3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,1 make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics2 is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;3 with you I am well pleased.”4
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,5 the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Footnotes
[1]3:4Or crying, Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord [2]3:11Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin [3]3:22Or my Son, my (or the) Beloved [4]3:22Some manuscripts beloved Son; today I have begotten you [5]3:27Greek Salathiel
3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,1 make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics2 is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;3 with you I am well pleased.”4
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,5 the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Footnotes
[1]3:4Or crying, Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord [2]3:11Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin [3]3:22Or my Son, my (or the) Beloved [4]3:22Some manuscripts beloved Son; today I have begotten you [5]3:27Greek Salathiel
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
Invite you to open to Luke chapter 2 Luke chapter 2. Actually, Luke chapter 3. Sorry. I just realized that my mic was not muted the entire time I was singing there. I hope it was muted in the back for your sake.
Joel Brooks:
We are continuing our study through the Gospel of Luke, and one that will take us, I don't know, 2, 3, 4 years. We'll get there. Tonight, we're gonna look at John the Baptist, Luke chapter 3. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judah, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, tetrarch of the region of Atura, and Trachonidus and Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of god came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Joel Brooks:
As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. He said, therefore, to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, You, brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
Joel Brooks:
For I tell you, god is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the crowds asked him, what then shall we do? And he answered them, whoever has 2 tunics is to share with him who has none.
Joel Brooks:
And whoever has food is to do likewise. Tax collectors also came up to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do? And he said to him to them, collect no more than you're authorized to do. Soldiers also asked him, and what shall we do? And he said to them, do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusations, and be content with your wages.
Joel Brooks:
As the people were but, but He who is mightier than I is coming. But but He who is mightier than I is coming. The straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn. But the chaff, he will burn with unquenchable fire.
Joel Brooks:
So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. But Herod, the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all that he locked up John in prison. Pray with me, Lord God, we ask that you would honor the very reading of your word that through your spirit, your word would bear fruit into our hearts. Come speak to us now. I ask that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but lord, let your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:
I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. There are certain events that happen that everybody can remember where they were, who they were with, who was in leadership, who was in power, who was president at the time. And, for some, it was the shooting of JFK. For probably for most of us in this room, it was when 9:11 happened.
Joel Brooks:
And we remember all those things, where we were, who we were with, who was president at the time, all these things, because it was such a monumental, important event. And you get the same feeling with John the Baptist here, or, or with Luke here when he writes about John the Baptist. He dates John the Baptist's ministry in 6 different ways. You know, when John came on the scene, it's when it's when he was king, it's when he was tetrarch, it's it's when these two people were high priests, It it made such an impression on him that he dates it 6 ways. Because they had been waiting 500 years for this.
Joel Brooks:
About 500 years earlier, the prophet Malachi had prophesied that the Lord himself was gonna finally come. No more just person coming to deliver Israel. The Lord Himself was going to come, but before He came, He would send Elijah again. Then he had 500 years of silence. 500 years of anticipation.
Joel Brooks:
Then John burst on the scene. And man, what a character. I mean, John was strange in his day. He would have been strange in any day. He he lived out there in the wilderness.
Joel Brooks:
He didn't live in a palace. He he didn't preach in the temple or anything. He wasn't even in Jerusalem. Way out in the wilderness, and he had taken a a Nazarite vow, which meant he would never cut his hair. And so his hair is really long.
Joel Brooks:
Matthew 3 tells us that he wore a garment of camel skin with a leather belt around his waist. He used to eat wild locusts and honey. I kind of picture him as Obi Wan. That's the that really is the picture that I have of him way out there in the wilderness. Just kind of unusual guy and his very appearance told people to repent.
Joel Brooks:
Just his appearance. He wasn't scared of anybody. He would go up to a soldier, and he would say, you need to quit extorting money. Quit bullying people around. Be consent with your wages.
Joel Brooks:
He would go up to the king, and he'd say, you know what? You're in a incestuous relationship, and you need to get out of it. The Lord abhors what you're doing. That one cost him his life. He'd go to the crowds, crowds actually coming to him, actually coming, and he'd say, you brood of vipers.
Joel Brooks:
You snakes. You serpents. Who warned you to flee? Very grateful, very seeker sensitive. But people loved him for it.
Joel Brooks:
People loved him. Josephus, who was a 1st century historian, writes very favorably about John the Baptist and says that that the people loved him as well. The best description that we have of John is the one that, and I think the one that Luke wants us to focus on is the one that comes from Isaiah 40 that he cites here. Look at verse 4. The voice of 1 crying in the wilderness.
Joel Brooks:
I just love that right there. The voice. No personality here. No drawing attention to himself. He's just a voice.
Joel Brooks:
And the message he declared is prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Now, before he was born, the angel Gabriel, when Gabriel told Zechariah that he was going to have a child, he said, your child is going to be the one who prepares the way of the lord. Once John was born, Zechariah, when he prophesied, he said, this is gonna be the child who prepares the way for the Lord. Jesus, when He's looking at John's ministry, He interprets it for everybody and says, this is the one who prepared the way for the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
And here Luke says, this is the one who prepares the way for the Lord. It made my sermon title really easy. All I had to do is just look at this obvious John the Baptist prepared the way for the lord. But what does this mean? Look at verse 5.
Joel Brooks:
Says every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight and the rough places shall become level ways. And now back in the 1st century, there were very few roads, like really paved roads like we have today. A road was just kind of a path that carts, you know, over time, they kind of smooth it out a little bit and you can ride on it. But it certainly wasn't paved. The roads, they had gullies you would go down and they would have boulders that you would have to go around.
Joel Brooks:
It was just part of life. However, if a king was traveling, and not just any king, not a little king like Herod or somebody, but an emperor was traveling. He made roads before him. The emperor would only travel on roads, And what he would do is he would send his herald out, maybe even months in advance, and say, hey, the king is coming to your town. Prepare the way.
Joel Brooks:
Prepare the way for the Lord, and with them would bring engineers, and with them would bring all this money, and they would finance this. And so they would find every gully, and they would bring in dirt, and they bring in rocks, and they would fill it up. The boulders, they would chisel away, or they would somehow remove, so the road wouldn't have to go around it. The roads would be straight and that the people would all come out and they would remove any of the loose gravel, anything that might make the road bumpy because they had to prepare the way for the king, for his visit. All this effort and all this money would be spent.
Joel Brooks:
It it makes me think of I don't know if if you remember, if you lived in Atlanta, you certainly remembered. In 1990, you know, they made the announcement. This the city games or the Olympic games go to the city of Atlanta. And everybody cheered, and they're like, oh, great. Now we gotta spend 1,000,000,000, 1,000,000,000 of dollars, 6 years of going crazy, trying to fix up the city.
Joel Brooks:
Try and trying to fix it up, make it to where, when the kings and the queens and the presidents from all these countries come, it's presentable. And I remember Lauren and I, we got married in 96, came here. I could not find work. I mean, we were newlyweds. I can't find work, started mowing lawns.
Joel Brooks:
I worked for a man called the lawn ranger and, the lawn ranger only paid for himself, and so I was stuck. I didn't have any money. So I actually had to move back to Atlanta. So we're newlyweds, and I had to say goodbye to Lauren, move back to Atlanta, worked 2 jobs. But but all this money was being pumped in there, and I had to try to find a way to get it.
Joel Brooks:
So I worked at stadium stuff of all places, anything to make ends meet. But I was amazed. Atlanta had, had been transformed. Stadiums built. All of these new fresh dormitories made.
Joel Brooks:
You know, all the ugliness that was in the roads before, gone. They're beautiful. They were preparing the way when all the eyes of the world would be looking on their city for when they would be the host of the kings and the queens and the presidents from around the world. It's similar to what's going on here, but this is much, much more because this isn't just any king. This is the king.
Joel Brooks:
This is the King of Kings. When Luke quotes from Isaiah 40, prepare the way of the Lord, the word, the Lord there. If you go back in your Old Testament, you'll find it in all caps. It's the word Yahweh. Prepare the way of Yahweh, which is the personal name of god himself.
Joel Brooks:
This is the name that god revealed to Moses when he said, I'm going to make a covenant with my people, and I'm going to bring them out, of the bondage of Egypt, and we're going to take them out into the wilderness, and they're going to worship me there. I am Yahweh. And Yahweh himself is now coming, and the people better get ready. And John says that when he comes, it's not gonna be goalies that are gonna be filled in. He says, valleys.
Joel Brooks:
The unthinkable. Entire valleys are gonna be filled. It's not just gonna be boulders that are gonna be removed. Entire mountains will be moved at the coming of this king. You've never seen a king like him.
Joel Brooks:
John doesn't see Jesus as just some good teacher, you know, a healer, a good moral man. He sees Jesus as Yahweh. I actually think this is one of the reasons that John goes out into the wilderness to preach and to baptize. Once again, he's going out into the wilderness, and he's calling the people of Israel to come out. Come out from your bondage.
Joel Brooks:
Come to the wilderness and worship the Lord. Just like your forefathers did. Come to the Jordan River. Remember the place that you had to go through to get to the promised land. Come here and be baptized again.
Joel Brooks:
Yahweh is coming. How do you get ready for this new King, for Yahweh? How are the people to get it? How are we? How can we get ready for the Lord?
Joel Brooks:
How can God come to us? That's the question. Well, let's look at what John does. The first thing John does is he baptizes people. Baptism is weird.
Joel Brooks:
No way around it. Baptism is just weird. It's unusual. I remember when I was being baptized at the age of 9, I thought it was weird. I still think it's weird.
Joel Brooks:
If if you're not a believer, if you didn't grow up in a church and you think it's weird, we agree with you, but we do it. We do it because we're commanded to, and it's a beautiful symbol, actually. Our last baptism service was in a hot tub, which was weird, but beautiful. It's a symbol, just like, just like a wedding ring is a symbol. I got this wedding ring.
Joel Brooks:
This is my 3rd one. Not 3rd wife, first wife, 3rd ring. I'd lose them for like $40, and it is dear to me despite me losing it twice. It's it's dear to me. Now the 2 people who picked up my other rings and are doing whatever with them, they would look at it, and they think it's $40 as a piece of junk.
Joel Brooks:
Doesn't mean much to them. And it doesn't mean much to them. But to me, this symbolizes a lot. Symbolizes my marriage with my wife. So baptism is for us as believers.
Joel Brooks:
Yeah. It's just a person going underwater and coming up, but it's a symbol that means a lot to us. It's a symbol of recognizing that God has washed us on the inside. It's a symbol recognizing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We hold to that.
Joel Brooks:
Now, John the Baptist here is preaching, and he is baptizing. And the the word baptism simply means to dip. It was a very common word actually used for washing things. If you're going to wash something, wash your clothes, you went to the river, and you baptized your clothes. A very common term.
Joel Brooks:
John could actually be called John the washer. That's what they would have heard as John the washer down there. And ceremonial washing, baptism was very common in Judaism but the way that John the Baptist baptizes people, washes people is distinct in at least two ways. There's more, but at least in 2 profound ways. For starters, John was baptizing Jews.
Joel Brooks:
He was baptizing Jews. Before it would have only been Gentiles. If, if you were a Gentile and you wanted to be to convert to Judaism, you had to do 3 things. You had to accept the law, agree to that. If you're a guy, there was another thing you had to do.
Joel Brooks:
You had to be circumcised, and then you had to be washed. If you were going to convert from being a Gentile to being a Jew. But here, John is saying, Uh-uh. Don't bring up your Jewish heritage to me. All of you need to be converted.
Joel Brooks:
All of you need to be baptized, not just the Jews. 2nd major difference was that somebody else had to wash you. Now, before John's baptism, if you're converting from a Gentile, to, Judaism, what you would do is you would just get in the water and you would immerse yourself. That's it. But not now.
Joel Brooks:
John the Baptist says, no. No. You cannot wash yourself. It has to be done to you. You've got to come to me and I will wash you.
Joel Brooks:
Now these two differences, they help prepare for the king. 1st, they teach you that you can't depend on your heritage. You can't depend on anything you do. You can't depend on the fact that your parents went to church or you grew up in a church. My mom was a church organist, my dad was a deacon, I grew up in a church.
Joel Brooks:
I would take naps behind the church organ. It doesn't make me any more saved. I needed to be converted. 2nd, you cannot convert yourself. This one's a little harder.
Joel Brooks:
Conversion is something done to you. Just as baptism was now being done to you because see conversion is a changed heart. You can't just say, okay, change my heart. There it is. This is something God has to do for you.
Joel Brooks:
You can't do it on your own. Now, John's message that he preaches reinforces what he has just symbolized in the baptism. Look at verse 7 and 8. Says, he said, therefore, to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers. He warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
Joel Brooks:
Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. It's amazing that he could get away with that. Forcing people to come way out to him, calling them a brood of vipers. These are people coming to be baptized by him, brood of vipers. And then he says, bring forth fruit and keeping with repentance.
Joel Brooks:
He was questioning why they were coming. You know, that term, brood of vipers, the the imagery is this. If there's snakes playing in the grass, you set fire to the snake or to the grass and the snakes leave. I've got a friend who runs an orphanage in India and, and her kids love to play in a field. And one of the things they do is they light the field on fire and they burn it.
Joel Brooks:
So the cobras will leave. Same imagery here. Fire is coming, and now these brood of vipers, they're all, they're all leaving because they know the fire is here. But he says, bring forth repentance. Now, repent is a word that you've got to understand to know what this means.
Joel Brooks:
I know that probably a number of you think, I got it. I I get repent. I've heard it my whole life. It's one of the reasons I hated going to church. Church people annoy me.
Joel Brooks:
You know, it's it's always like you've got to be a better person. You've got to turn over a new leaf. You got to start doing good works. You got to do all these things. You got to repent.
Joel Brooks:
It's not repentance. John is not saying, try harder. Come on. You can do it. Try harder.
Joel Brooks:
Dig in. Notice he makes a distinction between repentance and bearing fruit. He says, now bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance, but it's 2 separate acts. It's not the same thing. Repentance is not now you try to become a better person.
Joel Brooks:
Repentance is not all of a sudden becoming kind or gentle or humble that, no, those are fruits that come later, but they're not together. 2 separate things. Repentance is simply a change of heart. Heart. It means that when your heart's affection was this way, you've turned it and now your heart's affection is this way.
Joel Brooks:
It's a change of heart. It means that the very core of who you are is changed, not just your works. And that's why John says the axe is laid down to the to the root of the tree. The root. The very core of the tree.
Joel Brooks:
That's where the axe is laid. If you have good roots, you're going to have good fruit, but but your roots are full of decay. They're rotting. Now, the problem with all of us is that we have bad hearts. Only God can change this.
Joel Brooks:
All of our hearts are evil. Only God can work a miracle here. And once that happens, God changes our heart from our affections being this way to turning it our affections being this way. We bring forth with us fruits. Lives absolutely changed.
Joel Brooks:
Now Luke calls this message of repentance, good news in in verse 18. So, as many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. It's kind of hard at first when you read that. It's like, that really doesn't sound like good news. But knowing that you need to be converted is good news.
Joel Brooks:
It's really good news because you can't save yourself. It's good news that a king is coming to save you. John says that this king that is coming can even raise up from stones children of Abraham, and that's a good thing because our hearts are hard and they're cold. And what God's saying is he could look at it and he can make us into a child, despite the hardness of our heart, despite there being no evidence of life. All we have to do for this to happen is actually treat Jesus as a king.
Joel Brooks:
I heard Tim Keller tell this story, gosh, probably 10 years ago. He's used it several times. It's about Alexander the Great. Alexander, a lieutenant of Alexander the Great came up to him. This is probably an embellished story.
Joel Brooks:
I like it. It came up to Alexander the Great and said, I, my daughter is getting married. Can I have some money for her wedding? So Alexander said, yes, you can. Go to the treasurer.
Joel Brooks:
He'll give you some money. Ask for whatever you want. It's yours. And so he goes to the treasurer, and he gets his money. And the treasurer immediately runs to Alexander the Great and says, did you know so and so came by to get money for his daughter's wedding?
Joel Brooks:
And Alexander Gray was like, well, yeah. I sent him that wedding. He goes, but he picked he he asked for 10 times more than I've ever given anybody. And Alexander's response was, how wonderful. He's treated me like a king.
Joel Brooks:
A generous and a wealthy king. How wonderful. That's how we need to treat Jesus. He's a generous and he's a wealthy king. And so we come to him, and we recognize, and we say, God, Jesus, you are such a king that even no matter how low my heart is, no matter how deep of a valley it is, you can fill it in, you can make that straight.
Joel Brooks:
No matter how much arrogance and pride I have, you can tear it down. No matter how cold and hard my heart is, you can change it. You are the king. If you spoke the existence of stars into place, you can speak and say, heart be changed, because you were the king. It's good news.
Joel Brooks:
It's great news. Jesus is more generous, more wealthy, more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Now, most of us, we repent from sin like we just made a mistake. You know, guys, they they might lust after some girl, and they're like, dude, sorry. You You know, girl covets.
Joel Brooks:
I'm generalizing, you know, girl coveting after another kitchen or something. And they're like, whoops, sorry about that. And we think it's repentance. No, that's, that's what you say. If you bump somebody in the hallway when you're going by.
Joel Brooks:
Oops. Sorry about that. Not father. I'm sorry. I cost you your son.
Joel Brooks:
He had to go through eternal torment and pain because of what I just did. It's not the same thing. Repentance is a gift that we need to ask God for. It's a gift that we never outgrow. It involves a change of heart, not just confessing a mistake.
Joel Brooks:
Our hearts are changed. And let's quickly look at what repentance looks like. Someone asked John, what shall we do? And John says, well, if you have an extra coat, give it to somebody who doesn't have one. Got some extra food?
Joel Brooks:
Do the same. Notice what John does not say. He doesn't say, okay, well, go to church, pray, read your Bible. The answers that we've typically heard all our life, instead he says, what, what should you do? What are your fruits?
Joel Brooks:
Have compassion on the poor. There's your fruits. This reveals, if you actually believe Jesus is King, your attitude towards the poor. If you believe it. That's how you're going to make ready the path for him.
Joel Brooks:
And I just think if only the church could understand this because, I see the evangelical community, and they're they're going and they're yelling, repent everybody. They'll go to the homosexual community, and they'll say, repent. They'll go to the pro abortion community and they will say, repent. They'll go to the adulterers, repent. The child pornographers, repent.
Joel Brooks:
And meanwhile, they got this huge log in their eye, because they have no compassion for the poor. They could care less about the injustices around them. We need to repent. I mean, let's, let's be honest for most of us in this room. This is not true for everybody, but the recession that's out there simply means that we have to put on hold a bigger or larger flat screen TV.
Joel Brooks:
Or we can't take the vacation. We might have to postpone it for a year, the one that we wanted. That's the recession for most of us, But our pantries and our closets are full. Think of what John is saying to the person asking this question. The king of kings, the Lord of lords, sovereign God of all the universe is coming.
Joel Brooks:
And if you wanna be a part of his kingdom, this is what you gotta do. Okay? Do you have 2 coats? Yeah. Give one away.
Joel Brooks:
Dude, that's like $40. You mean just $40? It's like, yeah. You have some food, extra food? Yeah.
Joel Brooks:
We'll give it away. That's that's like $10. Yeah. But we rebel at it. Isn't it amazing?
Joel Brooks:
We rebel at it. We bow up against it, which is one of the ways I believe John the Baptist is actually preparing the way for the Lord. It's not a hard request, really. When you look at what's at stake, it's not a hard request. You know, if he had said you need to travel around the world twice, we'd go through, okay, maybe.
Joel Brooks:
Here's something simple, but we bow up. And what he's trying to show is your hearts are so dark. You are so enslaved to the things of this world. You gotta let it go. He's revealing to us the depravity of our hearts.
Joel Brooks:
It's a gift. 2 more people come to John and they ask what fruits do we need to bring? The first is a tax collector. John says, don't cheat people. The next is a soldier.
Joel Brooks:
Really, it's a it's a police officer. And he says, well, don't extort people. It's pretty simple. It's really interesting that Luke highlights these 2 people, because John is announcing that there's a new king and there's a new kingdom coming, and here's 2 people who work for the old kingdom. They they have government positions.
Joel Brooks:
And so now they're thinking, new king, there's a new kingdom coming. What do we do? What do we do? Certainly, they're thinking we gotta quit our jobs. And I think there's a lot of people who can relate to these 2 people here, and and you're thinking, you know, my work environment is terrible.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, they're all pagans. Nobody loves God. They're serving money. They're serving power. The almighty dollar is their king.
Joel Brooks:
Do I stay there, or do I leave? What do I do? John tells these 2 people, Be content. Do your jobs well. Be ethical.
Joel Brooks:
Don't leave. Stay there. That's how the kingdom of God breaks into these people's lives. If you do your job to the glory of God, you are paving a road for Jesus to enter in there. Stay there.
Joel Brooks:
That's not the kingdom of God comes. I, I tell people all the time that, you know, you gotta quit thinking of of heaven is, you know, Hallmark cards and little cherubs with wings and harps. And it's a real city, it's real life. People have real jobs and Jesus is the king. And what he's allowing you to do is to stay in your job and he's allowing his kingdom to begin breaking through into your workplaces.
Joel Brooks:
If you try to honor Him there, if you try to glorify Him there, if you do your job well and ethically, you'll be light in that dark place. Let me close by just asking you, as as Jesus come to you, is he real to you? Is he the king in your life? Has he given you a new heart? Has he brought about repentance?
Joel Brooks:
I ask that you would treat him like a king and ask. He's a good and gracious and powerful Pray with me. Jesus, we recognize your kingship. We don't think that it's just a spiritual kingship. We think it is a absolute real spiritual and physical kingship that you already breaking in.
Joel Brooks:
And one day You will come to physically reign. God, now I ask that You would come and that You would reign in our lives. You bring about repentance, from that fruit would flow and that we would make a path, a road prepared for the Lord. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.