John the Baptist –
The preacher you hate, but need
Advent 2 A / Matthew 3:1-12
8 December 2013 – Redeemer
You would not have called John the Baptist to be your pastor. Can you imagine his description on the call list? “John is very driven young pastor. He comes from a devout and faithful family and is an only child. He is noted for having short sermons and has baptized hundreds of people, mostly from the wrong side of town. He has alienated all the leaders of his present congregation. He is about to be arrested for threatening a government official with hell. He likes to dress as an Old Testament prophet and his diet consists largely of bugs. His current congregation would be delighted if you would get him of their hands.”
You wouldn’t want John the Baptist, but you need him. All that he did in the wilderness he did to preach Jesus. All that John the Baptist wore and ate and preached he did so that people would live and not die. All that John sought to accomplish at the Jordan is summed up in one word, “Repent” – a word which simply means “change your mind, your heart, your entire life.” He preached that singular word for a singular reason, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Kingdom of heaven is the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ on earth. Jesus would soon arrive at the Jordan where He would be baptized by John. Jesus would soon call the 12 apostles and with them He would begin to preach and heal and cast out demons and raise the dead. Repent so that you might be subject to the reign and rule of forgiveness and life which Jesus alone brings – the sermon is really that short and that simple.
John’s sermon was wildly successful at first. People repented. Lots of people – Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. The Word of God preached by John changed their minds about life – they went into the Jordan river confessing their sins. Before this they thought life was in their pleasures, in their pass times, in their work, in their money, in their families. They had believed, “When I have what I want then I will really be living,” but their hopes and dreams never came to fruition. They had pursued pleasure, wealth, power, but it never satisfied, it never delivered on its promises, it was dead on arrival. The repentant finally realized that life was not in them or in their heart or in their pursuits so when John pointed them elsewhere – to God’s forgiveness, to the cleansing waters of baptism, to the Kingdom of heaven where Jesus Christ reigns and rules with forgiveness of sins, you might say they jumped right in.
John the Baptist succeeded and he failed. If preachers would just know when to shut up and say “amen.” That’s one of the problems with God’s Word. God doesn’t stop speaking when we have had enough. God speaks until His Word does what He sends it to do. When John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” Then John mocks their ancestors and drops the axe on them.
These were the unrepentant. John knew them. The Pharisees were very concerned about appearances. The Sadducees denied the miracles of Scripture and especially the resurrection of the dead. What did these leaders want out in the wilderness? They wanted a little bit of religion. They wanted to appear concerned like everyone else. If this is what people were doing now they wanted to be seen getting baptized as well. What was missing? A change in heart. Their hearts were still firmly fixed on themselves. They weren’t doing this because they were sinners. They weren’t doing this because they believed they needed forgiveness. This wasn’t life or death for them. This wasn’t the difference between heaven and hell. This was simply a little religious exercise which might or might not benefit them. It was simply one more dish at the religious buffet.
So where are you? Do you love the word “repent” or do you hate it? Let’s try it out. Repent. What is your favorite sin – the one you justify and excuse? Repent. What do you love so much you’re willing to lie to acquire it? What is your heart and happiness fixed on? If it is anything other than Christ’s death for your forgiveness repent of your idolatry! What do you complain about – the government? Your needy neighbor? Your husband? Your children? Your parents? Repent of seeing the speck in your neighbor’s eye and failing to see the rotten oak plank in your own eye! Repent. Turn away from it! Run for your life by running from your sin and death. Your love is misplaced. Your feelings are misguided. You’ve been deceived by your own sinful heart. Life is not what you think, what you love, what you feel.
Repent is not an easy word, but here’s the warning – if you don’t like the word repent, you don’t like Jesus. You cannot love Jesus and love yourself. That is why repentance is hard, so hard that you cannot repent by your own will power. You cannot make a decision for Jesus. You cannot give your heart to Him. The Holy Spirit working by the Word calls you by the Gospel, enlightens you with Christ’s gifts, and lays the ax to your life so that cut down you might be raised to life by Christ. John the Baptist preached a sermon. By the Word of God through the Baptist people were brought low, confessing their sins they were baptized and lifted up to life.
Repentance is tied to Jesus. John preaches repentance because Jesus is at hand. God is bringing His heavenly reign of forgiveness and life to earth in Jesus. Jesus is mightier than John, indeed He is the mightiest and He uses His might for us, to do what we could not do. We cannot cleanse our hearts of sin. We cannot stop ourselves from self-love. We cannot choose God over ourselves. So what does Christ do? He sheds His His blood on the cross to cleanse us from all sin. He loves us even more than Himself. He loves us to death. He chooses to be born for us, to live for us, to suffer and die for us, to endure hell for us. He rises for us and by His Spirit in Holy Baptism He chooses us to be His own. This is the reign and rule of Jesus – that under this Prince of Peace and King of Kings you are forgiven, delivered from death, raised to everlasting life. Your life has been turned around, not by your will, but by the will of the Father who sent His Son for you.
Either you live in the waters of baptism or you’re standing on the banks with the Pharisees. Either you are repentant or you simply visit the religious buffet now and then. Either you are dead to yourself and alive in Christ or living for yourself and dead to Christ. Either Christ will gather you to Himself or you will be burned with unquenchable fire. So during Advent John preaches to us, “Repent.” Repent and remember it isn’t your decision – it was God the Father’s decision and He chose you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
7 December 2013 anno Domini