Sermon 1/21/07-Matt. 3:1-10- “The King is Coming!”
Intro. –Turn to Matt. 3.
Event coming up that I enjoy watching. State of the Union address. One of the most powerful moments each year is right at the beginning, when in the midst of all the noise and chaos there is a voice that booms out announcing the arrival of the president “Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States.” It is an announcement that rings out and calls for a response. This morn look at another announcement, that rings our with an even greater force, because this isn’t an announcement introducing the president of a country, it is the announcement introducing the King of all Creation.Read Matt. 3:1-10 (ESV)
I. The Messenger
He was….
A. John the Baptist
Most of what we know about John the Baptist comes from Luke.
-son of one of the priests, Zechariah and because of that he would have easily had access into the priesthood, but that was not God’s calling on his life.
-gave up the opportunity to go into the priesthood to go out and live in the wilderness, to live the life of a prophet.
Few things to highlight about John the Baptist.
1-first is evident in his name, baptism was such a major part of his ministry that it became the way that he was identified. Talk more about the specifics of his baptism and what it represented next week when we look at the baptism of Jesus.
2-his clothing-vs. 4 “garment of camel’s hair & a leather belt” the same type of wardrobe worn by Elijah
2 Kings 1:7-8 “He said to them ‘what kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?’ They answered him ‘He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.’ And he said ‘it is Elijah the Tishbite.’”
Normally the type of clothing worn by poorer people,
-garments of hair were sometimes worn as a protest against luxury and wealth, or as a symbol of distress and affliction, so John’s choice of clothing was probably both a practical choice, given his living situation and a visual statement to reinforce his message. Look at that in a moment.
Also want us to see that John’s ministry was another fulfillment of prophecy, further proof that Jesus is the Messiah that the Jews had been waiting for
3-For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” John was...
B. A herald of the coming King
In that culture the coming of a king required special preparation. To prepare the way for the king a herald was sent ahead with a number of servants to prepare the road on which the king would be traveling. Holes were filled, rough places made smooth and crooked sections straightened. As the group traveled along and worked, the herald would proclaim the kings coming to everyone he encountered. His job was to proclaim and prepare. That is what John’s ministry did for Jesus.
And just as a road had to be cleared of obstacles before a king could come, John was calling for the people to clear the obstacles out of their lives that might hinder their reception of the Lord. He calls for people to get themselves ready-to prepare their heart and life-for the arrival of the Coming One with the Kingdom of heaven.
So let’s look at
II. The Message-3 main ideas from the message of John I want to bring out
Repent-First in John’s message was the call to repent.
-Literally means to change your mind, have a complete change of heart.
-Hebrew word used in the OT for repent is “shub” (to turn away from, return), so John’s audience would have understood that the repentance that John was referring to would require not just their turning from their sins but also their returning to God.
-That’s always the case with repentance because turning away from our sins is impossible unless at the same time we turns to God-otherwise we only turn from one set of sins to another.
So true repentance means more than simply having regret for our sins or being “sorry” for what we’ve done; it literally means to turn around, to change direction, to change the mind and will. And not just any change, but a change from wrong to right, away from sin and to righteousness. Repentance involves sorrow for sin, but sorrow that leads to a change of thinking, a change of desire and a change in our conduct.
-That was the first part of John’s message, repent, but why was John calling people to repent? Because...
B. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
This is the only book in the Bible to use this phrase, & Matt. Uses it 33 times’s , each of the other gospels uses the phrase “the kingdom of God” both carry the same meaning, most likely that Matt. Uses this phrase because he was writing to a primarily Jewish audience. Throughout their history the Jews have had such a great reverence for God that they would avoid saying or writing the name of God. One of the words that they would use as a substitute for the name of God was “heaven”. So Matthew uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” in place of “kingdom of God”.
-that precise phrase is not found in the Old Testament but “kingdom of heaven” is basically an Old Testament concept.
David declares that “the Lord is king forever and ever” (Ps. 10:16),
“Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations” (Ps. 145:13).
Daniel says “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed” (Dan. 2:44),
“His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom” (dan. 4:3).
Many more opportunities to understand it-11 parables begin “the kingdom of heaven is like…”
Finally the third aspect of John’s message is found in 8. As he says “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
C. The Fruit of Repentance
The marks of a truly repentant heart are fruits in keeping with repentance.
Remember repentance was to turn away from sin and turn to God, it required a change.
So this comment was in response to 2 groups that had come out to hear John but had evidently not demonstrated any sign of true repentance.
The Pharisees & Sadducees-see a lot of them throughout this book.
Pharisees-“separated ones”, separated themselves from worldly ways and worldly people. Tried to follow the law (Torah) and the accumulated tradition that had been handed down over the centuries by the sages and teaches –the oral Torah/Talmud.
Sadducees-A much smaller group than the Parisees, more worldly and politically minded. They denied such doctrines as the resurrection, angels and spirits. These tended to be richer, more skeptical, and more willing to cooperate with the Roman rulers than the Pharisees.
John calls them a brood of vipers, an appropriate metaphor for the desert. Vipers were snakes that were quite common in the desert.
Later in this book Matthew makes it quite clear what John was implying with this metaphor when in Mt. 23:33 Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees “serpents” as well as a “brood of vipers” suggesting even more directly that their true spiritual father was Satan-which is exactly what He does say in Jn. 8:44. these religious hypocrites were Satan’s children doing Satan’s deceitful work.
John’s next question “who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” continues the viper metaphor.
-A brush fire or a farmers burning the stalks in his field after the harvest would cause vipers and other creatures to flee before the flames in order to escape. It was a common sight in many of the Mediterranean and Arab regions, and one that John The Baptist doubtlessly had seen many times.
-The implication is that the Pharisees and Sadducees were expecting John’s baptism to be a kind of spiritual fire insurance, giving protection from the wrath, the judgement that was to come.
John challenges them that if there has been true repentance then there will be fruit demonstrating that repentance.
In Luke’s record of this same event, he mentions several examples of the kind of fruit John was talking about. (Lk. 3:11-share your tunic, food, 3:13-only collect the tax you have been ordered to collect; 3:14-to soilders “don’t take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.”
What did a farmer do with a tree that didn’t produce fruit? Cut it down and burn it.
III. The Application
We are living in the kingdom, but not it’s full manifestation.
(kingdom defined)
Understanding the concept of the Kingdom of God is crucial to understanding the Bible. We must understand that this kingdom of God is not limited to a specific place or a time, rather it is seen when the lordship, the kingship, the rulership of God is acknowledged by men, it is seen when God’s promises of a restored universe free from sin and death are, or begin to be, fulfilled. Some day in the future, when Jesus returns, he will inaugurate His Kingdom truly and completely. That will be the full manifestation of the kingdom.
So today...
B. the kingdom of God is present in each of us. (who know X)
Today the kingdom of God comes immediately and truly-but only partially- to all of us who put our trust in Jesus and his message, thus committing themselves to live the holy lives God’s rulership demands.
As an example of the partialness, they have peace in their hearts even though there is not peace in the world.
We can say that the kingdom of God has come near in the person of jesus, but the full manifestation of that kingdom has not yet arrived.
C. We must live daily under His rule.
Application: True repentance and conversion do protect from God’s wrath and judgement, but superficial and insincere professions or acts of faith tend only to harden a person against genuine belief, giving a false sense of security. John would not be a party to such hypocrisy and sham.
Not fire insurance, changed life
True repentance will be evidenced in the fruit of a changed life.
Faith without works is dead. Live under the kingship, the Lordship of Christ,
As a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
