06 Dec 12/8/24 Matthew 3:1-12 “It Doesn’t Get Any Better!”
12/8/24 Matthew 3:1-12 “It Doesn’t Get Any Better!”
We just celebrated Halloween a few weeks back. This is always a very fun time for the children and some adults. They get to dress up in a costume and pretend to be someone that they aren’t. It is a lot like acting and being on stage pretending to be someone else. This whole idea got me thinking and here is the question. Is there anyone you would like to be if you could change places for a just a day? Or, better yet, is there anyone throughout history that you would like to spend an hour or so discussing things? I think that these are great questions to ponder every once in a while. One of the people I would like to talk to for a bit is John the Baptist. I think he might be one of the most fascinating characters in history. Last Sunday our Advent focus was supposed to be hope. Today it is preparation or peace. Let’s see if this passage from Matthew about John the Baptist can help us to prepare for the birth of the Christ Child and give us hope and peace.
A little over a week ago we had one of the most profound days of the year, Black Friday. Now I know that many of you take no part in this annual show of the many bad human traits we possess. I haven’t paid much attention to Black Friday for several years. But if you had watched the news back then, you would find that we had shootings, stabbings and all sorts of stealing going on this wonderful day. There was pushing and shoving. There was grabbing out of other people’s hands. There was stampeding through doors. There were people that camp out hours before the doors open and in this part of the country that is ridiculous. We do all of these terrible things so that we might, might save a dollar or maybe two. As far as I’m concerned, this day is absolute nonsense and it should show us just how far our society has slid down the hill in its worship of the almighty dollar.
Now just hold that picture in your mind, of the greedy behavior found on Black Friday. Then imagine someone coming to, let’s just say West Acres, dressed in clothes that really aren’t the best. They are kind of tattered and he might not look like we want to have anything to do with him. But he comes with the message that you don’t have to go and beat someone up just to get a deal on a toothbrush. You don’t have to knock someone down for the last Barbie doll in the store. All you have to do is go with this man to a store where there are no shortages, no lines and there is no payment. It can all be yours if you just follow. How many people do you think would forgo the pleasure of flattening someone in order to get what they want for free? Remember this guy isn’t on TV so there hasn’t been any advertising. You have to physically hear him and follow him. My guess would be that no one would go. Even John the Baptist did better than this but then maybe his society wasn’t nearly as greedy as ours.
I think there are about 4 things we should notice about this passage. I’m sure that there are more but let’s begin with being ready for the coming of the Christ Child. We just read the passage from Matthew which said, “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’” This is straight from Isaiah and we read it often as we do various Christmas programs. Isaiah was telling them and us about John the Baptist hundreds of years before this took place. This is prophecy. That is like Christopher Columbus foretelling the future today. That is a long time in the past.
Anyway, we know that John the Baptist was a cousin of Jesus. We know that he lived in the wilderness and ate wild honey and locusts. Now I don’t know about you but I think that this must have been one strange dude. We need to realize that the wilderness in those days was thought to be something terrible. It was where ghosts, bad spirits and all sorts of other evil things lurked. No one in their right minds would go into the wilderness and here we have John who was actually living in the wilderness.
And even though John has all these things against him, the crowds come. He must have been preaching the truth. I have read where there were as many as 50,000 people who came to hear John the Baptist. They didn’t come to the wilderness, but they came to the edge of the wilderness which was the Jordan River. There was wilderness on one side of the Jordan and civilized society on the other. They came from the so-called safety of civilization to the very edge of the wilderness to hear a new message because there was something wrong with their lives. There was something missing in their lives.
I think that this is so tragic and yet so true in our society today. We have many, many preachers today who are doing an excellent job of trying to prepare the way for Jesus. We don’t know if He is coming tomorrow or in a hundred years but we have to be ready. Our society in the United States today is like the Jewish society in the days of John the Baptist. Israel wasn’t a Jewish nation during those days but they had Jewish roots. In the same way we aren’t a Christian nation but we have some Christian roots.
Just think of the rude awakening many people will have when they have to face God thinking that they weren’t that bad a person in this life. There will be people who have spent their whole life in church who will be like this. There will be stubborn people who refuse to bow down to anyone or anything who will be like this. There are those who love money and self, more than they love God. All these people and many more are the ones who need preparation. They need to know Jesus on a personal basis. Jesus came to save all people in all nations and He will if you just come to Him.
I shudder when I think of all the people who will be left behind. Many of these people are not to be blamed, they are only ignorant. Many times, the blame for people not getting to heaven will be up here in the pulpit. Preachers, like me, are leading people down the wrong path. Denominations are telling people it is ok to disregard the Bible. But finger pointing and blame won’t matter when you are standing in judgment. It is a decision that you all have to make as individuals. It is up to us to decide what is ‘wheat’ and what is ‘chaff.’ As for me and my family, my church family, my friends, I don’t want anyone to go to the unquenchable fire. Please, come to Jesus today and live!
So how do we stay out of this? Watch this closely as we read in verse 6. “Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” Remember that these people were Jews and they really knew nothing about baptism. This was something that was totally new. They knew nothing about one of the standard practices of our modern Christianity. This could only happen with the help of God and the Holy Spirit. This is how John the Baptist was able to convince these people that the only way to a better life was through the confession of their sins. When we think about this, it had to be a miracle that this wild man from the wilderness could convince anyone to confess their sins.
It is the same way today. However, we do have a church, the Catholic Church, where confession of sin is a common practice. But I really don’t think that is the type of confession that John the Baptist was calling for on the banks of the Jordan. He was calling for total confession of all sins. He wanted the people to confess for the first time. When we think of confession as they have in the Catholic Church, we are mostly talking about upkeep. We need this also. We need to be confessing all the time because we just happen to sin a lot. However, I don’t believe in confession where you purposely go right back to sinning thinking you are ok because you have confessed. We will get back to this concept in a moment.
First time confession happens in today’s world is in places like a Franklin Graham crusade, mega churches and in our homes. It happens in many places all the time. It happens any time the Holy Spirit brings someone to their knees and they know that they cannot make it on their own. Hopefully, it has happened right here in your own churches. First time confession is the place where you give up the control of your life and give it to Jesus Christ. It is an important 1st step because you are realizing that you do not have the power to go it alone. Society doesn’t have the power to go alone. All the people in the world cannot go it alone. They need something and that something is Jesus Christ. Confess to Him today and confess often.
Moving on, often times we like to skip over the part about the Pharisees and Sadducees being a brood of vipers. This is because we like to think that this really doesn’t pertain to us but to some of those other folks. Well, the truth is that if you think this way, then this is indeed about you. If you think about this for a minute, I think you will find that we are all judgmental and therefore this pertains to all of us, me included.
Then John goes on to say that he baptizes with the water of repentance. Repentance! Now there is a word we don’t like. Repentance, in this case, is the act of turning your life around. The people that are hearing John are waiting for the long-awaited Messiah. They are under Roman control that is far more than stifling than anything they had ever seen. Their way of life is not very good. Their hope is all but gone. They really have nothing left. As much as we don’t like the Pharisees and Sadducees, they even sense this hopelessness as they also come to be baptized. These people want change and some of them will get it.
Are we any different? I have come to the conclusion that people of this country are hungry for the word of God and we don’t know it! Our way of life, our society has been smashing down the truth these last few decades. It is almost to the point where we are practically a socialist country and not a free country. We have been taken over by the modern-day Romans and we are oppressed. Personal freedoms are being taken away left and right. The dollar bill, the god of many, is failing us miserably. Everywhere we turn we find more misery and bad times. Our world needs to be redeemed and that comes from repentance.
Repentance comes from the heart. We want our lives to be changed. You need to be willing to turn away from all the bad things you have been doing and try to start out new. Confession alone does nothing unless it is followed by a change in heart. Jesus provides us with this opportunity to start over. Most of the time people think that then they have to start to follow a bunch of rules that will give us a very restrictive life. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. As a matter of fact, and I do say fact, just the opposite happens. When you finally turn to Jesus, you will become free, free for the first time in your life.
It is at this point that you find out that money isn’t that important. You still need money but it isn’t nearly as important as your new relationship with Jesus. It is the same way with your eroding freedoms or any other thing that seems to have taken first place in your life. None of these things are as important as Jesus. So, if you don’t have this wonderful relationship yet or you are unsure, then confess your sins to Him, repent and make Jesus the Lord of your life. You will never regret this and you will feel all your burdens lifted from your shoulders.
The last point I want to make and it is only inferred here is that then you are to do what Jesus directs us to do. All Christians are gifted by the Holy Spirit and you are expected to use these gifts to better the world for Jesus and not better the world for the sake of the world. You always need to keep in mind that faith without works is dead. If you think you have faith but do no works, then you have no faith at all.
All these things may seem to be a little tough but let me guarantee you that they are not. Any type of life with Jesus is far, far better than life without Jesus and that’s a fact, Jack! I love to say that and it is so true. There is a man who many of us know as he used to be a fixture on NFL football games. Pat Summerall was a player and a broadcaster for 50 years with the NFL. He was a great player and a good announcer. What most people don’t know about him was that he was an alcoholic. He was drunk most of the time when he wasn’t working. He finally sobered up and he was baptized. He said he knew when got up from his baptism that something had changed. He had Jesus in his heart for the very first time at age 66. He told of how his life had been so much greater after this event, greater than all his years of being a celebrity. It doesn’t get any better than this.
That is what this passage is all about. Whether you are young or old, it is never too late to confess, repent and come to Jesus. It doesn’t get any better than being with Jesus. This is the tremendous love that He has for you. As I always say, it is a love that never stops. It is a love that we cannot even comprehend. It is a love for you. Thank you, Jesus, for this love that never ends. Let’s pray.
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