Is My Heart Open to God?
Series: Encountering Jesus (through the Gospel of Luke)
Brad Bailey – January 13, 2019
Intro
A belated welcome into the New Year. Our planet has completed it’s rotation around the sun…and we are now on a fresh start.
It gives us the opportunity to consider how we are living... and changes we should make. Those changes may include various parts of our lives.
But there is one element more fundamental than any… and that is… our relationship with the very source and center of life.
Imagine…if someone told you that the time has come… Jesus is returning this week...and he is going to start with you. He will come to your place….within days.
What would your heart be struck with?
Would you be concerned about how tidy your place is?
Would you get excited to bring out your accomplishments?
Maybe struck by the uncertainty of what you believe.
As we continue in our series… Encountering Jesus through the Gospel of Luke…we come to an opportunity to consider that question.
We began our encounter at the start of the Gospel of Luke just 6 weeks ago… as Luke began to tell of how God came to one couple in their later years…and revealed they would be the prophet who would prepare the way for the savior… and then another who were young and engaged….that they would bear the savior of the world.
He tells of the birth. And now we move to what begins to unfold as the prophet named John begins to prepare the way for Jesus.
Luke 3:1-2?In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar--when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea (I’-tu-re’-ah) and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene-- 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.
These type of introductory words may seem insignificant to us. They may seem to be the mere “where and when and who”…that don’t mean anything to us.
But they are anything but secondary. They ground what is at hand.
1. They ground these events in real time. This is testifying to reality.
When we began our series you may recall…Luke began stating…
Luke 1:3-4 ?“…since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, …so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
• Luke was a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul.
• Luke was a doctor … distinct in discovery and detail (research, eyewitnesses, etc.)
And the kind of information he includes here… reflects his emphasis on facts.
A current way to avoid Jesus is to consider the Gospels to be some sort of religious myth.
…to dismiss what is revealed about Jesus as mere religious fabrication rather than reality.
But Luke has encountered what is real… in the context of real people and real history.
These names have come to be found true. (Even the disputed Pontius Pilate who becomes central to his trial and crucifixion… was proven true when just recently what is called the “Pilate Stone” was discovered…stating his title and year…just as Luke had said.) [1]
….And so he sets the context. And what a telling context it was.
2. These rulers… at every level… were well known… a reflection of how dark the times were. Rome was ruled by emperor Tiberias…who wanted to be a god
Roman governor Pilate was feared for his intimidation
And the puppet king over the Jews…was Herod… who became increasingly paranoid and who killed family and children when he felt threatened.
It was all about retaining power over others. (In this last election…some demonized the nature of Hilary Clinton…and some Donald Trump. They would be saints in comparison.)
These are the people who were going to be involved not only in John's unrighteous death, but they are going to be involved in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And so John's ministry begins while they’re in power.
It tells us of the darkness of the human heart and what rules the world ….when Jesus comes. [2]
And when we think that what matters most is a change in political rulers…however significant that may be… John has a different focus.
The text continues…
Luke 3:3-6 (NIV) ?3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God's salvation.'"
The time had come. John calls people out “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”…which may sound strange to those of us living today…who identify baptism as being immersed into water and raised back up to declare that we have receive the death and new life of Christ.
But baptism simply means “immersion”… and could be used as a symbol in other ways. The religious leaders had been baptizing non-Jews outsiders who wanted to join Judaism.
What the religious leaders had required of outsiders… John was using to require of all…not as a sign of joining the outward religion...but of repentance.
Repentance literally means “to turn around” …to turn from one’s departure from God and turn back to Him.
Whereas later baptism becomes for us a form of proclamation…this was a baptism of preparation.
And this was for everyone.
The very word “repentance” may have developed more of a negative feel for many of us.
One reason is that often the call to repentance feels like a unfair judgment imposed by other people.
Another is because it seems like a call to feel guilty….to feel bad…and nothing more.
But repentance is ultimately all about a greater good. It is the path to receiving mercy…and life.
What is needed for everyone to see?
Making straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.
Some have noted the practice of eastern monarchs, who, whenever they entered upon an expedition or took a journey, especially through desert and undeveloped areas, sent forerunners before them to prepare all things for their passage, and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove all impediments”. [3]
So John is crying out to people: “Whatever stands in your way from seeing Christ, annihilate it!” Whatever is blocking the way between you and God… change it.
Has something risen up… bring it down.
Has something become a low area you go down into… fill it in.
Is some part of your life bent that should be straightened…that needs to be realigned with God?
This is the nature of repentance.
Repentance describes the process of clearing the way between us and God.
Repentance begins with an INNER RECOGNITION.
We face our sinfulness…whatever we realize violates God’s goodness … beauty… love...and centrality.
Have we given our primary affections to something or someone else?
Have we given a worth to mere material objects…that they can never satisfy?
In these and so many other ways…our lives are impeded…out of alignment.
John was bringing something great to bear…salvation…and it begins with repentance… aligning your heart.
Repentance is not simply feeling bad…or guilty. Repentance involves a deeper transition of desire and direction.
We can feel bad… feel regret…and not change at all.
This is what the Bible refers to as “worldly sorrow” (1 Cor. 10.)
True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has encountered the true love of God.
Repentance is not about becoming good enough…it’s about wanting God’s goodness enough to change.
You cannot have what you do not want.
It is showing we are truly sorry... which means acting on it... not as a means to be qualified but of being realigned with God’s good.
The nature of repentance can best be captured by what Jesus describes in the story of the…Prodigal son.
This is how the kingdom is coming…it comes to one who is like a younger son…with no rights… who demands the goods… and leaves home. When he comes to the loss… the lack… Jesus says he “comes to his senses” and realizes he has no rights …and should beg to be a servant in his father’s house. He returns…and is received.
It is not about his becoming a perfect son...it is about wanting to come home.
C.S. Lewis said repentance is not something God arbitrarily demands of us: "It is simply a description of what going back is like." In terms of the parable of the Prodigal Son, repentance is the flight home that leads to joyful celebration. It opens the way to a future, to a relationship restored.
Now…you may recall…there was an older son… who felt he deserved his place in the house. That figure in the story reflected the problem with the religious leaders…and religion…and John would address the same….
The text continues…
Luke 3:7-9 (NIV)
7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 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."
Some people came to John with no intention of changing. They thought that they could just turn up and listen to a few sermons and then go through baptism and then every thing would be alright, he surprised them with harsh words: “You bunch of snakes.” He said that they were like snakes fleeing form a brush fire…. trying to escape but having no intention of allowing their evil natures to be changed.
They had lost a sense of their own sin.
We may not presume to have some special religious position…but there are ways we can avoid facing our own sinfulness….and our own need to repent.
Sometimes it's our concentration on other people's sins. We are so fixed on their sins that we do not see our own.
This is what Jesus confronted constantly. It is self-righteousness based on keeping the spotlight on others. Like an interrogators light.
This is what our culture has mastered.
It is all about sinners…by telling us about other people’s sin.
We can go along for days and weeks and months and years sometimes, relishing in our indignation and in our self-justification.
Sometimes it's because of the wounds that we've received from other people's sins against us. We are so deeply wounded by the wrongs that have been done to us that we can't concentrate on our own sin.
Sometimes it's our desire to protect ourselves from the shame and the humiliation of facing our own sin… we just want to avoid the shame… the humiliation.
How can someone who is terrified at the exposure of her or his sin reckon with it? I mean, if the thing you fear the most is that people are going to find out what you’re like, how do you reckon with that?
By looking up and seeing that Jesus has come to you…that he sees you…all of you…and has been willing to give his life for you. It is the apprehension of that kind of love that has been shown to us in Christ on the cross that moves us to be real about our sin.
This is the freedom that our world longs to know.
Our modern world has been trying to perfect the denial of personal sin and personal responsibility.
• Every problem is someone else’s fault.
• Every violation looks for a loophole.
• Everything we may feel ashamed of we try to give a new name to.
Do you realize that when the watching world sees us own up to our sins towards one another and towards them, they can only be shocked?
Our world longs for those who find the freedom to be honest…to take responsibility for their lives.
I recently read of a Marine aircraft tragedy in San Diego that took place ten years ago. (December 2008) A young Marine pilot took off from the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, on a routine training flight. He loses one engine to low oil pressure…and then another to a fuel problem…and communicates with air traffic control about an emergency landing. Ultimately, he ejects but the plane crashes nose down in University City, in the neighborhood of San Diego, hitting two homes and killing four members of a Korean immigrant family.
As usual a major investigation began to evaluate the causes involved in this tragedy.
The final report was aired live on San Diego radio stations…and it revealed wrong decisions by those who inspected the engines…to those giving directions…to the pilots own misguided choices on trying to land. Everyone faced the consequences. There was a shocking quality of honesty and candor. There are still elements within our government that take responsibility seriously, and one naval aviator found himself wondering if the Marines had been too hard on themselves.
‘But they are,’ he said, ‘after all, Marines.’"
Wouldn't it be great if people said of us, "You know, they’re really hard on themselves…but, after all, they’re Christians"?
The text continues…
Luke 3:10-14 (NIV)
10 "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. 11 John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" 13 "Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. 14 Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely--be content with your pay."
There is a change of desire that brings a change in direction.
When what you really want changes… it will naturally change what you do.
And I think it is helpful to see how different examples are given… what might be common to the crowd in general…another to tax collectors…and another to soldiers who got to use Roman authority.
It reflects that there is a personal dimension to repentance.
It is not a matter of perfection…but of direction.
Here’s what this is saying. The man or woman who has completely thrown themselves on the grace and
mercy of Christ is not someone who sees someone who is freezing to death and praises God that they have six jackets.
They are not men and women who see the starving in the world and praise God that they have storehouses of food in their pantry.
The text concludes…
Luke 3:15-18 (NIV) ?15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. 16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.
I think it’s interesting that the people are struck by such a call to repentance as reflecting God… that they think John may be the Christ. In contrast, many today think such a call to repentance is for rough prophets like John…and want to think of Jesus as one who would never challenge us in this type of way. We may think of him as one who avoids all judgment.
But John is clear… the one he will soon introduce… the Christ… will bring the fullness of the Holy Spirit to bear… and consequences far greater.
Jesus began his call to us declaring,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”- Matthew 4:17
The first demand of Jesus’ public ministry was, “Repent.” He spoke this command indiscriminately to all who would listen. It was a call for radical inward change toward God and man. [4] [5]
Why? His answer is that we are sinners.
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” - Luke 5:32
He did not mean that there are righteous and sinners… but rather that there are sinners who identify as sinner and those who don’t.
He can only relate to those who do.
He can only make a way home for those who want to come home.
He warned…
“…unless you repent, you too will all perish.” - Luke 13:3-5
This is the demand of Jesus to every soul: Return to the source of Life.
You have gone off to what you think is your own life… you will find only death…an outer darkness that will consume you.
Come home while you can.
And it is always understood as a part of GOOD NEWS.
“The windows of heaven are bursting with the grace and mercy that God showers upon the repentant. Heaven is leaning over the railing at this moment, wanting you to come to a fresh place of true and total honesty before God.” – James McDonald
Resources: Some thoughts drawn from John Hamby “It Is Time To Turn”; Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III – “John Came Preaching…Repentance"; John Piper – “Thoughts on Jesus’s Demand to Repent”;
Letters from Cambridge #2 - https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/thoughts-on-jesuss-demand-to-repent
Notes:
1. One example of how the historical nature of the Gospels continues to defy the modern desire to dismiss them, is the discovery of what is called the Pilate stone. Luke includes references to several rulers who we can find are accurately those who ruled. He includes a reference to the local representative of Rome… Pilate. Pilate becomes central at the point of the crucifixion process. And so many want to dismiss the accuracy of such a figure. But once again… that proved to be a choice to dismiss based on a desire to dismiss more than the facts. In 1961… a stone was discovered…that testified that indeed such a figure was real and ruled as Luke had said. It was discovered at the archaeological site of Caesarea Maritima in 1961.The Pilate stone is a damaged block (82 cm x 65 cm) of carved limestone with a partially intact inscription attributed to, and mentioning, Pontius Pilate, a prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26 to 36. Pilate stone – Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilate_stone
The following may interest those who value grasping how the Gospels neither intended nor presented myth.
C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves on the Myth of Christianity:
Oct 18, 1931 - http://emp.byui.edu/wardd/honors221/concepts/myth.htm
Four Reasons the Gospels Could Not Be Legends, PASTOR J.D.OCT 23, 2013 - https://jdgreear.com/blog/four-reasons-the-gospels-could-not-be-legends/
Historical Jesus - November 15, 2016 by Richard Simmons III - https://thecenterbham.org/2016/11/15/historical-jesus/
2. John Hamby states, Luke wanted his friend Theophilus, for whom this gospel account is written to remember how spiritually dark the world scene was before the appearance of John the Baptist, began to “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” and John’s cousin Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, was revealed as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He therefore begins by looking at who occupied the seats of highest authority in the land at the time. “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea (I’-tu-re’-ah) and the region of Trachonitis, (Tra-ko-ni’-tis) and Lysanias (li-sa’ni-as) tetrarch of Abilene, (2) while Annas (also Ananias) and Caiaphas were high priests,”
Luke begins with a list: it would take some doing to assemble a more wicked company of scoundrels; Tiberias, the Roman emperor wanted to be a god; Pilate, the Roman governor was despised and feared; Herod, the occupant of the Jewish throne, was unbalanced, dangerous and cruel; all were noted as men who wanted more than anything else to retain their power. Ananias’ legacy was that he controlled the high priest office for three decades through his sons (6-15 A.D.) and his son-in-law, Caiaphas (18-36 A.D.).
3. Clarke commentary gives us a great understanding for this analogy:
“The idea is taken from the practice of eastern monarchs, who, whenever they entered upon an expedition or took a journey, especially through desert and unpractised countries, sent harbingers before them to prepare all things for their passage, and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove all impediments”. He goes on to say, “The writer of the apocryphal book called Baruch expresses the same subject by the same images, either taking them from this place of Isaiah, or from the common notions of his countrymen: “For God hath appointed that every high hill, and banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and valleys filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God.” Baruch 5:7.
4. Consider also:
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” - Revelation 2:5
“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” - Revelation 3:19
“…unless you repent, you too will all perish.” - Luke 13:3-5
After he had risen from the dead Jesus made sure that his apostles would continue the call for repentance throughout the world. He said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).
Luke 15:7
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
5. I have not included the final verses, Luke 3:19-20 related to thise section, simply because the final note about John confronting Herod and being imprisoned for it requires more background than I felt would serve the conclusion of this message. However it is a reminder that declaring that anyone may be a sinner, can be deeply resented and resisted. For a good summary of the complicated figure Herod… which refers to both Herod the Great and his sons, see – Who Was Herod? Zondervan Academic December 19, 2017 - https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2017/12/who-was-herod/
