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Sermon Text: Matthew 3:1-12
Prepare the Way of the Lord:
A Message to Confront and Comfort the Heart
If someone walks up to you and says, “I’ve got good news and bad news,” typically they tell you two different, but maybe somewhat related pieces of news. For example, good news: we had a great Thanksgiving trip up to Mackinac to visit some family. Bad news, our little Josie caught another cold and she’s been in the hospital all week.
But very rarely is the bad news and good news exactly the same news like the message that John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness. “The kingdom of heaven has come near…Prepare the way for the Lord.” Bad news for the sinner and all the wicked is—you can’t stay the way you are! Repent, because the arrival of the holy Judge is imminent and he can’t tolerate your sin. Good news is—the long-promised Messiah is near, righteous and bringing salvation. That message is intended to both confront and comfort the heart of the sinner, in a cycle worked by God called repentance. God wants both things to happen in sequence, and for the initial bad news to be overtaken by good news.
In our text today we’ll see 3 cycles of this message being preached and the various responses it creates, one cycle that works, one that doesn’t, and one that is still pending.
In the first cycle, things go according to plan. John appears in the wilderness, dressed in camel’s skin like an Old Testament prophet, preaching powerfully for people to “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Often in the Old Testament, God used the word, turn or return, to call his people back from the bad direction of idolatry or faithlessness they were heading in. And when they changed directions and turned around, it was indicative of a change of heart they’d had. So John’s call to repent, the Greek word metanoia, called for not just outward change but inward, a change of heart and mind about the sins they were committing in view of two things.
First, the Lord, the holy and righteous Judge is coming, and with him comes judgment, no matter how much Americans don’t like that word, so prepare the Way. John’s word harkened back to Isaiah’s about preparing your heart like paving the road. Dig out the obstacles, fill in the potholes, make the rough ground smooth and level, so that the way is fitting for the Judge of all the earth to come and walk on. John’s message was a confrontation on sin in advance of the Judge who was coming to condemn wickedness and sin. So the word repent is sometimes used in the Bible to emphasize this narrower, law-focused sense, to bring about contrition and sorrow over sins.
But the word repent also has a fuller sense, a good news sense. The Lord, the long-Promised Savior, is coming to you, so let every heart prepare him room. Change your actions, yes, but trust that the one who is coming is the One who will pay double for all people’s sins, so they can be comforted. He’s the one who will slay the wicked and bring his penitent and redeemed people back with him on the royal highway to courts of Zion. Ultimately, it’s good news that the Lord is coming. So the word repent calls for sorrow over sins, but just as much, it calls for faith and trust in God’s mercy and promises. One time Jesus spells out to two parts of the cycle when he says, “Repent and believe the good news!”
We see in the story, John’s preaching had its proper effect. The people were confronted by the message and admitted that it was right and they, their actions and their very lives, were wrong. They confessed their sin, and John invited them to be baptized with water for repentance—to receive a washing for the forgiveness of sins, a washing that would make them clean and ready to meet the Lord when he came near. Cycle 1 of John’s preaching had its proper effect—it confronted and stripped away sin, only to comfort and clothe in forgiveness. This the way in which God wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. And this is the effect he desires in our hearts as we come before him each week and each day to confess our sins, and trust in the word of forgiveness spoken to us. That looks a whole lot like the cycle we begin with each week, called confession and absolution.
On to Cycle 2, which unfortunately doesn’t go quite as well. The Pharisees and Sadducees, two different groups of the Jewish religious leaders, both highly concerned with their image, and with good rule following, come out to the wilderness to see what all the commotion is about. It’s hard to tell whether they had any intention of being baptized for the show of it, or if they just came to keep tabs on John and this new following. But John quickly makes it clear that they’re not out there to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. So he intensifies the confrontation. “You brood of vipers!” (3:7). The notion there is: you’re the offspring of venomous snakes, poisoning and killing people like the original Snake in the garden.
The next question, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” (3:7) is not really so much a question of who told you, but what are you doing here, since you’re clearly not here to confess and repent? God’s work of repentance produces fruit that demonstrates faith, and John could see in their appearance and their intentions, there was no fruit.
So the cycle breaks down. No comfort can be given to the heart that will not bow in sorrow before its maker. So John intensifies the confrontation again, “Do not think you can say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” (Matt 3:9). If you think you can rely on your family pedigree, or your long-time membership credentials, or the appearances you keep up, don’t bet on it. “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (3:10).
Can you feel the holy smoke coming off John’s brow? God does not want it to come to this. He wants the sinner washed clean for forgiveness, but where the self-righteous stand tall before him with no need of forgiveness, and the healthy have no need for a doctor, then the only option is for the law to come like an ax that chops a dead tree down. The spirit and attitude of the Pharisee and Sadducees can take it’s root within us. When we refuse to be confronted by the message, then we also refuse the comfort God wants to give, and the cycle of repentance is broken. No forgiveness, no comfort, no life, no fruit, only a dead tree that needs to be chopped down. And if we are so brazen to think that it can’t happen to us, carry on in unchecked, unrepented sin, and find out what the wrath of God has to say about it.
You can imagine maybe the people out there who had confessed and been baptized just had their jaw drop a little as John brought out the metaphorical ax and started taking down the religious elite. Now in a third and final cycle in the wilderness, John seems to step back from the Pharisee and Sadducees and readdress everyone, including us, in a cycle that is still pending
So Cycle 3 begins with John’s words, “I baptize you with water for repentance. After me comes one who is more powerful than I, who sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (3:11) John was confronting and preparing them now so that when Jesus came, he could comfort them and pour out is Holy Spirit on them in power. John wants all of them on the bank that day, and here today in the pews, tomorrow at your jobs to be ready and waiting, humbled and penitent, baptized and trusting, so that the day Jesus returns to judge will be the day of our salvation. But despite John, and God’s desire, it will be a mixed bag on the last day.
John says, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear this threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (3:12)” The image is, Jesus will take a pitchfork and scoop up the grain that’s been run over and threshed to loosen up the chaff, the dusty useless stuff, and he’ll toss it up in the air. The chaff blows away into the far pile where it waits to be burned up, while the good stuff, the wheat falls down right away and is gathered into the barn of heaven.
John brings the same good news and bad news to you—the kingdom of heaven is near. The Lord is coming. It’s good news for the wheat for the believer, bad news for the unbeliever. It’s a good thing God gives us the message and the means to prepare our hearts and make us wheat that will be gathered on that day. I don’t think you want to gamble on your eternity, playing fast and loose, and putting off God’s work of repentance in your heart. No, today is always the day, and there is never a better time than right now to confess and be comforted, to be crucified and raised, to be baptized and to remember its meaning and it’s power for every day of our lives.
The baptism that John gave for repentance, is not essentially different than what we receive, but now contained in our baptism is the full and complete fulfillment of Jesus’ death and resurrection, all finished and united with the water through the power of his word. So baptism truly offers, gives, and seals to us the forgiveness of sins and also life and salvation. Baptism saves us. It identifies us as wheat while we wait for Jesus to come an gather us into the barn.
This past week at the hospital something quite interesting broke up the gloom of beeps and machines. I was going to get some lunch when I learned big news. Donald Driver was coming to the hospital at 1:15 to greet kids and sign autographs. The hospital was suddenly a stir. All of a sudden there was a lot to do to go get Carissa and Teddy, eat lunch and get back in time to get in line. I hopped on the elevator, hit the button, mind racing, and I looked down to see, “Hey, I’ve already got my Packers pullover on, I wear it like every day in the hospital. I’m ready to meet Donald Driver!”
At that moment, there was no time to go out and buy a jersey. The arrival was imminent! In the same way, God wants us dressed and ready to meet him, clothed in the righteousness of our baptism, not as some sort insurance policy, but as our very identity, the clothes we wear every day. And that day, believe or not, will be much better than meeting Donald Driver. Sure, it may be true that your baptism was done so long ago, you have no memory of it, or maybe it didn’t feel like all that much happened. Yet, the fact of your baptism has meaning for every moment of your life. Martin Luther explained, “Baptism means that the sinful nature in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever” In baptism, we put on Christ, and it makes the Judge’s imminent arrival GOOD NEWS, now and forever! Amen.