Thank you, Charles. Good morning, everyone. In keeping with the theme of the pulpit, how's
it? Terrible. Sorry. Not many South Africans here this morning. All right. Before we get
into our text this morning, we will be in the Word a lot. So if you want to have your
Bibles with you, we will be looking at the text of Matthew 3 quite a bit. But before
we get into it, let's come to our Father in Prayer. Father, these are indeed your words
given to us, your church. And we thank you that as we pray, as we speak to you, that
these words are not hitting the ceiling, but they're indeed coming before your throne of
grace. This morning we ask that we would see Christ more clearly, that you would show us
by your Holy Spirit in the work of the hearts and minds of your people, just the awesomeness
and the love of our Savior. We ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.
So the book of Matthew has been an incredibly convincing book so far as to why the Jesus
that Matthew followed around for a good part of three years was the expected Messiah of
God. Matthew first showed us this by taking us through the family tree of Jesus and showed
us that he was a descendant of King David, meaning that Jesus was in the right family
to have a claim to the throne of Israel. But not only that, Matthew also showed us how
Jesus was related to Abraham. And we saw that that connection was significant because it
was to Abraham of all the people in the world that God made a promise. And that promise
was that there would come a day when God would bless the entire world through someone in
his family. So just in the opening verses of Matthew's
account of the gospel, he showed us that this Jesus was not only sent to be Israel's king,
but also to be the world's blessing. Interestingly though, Matthew didn't stop there, did he?
No, as we've seen, he started to take us through various prophetic utterances that were fulfilled
in the life of Jesus when he came to dwell among us. For example, in chapter one, Matthew
showed us that Jesus was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin named
Mary in Bethlehem, which just so happened to fulfill a prophetic utterance that was
made 700 years before that event even took place by a prophet named Isaiah. And he also
just so happened to say that when the child would be born, he would be known as Emmanuel,
which means God with us. Then in chapter two, Matthew turned his attention
to a couple more prophetic utterances that were made, in particular by the prophets Micah
and Jeremiah, who said that out of Bethlehem in Judea, which just so happened to be the
very town that King David was born in, that incredible turmoil would come. Yet in the
midst of it all, a shepherd would come out of that place and grow up to rule God's people,
which as we saw ended with Jesus's family fleeing Bethlehem, going to Egypt, and then
immigrating back to a little working class town called Nazareth. And that's kind of where
Matthew left Jesus's childhood. And not much else was said about what happened when that
little family came out of Egypt and immigrated to that little town of Nazareth all those
years ago. Yet in saying that, if we look at the other
evangelists, we can piece together that the child Jesus traveled with his family to Jerusalem
for the annual festivals, meaning that his family weren't just nominally adherent to
the Bible or the church life of their day. Luke tells us that Jesus even blew away the
theologians in Israel because of his grasp on difficult biblical truths before he was
even a teenager. All that to say, what we do know is that Jesus grew up in Nazareth
as the son of a village carpenter, most likely helping Joseph with the family business and
looking after his brothers and sisters, which Joseph and Mary went on to have after the
supernatural birth of Jesus. For whatever reason, church, we don't really know, but
the Holy Spirit thought it wise to not move Matthew to write on the Messiah's childhood.
No, he just jumped straight into telling us the story of Jesus's reparation for ministry,
picking up the story around 30 years after the events of chapter two, which we've been
going through for the last few weeks. So we're going to pick it up there this morning, but
not in Nazareth, mind you, but in a different context, which we're told about in verse one,
which is in the wilderness of Judea. So if you have your Bibles, let's look at chapter
three of Matthew's gospel, looking at verses one and two. In those days, John the Baptist
came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven
has come near. So there's a couple of things that I want you to notice here. We have this
guy called John preaching in the wilderness and his message was about repentance and the
kingdom of heaven. And so I want to slow down here so that we can get what Matthew is showing
us here this morning. So what we're going to do, we're going to do this in a couple
of ways. First, we're going to look at the man that Matthew introduces us to here, this
John the Baptist. And then second, we're going to look at his message. We're going to look
at the message he was preaching in the wilderness all those years ago. Okay, so first, John
the man. Now, Matthew says that he was named John the Baptist, and we're going to look
at why that's the case in just a moment. But notice what he was doing and where he was
doing it. He was preaching. But Matthew mentions that it wasn't in the temple or in the synagogue,
but in the desert of Judah, which is between the Dead Sea and the lower Jordan River. In
fact, where John preached is where the Dead Sea scrolls were found just some years ago,
which are some very, very old copies of the Bible that proves that our Old Testament is
word for word correct with what we have now. And Matthew presents John to us as somewhat
of a wild mountain man preacher, meaning he wasn't ordained by the religious authorities
of the day to get on out there and preach about the good news of the kingdom. Oh, it's
as we read here. John was out there in the wilderness, solo in the desert, in the hot
sun, living off the land, preaching day in and day out to whomever would come and listen
to him. This should remind us of somebody else as soon as we read these verses about
a rugged preacher out there in the wilderness who wore camel's hair and had a leather belt
around his waist, Matthew tells us in verse four. And that's of the prophet Elijah, who
had a very similar ministry and lifestyle as we see in first and second Kings. It's
there that we read that Elijah too was a preacher sent from God to warn Israel of her sins and
had to flee to the desert to live like a mountain man because of the wicked leaders of the day
that wanted him dead. And what makes all of this all the more interesting is the very
last thing that God said through Malachi to Israel almost 400 years before the ministry
of John even started. He said, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great
and dreadful day of the Lord comes, Malachi 4.4. Now that's interesting, right? Here you
have God saying to Israel that there's going to come a day when Elijah is going to rock
up before Yahweh himself comes on the scene. This is where things start to get pretty mind
blowing. You see, Matthew records that upon reflection of John's ministry, Jesus had some
things to say about John to his disciples. If you have your Bibles, you might want to
turn to chapter 11 verses 7 through to 15, but I'll read it for you. Chapter 11 verses
7 through to 15. Matthew writes, as John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak
to the crowd about John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed
by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those
who wear fine clothes are in King's palaces. And what did you go out to see? A prophet?
Yes, and I tell you more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, I will
send my messenger ahead of you, you who will prepare your way before you. Truly, I tell
you among those born of women, there is not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.
Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John
the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and violent
people have been raiding it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and here
we go, this is what's important. And if you're willing to accept it, here's the Elijah who
was to come. Now for some of you here this morning, this might be the first time you're
hearing anything like this. But what Jesus is saying here is that Malachi's prophecy
about Elijah isn't to be taken as a literal reappearance of Elijah or some sort of act
of reincarnation. Now Malachi when understood in light of what Jesus is saying here in chapter
11 means that someone would indeed come before Yahweh himself and he would be exactly like
Elijah. That's how Jesus understood it and that's who Jesus said John the Baptist was.
He was the Elijah to come. So in light of all of that John was more than just a preacher,
right? No, as we see here he was a prophet. In fact according to Jesus he was the greatest
prophet to ever live and one who operated in the likeness and the power of Elijah. If
that's pretty mind blowing, wait till we, wait till what we hear next, verse 3. Matthew
makes a really interesting comment here drawing on Isaiah 40 verse 3 in verse 3 of our text
this morning. And that was that John was he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah,
a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight
paths for him. Incredible, absolutely incredible and I say it's incredible because if we put
all of this together we have a clue as to why Jesus saw John as the greatest prophet
to ever live. It wasn't because he did the biggest miracles or raised the dead or turned
tyrants hearts, no he saw him as the greatest prophet because he was chosen by God to go
to Israel and prepare them to meet Yahweh himself. That's why John was the greatest
prophet to ever live because he was chosen to prepare Israel to meet their God. Okay
so that's a brief look at John and we're starting to get a picture here right church,
with Jesus's understanding of who John was and with Matthew's comment of why John was
sent to Israel drawing on the prophet Isaiah. We can clearly see that this was no ordinary
Messiah that was coming to his people. This was the Lord, this was Yahweh, Israel's God
himself that was coming to his people and John had been sent to Israel to get them ready
to receive him. That's John the man. Now second let's turn our attention to his ministry and
see the details of what he was doing to prepare Israel. Well Matthew as we've already read
in verse 2 said John's overall message was pretty straightforward. It's right there in
verse 2. It was repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Now that word repent
is really interesting because in the Old Testament the word repent was used in a way that meant
about face and to turn from the way that you were going and go back. You're going one way
and you turn and go the other. However the New Testament wasn't written in the Old Hebrew
language but in Greek and the Greek that's used for the word repent is the same word
that we would use when talking about changing your mind. Now this in no way contradicts
but complements the two uses of the word because the overall message of repent is one needs
a change of mind in order to turn back to God. And this is exactly what John was preaching
all those years ago in the wilderness to Israel. He was saying not just with his words mind
you but with his very context his very life that he was living. He was saying we are a
people who are in the wilderness and we need to turn back to God. How? Not by just having
a change of mind about your choices or wanting a better life but by making a decision and
that decision is to turn to God and confess your sin to him. That's what John was preaching
and when people were convinced of that message they would confess their sins says verse 6
and they were baptized. That's what John was out there doing. Preaching all those years
ago he was calling people's attention to the coming messianic kingdom or the kingdom of
heaven as Matthew calls it here and he was calling their attention to the fact that they
were in no way right with God and something needed to change. Preaching people needed
to recognize their sin and renounce and turn from it back to God. Very much like what Elijah
was doing in 1 Kings 18 who said decide today who you are going to follow. That's what John
was doing out there all those years ago. He was preaching to those in the wilderness.
Turn your minds, turn your lives back to the Lord because his kingdom is near. And I want
to say a couple of things here that we find in our text this morning on the kingdom of
heaven and baptism. Church we're going to see the kingdom of heaven come up a lot in
the book of Matthew. I think it's mentioned about 36 times and we're going to explore
it in greater detail as we work our way through this series. But for now what we need to understand
is that the kingdom of heaven understood by looking at the whole of biblical revelation
is that it's the perfect rule and reign of God. It's the perfect rule and reign of God
and by John preaching that the kingdom of heaven was near he was saying that God's perfect
rule and reign was breaking into history in an entirely new way because no longer was
it something to be expected but something that was going to be seen in the hearer's
lifetime which also meant salvation was near. It also meant that salvation had come to Israel.
And I say that salvation had finally come because we see this is why Jesus was born
right? It was as Isaiah said of the Immanuel, he will save people from their sins. Matthew
1.21. So that was John's ministry. He was announcing to Israel that the kingdom of heaven
was near. It was incredibly exciting stuff for those original hearers but I will also
say incredibly terrifying at the same time. You see on the one hand with the kingdom of
heaven coming you have salvation knocking on the door for those seeking it but on the
other hand you have damnation knocking on the door for all those who will reject John's
message and the Messiah. That's what you have in this text happening simultaneously. You
have this prophet sent from God preaching in the wilderness and those who believed his
message about the kingdom of heaven changed their minds and turned to God showing it by
confessing their sins and being baptised and others who were going to be met with the judgement
of God because they refused John's message. I want to stop here and ask the question,
what exactly was this baptism and why was John doing it? What is it and why was he doing
it? We need to remember the context here. John was a prophet in the old dispensation
of things. It's as Jesus said in the text we looked at before, all the prophets and
the law prophesied until John. Meaning John was the last of the Old Testament prophets
who came and pointed the way to Jesus. So the baptism that we're looking at here is
unique to John and the Jews of that time. Meaning this isn't the exact same baptism
that we practice now since the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and how we baptise
people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But that's not to say there's
not similarities because first of all it involved water. Now for us in the church age this is
normal but in those days the only people that would have been baptised would have been Gentiles
who were proselytised. Meaning they had decided to publicly renounce their pagan heritage
with its religious connections because they had put their hope in the God of Israel. That's
who was usually baptised, heathens who had publicly renounced their pagan ways and had
come to trust in Yahweh, the God of Israel and they symbolised the past being washed
clean by baptism. So for the original hearers of John's message it would have been surprising
to say the very least to see Jews getting baptised right? Because basically what they
were showing like the Gentiles were was they were no longer putting their trust in their
heritage or religious works. No by getting baptised they were saying I'm putting my trust
in Yahweh because I know I'm a sinner and I need to be washed clean. And what's significant
here was in doing this their Jewish heritage became nothing to these people. I mean this
is huge because Jewish people believe that simply by being part of the covenant people
of Israel meant you were right before God pretty much from birth. You just had to keep
on keeping on so to speak to remain in good standing. And this is why what John says in
verses 7 through to 10 is so powerful. He says when he saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees coming to where he was baptising he said to them you brutal vipers who warned
you to flee from the coming wrath, produce fruit in keeping with repentance and do not
think you can say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. I tell you out of these stones
God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe 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.
Do you see that? John was saying even to the religious elite of the day it's not what heritage
you come from, it's not what church you go to, it's not even what theological stripes
you bear or denominational lanes you run in. None of that is going to save you. None of
that means anything before Almighty God and none of that makes you right before him. You
must repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And brothers and sisters we too
need to be very very careful of this. We too have to be very careful that we don't put
our trust into the family that we were born into or put our trust in the tradition that
we were raised in and think that we're automatically right with God. The text before us is incredibly
clear. We are not saved by being born into a certain physical family. That's dangerous
and potentially damning if you don't see that. Just because some of us were born into a Christian
family, had a Christian education, maybe were even baptized as babies, that doesn't mean
that you were automatically saved. Family heritage does not make you right before God.
Friends and personal trust in Jesus Christ alone makes you right with God. Please if
you were here today and depending on your works, on your personal righteousness or on
your family heritage for your salvation, then you are here by no mistake. I implore you
to turn from trusting in those things and to trust in Christ alone. I mean this is John's
entire ministry to Israel right? We see it here in our passage before us. We see that
anticipation of the coming Messiah and his kingdom. John preached to Israel and those
that heard and believed confessed their sin and they were baptized. Meaning that people
were out there renouncing their ways and not trusting even in their Jewish heritage. Saying
that those things didn't make them right or righteous before God. That's what these people
were doing. They were confessing their sins and renouncing the things that they thought
had made them right before God and they were turning and relying on the mercy of God alone.
It's a little wonder that Jesus called John the greatest prophet to ever live. Because
he brought such an incredible truth, such amazing news so clearly to Israel. And that
message created a spiritual stir in the ancient world. The likes that have never been seen.
A revival that was so big that people were willing to leave the comforts of their homes,
the work of their farms, the safety of their families to travel out to the middle of nowhere
and confess their sin to God. That everything that they had been relying on, everything
what they thought made them right wasn't enough. Now they needed to renounce all of that and
confess that they weren't righteous. Confess that they couldn't make themselves righteous.
And so as they went out, as they confessed their sin, they were washed in the Jordan,
which was a symbol of purification before the God of Israel. And what is so striking
is what comes next in our text. You have a spiritual revival. You have hundreds, if not
thousands being converted out there in the middle of nowhere. And then we read in verses
11 and 12. John said, I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who
is more powerful than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing
floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Hear that church. Hear what John is saying here. He's saying, look at all of this. Well,
it's just a foretaste of what is to come. Just a glimpse of the reality that the kingdom
is going to bring in. I baptize you with water to signify purifying, but the one coming after
me, well, he's going to do this very thing, but, and this is important that you hear this
this morning. He's going to make you clean. He's going to purify you not with water, but
with the very Spirit of God himself and fire. Now I was hoping to get through this entire
passage this morning, but as I was praying through and writing the sermon, I didn't feel
like we would get everything done here and give the passage justice if we were just to
race past what John is talking about here. So we want to have a look at this a little
bit more in depth and what's coming up in verses 13 through to 17 next week. So as you
may have noticed this morning, this is part one of a two part sermon that I'm going to
do on this passage because John's ministry was so powerful, but it pointed to something
and someone so much greater than himself. And we really want to unpack what's happening
in the coming verses. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to end it here on
a bit of a exciting cliffhanger and next week we're going to get together and we're going
to find out what this fire is, why Jesus came to be baptized by John and why God announced,
why God himself announced to the world why his son had arrived. Because it's going to
set us up for the rest of the book as to why Jesus the Messiah really is the savior, not
just of the Jews, but of the entire world. That he really is the blessing that was promised
to the world all those years ago. But in saying all of that, I think there's something to
be said of John's ministry and something to be said of this passage that is directly applicable
to us this morning and it's this. Like John, we are all called to share the good news of
the coming of the Lord Jesus with other people. That's what we're all called to do. But admittedly,
we're not all like John, right? We can't all go into the wilderness, grow an amazing
beard, dress like, dress and eat like a rugged mountain man and then go hard on all who come
out to hear you. It can be really intimidating just even sitting there with someone and explaining
to them that they've broken God's law, that they're under a curse and that they're going
to spend eternity under the wrath of God. It's really hard to do and even as somebody
who has been set apart to do this very work, I have to confess, it's not easy to share
with people all the time. But brothers and sisters, we know that this isn't all the news
that God has given to us to share. No, we know the good news. And that though we are
under a curse, Jesus Christ has taken the curse for anyone who has put their life in
his hands by confessing and repenting and trusting. It is he who is the lamb of God,
the one who was put forward as a sacrifice for our sins, which is indeed good news. And
if you find that hard to articulate to people, well then let me encourage you here this morning
that we are actually learning the gospel from a letter. And that tells me that the gospel
doesn't always need to be spoken, shouted, preached in the wilderness or on the streets
or even from a pulpit for people to hear, but that the gospel can be shared in all sorts
of other ways. It might be in a letter, it might be in a tract, it might be in a conversation
over coffee. One way that I found really helpful is to sit with someone and to actually go
through the gospel according to Mark with them so that they can wrestle with the very
words of God themselves if they have time. It's a wonderful thing to do. I don't know,
but we are all called to share with others this incredibly wonderful good news. And it
is indeed good news to share as it is the power unto salvation for all who believe.
Brothers and sisters, we are all products of other people's faithfulness. We are all
products of others prayerful consideration for our souls. So let us be prayerful as to
how we might go about this wonderful work in the context that we find ourselves in.
Would you pray with me? Father, we do indeed thank you that we are here this morning. We
are thankful that we don't have to just wait to gather to be together to pray, but we can
indeed go to our secret place, our room, like King David even lay on our bed and call out
to you. But Father, we are so thankful that you have called us out of this world, that
you have gathered us together, that you have placed us not just in this room, but in all
different places all over the world at this very moment. Brothers and sisters crying out,
calling out, preaching, holding Christ high, and that you were pleased to bless that work.
Father, we have a wonderful truth. You have placed us in a wonderful city and we want
to tell those around us. We want to be a city, a light in Armidale. We ask that your spirit
would help us in the work. We ask that your spirit would give us opportunities and courage
and that Father, you have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.
Might we go? Might we explain? Might we not be clanging symbols, but might we do this
all in love, holding you high all the time. And we ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.