Preparing The Way
Luke 3: 1-20
This past Wednesday I’m in my office preparing my sermon. So I’m just kind of sitting there at my desk and I’m focused. And at some point my wife walks in and says, “Hey, listen, I’m about to go grab some lunch. You want me to get you something?” I’m like, “Yeah, thank you. That would be awesome. Thank you so much.” She said, “Okay, cool. What do you want?” I thought about it for a second and said, “Just get me what you get. She goes, “Are you sure?” I said, “Yeah, babe. Just get me whatever you get. That’s fine.” She goes, “Well, what if you don’t like what I get?” I said, “Sweetheart, I’m sure I’ll like whatever you get. We’re married. We’re one flesh. It’s all good. We’re fine.” She says, “All right” and she leaves. She’s gone for about 20 minutes, comes back, puts my lunch on my desk. You know what my lunch was that she brought me? I took a picture of it. I want you to see this. Here’s my lunch. I’m looking at this thing and I go, “What is this? She’s like, “That’s your lunch.” I said, “Yeah, but what is it?” She goes, “Well, it’s a smoothie.” I looked at it again. I said, “Was there kiwi in it?” She said, “No.” I said, “Then why is it green?” She goes, “Well, it’s a healthy smoothie. It’s got vitamins and probiotics in it.” I said, “Babe, I’m from Macon. I don’t even know what a probiotic is. What is that? What do you mean? Why did you bring me this cup of slime for lunch?” She goes, “Well, you told me that you wanted me to bring you whatever I got and I wanted a smoothie like this and so I brought you a smoothie like mine. You told me to get you whatever I got.” I said, “Yeah, but I didn’t know you were going to give me a lime green Slurpee that’s got vitamins in it. I thought I wanted a cheeseburger or a chicken nugget or a tamale or at least something used to be alive. Something maybe you can see in a petting zoo. You know what I’m saying? That’s what I wanted. What is this?” She goes, “Well, you don’t even know if you like it yet. Why don’t you give it a sip and see if you like it? You don’t even know what it tastes like.” So I took a sip. You know what I found out? It tastes like it looks. It does. It’s like a cup of sadness with a hint of grass. That’s all it is. But I will say that after I ate it, I had more energy. I felt like Popeye the Sailor Man and could lift 10 pounds over my head. It was fantastic.
Now here’s why I tell you that story, family. We all know that sometimes what you want to eat isn’t necessarily what you need to eat. Amen? It’s just a fact of life. And you start to find that out a lot after you hit 30, right? Sometimes what you want to eat isn’t what you need to eat. And sometimes what you need to eat isn’t exactly what you want to eat. Now guess what. In much the same way, sometimes what you want to hear isn’t what you need to hear. And sometimes what you desperately need to hear isn’t exactly what you want to hear.
Now I want you to keep that in mind because this is exactly what brings us to the Gospel of Luke in chapter 3. We were introduced all the way back in chapter 1 to this guy named John the Baptist when he was a little baby. But now we get to chapter 3 and we fast forward about 30 years and John the Baptist is all grown up. And here’s what’s crazy. God has placed a specific calling on this brother’s life, which we saw in the early chapters of the Gospel of Luke. And the calling that God has placed on this dude’s life is to preach to people, not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. What we want to hear and what we need to hear tend to be two very different things. Have you noticed this? You need to understand before we get into this text that the calling on John’s life is to preach to people what they desperately need to hear from the Lord.
God Is Not Impressed or Intimidated by Earthly Power
Luke chapter 3, we’re going to pick it up in verse 1, right at the beginning of the chapter. It says, “In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Aeturia and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.” This brings us to our very first point for today: God is not impressed or intimidated by earthly power. We need to understand this coming out of the gate. There’s a reason that Luke’s writing for us in these first two verses what he’s writing for us here. Follow this. Right out of the gate, here’s what we’re seeing here. Luke is an extraordinary historian. He’s a masterful historian. We talked about this in the very first sermon of this series, how even secular historians today talk about how incredible of an ancient historian Luke was. So watch this. Luke being an excellent historian wants us to know exactly when the events of Luke chapter three are taking place. It’s not enough for him to let us know what happens. He wants us to know when all this stuff is going down. So follow this. In order to establish when this is happening, what does Luke do? He gives us a laundry list of the people who were in significant positions of leadership when the events of Luke chapter three are taking place. And it’s fascinating because historians have actually pinpointed, based on Luke’s information here of who’s in charge and who’s in these positions, that the year that these events are taking place is around the year 29 AD. Here’s what’s so interesting and fascinating. When you look at this list of leaders right here that Luke just listed, it’s basically a who’s who of total meatheads. Everything we know about these jokers from history, not just Bible history, but secular ancient history, is that they were all corrupt, wicked, and crooked, including the high priest that Luke just mentioned. So we have a list of politicians and a list of pastors who basically were totally corrupt. They were evil. They were wicked. They were crooked. And this is really significant because the message here that God is trying to get across to every single one of us, through this list of leaders who were in control, is that Luke chapter 3 is happening during a really dark moment in the history of the world. And particularly the nation of Israel. This is a corrupt season, a dark season. The politicians are corrupt and crooked, the kings are wicked, the leaders are off the rails. The people in positions of political power in the nation right now act like complete and total slime balls.
Now thankfully, we all live in the year 2022 and can’t relate at all. I don’t know if you heard, but there’s an election coming up Tuesday. I’m so excited, very excited. Not because I get to vote on Tuesday, but what I’m excited about is that I know that on Tuesday night I’m going to get back home and I’m not going to have to watch any of these ridiculous ads anymore, amen? I’m really excited about that. I can watch YouTube in peace now without having some crazy ads. These ads just drive me nuts because it doesn’t matter what side of the political aisle you are on. Just once I would love a candidate for office to stand in front of a camera and go, “Hi, I’m so and so and I’m running for office and I’ve met the other person that’s running and we sat down and we had a meal and we had a conversation, seems like an okay kind of person but I just totally disagree with all of their policies and I’m going to run against them because I stand for other things.” That would be so refreshing. I would love to see an ad like that but that’s never what we get. And every commercial is meant to communicate to us that the other person running for office is, in fact, Lucifer. Now they may have skin on and look normal, but they’re Lucifer. And the commercial is meant to communicate that to us. So every political ad has this morphed, weird, and unflattering picture of the other candidate, usually in black and white so you don’t see them as a real person. And then it’s got some deep ominous voice on it from a horror film and it basically tells us that we shouldn’t vote for this person because we know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who went to college with him who said he may have been a serial killer. We’re pretty sure he hates puppies and he’s probably going to ban ice cream. I mean just think about the craziest accusations in the world. What do we do? We totally freak out. “Oh no, don’t vote for him. The commercial says he’s a vampire.” And we just totally lose our minds and go crazy over all this nonsense.
This is exactly why Luke chapter 3 is so significant because follow what’s happening here in these first two verses. At arguably one of the darkest moments in political history in the entire nation of Israel, God is calling John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus. Why is he doing it at this corrupt moment in politics and in this society? Well it’s because our God is not at all intimidated by governors or senators or presidents or school boards or Caesars. He’s not intimidated. And not only is God not intimidated by earthly powers, but He’s not impressed by earthly power either. And this is important to point out because we’re a bunch of people who are impressed by worldly power. We’re impressed by earthly power and earthly influence.
I’ll prove it to you. This is the reason a lot of us in this room who love Jesus lose our minds with excitement whenever we hear that some famous celebrity may have become a Christian. We don’t even know if it’s verified, we just saw the little article on the socials, and all of a sudden we lose our mind. Because some famous actor or famous rapper or somebody may have become a Christian. Did you hear? Did you see that thing on the FaceChat? You see the article up there that Ice Cube Sweet Tea may be a Christian? And this is amazing that Ice Cube Sweet Tea may be a Christian. This is awesome. We get so excited. Did you hear that Eminem and his friend Skittles became Christians and they all love Jesus now, but it’s not verified at all. We just sort of hear this thing and we get all excited. Why? Because, listen, it’s as if Christianity will now finally have some credibility and maybe people will finally pay attention to Christianity now that some celebrity or somebody with earthly power has become a Christian. But let me be clear, family. First of all, when we ever hear something like that, the first thing we should do is pray that it would be true. Because we want to pray for people’s souls so that they know Jesus. We care deeply about people coming to know Christ. So the first thing we ought to say is, “Lord, I don’t know if that’s true, but I pray that it would be true because I know you love saving sinners. And so I pray that it’s true.” But let me be clear, Emmaus. Christianity does not need a president or an actor or a rapper to become a Christian in order to have credibility. But instead, beloved, Christianity is already credible and reliable and dependable all because of King Jesus. Its credibility is about Jesus, not who affirms it. Not only is God not somehow intimidated by earthly power, but He’s also not impressed by earthly power. So the moral of this story is this: No matter who may win an election this Tuesday, don’t freak out and don’t get too excited because the truth is there’s only one person who sits on the throne of the universe and that’s King Jesus.
So here we see who’s in charge, who’s in power. They’re all crooked and corrupt and off the rails, but God’s still sovereign and He’s using it all to accomplish His purposes. Now look at verse three. “And he [John the Baptist] went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall become straight and the rough places shall become level ways and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
We’re All Guilty of Sin and We Need To Repent
This brings us to the second point for today, which is, “We’re all guilty of sin and we need to repent.” There is a scripture in the book of Romans, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” So pay attention to what’s happening at this moment. We have John the Baptist showing up on the scene, dressed in his camel hair pajamas and preaching out in the wilderness and his one point sermon. A one point sermon, how refreshing. You come to a church, we have 12 point sermons. He has a one point sermon and his only point for a sermon is this, “Repent.” It’s the one song I sing, “Repent.” That’s his message. Now, here’s the question we have to ask, “Why is that his message? Why is ‘repent’ John’s message?” Well, it’s because our boy John knows that the most significant problem every single person in this room and in this world has is sin.
I don’t know what you thought your main problems were when you walked in here today, but the reality is the most significant problem that every human has is the problem of sin. But you see, the Bible teaches that because our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned against God, rebelled against God, chose to do their own thing in the garden so long ago, we, as their offspring, were all born sinners. We’re all born into this world that way, and our sin separates us from a holy God. That’s the problem. That’s the big issue. And so, to say it another way, we’re not just sinners by choice. We’re sinners by nature. We’re born into this world corrupt sinners, depraved because of the curse of sin. And the only way that any of us can ever be saved is first to repent of sin. What does that word mean, “repent”? Well, in the Greek, it’s the word metanoia. And what it actually literally means is “to change my mind”. It has to do with the mind, and it means to change the way that I’m thinking. To change my mind. And the picture we’re given is that I’ve decided to walk this way, away from the Lord, and I change my mind, metanoia, I change the way that I’m thinking, and so I turn around. And instead of walking away from the Lord, I now walk to the Lord. I go towards the Lord.
This is what John is telling these people to do. Change your mind about the way that you’re living. Stop disagreeing with God’s Word, and now agree with God’s Word. When you read something in the Bible that you don’t agree with, change your mind. When you read something in the Bible that you don’t like that God has said, change your mind. And this is what John is telling these folks to do. The sign of repentance, according to John, is to be baptized. Turn from your sin, and if you’re willing to repent and turn from your sin, show that as a sign by being baptized. Now, here’s why this is so significant, and I feel like we need to teach on this, because oftentimes we can lose this in our context because we’re not Jewish, and we’re not living in first century Israel. And so the thing to understand is, during this time in the nation of Israel, baptism was only for Gentiles. Only Gentiles were baptized, and they were baptized if they were placing their faith and trust in the God of Israel. Jews were never baptized, because the common belief in ancient Israel was that Jews did not need to be baptized, because they were, in fact, children of Abraham. “Hey, we’re Abraham’s descendants. We ain’t gotta be baptized.” That was the thought. We’re the nation of Israel. We’re God’s chosen people. We’re obviously right with God because we’re related to Abraham. That’s what makes us right with God. So for the sake of illustration, it’d be similar to somebody today saying something like, “Well, of course I’m okay with God. I go to church pretty regularly on Easter and Christmas,” or, “Of course I’m right with God, because my daddy was a pastor for 30 years. So I came from a pastor’s family,” or, “Of course I’m right with God. I listen to 104.7 The Fish every now and then, Positive and Encouraging.” These are the things that somehow sort of numb me to conviction and make me feel like I’m okay with the Lord, and that’s the position these people took. Hey, man, of course we’re right with God. We’re Abraham’s descendants. We’re Jews.
But now along comes John, and he sort of upsets the apple cart because John’s message to them is this, “Whoop-de-doo, you’re Jewish. Who cares? You’re a Jewish sinner who needs to repent. It’s not enough that you’re circumcised. You have to be baptized. You have to turn from your sin. You have to confess the fact that you’re a sinner and turn around.” This is the message that John now is preaching to the people. Now here’s what’s so fascinating about this text and this moment. Here we have the people in Israel who begin to hear, as they’re in their towns and villages and cities or whatever, living their life, they begin to hear rumblings of the fact that there’s some guy out in the desert who’s just different. We’ll call him odd for God. Have you ever known somebody odd for God? You’re like, “Man, I don’t know if they love Jesus, but they’re weird.” It’s kind of like one of those things where he’s just sort of a different cat. He’s wearing camel’s hair. He’s eating locust with wild honey for dessert. They hear that this guy’s out there preaching a message and here’s what’s crazy. We have crowds of people flocking out into the middle of nowhere, into the wilderness as it’s called, to hear John preach. Consider that. They didn’t get in their car like we did today and drive to a place that’s temperature controlled and sit down and hear a sermon. These people are marching out into the desert to hear one guy preach. Now here’s what we’re all thinking to ourselves, “Well, you mean to tell me that we got thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people all marching out into the middle of the hot desert in their uncomfortable sandals to hear one single guy preach? This must have been quite the seeker-sensitive message. What kind of positive, encouraging, motivating message must this first century Osteen have been preaching?” Well, I’m so thrilled you asked because look at verse 7. Here’s the message that thousands of people are flocking out into the middle of the hot desert to hear. “He said, therefore, to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers. Who warns you to flee from the wrath to come?’” Doesn’t that just bless your heart? You see the people all lining up at the end of the service just shake Pastor John’s hand.
John Was Not Nice
Niceness Tells People What They Want To Hear,
But Kindness Tells People What They Need To Hear
Incidentally, this brings us to our third point, which is this. John was not nice. John the Baptist wasn’t nice. Just for clarity’s sake, calling someone a viper, a snake, who deserves the wrath of God to fall upon their heads isn’t exactly a compliment. Amen? It’s especially not a compliment when the people you’re calling vipers and snakes are people that are very familiar with the Old Testament and very familiar with Genesis chapter three and of what a snake and a serpent would represent. Not exactly a heart-blessing message and a compliment. But before you get offended by how impolite John is, the first thing you have to understand is that all John is doing is sharing the truth with broken sinners who need to hear it. He didn’t wake up that day thinking, “How can I just be a total jerk to everyone?” He woke up that day with a calling on his life that God had placed upon him. God is calling. God is motivating. God is compelling him to do this. And the message is one of the truth to a bunch of sinners who need it.
So here’s the point that you need to hear. John the Baptist wasn’t nice, but he was kind. I don’t know if you’re aware of this. There is a massive difference between kindness and niceness. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this at all, but there is a huge monumental difference between being nice and being kind. For example, niceness is about being agreeable. Kindness is about being helpful. Kindness is about wanting to help someone in their need. Niceness is just about not making waves. How do I make sure everyone just sort of agrees with me isn’t uncomfortable? Tell people what they want to hear, right? Niceness is always rooted in fear of other people. But kindness is rooted in love for other people. I love you, so therefore there’s something I want to say to you and I feel compelled to say to you versus I fear you, I’m afraid of you, and so there are some things I’m not going to say to you. Do you see it? Niceness is rooted in fear. Kindness is rooted in love.
Think about this. Niceness is about getting people to like you. How do I get people to like me? Kindness however is about giving people what they need. Think of it this way. Imagine you’re standing in the middle of a road and you have some AirPods in. Someone on the side of the road sees you standing in the middle of the road and they notice what you can’t see nor hear, which is that a truck is heading towards you at 60 miles per hour and it’s going to hit you if you don’t move. And so this person sees you standing there unaware of the oncoming truck and runs out into the road, pushing you out of the way into the grass on the ground as hard as they possibly can. How are you going to respond to that? Are you going to get up out of the grass and brush yourself off and say, “Hey man, that wasn’t nice. You pushed me and I swallowed my gum. And I just broke an AirPod. I think I might have a bruise. That’s not nice, man.” Or instead would you respond by saying, “How kind of you to save my life.” There’s a huge difference between being nice and being kind. But here’s the point: niceness tells people what they want to hear but kindness tells people what they need to hear.
Incidentally, read the Bible. The word nice isn’t found there, not a single time. The word kind or kindness is found hundreds of times. Why? Because kindness is what God cares about most. That’s why Galatians chapter 5 tells us the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence that the Holy Spirit has come to live and dwell in the heart of someone who is repentant of sin and trusted in Christ alone for their soul salvation, is love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness. Kindness. Kindness is what matters to God. John wasn’t nice but he was very kind. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have kindness. If I go see the oncologist, I don’t want the oncologist telling me what I want to hear, telling me, “No, you’re fine. You’re cool. Don’t worry. Be happy.” I want a kind oncologist who says, “We saw something on the scan. Let’s get you in for further tests.” It’s what you want to hear versus what you need to hear. John’s telling people what they need to hear.
We Are All Tempted To Make Excuses For Why We Don’t Need To Repent Of Sin
Now, look at verse 8 and watch what happens. John’s message is this, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not begin 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.” This actually brings to the fourth point for today, which is that we are all tempted to make excuses for why we don’t need to repent of sin. We all are. I don’t know if you ever noticed this, but we’re all tempted to make a lot of excuses for why we’re okay. That sin that I’m dwelling in, that I’ve been living in for a while, really isn’t that big of a deal. We’re all tempted to make excuses. See, here’s what our boy John totally knows. As he’s telling these Jewish people that they need to repent of their sin, admit that they’re sinners and turn from their sin, he knows that they are going to be tempted to make a whole bunch of excuses as to why that’s not necessary. One of the favorite excuses they’re going to use is, “Hey, man, we’re Abraham’s kids. We don’t need to repent of sin. We got it. Abraham’s our father. We’re the descendants of Abraham. It’s all good.” And again, family, this is what sinful humans always do. In our pride, in our arrogance, we don’t want to admit that we’re wrong. In our pride and arrogance, we don’t want to admit that we are in need. We’re born into this world and then in our pride and sinful arrogance, we don’t want to admit that we need a Savior, that we need to be forgiven of anything.
Rather than confessing our sin and turning from our sin and living differently, we use excuses. We live in a culture right now where, if you’re paying attention, there are lots of excuses. Like when you start to have conversations about sin and what sin is and how sin is destructive and what the Bible says about sin, there are all kinds of excuses that the people in our culture, maybe some of you even in here today, are tempted to use at that moment when we’re confronted with the idea of sin. You hear excuses like, “Well, I was born this way. God made me like this. God made me like this. The reason I have the desires I have is because God gave me these desires. Why would God give me these desires if He didn’t want me to have these desires? What do you mean repent and turn from these desires? God made me this way.” Or we hear excuses from people when they’re confronted with sin, such as, “I’m not that bad. I ain’t Hitler.” Well, that’s a low bar. Keep up the good work. “I never killed anybody.” Good. You get a gold star for that one, but that’s not the point. When confronted with the idea of sin, we offer excuses. I love excuses like this. “Hey, man, what do you expect? I took a personality test profile and this is just my personality type. It’s my Enneagram number. Don’t you know? I’m an eight. I’m supposed to be a jerk. Just the way God wired me, man. It’s my personality type, J-E-R-K.” Or we hear excuses like this. “Well, of course I struggle with anger. I’m part Italian.” Wait, what? It’s not sin. It’s genetics. We’re confronted with the idea of sin and it’s like, “Hey, man, stop talking about sin and repentance. You’re just trying to make me feel guilty. Stop trying to make me feel guilty. That’s all you Christians ever try to do. You try to make people feel guilty.” Here’s the problem. We are guilty. And the reality is, even those of us in here who know Jesus, who have repented of sin and trusted in Christ Jesus as great God and Savior, who have bent the knee to Him alone and confessed the fact that we need a Savior and it’s Him, wrestle with sin every day. Even those of us who have the Holy Spirit living and dwelling within us, you know what the reality is? We still wrestle with sin every day. We’re saved by grace. We’re hidden with Christ in God. God’s got us in His grip, but we’re still in this already not yet weird place where we still struggle with sin and wrestle with sin on a daily basis. I mean, some of you in here love Jesus with all your heart and the truth is, on the way to church today, you got short with somebody or you said something dumb and snapped at somebody and you sinned. Can I get an amen? This is the air we breathe and the water we swim in.
Incidentally, this is exactly why the great reformer Martin Luther, when he was writing his 95 Theses to nail on the door of that church said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He intended that the entire life of believers be repentants.” He intended the entire life of believers be repentants. In other words, some of us have this false concept of what it means to repent. We’re like, “Oh yeah, repent. I don’t really need to listen to this sermon because I did that 20 years ago. It was in the 90s and I was at a youth camp and the guy was up there singing a Michael W. Smith song and had us burn all of our good music and he gave an invitation at the end and I came up and I repented. I confessed my sin and turned from my sin, trusted in Jesus and now I’ve just been wrestling with sin and not knowing what to do with it for 20 years.” Beloved, biblical repentance is something that followers of Jesus are to be doing on a daily basis because it involves paying close attention to the sins that we struggle with daily and actively turning away from them by confessing them to God and to others and by crying out for God’s forgiveness and deliverance and by being a part of accountability relationships where people can speak into this area of my life. Do you see it? This is how we grow as followers of Jesus. It’s through repentance because we all continue to struggle with sin and we’re supposed to repent of sin instead of making excuses about sin.
So my question for you today is what sin is the Lord calling you to turn from today? Instead of making excuses about it, what sin is God calling you to turn from today? Is it lust? Is it pornography? Is it gossip? Is it greed and materialism? Is it unforgiveness? Is it anger? What is it? Will you repent of sin and run to this God who’s strong enough to deliver you and wants to help you with the sin? That’s what the whole cross thing is about. Or will we make excuses about it?
John The Baptist Wasn’t Afraid To Preach About Hell
Now watch what verse nine says. “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.” I remember when I was in college and a part of this college ministry. And for some weird reason, the favorite song that the college guy at the little place would always sing was a song, “Set me on fire. Set me on fire.” And we’d always be, “Set me on fire. Set me on fire.” And then I read the Bible and I’m like, “No!” We don’t have any good indications of that in the Scriptures. Like even the one, “Our God’s a consuming fire,” means something purifying and it will hurt. And this brings us to the fifth point for today, which is this, John the Baptist wasn’t afraid to preach about hell. I don’t know if you notice, but it seems like a lot of pastors don’t ever talk about hell anymore. We talk about leadership and we talk about family and we talk about God blessing your finances, but for some reason, we’re not really talking a whole lot about hell. So consequently, there are some people in churches today who are growing in their leadership capacity and learning how to be better parents and learning how to better save for retirement, but tragically, they’re going to die without Christ and they’re going to go to hell because we never talked about it, because we didn’t want to make church awkward. It’s far better for church to get awkward than for your eternity to be awkward. Now, in fairness, I understand why we don’t spend a lot of time talking about hell. I get it. I totally understand. It’s not exactly the topic that brings the crowds in. Not a whole lot of people fighting traffic to hear this talk on hell. You’re never going to see a church doing a six-week sermon series called Fire, Fire, Fire, and we’re going to publicize it to the whole community and the crowds are going to be huge and every seat’s going to be full. It’s going to be lit. No pun intended.
It’s weird that we never talk about hell because in the gospels, Jesus talks more about hell than he talks about heaven. Furthermore, in the Bible Jesus talks more about hell than anybody else in the Bible. So it’s sort of weird that we never talk about it, right? If we want to say we’re a Jesus church, then we should talk about the stuff that Jesus talks about. Now here’s why this is so important. Not only will preaching on hell hopefully allow people who don’t know Christ to see what wrath and judgment is actually like and draw them to faith in Jesus, but for those of us who by God’s grace have been saved by Jesus, it will deepen our love and appreciation for Christ as we know what He’s rescued us from by His grace, through His blood, through His atoning perfect life and atoning death and victorious resurrection. There’s this quote that I love by this guy named Christopher Morgan. He’s a theology professor at California Baptist University and here’s what he says, “There are only two ways to measure how much God hates sin. One is by looking at the cross where Christ paid for the sin of all who would ever believe in Him. The other is by looking at hell where all who fail to trust Christ pay for their own sins. To minimize hell, therefore, is to minimize the cross. To begin to realize the horror of hell is to begin to understand the infinite value of Christ’s death.” Do you see what’s happening here? Here’s John with his calling from the Lord to prepare the way and make level paths, as Isaiah said. Make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth. In other words, the message is that John’s going to preach a message that makes everyone on level ground. The rich folk, the poor folk, every race; the message puts everybody on level ground because where do we’re all sinners who deserve hell forever and we need a Savior. John whets their appetites for the Lamb of God. That’s his role. And so John prepares the way for Jesus and in order to do that, he knows he first has to preach about judgment, about hell, about wrath.
True Repentance Is More Than Just Words
Now look at verse 10. “And the crowds asked Him, ‘What then shall we do?’ And He answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none. And whoever has food is to do likewise.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to Him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And He said to them, ‘Collect no more than you are authorized to do.’ Soldiers also asked Him, ‘And what shall we do?’ And He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation and be content with your wages.’” Now I want to point out something real quick there. Notice that John the Baptist’s message to the tax collectors and to the soldiers was not, “Go get a different job.” Isn’t that interesting? His message was, “When you do your job, as you do your job, don’t be a crook.” This actually brings us to our sixth point for today, true repentance is more than just words. Pay close attention to what just happened. People come to John and they hear this message about judgment and fire and all the stuff. And so the response is, “Okay, John. Okay, we’re sinners. We’re not going to make excuses and we’re sons of Abraham. What do we need to do? What does repentance look like for us?” You say, “Repent. We want to know what that looks like. What does that mean? Paint the picture for us.” And so what does John say? Here’s what repentance looks like according to John. His message to them is, “Hey, man. Here’s the deal. Here’s repentance. Stop living the way that you are living and live in a way that honors God. Here’s repentance, the simple complexity of repentance, the simple biblical complexity of repentance. Stop living just for you and just doing you and all the stuff that you want. Start paying attention to what God wants and live for God and His glory and His fame and His priorities. So we can tend to complicate what repentance looks like. What does it mean for me to actually turn from sin and repent of sin? And here’s the simple complexity according to John in this passage regarding what repentance actually looks like: If you’re lying, stop lying and tell the truth to the glory of God. Honor God by telling the truth. If you’re greedy, stop being greedy. Be a cheerful giver who honors God with your stuff. If you’re not forgiving this person over here, stop holding bitterness in your heart and forgive people who wronged you to the glory of God. If you’re a gossip, stop being a gossip and mind your own beeswax to the glory of God. This is the simple complexity of repentance and on and on and on it goes. Real repentance is always seen in how you live and not just what you say. Notice what doesn’t happen here. John doesn’t say, “Go say three ‘Our Fathers’ and two ‘Hail Marys’ and you’re fine.” It’s not about words. It’s about changing your mind and acting on the will of God. God help me. God, I want help here.
Our Sin and Depravity Is Often Seen Most in What We Do or Don’t Do With Money
That actually brings us to a seventh point. Our sin and depravity is often seen most in what we do or don’t do with money. If we’re going to study the Bible, let’s study the Bible. Here’s what’s so fascinating about this text. Did you happen to notice that in all three of these situations that John the Baptist just pointed out with three different groups of people, all three of them had something to do with what people are doing with finances? Did you catch that? Look at it again. He says to the crowd, “Hey, share what you have with people who don’t have what you have. Share your stuff. You’re hoarding all your stuff and there’s people over here in need. What are you doing?” He says to the tax collectors, “Hey, stop taking too much money from people. You’re taking too much. Be fair. Stop cheating folks out of their money.” He says to the soldiers, “Stop extorting money. Be content with your wages. Stop letting greed control your heart to the point where you’re not content with what you make.” Beloved, listen, isn’t it fascinating how our sin and brokenness tends to consistently show up in what we do with money? Isn’t that interesting? No wonder Jesus talks about money all the time. Some of you are thinking that money is the root of all evil. No, that’s not what the Bible says. The love of money is the root of all evil. See, here’s the truth about money. Money is a morally neutral object. Money itself doesn’t make something good or evil. Money can be either good or evil depending on how you use it. Amen? I mean, like it totally can. Much like this metal pulpit right here; it’s morally neutral, but it can be used for either good or evil. It can be used for good, like when someone teaches the Bible from it, or it can be used for bad, like when I throw it at your face. It’s good or evil depending on how you use it. This is how money is. It’s morally neutral. It’s our hearts that determine what it’s going to be like. So the message here from Jesus through the Gospels and from John the baptizer here is, that what you do with your finances says a lot about where your heart is with Jesus, with the Lord. There’s a Bible scholar named Kent Hughes, and in his commentary on Luke, he writes this about this particular text, “It is significant that all three sections of advice have to do with money and material possessions. Private citizens are to share with others. Tax collectors are not to take more than is proper, and soldiers are not to extort money. The Holy Spirit through John is telling us that the way we hold on to money and material things in relationship to others is a good indicator of the authenticity and health of our spiritual lives. Therefore, we must understand that high among the observable fruit that is in keeping with repentance is a giving generous spirit. Do we enjoy giving to family, friends, and more significantly, those in need? Do we give regularly and sacrificially to the Lord? If you’re a Christian, but do not give regularly to the Lord, if you’re tight, if you find it difficult to give to God, you’re in spiritual trouble, and possibly you’re not even a Christian at all. We must each do regular self-checks, including me. One of the reasons healthy Christians like to give to their church and to others is because they are indwell with the Spirit of Christ who gave himself for us and said, ‘It’s more blessed to give than to receive.’” So what does repentance look like for you? Here’s what repentance looked like for all three of these groups. You have to make some serious significant changes about what you’re doing with finances because it’s showing where your heart is.
Jesus Christ Is Mightier Than Us
Now let’s finish up by looking at verse 15. “As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ..” Do you see what’s happening here? They’re saying, “Maybe this guy’s the Messiah. This is amazing. We never heard any preaching like this. This is crazy. Maybe this guy’s the Messiah.” Now think about the temptation of pride and arrogance for most of us in that moment. We’re thinking, “Yeah, maybe I am.” But John answered in verse 16 saying, “I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming. The strap of whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the weed into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” Now this brings us to the eighth point for today, Jesus Christ is mightier than us. No matter who any of you are, Jesus is mightier than you. Jesus is much mightier than me, I promise you that. And here’s what’s interesting. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but at any given moment in my life, I’m always living as if I am mightier than Jesus or Jesus is mightier than I am. Yesterday, throughout the day, hanging out with my wife the entire day, and at any given moment throughout that day, I promise you that I was either living as if Christ is mightier than I am or I am mightier than Christ is. For example, when something significant happens in my world and I know that it requires prayer and I should be calling out to the Lord for wisdom and help and guidance and leadership, but I refuse to do it, instead carrying that weight of worry and anxiety and angst myself at that moment, you know what I’m doing? I’m living as if I’m mightier than Jesus. I don’t need your wisdom, I don’t need your thoughts, I don’t need what you think. I’ll figure this out. After I freak out for a year, I’ll figure it out. When I refuse to gather with God’s church, whenever I refuse to do that, I’m living as if I’m mightier than Jesus. I don’t need Your church, I don’t need Your Word, I don’t need the sacraments of baptism and communion, I don’t need anything. I’m good. When I refuse to forgive people who have wronged me, you know what I’m doing? I’m living as if I’m mightier than Jesus. But notice what our boy John says here. He says, “Jesus is mightier than I am.” I love what he says in the Gospel of John, “He must become more and I must become less.” And there’s another moment in the Gospel of John where he even says to the people, “I am not the Messiah.” Listen, what a freeing mentality each one of us could have every single day if we could wake up first thing in the morning and just say out loud, first things first, “I am not Jesus.” Pressure’s off. I’m not Him. Pressure’s off. He acknowledges that Jesus is mightier than Him. As a matter of fact, do you see what he said? He says, “I’m not even worthy to untie His sandals.” Now here’s why that’s significant. In ancient Israel, the bond servants and the slaves had to do everything for their master with the one written exception of untying their nasty sandals because what was believed is that that was even too undignified for a slave or bond servant to do. And so what John’s actually saying here is, I’m not even worthy enough to do the lowest thing imaginable for Jesus. That’s how high and lifted up and exalted Jesus is.
I wonder, beloved, are you living today as if you actually believe that Jesus is mightier than you are and so as a result, what He says goes? And then we get to verse 18. “So with many other exhortations, he preached Good News to the people.” Now is that weird to anybody else? Think about it. What have we seen John preaching so far? John’s been preaching that they’re a bunch of snakes. God’s wrath is going to fall on their heads and if they don’t repent, they’re going to be thrown like a bunch of weeds in the fire. And Luke says that was some good news. Am I missing something here? How is that good news? How is it good news that I’m a snake and a viper and I’m a sinner and the wrath of God stands against me and judgment’s coming? Well, family, here’s how it’s good news. Don’t miss this. It’s good news because what God’s doing through John the Baptist is revealing to these people awareness of their sin. He’s opening their eyes to the fact that they’re needy, to the fact that they need a Savior. He’s whetting their appetites for a Savior. We know because we can look back and chronologically see what happened. But these people have no idea. Think about it. They’re hearing this message and they have no clue that in just a couple of verses they’re going to lay their eyes on the lamb of God Who’s come to take that sin away. That’s why it’s good news because there are two parts to good news. The first part of the good news is that I was born into this world a sinner who deserves the wrath of God and the only thing I deserve is hell forever because of my sin and my natural tendency to rebel against God, rebel against His word, and rebel against His will. I deserve the judgment of God because God cannot be just apart from judging sin and my sin deserves judgment so I deserve hell forever. That’s the first part of the good news. The second part of the good news is that God, who is rich in mercy, abounding in steadfast love, sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life for me, to die on a cross for me, to rise again victoriously for me so that I could be with God forgiven forever, rescued from fire, rescued from sin, rescued from hell forever by His grace. So it’s good news.
Standing Up For the Word of God Will Always Cost You Something
How does John the Baptist get rewarded for being faithful to what God called him to do? He didn’t wake up in the morning and say, “I got a new hobby. I’m going to go out there and just preach this stuff to people and wear camels.” How does he get rewarded for being faithful to what God called him to do? Well, we see it in verse 19, “But Herod the Tetrarch, who had been reproved by John for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.” So we know from the other Gospels that Herod, a complete and total womanizer, stole his brother’s wife; was an adulterer. This was known in the kingdom, and wasn’t even a known secret. It was an open secret. Everybody knew it. And so John the Baptist even stands up and proclaims that Herod’s a snake. And if he doesn’t repent, the judgment of God’s coming on his head. And so Herod responds by locking John up in a dungeon, which brings us to the final point for today. Standing up for the Word of God will always cost you something. My fear is that some of us in this room want faithfulness with no cost. I want to be faithful to God. I want to be faithful to the Word. I want to be faithful to the Truth, but I want everybody to like me. I want to be faithful to God and to the Gospel and to the Word, and I want to be able to have conversations with people about what God says and heaven and hell and Jesus and cross and grace. But I want everybody to remain my friend. I don’t want to be labeled. But what do we know from the Scriptures? There is no such thing as faithfulness to Christ without paying a price. Listen. We worship a guy they nailed to a cross. And what did He say to us? A servant is not greater than their master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If they hate me, they will hate you too. I want to encourage you with something today. Jesus Christ laid down His perfect life for us so that we could be rescued from hell. And by God’s grace, those of us who are followers of Jesus ought to lay down our lives for Him. We ought to lay down our lives for the perfect King who laid down His life for us. See, here’s the reality. Much like John the Baptist, a follower of Jesus ought to be willing to stand up for Jesus in this broken world. And a follower of Jesus ought to be willing to stand up for God’s Word and God’s Truth lovingly and humbly but faithfully in this broken world. But can I tell you something? Here’s the truth. If you stand up for Christ in this broken world and if you stand up for what God says and what God teaches and God’s Word in this broken world, you will pay a price. But you know what? Christ is worth the price. Christ is worth the price. Christ is worth the price.