Matthew 3 - Part 2

 

Read Matthew 3

In the first service I went through all of the Old Testament scriptures concerning baptism.  It took no time at all.  Literally, it took no time.  There aren’t any.

There are some general analogies we might make, such as Jonah and his time underwater in the great fish, but upon further examination; we see Jesus use the Jonah reference with regard to resurrection.

But by the time that Jesus had come into the world, baptism was common enough that none of the religious leaders questioned the baptism part about what John was doing.  They were more focused on being called a bunch of snakes and defending their righteousness based on the fact that they had Abraham as their father.

I suppose that you could count the flood noted in Genesis as a huge baptism, but those who went under the water here did not reemerge.

There is ritual cleansing but not the baptism that we know today, at least in Christianity.  Pagan religious, mainly eastern religions, had a water purification which may have included immersion.  In fact, the Sumerian tradition from some three millennia earlier was adopted into the Greek culture and mythology and accredited to the god Ioannes which in English is John.

You might see why some consider the baptism of John a continuation of this myth.  You might also see why the religious leaders were interested in what John was doing at the Jordan.

In any case, John was real and not a myth.  He baptized with water.  He drew quite a crowd and then Jesus came for baptism. 

We don’t’ get the words that we do in John’s gospel.  Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We do have a little insight into the words that preceded the baptism of the Lord.  John did not ask Jesus if he repented of his sins.  That would have been awkward.

How do you ask the one who has not sinned if he repents of his sin?

Instead, John inquires if instead of him baptizing Jesus, that Jesus should baptize him.  That would make more sense, wouldn’t it?

It would!  Absolutely it would make more sense from John’s perspective and probably from ours, except that Jesus was on a mission from his Father that was about to jump into high gear.  His baptism was like the commissioning of a ship.  The journey was about to begin in earnest and it had to begin the right way.

Jesus would not only go to the cross as a lamb that had not sinned by refraining from doing things he should not have done; he must arrive at that point doing everything that he was sent to do.

He must live a life that continued in right standing with his Father for the duration of his time in the flesh.

He would fulfill the law.  He would fulfill the prophets.  He would fulfill all righteousness.

Baptism was one of the first things on that bucket list and Jesus hit the target.  How do we know?

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Dad said, You nailed it, Kid.

Jesus did this not because he needed to repent, but so that while he was in this world, he would do what no person had ever done.  He would do everything right in the sight of his Father, not because he needed it.  It was all for us.

Let’s see how that fits into our lives.  Do we do things because other people have expectations?  Sometimes, we do.  Sometimes the expectations of others are like a prison that we build for ourselves.

Do we do things because God has called us to do them and, whether others see them or not, we want to be right with God and his expectations for us.

Yes, we will fall short, and God promises forgiveness with every confession, but we want to hit the target that God has given us.  That’s really had to hit if the expectations of the world are in opposition or even just in competition with God’s direction.

Whose expectations influence our decisions?

How can you hit a target if you can’t decide where to aim?  Which expectations influence our decisions?

Jesus told John that he had his marching orders from his Father and baptism was on that list.  Do you want to do this your way or God’s way?  Sometimes all expectations are in sync with God’s way and there is no dilemma, but often we must choose.

There is a question that should hit home with us today.  Do we want to do what we think is the best course of action or do we trust God that his way is best?

It’s a Joshua sort of question.  Choose this day whom you will serve.  You have plenty of choices of who or what you put first in your life.  Some may seem very attractive and profitable.  Some may help you blend in with the crowd.

Some may make you appear unique and feed your esteem.

Jesus had no personal need for a baptism of repentance.  He did it because it was the right thing to do before his Father and he was on a mission to do everything right.  That would ruffle some feathers along the way, but it brought a lamb without blemish to the cross.

That’s bigtime for us, so let us celebrate this simple display of doing what was right by his Father in heaven that we might have an unblemished sacrifice offered for our sins.

And let us consider our own lives.  What do we do out of the expectation of others and what do we do because God has revealed his will to us?

We did not earn our right standing but we should live up to it as best we can.  We should do our best to hit the target.

Amen.

Matthew 3 - Part 1

 

Read Matthew 3

Let’s begin with a review of all of the Bible verses in the Old Testament about baptism.  Do you remember in which part of the Torah we find the instructions on baptism?

Exodus?  Leviticus?  Or did those instructions not come until Joshua entered the Promised Land?

There is no biblical instruction on baptism available to us from the Old Testament; yet, this chapter begins with John the Baptizer earning his title.  He was baptizing at the Jordan.

His baptism was one of repentance.  Now repentance was and is a concept that we can get our heads around with Old Testament precedent.  Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because the people there might repent and turn away from their evil ways and God would spare them the punishment and destruction that they so richly deserved.

But there is no mention of baptism.  Wearing sack cloth and putting ashes on your head might have been the thing to do, but baptism never entered the conversation. 

Repentance was a dry land experience as far as the Old Testament goes.  John does something different, but obviously familiar to the people of that age.

The Scribes and Pharisees say nothing of the fact that John is baptizing people.  Somewhere along the way, baptism became a part of Hebrew life.  The New Testament is full of baptism references, but John is the first instance that we note of this practice.

John baptized with water.  He promised one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.  John’s mission was to prepare the way for Jesus.

How do you prepare the way?  If a king was coming, you fixed the roads.  If the tin horn had washed away, you got a new one and smoothed out the crossing over the gulley.  Detours were not acceptable to the king.  He would not want to go around the problem.  You were supposed to fix the problem before he got there.

Get rid of the detour and keep the road straight. 

Today we complain about our roads and then we complain about construction when somebody starts to fix them.  While I’m sure that the new Diamond Interchange makes it easier for trucks and large vehicles to access and exit (especially left turns); I don’t think it fits the model of make straight the way.

John prepared the way for Jesus by calling all to repent of their sins.  If you want salvation, you must first repent.

We must still prepare the way to receive our Lord and Savior.  Sometimes that takes years.  Sometimes it is a moment, but however long, we must realize that our life lived only for ourselves is not one that has readied the way for our Lord.

We are not ready for grace without repentance.  The world wants that.  The world wants sin in one had and forgiveness in another.  While God is a forgiving God; we must not become cavalier to his lovingkindness. 

We are called to repent.

John called all and baptized those who came to repent of their sins.  The One greater than him who would come after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit, but would also call for repentance.  As we will see in the next chapter, Jesus called people to repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

And I can’t leave out John’s treatment of the Pharisees and Sadducees who had come just to watch.  They were spectators and arm-chair quarterbacks but we know  of none who came to repent or for baptism.

Why should they repent?  They were sons of Abraham.  They had their ticket punched.  Or did they?

John warned these snakes—you brood of vipers—that God could take the rocks around them and make new children of Abraham if he so desired.

John warned them that they better invest less in their lineage and more in their lives proved worthy by the fruit they produce.

John came before Jesus and would continue his ministry concurrently with Jesus for a time and at different locations, but the message remains for all.

Prepare the way for the Lord.  How? Repent of your sins.

What is the message that you hear from me at Ash Wednesday?  It’s a reminder.  There is no Ash Wednesday in the Bible.  The apostles didn’t partake of Ash Wednesday.  The ashes have no power.

The message of that time which I believe is a reminder to us should be life for the world. 

REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS!

We should not only hear these words but share these words with this lost world.  Amen.

Fruit worthy of repentance

Read Matthew 3:1-12

Complying with rules is one thing.  Producing fruit is another.  Fruit is a product of something, often a plant or tree.  We have heard the fruit of the womb, meaning offspring. 

We can think of the Fruit of the Spirit as what comes of living by the Spirit that is within us.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

John the Baptizer noted the presence of the religious leaders, specifically noted are the Pharisees and Sadducees, and he called them out.  You bunch of snakes!

Who gave you a heads up that the wrath of God is looming over you?

The Pharisees and Sadducees had not come to John to repent and be baptized.  They wanted to see what was drawing people all the way out to the Jordan River. Surely the news of what John was doing had reached far beyond his limited place of ministry.

John knew who had come to see him.  These were the upper crust of the religious society that prevailed over the Hebrew people.  The Romans were their political masters, but these self-righteous men would use God’s rules to enslave his people far more than the requirements of the godless regime that governed them.

They were to have been the shepherds of Israel, but they did a terrible job of pastoring the people entrusted to them.  What did they have to worry about?  They were the top tier of the Sons of Abraham Club.

John boldly addressed these men who were used to getting the grand treatment, being given the best seats at events, and who otherwise considered their status more than their mission.  He charged them to produce fruit worthy of repentance.

Not only do you need to repent, your actions should demonstrate that you have.

To repent is to turn away from and leave behind something.  In this case, it is to turn away from a godless lifestyle and leave it all behind—not only the rules of the world to include rules of the world masquerading as religion, but the thinking and status afforded by playing by the rules of the world.

To repent was to be a part of a wholesale exchange—body, mind, soul, and spirit.  Everything was left behind and exchanged for the ways of God.

This would have been a hard sell for the Pharisees and Sadducees.  They were the enforcers of the rules upon others.  They wrote the administrative law if you will. 

Do you know that our national legislature has written very little of our law?  They write more than enough and make the verbiage and syntax confusing and voluminous, but it is the administrative agencies that draft and implement most of our law and regulations. 

We don’t even get to vote for or against the people who write these laws.  There’s something to think on in the week to come, just in case you are running short of things to contemplate this week.

It’s all done with good intentions, or so that was the original intent.  Administrative law filled in the gaps in the law that was legislated.

So too the Pharisees and Sadducees filled in the gaps and noted exceptions and in so doing essentially embalmed the Law of God given through Moses.  These men surely did not come to see John so they could repent.  They came in self-interest.

We like it when the Pharisees and Sadducees get their comeuppance, but John’s command to them should hit us center mass as well.  Produce fruit worthy of repentance.

Produce fruit, not commentary or armchair quarterbacking.  Get on the playing field and do something productive.  And that’s your dose of mixed metaphor for today.

Our lives should demonstrate that we follow the one true God.  We don’t do things to receive acknowledgement from men but to please God.

Some will see that we do good and that we follow God.  Later in his gospel, Matthew notes that this brings glory to God, but we are little concerned about what the world thinks about us.

We produce fruit in keeping with repentance and this pleases God.  John was offering a baptism of repentance, but he said that this is just the beginning.  One is coming after me who is much greater and more powerful than me and he will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

So, what is fruit in keeping with repentance?

The first and foremost is receiving Jesus not only as our Savior but as Lord as well.  Jesus is Lord!  We outwardly signify his lordship with baptism. 

It’s not Jesus and the Sooners or the Cowboys or our political party.  Jesus is Lord.  It’s not Jesus and this committee or that doctrine.  Jesus is Lord.  We have not really repented until we come to grips with this simple statement.

Repentance must not only include that which we turn away from but that which or whom we turn to and follow.  Our first fruit of repentance is receiving Jesus as Lord.

Turning away from evil and seeking good is noble.  It is a form of repentance.  I will turn away from the bad and seek the good.  It is noble but not sufficient.  We must seek after the Lord.

Just trying to be a good person is not enough!  That sounds critical of those seeking good.  It might be but it’s honest.  When we turn away from evil and seek good, we are still our own master.  We are doing this because it’s how we see things.  We are our own lord.  We get to be the Pharisee.

We become susceptible to sitting on the sidelines and criticizing those who are following Jesus.  The first fruit of our repentance must be to receive Jesus as our Lord.

Jesus is Lord!

Everything after that is our discipleship or the fullness of our salvation.  The rest of our fruit will come out of our discipleship.  That will include turning away from evil and seeking what is good.

It will include the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

It will include being the salt of the earth, that all may taste the goodness of God when they encounter us.

It will include being the light of the world, that people will see how we live and by such witness bring glory to God.

It will include embracing the ways of the Lord as our own.  It will be putting his words into practice.  It will be loving one another.  It will be being known by our love.

But it all starts with repentance.  We must be willing to give up the ways of this world—mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Receiving the Lordship of Jesus is now a part of our identity.  His yoke is easy and his burden is light, but now it’s our yoke and our burden.

Producing fruit worthy of repentance is first turning away from the world and seeking God through Christ.  Then we live out our salvation in such a way as to bring glory to God.

Narrow is the way which we come to Christ but abundant are the ways in which we may live for him once he is Lord.

Here it is in Okiespeak:  You can’t straddle the fence.

Repent, put God first by making Jesus Lord of your life, then produce fruit worthy of this fantastic relationship.

We will do good and it will be to God’s glory.

We will love one another and it will be to the glory of God.

We will be known by our love and put a smile on God’s face.

Let this be a bumper crop year in producing fruit worthy of repentance!

Amen.