Matthew 3:1-12
Divine Service
 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

We are coming closer to Christmas. John the Baptist prepares us for that. Just as he prepared Israel for Christ's coming, so he still prepares us. The first of Luther's ninety-five theses reads: “When our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said ‘Repent ye’ He meant that the whole life of the Christian should be one of repentance.” And that's what John the Baptist preached too.

John was born for a very specific purpose. John’s life purpose was to prepare the way for the Lord: in the hearts of the believers that were there and people who would come. John had a simple message. He was a wilderness preacher. He didn’t go into the cities to preach, but he stood outside the cities and preached: Prepare the way for the Lord. The people came to him. We are told in verse 5: “Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him.”

Our text begins: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The word ‘repent’ implies: ‘To change one’s thinking or to change one’s mind.’ John is preaching ‘Change your thinking, your mind’. Then you know what happens. It changes your hearts and your lives. We are going to see what this word really means. So when you read, ‘repent’ in Scripture, it’s important to remember what that word means: Change your mind; change your thinking; change your heart and your life. John preaches ‘Change your mind for the kingdom of heaven is near’. That is why they came. John was baptizing and preaching a message of repentance for changed minds and changed lives.

John was also the one promised by Isaiah, the Prophet: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” You can imagine how anxious the people of Israel were. The promise of a Savior had been made to Adam and Eve centuries ago. The prophet Micah had given more clues saying: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.” So John stood out by the Jordan River saying, ‘Change your mind. The kingdom of heaven is near.’

John the Baptist was by the Jordan because it was easy there for baptisms – there was water . Water was –and is – a precious commodity in Israel. John was proclaiming: ‘I baptize you with water for repentance. I baptize you with water for a change of mind, a change of thinking and a change of heart and change of living.’ That is why the people came. Verse 6, very simply, very beautifully says: “they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” John’s baptism was a baptism that looked forward to the promise of the fulfillment in Christ. Jesus would come and live, die and rise again. Jesus would provide freely the forgiveness of sins.

In a very real sense John had great power. He didn’t have to go into the cities and synagogue and wait and hope the people would come on a designated Sabbath Day. John stood outside the city, and the people came to hear this message. He had this great power that he could have said, ‘I am the Messiah,’ but he never once did. In fact, he said just the opposite! Listen to this. John says, “I baptize you with water for 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 with fire.” As John had been predicted to come who would be the one to prepare the way for the Lord, he did prepare the way for the Lord. John confesses, ‘One mightier than I will come.’

This is a good way to prepare ourselves, isn’t it? Remember at Christmas, One greater than myself is whose birthday we celebrate. Jesus is greater than anyone. One who lived a perfect life; and it is His birthday we celebrate. So we prepare ourselves with repentance, with a change of thinking, a change of heart, so that when we come before God we will come in the depth of humility. We come in the fact that we do not deserve to have such a precious gift. It is by grace God gave his Son so that you and I are forgiven. So we come with a change of thinking that we are not that important after all. We come with a change of mind realizing that without God and the gift of his Son, we would be lost forever. We come with repentance to prepare the way for the Lord, a change of thinking.

It is not a shameful thing to repent of our sins. A change of thinking, a change of heart is found in repentance. Repentance in our day and age is kind of like the word ‘sin.’ The world would like to shove it under the rug and forget it. There isn’t much worldly repentance, really, except that people are sorry that they got caught. The world tries to deny any guilt at all, because are culture tells us that we are innocent until proven guilty. People do not readily admit that they are guilty. The Lord tells us that repentance is a change of thinking, a change of heart, and a change of life. Paul wrote in Corinthians: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Prepare the way for the Lord with a change of thinking, a change of mind and heart.

Repentance shows our dependence on God when we confess, saying: ‘we poor sinners confess unto You that we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against You by thought, word, and deed.’ But what does the Lord say? “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest for your souls through his forgiveness. We come to God with repentance: with the change of thinking. Godly sorrow brings the change from the worldly thinking that says we can’t admit weakness. Sorrow over sin is our dependence on God. The prophet Joel says: “rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” (Joel 2:13). Our Lord is the only God like that. Allah is not like that. Buddhism is not like that. All the false gods demand perfection or condemnation.

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, we prepare our hearts for the Lord with repentance, a change of mind, a change of thinking, and a change of heart. Repentance reveals itself with good fruits.

We are told in the Gospel of Mark that all came to John, even the Pharisees and Sadducees. That was quite astounding, because the Pharisees and Sadducees were leaders of the church. They were not very excited about John’s message. They were very upset that the people were going to him and that he was baptizing. This was something they never heard of. These church leaders trusted and believed in circumcision. They trusted and believed in the Law. It said: ‘You must do and do and do until you die.’ Hopefully, you would have done enough. John was there to tell them the Savior was coming, the Messiah, the Promised One. He will do everything so that you can die in peace. The kingdom of heaven is near. John knew the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The Sadducees didn’t even believe in a resurrection. 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 wrath to come?” God’s wrath was going to come.

John then warns them in verse 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.” Here he talks about the fire of destruction, the fire that would burn but not consume. Jesus would soon come and look for good fruit, signs of repentance, of a changed thinking, heart and life. Also in our last verse: “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.” Very clearly here Scripture points out that hell is a place of torment with unquenchable fire, burning but not consuming – eternally. John didn’t see any of the good fruit of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He knew that they came out to just check up on him. The church leaders wanted to make sure John was doing what the church leaders wanted – which isn’t necessarily what God wants.

John also knew their faulty defense. “And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” Ever since Abraham, his descendants had always said, ‘Abraham is our father. God loved him and blessed him and promised him great things and a great nation.’ But that didn’t make them God’s children, did it? God could make stones his children if he needed. They were Abraham’s children by birth, but not by faith. John knew that; they needed to hear that. They were reminded the ax is at the root of the tree, the winnowing fork is in his hand, and the kingdom of heaven is near.

Today, we gather because the kingdom of heaven is near, God’s kingdom. Luke says it is within us. How does that happen that God’s kingdom is within us? It happens because God has put faith in our hearts. If we had our choice from the time we were born, none of us would be here. We are all born with sin in our hearts. Actually we are even sinful from the moment of conception. We would choose not to look for God or never to be concerned about God and choose very worldly and unspiritual things and be would be lost forever. Thankfully, by God’s grace, he chooses us out of darkness to drag us into his light. God chooses us out of millions and billions to be called his children, not only as Abraham’s children, but also especially as God’s children by faith. Our reaction is that we live lives with changed thinking, changed hearts.

Our changed lives are lives that produce good fruit because of all that Christ has done for us. In John: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” (John 15:16). We think we are so independent and so important in this life and in our own eyes. Not so! Our Lord says, ‘You are a branch on a vine. If you are cut off, you are lost.’ So there is that connection with God as being the vine and we are the branches. In this vital connection we get everything we need. If we think we don’t have everything we need, we should ask him. We would get everything that we need. Of course, we have to remember that everything we need is not everything we want. Heaven forbid that God would give us everything we want. What a sad place this life would be. Praise God that he gives us everything we need.

We must turn to what God says in his wisdom. From James: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). As you hear that list you realize there is nothing materialistic in this list, is there? Pure, peace-loving, gentle, full of mercy, impartial – all character traits we call Christian. This is the tree that produces good fruit. As you and I get to hear God’s word and study it and read it for ourselves, we begin to understand God’s wisdom and it produces fruit in our lives. We don’t have to look very far or go very far outside the doors of the church or the comfort of God’s house to find those who are not filled with peace, who are worried, scared, frightened. So the Lord says in our lives, we as trees are to let that fruit be seen--peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, good fruit, impartial and sincere.

The prophet Isaiah put these words of fulfillment in the mouth of John. Matthew says to us from Isaiah and through John the baptizer: “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Prepare our hearts for the Lord with repentance, a change of mind, a change of thinking, a change of heart and a change that will produce good fruit. Paul in Colossians used this prayer which is fitting for us this morning: “that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10).

That is repentance, a change of mind, heart, life, and bearing fruit. How? Growing in the knowledge of God. You and I today are a little bit more prepared for the coming of the Lord as we have now grown in the knowledge of God. As we see our sinfulness and the importance of our change of our thinking and hearts and lives. We each confess our sins. Each of you repents, and all your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.