Introductory Considerations
1. A Dutch theologian, Johannes Halkendijk, tells this story that took place World War
2. During the Nazi occupation of Holland, the Nazis planned to deport Jewish children to concentration camps. A Dutch resistant group had been formed and one arm of this resistance decided to do what they could to save these children. A group of 300 people, children and resistance leaders, were gathered together and were hiding. What they did not know was that someone in their own group had betrayed them to the Nazis. They were found and taken to a detention centre. There they heard that they would be taken, not to a concentration camp, but to a crematorium where they would be killed. When the day to be taken away came, both Christian resistance leaders and Jewish children boarded the same cattle cars together, to share the same fate. The trip lasted a few days. One morning, just after sunrise, the train stopped and word was given that they were to get out of the train. They got out, expecting to find themselves surrounded by guards. Instead, they were standing in the middle of a pasture. They were not in Germany but in Switzerland. The train, while it was taking them to their death, had been taken over and liberated during the night. As a result, these 300 people, were not recipients of the death they expected, but of a new life.
"Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand". This is the message that John the Baptist proclaimed by the Jordan some 2,000 years ago. It is a message that we still see on signs today. For me, the message has a connotation of death. "You better change, or else." I feel the same when I see signs which say "The wages of sin are death". Nothing is wrong with these words, they are God’s word and are true. But by themselves, without a word of explanation, they may offer as little hope as the train ride did for the resistance leaders and children back on that train. At least that is how many people feel about the message of repentance.
3. And yet as verses 18 tells us, John exhorted the people and preached good news to them. For the message of repentance, when understood properly is a not a ride to a death camp but a ride to a pasture of new life.
4. This morning we await the birth of Jesus Christ and all that He brings. Jesus came to bring us a message of hope.
5. But as we read today we must be prepared for the message that He brings.
6. And as we consider John’s words, we consider how we are to be prepared and how we are called to prepare others for the coming of Christ.
Teaching
1. In Luke 1, we read that an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah and told him that he would have a son. His name would be John.
a. The angel said (Luke 1:16-17) "Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
b. As Elijah did, John would urge the people to back to the Lord.
2. After this announcement, the focus turns to Jesus and His birth.
3. In the meantime, however, John is born and God is quietly preparing him for his ministry.
4. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Ceasar, about 29AD, when John was 30 years old, the word of God came to him and he was compelled, he had no choice, he had to proclaim that word.
5. Luke tells us that Isaiah had prophesied about John.
a. That his was the voice of one calling in the desert or wilderness. When Isaiah had said these words, he was speaking to a nation that was in exile in Babylon. He spoke of a highway which would provide a way back to their homeland, Israel. They would be rescued by their God who would ensure that they would come back home again.
b. But Luke sees a deeper meaning to these words. Every valley would be filled and every mountain levelled. This would have been done for a visiting king. They improved the roads, filled in the ditches and smoothed the hills the king would have a more comfortable, easy trip.
c. I remember a few years ago how a parking lot into Toronto was turned into a beautiful garden for an economic summit. After the summit it was again made into a parking lot.
6. A great king is coming and they’d better get their personal and corporate lives straightened out.
a. They must provide the Lord with a staright easy, access into their hearts and lives. They must straighten out whatever was crooked and not in line with God’s will.
b. They must clear away all obstacles that had been thrown into His path.
c. The main obstacle they and we have that prevent’s Christ from dwelling in our hearts needs to be dealt with.
7. What are the obstacles that stop Christ from ruling your life? Whatever they are, there is only one way to deal with them
8. John’s message was a message of repentance. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
a. His baptism was an outward sin of an inner repentance. John would baptize only those who repented.
9. Repentance comes from Greek, metanoia - can be translated either conversion or repentance.
a. In OT it meant a break with the ungodly and sinful past and a turning to God. It meant to live a life of love and righteousness in accordance with the will of God.
b. It does not mean to do penance or pay the price for past sins.
c. It means a complete change of mind, a new direction of the will and an altered purpose in lfe.
10. The Heidelberg Catechism says it involves teh dying of the old self and the coming to life of the new. First to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more and to run away from it. Then it is a wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to do.
11. If we want to enter the kingdom of God, we must repent or will be burned up like chaff.
12. Have you surrendered yourself to Christ? Have you done this but somehow taken yourself back? Do not try to cover your sins but confess them and seek God’s forgiveness?
13. And yet we must not misunderstand what repentance means.
a. It is not completely our doing - that Christ will then and then alone come to us. That puts the decision clearly on our shoulders. And that is not the case.
b. John Calvin says that God’s mercy comes vefore repentance. John not say "repent ye" and then the kingdom of God will come near you. In Matthew we hear John say "Repent for the kingdom of God is near."
c. Repentance does not earn God’s favour. God’s kingdom is near. God has come to us. He has looked down upon us in favour.
d. To repent means not to get His favour but to be aware of it.
14. In order to receive you must be aware. That means knowing that we need forgiveness and that Christ came to offer it to us.
15. Also repentance must be a sincere, inner change.
a. When the crowds came John noticed that most were not sincere. And so he says "You brood of vipers, who warned you about the coming wrath.
b. He compares them to desert snakes. The desert was covered with stubble and brushwood, as dry as timber. Sometimes a spark set the surface on fire and the vipers would scurry out of their crannies, fleeing the wrath of the fire.
c. So some who came where not really sorry for their sins. They just wanted to escape the fire.
16. They were not sincere but deceptive.
a. Desert snakes could easily be mistaken for dead branches. If one tried to pick them up, one would be bitten by them.
- they were not serious
b. They were willing to make only an outer change, not an inner one.
c. Much like the silly change we may ask our children to go through at Christmas time. If you are good, you will get lots of presents. "You better watch out, you better not cry; you better not pout, I’m telling you why..". Not only is this poor parenting but it represents poor theology.
17. John tells them to produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
a. He says keep on producing fruit. In other words repentance is an ongoing process.
b. There is an initial repentance when we first surrender to God but we need daily to keep surrendering ourselves back to Him.
c. We also see that we each need to repent. Maybe we grew up in church. We may see no great sin, but we need to repent for sin and to see sin we commit.
d. All sin is great.
e. Someone once said that God has no grandchildren. Our parent’s faith will not save us. Many presumed they were saved because they were children of Abraham, but that would not cut it. John says that God could turn stones into children of Israel.
18. And finally, repentance should lead to action.
a. John was speaking to three groups - the crowd, the tax collectors and some soldiers.
b. Some listened intently and, unlike the vipers, they each asked "What then shall we do?"
c. John gave each a specific answer but in each case, the answer meant that they should be willing to put others before self gain or pride. To share that of which we have with those who do not have - whether it be clothes, food, or anything.
d. John tells the tax collectors, who were knwon for their dishonesty in collecting more than was due, that they were to be honest and not take advantage of their work or position.
e. He tells the soldiers not to take advantage of their position to extort protection money from people but to be content with their pay.
19. The message of repentance is one we need to hear this time of year. For the message of repentance is to receive Christ as our Saviour.
20. Are you ready for His coming? Are we also sahring the message John did?
21. Christmas is a time when people that would not normally worship come to church. The message must not be candy coated to simply say that God tells us to love each other and to seek peace. We must not moralize why Christ came.
22. Love and peace can only come when we realize Christ came to restore us to His Father, that we are sinful and need to repent.
23. We need not preach this continuously to those whose ears are closed, but we must pray that God will open their hearts to receiving what Christ is offering. That they will be aware of their selfishness and sin.
24. Only then can the joy and peace of Christmas be inner and lasting.
