A Voice in the Wilderness
Text: Matthew 3
Introduction
At an intersection, the green light changes to yellow.
At the theater the house lights flash
In the Battalion Tactical Operations Center a WARNO comes down from Brigade
At the airport terminal the boarding call comes over the intercom
At a railroad crossing the lights begin to flash
In a small Midwestern town the tornado siren screams
On the football field the two minute warning sounds
In the cargo bay of a C-140 a red-light comes on
In the Desert of Judea, a voice of one calling in the wilderness, "Prepare the way for the Lord"
What do each of these have in common? They are signs or warnings that we need to prepare ourselves for what is about to happen. The prophets of the Old Testament foretold that there would be a forerunner to the Messiah, who would alert the world to the coming of this "anointed one."
Just as predicted, here comes John the Baptist, the miracle child of old and childless parents, preaching repentance, living a spartan existence by God’s provision and telling of a coming Messiah. Really an OT character, the last of the OT Prophets. One who stands astride the two testaments, bridging the gap, showing the progression from God’s old covenant with Israel to His new covenant with all humanity through Jesus Christ. And what is the message of this the lost of the Old Covenant prophets?
Proposition: Prepare the way, get ready, get your hearts ready, get your lives ready, get your homes ready
Interrogative: And how exactly are we to do that? How should we prepare ourselves for the Messiah to come into our lives?
Transition: As we look at John the Baptist’s ministry Three things are apparent about the nature of this preparation. I want to invite you to look at these with me this morning and ask yourself, "How well have I done in preparing the way for Jesus?" First our preparation must be...
1. Sorrowful
vv. 5-6 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance. The people who come to be baptized confess their sins, out of sorrow for the way they have trampled God’s expectations for them.
ILLUSTRATION: Not too many years ago many newspapers carried the story of Al Johnson, a Kansas man who came to faith in Jesus Christ. What made his story remarkable was not his conversion, but the fact that as a result of his newfound faith in Christ, he confessed to a bank robbery he had participated in when he was nineteen years old. Because the statute of limitations on the case had run out, Johnson could not be prosecuted for the offense. Still, he believed his relationship with Christ demanded a confession. And he even voluntarily repaid his share of the stolen money!(Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 13)
Why did he confess this sin when he had already gotten away with it ? Because when he came face to face with Jesus he was filled with sorrow over the wrong he had done.
Maybe you’ve never robbed a bank, I don’t know maybe you have, but regardless of what sins checker your past like Al Johnson and like those who came to be baptized by John in the Desert of Judea, If you are going to prepare a place in your heart for the Messiah, your preparation must begin with sorrow for your life of sin.
John Wesley once described repentance as genuine sorrow for sin and sincere resolutions of amendment. Which brings us to our next point. John makes it clear that our preparation for Messiah must be...
2. Sincere
vv. 7-8 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
Why is John so hard on these Pharisees and Saducees when it’s obvious that he thinks they need to be saved? I think the clue is in verses 7 & 8 "Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." John realizes that the Pharisees have come not to join in the repentance but to join the crowd. They lack sincerity.
And how is sincerity judged? Not by just coming to the service, not by sad looks or rivers of tears but by the fruit of a changed life "fruit in keeping with repentance."
Repentance is a U-turn in the middle of life’s road. Sorrow PLUS Sincerity.
ILLUSTRATION: Imagine that I am driving with my wife in our car, she tells me to turn right at the next intersection and by mistake, I turn left. When I realize what I’ve done, I say to my wife "I’m sorry honey, I went the wrong way." But if that’s all I do, it isn’t enough. Saying sorry doesn’t get us where we need to be; it isn’t even stopping us from going further away. To get where we need to be, I need to stop the car, turn it around and go back on to the correct road that she told me to take in the first place. That is fruit in keeping with repentance. (Steve Gladwell on Sermoncentral.com)
And that fruit of a changed life is important because it demonstrates sincerity. There’s one last important thing that John the Baptist tells us about our preparation for Messiah, It must be...
3. Supernatural
v. 11"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
God’s salvation plan through Jesus Christ is not a self-help plan. It’s not a pull yourself up by your own bootstraps program, It’s not a twelve-step program.
The only way our hearts will ever be ready to make a place for Jesus is by a supernatural force. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that cleanses our hearts with fire making a place fit for a king. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers and enables us to make the U-turn of repentance that we just talked about. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to serve our new Master, Jesus Christ.
Salvation comes not when we trust in ourselves to change but when we trust in what Christ, the Messiah, has already done to change us. As the Apostle Paul wrote "If we could save ourselves, Christ died needlessly." But we cannot save ourselves, so it was altogether necessary that Christ should die to pay the price for our sins.
And now it falls to us simply to trust in what he has done and receive the gift of salvation that he offers. Then empowered by His Holy Spirit we walk in newness of life, bringing glory to Him as trophies of his grace.
Without His supernatural transformation our attempts at repentance would be as powerless as New Year’s resolutions on January 20th--even less so. The equivalent of going into battle with toy guns shouting POW-POW-POW. Meaningless, and dangerous.
CONCLUSION
So what about you? How well have you prepared the way for the Messiah in Your Life? Have you prepared your heart with
Genuine Sorrow for your sin? Has your heart been grieved at the ways you have failed him? When you recognize sin in your life even now do you weep that you have failed him?
Do you serve him in Sincerity? When you realize you’ve taken a wrong turn do you ask Him to help you find your way again? Does your life bear fruit in keeping with repentance?
Has there been a supernatural transformation? Or have you been trying the self help plan of salvation--which is really a no-help plan of salvation, or are you ever trusting in the work of Christ for your salvation?
