GOD’S CALL TO REPENT--Luke 3:1-14
Proposition: God calls on every person to be sorry for their sin and turn to the Lord Jesus by faith for salvation.
Objective: My purpose is to challenge people to be willing to repent of all their sins and make things completely right with God.
INTRODUCTION:
Once there was a Scottish painter, named Jake, who was out to make a buck anyway he could. When the Presbyterian church needed repainting the members of the congregation offered Jake the job because while his bid was lower than the rest. So the painter bought paint for the job and set to work. When he got about three quarters of the job finished it became apparent that he wouldn’t have enough paint to finish. So he decided to thin his paint down so that it would go further. Well he got about half of the remainder done and concluded that he would have to thin what he had left just a little more so his paint would stretch to cover the whole church.
Unfortunately, that night a terrible storm came to the town and when the painter was awakened by the crash of thunder he realized the thinned paint wouldn’t stick to walls of the church. Well then Jake panicked and realized that he has betrayed the trust put in him by his neighbors and that he will be shamed in front of everyone. As soon as the next day has dawned, he rushed out of the house to the church and sees all of the thinned paint covering the lawn in front of the church. Faced with humiliation and possible ruin of his business, he does what is only natural and falls down on his knees in the cemetery and prays: "God, please forgive me and help me to see the error of my ways." And from the thunder, a mighty Voice spoke, "Repaint, you thinner! Repaint, and thin no more!"
One of the initial steps in realizing redemption brought by Jesus Christ is repentance. All the Gospels make it clear that the ministry of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, was to prepare the way for that of Jesus. Both men began their ministries after they reached maturity. John’s call was, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). What does it mean to repent? What is repentance all about? B.H. Carroll observed, “No matter how much one may desire to repent, not how often he may resolve to repent, unless he actually repents he is lost, because God has made repentance a prerequisite to eternal life.” John was preparing people for being a part of God’s kingdom. Luke mentioned John’s itinerant ministry in the region around the Jordan River whereas Matthew described it as in the wilderness of Judea (Matt. 3:1). The thing that characterized John’s ministry in the minds of his contemporaries was his baptism.
I. DEFINITE APPEARANCE (vvs. 1-2) “The word of God came to John”—400 years of silence. The mere appearance of John in the desert was a call to repentance. John bridged the gap between the OT & NT. As in 2:1 Luke opened this account by tying the opening events of Jesus’ ministry to contemporary history.
1. The point in time (vvs. 1-2a) “Now in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar”— This is when John came. Luke established the date of John’s ministry in a way that it could be verified by people in or out of Palestine. Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great and step-brother of Philip the tetrarch, who was also a son of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas ruled Galilee as tetrarch from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39. His step-brother Philip reigned until A.D. 34 over a region to the east and north of Galilee. Lysanias was governor of Abilene, further to the northeast. So Luke gives a Roman date (the known Roman ruler of their world, Caesar Tiberias), a regional date (Herod’s sons) and a Jewish date (when Annas and Caiaphas served as high priests in Jerusalem) so that the events he shared could be verified.
2. The prophet (v. 2b) “The word of God came to John”— The
good news of the Gospel (Acts 10:36) began with God’s word coming to John (Luke 3:2). This tells us who came. The message of God came to John the Baptist, a humble Jewish prophet. This is a divine call. This puts John in true prophetic succession. Luke seeks to portray John the Baptist as a God-sent prophet, who is filled with the Spirit from his birth (Luke 1:15). Now he fulfills his role as a prophet (1:76). He was the promised prophet of Isa 40:3, i.e., the one who was the voice calling “in the desert” (Luke 3:4). It had been 400 years since there had been a prophet in Israel calling the people to spiritual renewal and reform. Those who knew God and waited for the consolation of Israel must have despaired at times. But they knew that what they needed were not better politicians; they needed a word from God.
3. The place (v. 2c) “in the wilderness”—This is where he came from (1:80). The greater majority of the population was located in the Jerusalem region, westward to the Mediterranean coast, the region north of Jerusalem known as Galilee, the region around the Sea of Galilee. The trip from Jerusalem to Jericho with over a 2000 foot drop in elevation occurs in 17 miles. The people who came to hear John made a difficult journey.
Illus: He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free!
His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me!
II. DIVINE ANNOUNCEMENT (vvs. 3-7) “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”—These people were not genuinely interested in the kind of King & kingdom that John was presenting. Note: John’s ministry acted as a bridge between the Old Testament and the New. The voice of the prophets had remained silent for four centuries, and John’s preaching renewed the prophetic tradition. They came in great numbers to hear his message.
1. The proclamation (v. 3) “preaching a baptism of repentance”—This does not mean that salvation brings forgiveness. This means a baptism which follows repentance and is a sign of it. This follows each person’s repentance or sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.. There was no power in His baptism. It was an outward picture of an inner change of heart.
Illus: A minister had just been moved to a wealthy congregation with a great parsonage and salary. Consequently, he wanted to present the facts of the Gospel, but he wanted to do so tactfully, and without hurting anyone’s feelings. He therefore pronounced these memorable words: "Brothers and sisters, you should REPENT, to some extent - or else you might be DAMNED, in a perchance - and possibly go to HELL, more or less."
Illus: Little Mary was at her first wedding and gaped at the entire ceremony. When it was over, she asked her mother, "Why did the lady change her mind?" Her mother asked, "What do you mean?" "Well, she went down the aisle with one man, and came back with another one." Changing our mind is not always a bad thing. In fact, it’s the essence of repentance. A definition of repentance states that repentance is "a change of mind leading to a change of life." It’s so true; before we can change our lives, we must first of all have a change of mind about what we have done.
2. The preparation (vvs. 4-6) “Prepare the way of the Lord”--Eastern monarchs customarily sent a party ahead to prepare a road for them as they journeyed through desert country. John was to do the same thing for the coming King. John was to make the path straight by leveling spiritual mountains and filling up spiritual valleys, by calling for the people to repent. Repentance would remove sin’s barriers to the King coming into men’s hearts.
1). The voice (v. 4) “The voice of one crying in the wilderness”—The silence was broken. He was a voice crying out against sin & calling for spiritual renewal. Luke clearly understood John’s work as fulfillment of the Prophecy of Isaiah. This great prophet had preached approximately eight centuries before John’s appearance on the redemptive scene; yet, his words describe John perfectly.
2). The valley (v. 5) “Every valley shall be filled”—Those who are truly repentant and humble would be saved and satisfied. He states that people like the scribes and Pharisees, who were haughty and arrogant, would be humbled. The crooked places were those who were dishonest, like the tax collectors, would have their characters straightened out. God will deal with people—like soldiers and others with rough, crude temperaments would be tamed and refined. This refers to preparing the Lord’s way. The imagery of filling of the valleys points to the making ready of a road before the approach of a king. This speaks of the readiness of the heart, penitent hearts receiving pardon, etc. “Mend not your roads , but your lives.”
3). The victory (v. 6) “All flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord”-His audience was promised an even greater experience of deliverance—salvation from sin. The ministry of this rough-hewn preacher signaled the imminent arrival of the Messiah. It shows the universality of the Gospel that the good news is for all people.
3. The pronouncement (v. 7) “Who warned you”—They were like snakes or vipers fleeing the forest fire. It speaks of hypocritical hearts. Many were seeking baptism but with no change of heart, just mere pretenders. Because of God’s impending wrath, we must make sure that our repentance is true, not false.
Illus: The presiding bishop of a mainline church called the evangelical notion that individuals can be right with God a "great Western heresy" that is behind many problems facing the church and the wider society. The bishop described a US church in crisis & told delegates that the overarching connection to problems facing their churches has to do with "the great Western heresy -- that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God." "It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus," was stated, "That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence." The bishop says that “it’s ’heresy’ & ’idolatry’ to believe that a prayer of repentance leads to salvation?" I wonder how John would respond to that. His message would be “Repent! Repent!”
III. DEVOUT APPLICATION (vvs. 8-14) “Bear fruits worthy of repentance”— So, what is true repentance? True repentance calls for honest reflection on personal sin. It calls for recognition of divine wrath. It calls for a rejection of any religious ritual as a means of salvation and the renouncing of any ancestral hope. And even all of that won’t save you because there’s more. True repenters must be spiritually transformed. There must be the revelation of a spiritual transformation. And the heart of it all a true repenter must receive the true Messiah.
1. The challenge (v. 8) “Therefore bear fruit worthy of repentance”—Show that you mean business with God. Genuine repentance produces fruit. Descent from Abraham was not sufficient. The word that John employed to call the Jews to repentance indicates a change of mind and heart. True repentance requires a complete and full admission of one’s sinfulness...depth and height and length and breadth. That’s essential to real repentance. Sin must be recognized and reflected upon in one’s own life. True repentance involves sorrow for the sinfulness of sin (not merely a regret of its consequences), humility before God, an attendant hatred for sin, and genuine and practical turning from sin as the course and habit of life. Of course, repentance is not intrinsic to the natural, unregener-ate heart; rather, it is a special grace wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit. It comes to the believer as a precious and sovereign gift of the Lord (II Tim. 2:25).
2. The condemnation (v. 9) “Now the ax is laid to the root of the tree”—The trees are not yet cut down. But the warning is clear. True repentance is essential because it does deliver from the coming wrath.
3. The crowd (vvs.. 10-11) “What shall we do?”—These groups question what would demonstrate the reality of their repentance. People wanted to know what was expected of them.
1). The request (v. 10) “What shall we do?”—This was a pointed, but powerful question, needing an answer. John wasted no time in answering.
2). The response (v. 11) “He answered and said to them”—Give
evidence of genuine repentance. These were some specific suggestions as to how to demonstrate the reality of their repentance. Then John defined the fruit of repentance for them in their situation. To the multitude, he said: Those of you who have more clothes than you need, share your clothes with those who have nothing to wear. Those of you who have more than enough to eat, share your food with those who have nothing to eat.
4. The collectors (vvs. 12-13) “Then tax collectors”—The Romans taxed people by farming out the taxing rights to the highest bidder. The successful man would pay Rome the amount he bid, but he would collect more than their expenses and to give him his profit. But it was a strong temptation to levy more tax than was strictly necessary and to pocket the extra. John’s advice is “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” This is what John said to the tax collectors who came to be baptized & asked what they should do to repent & produce the fruit of repentance. These were the men who collected the Roman taxes that the Jewish people despised & collected those taxes for their own personal profit. John said, "Collect no more than you have been ordered to collect." Isn’t it interesting that he did not say, "Stop collecting taxes for the Romans!" This striking emphasis on the importance of repentance was not merely found in John’s ministry, but it is also in the early church. True repentance leads to a radical change in one’s life.
5. The conclusion (v. 14) “Likewise the soldiers asked him”—guilty of extortion, slander & discontent. These may be Jewish men who were associated with the tax collectors in providing the backing which enabled them to do their work. In any case they were men in a privileged position over against the general public. John told them not presume on their position but to “be content with your wages.”
Illus: Wabush, a town in a remote portion of Labrador, Canada, was com-pletely isolated for some time. But recently a road was cut through the wilderness to reach it. Wabush now has 1 road leading into it, and thus, only on 1 road leading out. If someone would travel the unpaved road for 6 to 8 hours to get into Wabush, there is only 1 way he or she could leave—-by turning around. Each of us, by birth, arrives in a town called Sin. As in Wabush, there is only 1 way out—a road built by God Himself. But in order to take that road, one must first turn around. That complete about face is what the Bible calls repentance, and without it, there’s no way out of town.
CONCLUSION: What is real repentance? Repentance is the altering of what we rely on in life, what we hope in, what we are counting on for salvation in the age to come and for help now. The repentance that leads to forgiveness of sins is turning away from what we are by birth or achieve by effort to rely wholly on God’s mercy.
1. Conviction of your sin (realize you are a sinner).
2. Contrition over sin (2 Cor. 7:10).
3. Confession of your sin (Where? To God)
4. Change in your behavior “fruit of repentance”--When we repent inwardly in sorrow of sin and match it with the acts that befit repentance, then we are pre-pared to see and serve Christ.
Illus: Rabbi Jack Riemer tells this story: There was once a man & a teenager who shared a train ride to a place called Smithville. The man sat down next to the young man who was no more than 17 years old. Because the boy was tense, the man wondered what could be worrying somebody so young. Whatever it was, the boy’s tension was clear. The boy kept staring out the window, paying no attention to anyone else on the train. The man tried to forget about him by opening up a book and reading. But then, he would look up and see the boy’s face pressed against the window. He sensed that the boy was fighting to keep from crying. This was the way that they traveled through the night- the man attempting to read and the boy sitting and staring out the window. Finally, the boy asked the man, "Do you know what time it is? And do you know when we are due to arrive at Smithville?" The man gave the boy the time, and went on to say, "Smithville, that’s a very small town, isn’t it? I didn’t know that the train stopped there." "It usually doesn’t," said the boy, "But they said that they would stop there for me so that I could get off, if I decide to. I used to live there." The boy returned to the window and the man to his book. It was quite a while before conversation began once again. But when it did, the boy told the man the whole story of his life. "Four years ago," he said, "I did something very bad, so bad that I had to run away from home. I couldn’t face my father after what I did. So I left without even saying good-bye to him. Since then, I have worked a bit here and a bit there. I never stayed very long in one place. I’ve been pretty lonely. Until finally, I decided that I want to go back to my father’s house." The man asks, "Does your father know that you’re coming?" And the boy responded, "He knows that I’m coming, but I don’t know if he will be there or not. I sent him a letter. I didn’t know if he would still want me back or not after what I did. I wasn’t sure if he would forgive me. So in my letter, I said that I would come home if he wanted me to. I told him that if he wanted me to come home, he could put a sign on a tree which is a few 100 yards before the railroad station in Smithville. I told him that I would look for a white ribbon on one of the branches of that tree as the train passes. If there is a white ribbon on the tree, then I’ll get off. If not, then I’ll just keep on riding to wherever this train goes." A friendship developed between the man and the boy. The two of them were now waiting for Smithville. Suddenly, the boy turned to the man and asked, ’Will you do me a favor? Will you please look for me? I’m scared to look for that ribbon on the tree." Now involved, the man agreed and took a turn staring out the window for a ribbon on a tree. A few moments later, the conductor came down the aisle and called out, "Next stop-Smithville." The boy could not move; the man, however, looked as hard as he could. And then he saw it! He shouted so loud that all the people in the train turned around. "It’s there! Look, it’s there! The tree is covered with white ribbons! Not just one- there’s a whole bunch!" The boy’s father had every reason to reject his son. As Rabbi Riemer reflected on this, "The father had every right and every reason not to put up a white ribbon--and yet he did."
Prepared by: Gerald Steffy, 6206 N. Hamilton Rd.
Peoria, IL 61614, Phone: 309-691-3680
E-Mail grsteffy@yahoo.com for weekly MY SERMON NUGGETS
