”[7]
They weren’t there because they were sorry for their sins. I wouldn’t even be so sure that they thought they had any sins to confess. They were there because they thought it would look good, because they thought this is what people expected of them – maybe even because they thought that this would earn brownie points with God.
Whatever the case, John makes it clear that their hearts were not in the right place, and the reason he could tell was not because he could see into those hearts, but because they hadn’t produced fruit “in keeping with repentance.”
Did you ever get in trouble with your parents for fighting with a sibling? After they break you up and calm the situation down, they force you to say sorry. So what do you do? “Sorry, Mom.” “Don’t say it to me; say it to your brother.” “Sorry, Paul.” “It doesn’t look like you’re all that sorry.” And then you have to do whatever prescribed form of penance to prove that you really are sorry. You have to hug or, as my sister recently did for her children, dance. I won’t show you their picture because that would mortally embarrass them, but you should have seen their faces.
The point is, words aren’t enough. Even actions done begrudgingly or insincerely are just hypocrisy. To come here and confess our sins to God, only to go back to that same way of life and make the same sinful decisions is not true repentance. It’s hypocrisy. It’s the same attitude that these Pharisees and Sadducees had, and it’s the reason John says, “And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”[8]
The harsh reality is that God doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need a single one of us. Just because we come to church or contribute to the offering or hand out flyers for a food drive to benefit the community doesn’t mean that God owes us anything.
God doesn’t need you, but he does want you.
That’s why, even though John portrays the coming Christ as the grim reaper with that winnowing fork in his hand – even though he talks about the ax being at the root of the trees and the threat of unquenchable fire for our sins – John makes it clear that God does not want that for us. That’s why God sent John with a message of repentance in the first place – because God is not content to lose you.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.[9]
Christ is coming. God sent his Son into this world to be our Savior and to forgive our sin. That’s why the people confessed their sins and were baptized by John in the Jordan River. That’s why they responded to this stern message of repentance – not because John gave them an ultimatum, but because he gave them reason for hope, because he pointed them to Jesus who had the power to do far more than John could ever do, who has the power to take sinners like you and me home to heaven.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.[10] It’s just as true today as it was then. Our Lord is coming again. Just as Jesus came at Christmas to be our Savior, he is coming again to take us out of this world of sin and to gather you into his heavenly storehouse.
So, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.[11] Take to heart the words of John. Change your heart and your mind and your lives when it comes to sin. Make better choices. Don’t put yourself in the same situation and expect a different result. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. It may not happen every day. You will fail along the way. But that’s what confession is for, and that’s why God sent his Son for you.
Repentance is the lifelong work of a Christian, and it’s our joy because through it we experience time and again the love our God in giving us his Son. He doesn’t need you, but he wants you and he has done everything to forgive you. Repent. Prepare the way for the Lord. Christ is coming again.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.
[1] Matthew 3:1
[2] Ibid
[3] Matthew 3:5
[4] Matthew 3:2
[5] Matthew 3:6
[6] Matthew 3:7
[7] Ibid
[8] Matthew 3:9
[9] Matthew 3:2
[10] Ibid
[11] Matthew 3:3