This sermon was preached to Grace Church Guildford on 13 March 2022. The full video recording of the service can be found below along with the transcript.
‘Be prepared.’ That is of course the longstanding motto of the Scout movement. It was chosen because of their aim to teach boys to ‘always [be] in a state of readiness.’ Since then, hundreds of thousands of children have learnt to exemplify that ethos. Even those of us who have never been scouts know that being prepared, ready for whatever lies ahead, is usually a good thing. Before we go to a job interview, we select clothing and consider what questions they may ask. Before we take an exam, we revise the content of our course. Before we drive somewhere new, we sit down and work out directions. In every area of life, we know it is better to be prepared than to be unprepared. ‘Be prepared’ is not just a good motto for the scouts. It is a good motto for each of us, no matter what age we are! Our passage tonight is all about preparation. Long before the Scouts began, there was another movement which could have adopted the same motto. However, what John the Baptist sought to prepare his followers for is much more important than learning how to start a fire, to fish or to set up a tent. The importance of this preparation is underlined by prominence the Bible gives to this passage. You would expect all four Gospel accounts to use the Christmas story to introduce us to the life of Jesus. And yet, only two of the four Gospels include it. John mentions the incarnation without referring to the events in Bethlehem, and Mark simply starts his story right here with John the Baptist. Only Matthew and Luke include Christmas. But all four Gospels highlight the John the Baptist. They seem to view his voice as vital. Consider the preparation John provides to be crucial to their readers, each of us.
Our passage breaks into two parts: (1) The Herald (3:1-6) – we are introduced to John’s ministry and see how many properly responded to it; and (2) The Hypocrites (3:7-12) – we see how Jewish leaders failed to heed John’s message and so faced the judgement and the judge that was to come. Together, these two parts of our passage are preparing us for something. Something more important than any job interview, any exam any journey. For here we see how we can prepare to meet our Maker. We shall see that was the overarching aim of John’s ministry, and that is the main message of our passage: it is preparing us to meet God. We shall see in 3:1-6, Matthew tells us how we can prepare for that. And then in 3:7-12, what the lives of those who are prepared to do so will look like.
1. THE HERALD – We prepare to meet God by repenting of sin (3:1-6)
I want you to imagine for a moment that as you came along Chertsey Street this evening towards the building, you noticed a large sleigh trundling along the road. A rather jolly looking with a white beard man and wearing a red suit was sitting in it, holding the reins for the nine reindeer that were pulling it along. Now, while, you might be a little surprised to see this individual at this particular time of year, none of you would be surprised to find out his name was Santa Claus. The sleigh, the reindeer, his clothing all kind of give that away! Well, this perhaps somewhat captures what the crowds thought when they seen John the Baptist. In 3:4, we are told he wore clothes "made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist." This costume was a clue, for it was the exact outfit we are told the famous prophet Elijah wore (2 Kings 1:8). Further, John’s wild diet, of locusts and honey, as well as his wilderness location, likewise pointed to a special status. We see this clearly in 3:1-3, where after telling us that John came preaching in the wilderness, Matthew points to the prophecy of Isaiah predicting a voice crying out in that very place. Just as we can spot Santa Claus from certain distinctive details, the people would have discerned from these details that John was a prophet, a messenger sent by God. So they flocked to hear him. As Matthew say in 3:5, "People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan."
This response is understandable when you realise that John was the first prophet to appear for 400 years. Because of God’s people sin in the Old Testament, they were not only sent into exile, there were also sent into silence. God’s people had ignored his warnings by his messengers, the prophets, and so God withdrew his words. As he explains in Amos 8:11: "I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it." Between the final prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, and the book of Matthew, there are just a few empty pages in our Bibles. And yet, those few empty pages represent 400 years. Four centuries of silence! The last words before this silence set in, the final verses of Malachi, explained how it would be broken. In 4:5, God promised, "See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes." Do you see why there was so much of a stir then when John shows up wearing Elijah’s clothes? As Jesus confirms in 11:14 and 17:11, John is the Elijah who would break the silence.
In 3:2, Matthew summarises John’s message in a single short sentence. After 400 years of silence, this is what God sent John to say: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." It is important for us to see this isn’t an isolated message, the favourite hobbyhorse sermon of a firebrand prophet. No, Matthew makes it clear that this sentence is central to the message of Christianity. If you turn to 4:17, you can see that when Jesus begins his own preaching, his message was the same: "From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Similarly, turn to 10:7, where Jesus sends his disciples out for the first time for them to preach to the people, he tells them, "As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’" This message is clearly meaningful, for Matthew records it coming from the mouth of John, Jesus and the apostles. And he helps us understand what it means here by connecting John’s preaching with a prophecy from Isaiah 40:3. Do you see how Matthew sets side by side the contents of John’s preaching and the cry of Isaiah’s voice? In 3:2, we are told John came saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." And in 3:3 that the voice is calling, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him." Matthew clearly believes these two messages match, that their contents correspond. We read through Isaiah 40 earlier in our service. There, after hearing about a voice in the wilderness preparing the way for the LORD, we were given a magnificent, majestic description of the LORD. While we whither like grass, he endures forever. Isaiah explains we cannot fathom his immensity or comprehend his wisdom. He holds the oceans in his hands, the nations are like a drop in a bucket to him. There is nothing, no one, we can compare God to. He is enthroned above the earth, seated in the heavens, even the leaders and rulers of this world are nothing before him. When he blows, they are swept away like chaff, dust in the wind. This is the Sovereign Lord. This is our Almighty God. And we are told that he is coming. That he is on the move. And so he sends out a herald before him, to announce his impending arrival, to prepare his people for his presence, to clear the path for the King who is coming along it. This is what John means when he declares, "the kingdom of heaven has come near." He means the king, the ruler of all, is on the move, coming to extend his kingdom, to establish his reign, over all the earth. And John has been sent before him to get people ready to meet their Maker, prepare them to stand before the Lord. John sums this preparation up with a single word. Because the kingdom is near, king is coming, John says we must "Repent". He proclaims that we prepare to meet God by repenting of sin.
What does it mean to repent? Well, two weeks ago, Jamie preached a whole sermon from Ezra 9-10 that answers that very question. If you weren’t there, you should go and listen to it. He explains repentance means to (1) see your sin, how you have disobeyed and dishonoured God, (2) have sorrow over it, realise just how awful your sin is, (3) sincerely confess it to God, admit to him what you have done, and (4) strongly turn away from it,that is live in a way that pleases God. To repent is to realise you are in the wrong, to seek God’s forgiveness, and start living by what is right. And John tells us that repentance is how we get ready to meet this coming King. Again, it is not just John who jumps to this conclusion. Jesus and the apostles called for the same response. In his first sermon in Acts 2:38, Peter proclaimed: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you...". In his next sermon in 3:19 he pleaded, "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out...". When Paul spoke to Athens in 17:30 he explained God "commands all people everywhere to repent." Preparing to meet God by repenting of sin is central to Christianity. It was John’s message, Jesus’ message, the apostles’ message, and it is still our message.
If you are not a Christian tonight, do you realise that the God we read of in Isaiah 40 is coming? Are you prepared for that? The Bible makes clear that all of us have sinned. We have went our own way, lived our lives according to our own wants and wishes. And one day we will meet this king whom we ignored, resisted, defied. One day we will stand before God and answer for all we have done. How are you getting ready for that? Like children who hear their teacher’s footsteps in the hallway while they are misbehaving in the classroom. Or a guilty criminal watching the judge enter the courtroom to deliver his sentence. Because we have sinned, we know the king coming means judgement is coming. As John puts it in 3:7, God’s wrath is coming, his righteous anger, just punishment of sin is on its way. And unless we repent now, we will experience his wrath then. Be prepared. Get ready. Repent.
In 3:6 we see this is how many responded to John’s preaching: "Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River." Here we see why John was called ‘the Baptist’ at the start of the passage. For those who repented were baptised by him: immersed, dipped, physically plunged into and lifted back out of the Jordan River. As similar symbolic washings were used by other Jewish groups at the time, this would not have been entirely new to the crowds. And yet, with John, the sign took on a new meaning. It symbolised the once-for-all washing away of sin (Acts 22:16) and the clean start and new life that flows from being forgiven by God. It was a public declaration that you had responded with repentance and were part of the people that were prepared to meet this coming king. That you had changed from being a rebel against this coming kingdom to being a citizen of it. That this king was your king. That this Lord was your Lord. Again, as with the call for repentance, we can trace the practice of baptising those who confessed sin from John, through the ministry of Jesus and into the preaching of the apostles. Hence Peter declared in his first sermon in Acts 2:38: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you...". As the New Testament continues, we are taught much more about what this symbol means. And yet, baptism always retains its basic meaning, the simple foundation laid in the ministry of John the Baptist: it is a sign of sins being washed away, forgiven by God. Now, let us stress that it is a sign, it pictures what has already taken place, it does not actually wash away our sins. And yet, from the start of the New Testament, we see it is the first step we take in the Christian life. It is how those who repent declare that they have experienced forgiveness and now follow Jesus. We could say a lot more about baptism, I’d love to speak to you later to consider why some Christians think that baptism is for babies, rather than those who confess their sins, as we see here and practice as a church. But the key takeaway for now is that if you claim to be a Christian, and have not been baptised, then you need to be baptised. We prepare to meet God by repenting of sin. And we pronounce we have done so through our baptism.
2. THE HYPOCRITES – Those prepared to meet God are producing good fruit (3:7-12)
Having observed the overall ministry of John in 3:1-6, Matthew draws our attention to a certain part of the crowd in 3:7-12. In 3:7 we learn this herald had become so popular, even Jewish leaders were coming to hear him. Many Pharisees and Sadducees made their way out into the wilderness, and it seems they were keen to be baptised and join this movement. And yet, when John sees them queuing up at the riverside, as it were, he reacts with what at first seems like an angry outburst. He calls them a brood of vipers, and insists they get out of the queue. He wants them to demonstrate their repentance in their lives before he will allow them to declare it in their baptism. If you think back to how we defined repentance, this makes sense. If part of what it means to repent is to strongly turn away from sin, then it makes sense that those who have repented will show their new stance against sin, and their new relationship with God, in their everyday lives. When true repentance is present in our hearts, then there will be clear results of that in our lives. Repentance is a plant that always produces fruit. When God turns a heart towards himself, he always turns it away from sin. If in 3:1-6 we learnt that we prepare to meet God by repenting of sin. Here in 3:7-12 we learn those who are prepared to meet God will be those who are producing good fruit.
In Ukraine at the moment, there is a lot of deception happening. Across the nation, Russian soldiers are trying to infiltrate towns and cities to sabotage defences, and to do this they are dressing up in Ukrainian uniforms, stealing local vehicles, to sneak in undetected. It’s hard to recognise them as enemy soldiers when they are disguised. And yet, as soon as they open fire, or start destroying defences, you can tell exactly who they are. Why? Because that is what enemies do! Their actions betray their identities. They may say they are Ukrainian, even wear the uniform of a Ukrainian, but as soon as they start acting contrary to the interests of Ukraine, then it becomes clear whose side they are really on. The same is true of each of us. We can say we are Christians, go to church, even belong to a church. And yet, if we are defying the king of heaven in our daily lives, it makes clear whose side we are really on, suggests we are not part of his kingdom, not submitted to him as king. Of course, it is important to remember that Christians will always struggle will sin. But that word struggle itself shows whose side we are on. Further, we should make clear that we are not saved by producing good fruit. No, we do not become Christians through our behaviour, and yet, those who have become Christians cannot help but show in their behaviour. Their lives will show that they are no longer against God’s kingdom, but part of it, for they are obeying a new king.
Do you see that rather than John’s reaction to these leaders being harsh, that it was the loving thing to do? They thought they were safe. You see that there in 3:9, when it is made clear that they are relying on their parents rather than their repentance. Assuming that because Abraham’s blood was in their veins, they did not need his faith in their hearts. And yet John knew, by the fruit of their lives, that they were in danger of the wrath to come. That they had not yet repented. And so he warns them. He holds back baptism to show they had not yet turned to God. And by doing so, tried to stop them deceiving themselves into thinking they were OK. As a local church, we do the same when we decline a request for baptism or membership. Of course, we would love to celebrate a baptism, or have a new member. But if we can’t tell whether they are truly repenting, or have concerns about how they are disobeying God, then the most loving thing we can do is warn them. It may be a hard conversation to have, but it is the right conversation to have. We only hurt people, and the church, by baptising them before they are ready.
No matter what the lips of these leaders were saying, their lives said something else. This would have been news to the crowd. After all, these were their religious leaders! These men had memorised large parts of God’s Word. It takes us a few minutes to finally find books like Malachi and Micah, but these men would just be able to quote whole books like that from memory! Further, their lives would have been seen as models of morality. There was no one as pernickety or precise about obeying God’s law than a Pharisee. And yet, John still demands that they are not living a life that is in keeping with repentance. There are two things we can quickly learn from these men about what a life in keeping with repentance looks like: (1) Not just external. It does not matter how good your life looks on the outside, if you are a slave to sin on the inside. Jesus would later say of these men later in chapter 23 that they were like whitewashed tombs, explaining, "on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." All sin is a defiance of God. As Jesus goes on to explain in chapter 5, lusting with our eyes should be spared no more than adultery. Anger in our hearts allowed no more than murder. (2) Not just the absence of sin. John doesn’t tell them to just go and pull up the weeds, but to produce good fruit. It is our calling as Christians not just to put all sin to death, but to bring all kinds of godliness to life. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control should be blossoming in our lives. Our lives as believers should be akin to a garden. You should be able to walk into any part of it and find fruit of repentance hanging down from the branches. Peek into the bank account section, and see the fruit of cheerful giving. Walk over into the prayer life bed, and smell the sweet aroma of love of God. Walk over into your marriage, and find the sweet fruit of gentleness. Your relationship with your children, the fruit of patience. Or you calling to singleness, and see the world-defying fruit of contentment. Look into your interest history, and see the clear fruit of purity. As Christians who have the Holy Spirit working within us, some of us for decades, we should have enough fruit to fill many fruit bowls. Our lives should be packed with the strong growth, vivid colours, sweet smells and good taste of fruit of repentance, the work of the Spirit in our hearts. That is the kind of holiness these men lacked. That is the kind of holiness we should be striving for. It takes many years to grow a garden. And we never reach perfection in this life. There are always weeds that spring up, thorns to be removed. And yet, when we repent of sin and begin to walk the Christian life, that is the direction we are heading in.
It is to Jesus that John turns at the end of our passage in 3:11-12. We don’t realise this is who John is speaking of until we read on into the rest of the chapter, which we will cover next time. But for now, do you see how remarkable this is. At the beginning of our passage, John is sent as a herald, a prophet to go before the king. He is sent to prepare a way for the Lord. To declare that the kingdom of heaven has come near. And you look to see who is coming behind him, who this Lord and King is, and you see Jesus. Jesus is the coming King. Here John warns us again what this coming will mean. He explains that God’s wrath will finally be revealed. Jesus will be the judge who cuts down and throw into the fire every tree that does not produce good fruit, to use the imagery from 3:10. Or from 3:12, to gather together all of the chaff, the inedible parts of the grain, and burn them up in unquenchable fire. These are strong, shocking images. And as we shall see, they are typical in Matthew. Almost every major sermon in Matthew ends with imagery like this. Reminding us that ‘there is a hell as well as a heaven, an everlasting punishment for the wicked as well as everlasting life for the godly.’ (Ryle)
John says that when Jesus comes there will be judgement. And yet, as we read on in Matthew’s gospel, how glad we are that at this time, in the words of John 3:17, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." O yes, there is coming a day when Jesus will be the judge. When God’s wrath will be revealed against those who have refused to repent. And yet, how glad we are that when God’s wrath was revealed 2000 years ago, it was directed against Jesus. For on the cross he would die in the place of all those who repent from their sins. Yes, one day, Jesus will come to punish, but this time, he came to pay. To bear our sins in his body on the tree. To shed his blood so that that symbol of baptism actually represents something, for it is by the blood of Jesus that our sins can be washed away. The good news of Christianity is that we can prepare to meet God by repenting of sin. Why? Because Jesus died and rose so that all who repent of sin and trust in him can have forgiveness and experience new life.
These words that hold such horror in 3:11-12, also hold much hope. John says that when Jesus comes there will be a different kind of baptism, a more powerful baptism, a baptism of Holy Spirit and fire. For some, that baptism will mean being immersed in the unquenchable fire of judgement. And yet, for others, we see there in 3:12 that they will be gathered into his barn. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be burnt with fire. And yet, what about those trees that produce good fruit? What those who have repented of their sins and trusted in Christ? See here that they will be immersed in the Holy Spirit, indwelt by God himself, given the power to produce good fruit, experience a fire that will not consume them, but refine them, burn off the shackles of sin and move them […].
Be prepared. It is not just a good motto for scouts, it is a good motto for all of us. Are you prepared to meet our God? Here we learn that we prepare to meet God by repenting of sin and that those prepared to meet God will produce good fruit […].
ALEXANDER ARRELL