This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 13th December 2015; St Oswalds is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
Zephaniah 3:14-20 Canticle 9 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18
“Please be seated, and join me in a short prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. Amen. (Psalms. 19:14).
The Three R's.
As a secondary school teacher, I have to listen to everybody's viewpoint of what they think we Teachers should be teaching our pupils at school, ... and one of the most popular views is the over-simplified expression, the 3 R's, ... Reading, Writing and Arithmetic".
Let me tell you, I absolutely hate this expression with a passions; because ... Arithmetic starts with and A not an R; ... and secondly because reading and writing are only two of the main sub topics of English, there are other forms of communication? ... And Arithmetic, well Arithmetic is only one of many subtopics of Mathematics, ... there is algebra, geometric and trigonometry all the other the other ometries, ... ... but we all know that there is so much more to an education than the reading, writing and and doing sums.
However, ... I do agree with what is being implied, that the 3R's are the minimal requirements of a child's education, and that all pupils should have a firm foundation in them. ... This morning I want to talk about similar R's that every believer should be grounded in such as ... Repentance, Remorse and Retribution, ... there is also ... Revival and Renewal, ... and Reformation, and also Restoration and Rejoicing, and these all start with an R.
Repentance or Remorse.
The first of these is remorse and repentance, and we read this morning that John the Baptist is encouraging his followers, (and maybe us), ... to repent in preparing for the coming of our Lord, ... and every Christmas we try and re-enact this, which all very good.
But back in John's day, John's followers had no idea what this new prophesied messiah would be like and what he wanted, (because Jesus was still not on the scene), ... but John was specially anointed to prepare for his coming. ... And here we see John trying to communicate to these followers the true meaning of repentance, ... by trying to demonstrate the consequences of their sins, ... and to try and get them display some kind remorse, which we can conclude was not being done. ... Back then, the people were content to sacrifice a Lamb at the alter to cover there sins, ... but show remorse, well ... that seams to be missing otherwise why would John be trying to get them to show it.
And their peace and contentment was missing too, because this covering of sins by an animal sacrifice was not true forgiveness of sin, it was only a covering, ... so these people must have been concerned that their alter sacrifice were not enough, ... and that this new Messiah was coming to sort them out, ... possibly to judge and condemn them. So John the Baptist cries out in verse 7, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath"?
Yes, John calls them ... "you brood of vipers!”, implying that they were evil, ... just like the greatest viper of all in the Garden of Eden, ... Satan himself, a being who certainly showed no repentance or remorse.
And remorse if you are not sure is about changing our minds from our sin and wrong doings, ... it is about being disgusted by our failings and shortcoming, ... and then trying to do something about them. It is certainly not about another R which I didn't mention, ... and that is Regret, ... because regret is where we are sad because we have been caught doing something wrong, ... no, remorse is a true apology for what we have done wrong; and a genuine effort to correct that wrong.
And remorse also means that we see sin for what it truly is, ... something that damages our relationship with God, ... because God hates sin so much that he once destroyed everyone in the world except for Noah and his family in the flood, ... and it is foretold in revelations that God will do so again, ... but the next time it will not be with water, but with fire.
Revival and Renewal
And so this brings us to the Revival and the Renewal so that we do not fall back into way of sin, because this passage suggests that we do something about our sin, and produce something good. ... So John said this in verses 8 and 9, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ... The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire".
Again, very strong words, ... but how do these followers rearrange their lives? Verse 10 goes on to tell us, "John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same". ... When the tax collectors asked John that question, he told them that they should not "collect no more (tax) than they aught. ... And when the soldiers asked the same question, John told them not to ... "extort money and do not accuse (or terrorise) people falsely, and to be content with (their) pay."
As I was writing this sermon, I thought I would ask myself that same question to see where it would take me, ... and you could do the same, ... what sin or sins in your life would you like to show genuine remorse to, ... and what would you do to change it?
Well I thought long and hard about it, and there is many things I know I do wrong, but what do I do to change them? I have no doubt that should I ask you, you will tell me, ... but to receive an everlasting change in my life, well it has never been that simple. I do just do not know.
I hope you can relate to this, ... but many people are quick to tell us what we should do, ... but you know, the more and more you try to change yourself, the more and more we fail. And then I started to think, ... "I am sure that every sincere Christian in the world does this as a matter of course every single day, ... trying to be that better person before God, ... and before others too.
And we normally fail, why, ... because our will power is never enough. Our own will power maybe strong to start with, ... but the first bad day we have, ... our will power is drained, and we give up, ... or if it isn't drained, ... we give up the next bad day, ... or the next.
Reformation and Restoration.
This is all wrong and obviously not the way to go and so this brings us to two other R's, ... Reformation and Restoration. Now we are all here this morning to worship and study our Lord Jesus Christ, and find out what he wants us to do, not some busy body, ... so for somebody to bluntly tell us to repent, and change our ways, ... is simply not the Gospel of the New Testament, regardless of their intensions.
Yes, what I have said so far has been taken from the scriptures, but the scriptures here were addressing people who were living under the Old Covenant. Think about it, almost everybody in this world wants to become a better person, ... people generally want to turn their backs on a particular sin at some stage in their lives, and do something about it. In fact, this is a fundamental and vital part of every religion in this world. ... Even Atheists and Agnostics try and live better lives, and discard those things that hold them back.
How many times have you heard someone making a serious commitment to give something up, ... particularly at or after Christmas. ... We in Scotland call it "our New Year Resolutions", another R, and ... and ... how long do these resolutions last? Do they work, no, ... but they sound good, and they let others see we are trying.
No, we are followers of Christ, and he has a different way of handling our sin and failures; ... we are instructed simply, to follow him. ... So we must therefore look at this passage again, with a fresh pair of eyes, from a gospel view point, to see what this passage is actually saying, ... and as we do, the first thing we should have noticed is that John the Baptist was not a Christian, ... or not a Christian that we would recognise, because at this stage in story, ... Jesus was very much alive, ... somewhere; ... because Jesus hadn't even started his ministry, ... let alone be crucified unto death, ... nor risen to enable the Holy Spirit to be given unto mankind.
... John was anointed in a very special way, to prepare the way for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus himself said of John in Matthew 11:11, "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" ... but this verse continues ... and says "notwithstanding he that he that is least in the kingdom of heaven ... is greater than he. That means we, (who are baptised in Christ), greater than John the Baptist.
John as we say today, (and this is not my favourite of expressions), ... John was not born again, ... (and you know what I mean), ... John was still living and preaching to those who were still under the Old Testament rules, the Old Covenant, ... and as such, ... I find John a very, very confusing character indeed.
But John was charged with preparing the wat for Jesus, ... and that is what John was doing, ... he was preparing the way for Jesus, ... but not by cleaning people up as this passage suggests. ... Let me explain, ... I said earlier, how long does our New Year resolutions last, ... and yes we laugh at this, ... (normally two to three weeks), ... but in this context, consider the people John is speaking to: "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same". ... With the best will in the world, how long do you think they kept this up. ... How long do you think the tax collectors collected the correct amount of tax before resorting to their original greed. And how long do you think the soldiers acted fair, before resorting to there terror tactics, ... remembering terror tactics that actually worked.
No John was preparing these people for the Lord by showing them that it was impossible to do things without the help of our Lord. John was preparing the way by showing the people that they needed God in their hearts, ... so that he could rule every aspect of their lives, ... and to do so, the people first needed to acknowledge that they could not do certain things without him. ... And what better way to do this than by giving them a simple task that they could apparently do by themselves. ... And it is by there failure in this tasks that they would realise they needed the Lord.
This is a rather simple tactic, but it is not obvious to the reader, ... because on reading this verse, ... (and this is really bad), ... the implication of these verses suggest that if these people did show some remorse, ... and if these people did mend their ways, ... then they would be more acceptable to the Lord.
This could not be further from the truth of the Gospel which says, that God the Father, ... through Jesus, loves us unconditionally. ... God loves us regardless of our circumstances, regardless of our failures, regardless of our sin, ... all because of Jesus, and nothing else. ... And the bible tells us that when we meet the Lord on judgement day, our sins will not even be recorded. Only through Jesus are we made acceptable to him, ... him who absolutely hates sin.
And when you think out it too, ... had all these people done, and achieved those things which John had told them to do, (which they didn't), ... it would have made no difference, because the message Jesus had for them would have been the same, ... however ... had they not tried and failed to clean themselves up, they would not have been as attentive, nor as thirsty for his word. John was indeed preparing them.
Rejoycing.
Now to finish, we come to our last R, ... Rejoicing, ... but first, we must ask the question, ... "if God does not see our sin, why then should we take sin so seriously? ... Well the answer to this is by considering they who suffers because of our sin, ... because our sin does not only affect us, ... it affects all those around us, and associated to us. Our sin can have a great impact on many. ... Sometimes we think we can live with the consequences of our sin, ... but if we truly knew its far reaching effects on others, I am sure the guilt, and condemnation would kill us. ...
That is why the Lord had thought this threw, ... Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit". ... Yes we need to be conscious of our sin, but our sin is revealed to us only by the Holy Spirit himself, ... (and when he does this, it is never pleasant), ... because the Holy Spirit does it in a way to clean us up from the inside without the condemnation, and with hope, ... (although this is rarely achieved without tears).
The Holy Spirit is continually cleaning up our mess, ... how many times have you heard me saying, ... we are being refined as Silver for his purposes, ... Silver is difficult to refine, and refining is a painful process, ... but at the end, we have a quality of Silver fit for a king. We are being refined by the Holy Spirit himself, to make us fit for the King in Heaven, ... by making us more and more like Jesus every day.
How many times have you seen non-Christians getting off with so called murder, ... and where we are hammered at the first misdemeanour, ... well that is the Holy Spirit working us within, keeping us on the proper track, for his purposes and for his glory. The Lord truly disciplines those whom he loves, ... and we can safely say he loves us, because we have been well disciplined.
Coming to the alter this morning, we can confidently say that we are truly sorry, ... being very grateful for his grace, knowing that we are not condemned through our sin, but rejoicing that we are born again into a new life with him.
I personally am not proud of my past life, and I am very far from perfect as you all well know, but ... I shudder to think where I would be now without the intervention of the Holy Spirit guiding me, and preparing me for the future, a future known only to Him.
So never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit working within, because not only is he cleaning us up, ... he is making sure our good deeds through him have an greater knock on effect than our sin, ... and a greater blessing to those around us.
Acts 2:38 and 39 says, " ... Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, ... and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. ... For this promise is unto you, ... and to your children, ... and to all that are afar off".
Amen, and may God bless us through these words, let us pray.
Let us pray,
Father we come to you this morning as miserable sorrowful sinners, but through Jesus we can ask for your forgiveness, ... even though we do not deserve it.
Father we are truly sorry for our sins, ... we are sorry that we fail you time and time again, ... and we are sorry we let others down in the process.
Father we do not want to be like this, ... we want to be a credit to you, ... we want to be your representative here on this earth.
Father cleanse us, and lead us onto a path of your choosing, ... a path where we are fit to travel, ... a path free from our past failures, ... and a path that allows us to do your will in helping and encourage others, ... while helping and encouraging ourselves.
Father let this path be pleasant for us, ... pleasant for those whom we meet, ... and pleasant for you. ... Let us carry out your desires us with Joy, ... promoting and growing your kingdom for those whom you invite.
Finally Father, instead of focusing on the far reaches of our sins, teach us to focus of the far reaching effect of our goodness through you. Father we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
