Repent, Change Your Allegiance Series

Repent, Change Your Allegiance!

Matthew 3:1-17

DISMISS GROVE KIDZ

OKAY – welcome to week 5 of our series in ‘The King and His Kingdom.”

IT’S – an in depth study of the Gospel of Matthew.

AND TODAY – we are going to unpack Matthew 3:1-17, in a conversation that I am calling, “Repent, Change Your Allegiance!”

NOW BEFORE – we dive into these verses there are a few things to keep in mind.

ONE – there is a 28 year time jump between the last verse in Matthew chapter 2 (he lived in a town called Nazareth… so He will be called a Nazarene) and the first verse in Matthew chapter 3.

YEAH – though we may like to know more about Jesus’ childhood, teen years and early adult life… all we have after Jesus goes back to live in Nazareth is one single event recorded by Luke, when Jesus was 12 years old.

PERHAPS – you remember the story.

Joseph and Mary have traveled the 70 miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover Celebration.

AND AFTER - the Passover they head by home, with a large group of their family and friends who also lived in Nazareth…

And somewhere along the way Joseph and Mary realized that Jesus was not with them.

THEY – hurry back to Jerusalem… and three days later (parents, can you imagine) they find Jesus.

AND – where was He?

At the Temple, sitting down with the teachers, listening and asking them questions. Luke writes…

Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents

(who were feeling anything but amazement)

saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom (intellectual development) and stature (physical development), and in favor with God (spiritual development) and man (relational development).

– Luke 2:47-52

BTW – did you set any of those growth goals for 2022?

AND – after Luke 2:52, 18 years of silence.

AND – the second thing I want to point out it is that when Matthew chapter 3 opens up, there have been over 400 years of silence from God.

UNDERSTAND – since the final chapter of the book of Malachi, God has not spoken a single word through any prophet. LIKE – zip, zero, nada….

AND – here are those final words.

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” - Malachi 4:5,6

AND THEN – 400 years of silence.

AND – the 3rd and final thing that I want to point out as we dive into these verses, I want us to understand that what goes down in Matthew chapter 3 is a huge deal,

LIKE…

• The 400 years of silence is ended

• The heavens open up and God speaks (only does this 3 times in the NT)

• The Holy Spirit descends in a physical form like a dove (only the 3rd time the HS ever takes on a physical form, the other times are at creation and the day of Pentecost)

• The entire God-head (the Trinity) like in Genesis one at the Creation, are seen together…

(God the Father speaks, God the Spirit descends, and God the Son is baptized and receives affirmation)

• John introduces baptism to God’s people, kind of a bridge between the Old and New Covenant.

• Though each of the 4 Gospels begin differently, they all converge at the point of recording the appearance and ministry of John the Baptist. This is no accident, because John’s word’s point to coming of Christ and his baptism of Jesus marked the official commencement of Jesus’ ministry.

“In those days…”

“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near…”

“Let It Be So Now…”

I. “In Those days…”

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea. – Matthew 3:1

NOW – Luke goes into a lot more detail about those days, TELLING US – in Luke chapter 3, THAT…

• Tiberius Caesar is in is 15th year, so it is ~ 28 AD

• Pontus Pilate is the Governor of Judea, and he has been on the job for about two years