Are You a Prepper?
A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent
Matthew 3:1–12 NKJV
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
We live in an age where we are constantly barraged with threats of disaster of one sort or another. There are those who say that the currency is about to crash, and we need to hoard silver and gold. There are plenty of companies who are more than willing to meet this need. There are those who warn us about the failure of the electricity grid. they claim that a large percentage of the world would perish in a long term grid outage, whether it is by an EMP, failure to maintain the grid, or a “natural” event like a Carrington Event caused by a solar flare. There answer is to buy either a solar generation system or at least a gas generator. There are many ready to serve this perceived need as well. There are threats of war, mega thrust earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, asteroid collisions, and the like. There is an impending sense of doom which hangs heavy over the world. And there are many who use this to profit.
How does a Christian deal with these threats? Whereas it is prudent to a point to be ready for such events in this age, there is, indeed, a greater threat. Jesus brings this out when he says we should not fear the one who can kill the body, and after that has no power. Rather we should fear the One who can kill, and after this can cast one into eternal hellfire. (Matthew 10:28) This is the One who promised to return to judge the living and the dead. This is what the we need to be prepared for.
Last week we entered the Christian season of Advent which was created for us to ponder upon the truth that the Lord Jesus is going to return —not only ponder, but to prepare ourselves for this event that it might be eternally well for us. As we read:
2 Peter 1:10 NKJV
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
Advent has also in recent time reflected upon the preparation which God made for Christ to be born in Bethlehem and to live among us. This ties the idea of Christmas into Advent, although Christmas and what we call Advent are distinct. There was a time, or truly before time, that preparations were made for Christ to come to earth to live, to teach, and to die as a sacrifice for our sin, that everyone who believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). The preparation for this Christ event lie fulfilled and in the past. Christ died, and Christ is risen lie fulfilled. What remains to prepare for is “Christ will come again,”
This is not to say that it is not useful to study the preparations God made to bring Christ into the world the first time as all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for doctrine and teaching. It tells us that the God who promised the first coming of Christ and fulfilled it shall certainly fulfill the promise of His return. So, it is good for us to examine these texts that we might learn of how we might prepare for His return. Advent is not awaiting the arrival of Christ into a manger in Bethlehem. We remember, as we should that the Word did indeed become flesh and tabernacle among us at Christmas. But this Jesus who came that night is returning again, not as a baby, but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The lectionary passage last week came from Matthew 24 which tells us about what will happen in the Last Days. This week, we go back to the 3rd Chapter in Matthew, and the ministry of John the Baptist. By the time John began preaching and baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus had already been born. John the Baptist was sent to prepare for the revealing of Jesus to Israel. When we read from the Gospel of Luke, this first witness of John to Jesus was when John the Baptist was still in the womb. This John grew up in the wilderness until the time of his public appearing in the summer of 26 AD. He lived a strict life after the vow of a Nazarite, eating only locusts and wild honey when he was around thirty years old. During these thirty years, the LORD prepared John for his ministry to Israel. Some have speculated that John the Baptist joined himself to the Essene (Dead Sea Scrolls) community which had apocalyptic views similar to John. This may or not be true, but what we do know is that he received no training from the Pharisees in the synagogues or priestly training in Jerusalem. What is important is not the means which the LORD may have used to prepare him but that it was the Holy Spirit who prepared him for ministry from before the time he was born.
The appearing of John the Baptist on the scene was sudden. Hundreds of years had passed since there had been a prophet in Israel. The Prophet Malachi prophesied that in the days leading up to the appearing of the LORD in His Temple that a Elijah would return to restore the hearts of the Israelites to hear the message. Isaiah 40 also prophesies the coming of one to prepare in the wilderness the way of the LORD. The appearance of John the Baptist was like that of Elijah the Prophet in that Elijah spent many years in the wilderness near the Jordan wearing only a coat made of animal skins. This Elijah would also reappear suddenly. Jesus Himself makes the connection between Elijah and John the Baptist explicit.
The Gospels tell us that John the Baptist preached the Gospel of repentance and to be prepared for the coming of the LORD. He was baptizing people in the Jordan river as a sign of their repentance. It is important to realize that this place was near a place called Gilgal, where the Children of Israel had crossed the Jordan to enter into the Holy Land. The Children of Israel had not for the most part did not circumcise their children in the Wilderness, a direct violation of God’s commandment in Genesis 17 that the makes be circumcised on the eighth day. The failure to do so would cut them off from the covenant God had made with Abraham. In other words, these Israelites were at this time no more than Gentiles. So Joshua had to have the males circumcised at Gilgal so that their reproach might be rolled away. The Israelites had to be prepared to fight Holy War in the conquest of the land.
So, John the Baptist stood on the ground where Israel had passed through the waters of Jordan. Here the people from Jerusalem, Judaea, Galilee, and from many other areas to him to hear his message of repentance and the arrival of the Christ. The Jews had for the most part in John’s day had been physically circumcised but not in heart. By coming to John at the Jordan, they were essentially confessing this. They were unprepared for the arrival of the second Joshua (Jesus in Greek). This conquest of the Holy Land in the day of John the Baptist would be a spiritual conquest. They came to Jordan as heathens but returned as newly made Israelites. This new Israel was made of repentant Jews as well as Gentiles. We know this because soldiers came to John to be baptized as did tax collectors, amongst others.
John warned the Jews who came for baptism not to trust that they were physical descendants of Abraham. This was of no value in determining the new Israel at all. God could and can raise up descendants for Abraham from the stones themselves. This implies that unrepentant Jews could be rejected and others who were not physical descendants could and would be accepted as descendants of Abraham. and, therefore, Israel.
Many commentators have noted that Matthew wrote his gospel to Jewish Christians. This passage, and many others on Matthew, claim otherwise. One should note that Jesus’ fame went throughout all Syria, not just Israel. Gentile women were included in the genealogy of Jesus. There is no circumcision narrative of Jesus in Matthew. Instead of the presentation of Jesus and the circumcision accounts we find in Luke, we have the arrival of the Gentile Wise Men. I am not aware that circumcision is even mentioned once in Matthew. Surely, a Gospel written for Jewish-Christians would have emphasized this. Instead, we have baptism. People from Gentile areas of Palestine also came to Jesus to hear the Sermon on the Mount. There are quotes from Isaiah which prophesied of the inclusion of Gentiles. I could cite numerous interactions with Gentiles and Jesus. To the Jew first and also to the Greek starts with Jesus and not Paul.
Instead of being a Gospel written to Jewish-Christians, we should see it as written to the restored Israel, an Israel consisting of all who are of the faith of Abraham. Matthew’s theology is no different than Paul’s as both derive from the Lord Himself. The new Israel is not racially based like the Pharisees saw Israel. This is why the Pharisees are so brutally attacked in Matthew’s gospel. If you will read Matthew with this view, your eyes will be opened.
Matthew’s Gospel tells us that John challenged those who came to show proof of their repentance. Luke’s account gives examples. The tax-collectors were not to exact more taxes for either Rome or Herod than they had contracted for. when we realized that the tax collectors were paid by what they could shake out of the people above the actual tax assessment. Only collecting the assessment meant that they could not profit from collecting the taxes. They were still obligated by contract to pay Rome, but one could be assured that they would not enter into a new contract when the current one expired. The soldiers were to be happy with their salary which was meagre. It was understood that they could supplement their income by shaking down people. No more! These are two examples of repentance in action. For Zacchaeus, the repentance was even more extreme. Not only could he not collect over his assessment, he mad an oath to repay fourfold what he had robbed before, in accordance to Jewish Law. He may have been rich, but this was a recipe for bankruptcy. Like Elisha of old, who held a great feast and sacrificed his twelve yoke of oxen, Zacchaeus was burning his bridges. But he became a true Israelite in the process. There was nothing left for him but to follow Jesus.
John the Baptist demonstrated to Israel that they were totally unprepared for the coming of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees, who felt they were the best prepared for the event turned out to be the worst prepared. they felt no need for repentance, that everything was all right. Were they not part of an elite religious society who believed in living strictly the Law of Moses. they were in danger of being cast into unquenchable fire. And many who were the least worthy and prepared realized their plight and accepted the message of John. The question to be asked concerns us today. How many of us in the Church today are prepared for the return of the LORD? This is why we take stock during Advent to make sure that it will be well for us when He returns. It is not enough to claim that we are members of an elite religious society called the Church, and belong to one of the more conservative ones at that.
Not only does the Church have an obligation to reach out to the world and call them to repentance. We need to repent ourselves. We must realize the message of John the Baptist beckons us to repent and believe the good news about Jesus. We must understand that repentance is at the very heart of the Gospel message. John the Baptist preached to repent and believe. Jesus preached repentance. The Apostles preached repentance. We need to repent and preach repentance. This means we need to get back to the basics. we must not alter this message. what good will it be for us if we preach the message of social justice and morality in society if we aren’t prepared for His return? The same is true to feeding the poor? We try to find all sorts of substitutes to the simple Gospel as though we have a better way. Perhaps this is our greatest need to repent.
