A
minister told his congregation, “Next week I plan to preach about the sin of
lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17”.
The
following Sunday, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked for
a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went
up.
The
minister smiled and said, “Mark has only sixteen chapters. I will now proceed
with my sermon on the sin of lying”.
Today’s
Gospel reading represents a change from preparing for the Second Coming (which
was the theme of the readings for the First Sunday in Advent) to preparing to
consider the significance of the first coming (which will be the theme of the
readings for the Third and Fourth Sundays in Advent and the readings for
Christmas). John the Baptist’s message spoke of the dramatic coming of God in
the person of Jesus, the presence of God with us in human form. This fits in
with Matthew’s aim of providing positive direction for building and preserving
Christian communities. John the Baptist realized that his work was only the
beginning of the process. The coming of Jesus would be the climax of the
process. John the Baptist realized an important lesson-there is no “I” in the
word “team”.
John
the Baptist was the connection between Jesus’ birth and the ultimate outcome of
Jesus’ birth. The key to that connection is John the Baptist’s call to repent.
The people were lost, aimless and directionless. John the Baptist had to act
like an army drill sergeant because of the importance of his message. He did
not take any foolishness from anyone.
John
the Baptist’s appearance and diet were those of a prophet, in particular the
prophet Elijah. Many Jewish end time thinkers, including Matthew, saw John the
Baptist as a returning Elijah who was to prophesy before the apocalypse. John
the Baptist was out of place. He wore different clothing, ate different food
and lived in a different place. He did all of these things because he was the prophet sent by God to prepare
the way for Jesus. If we want to follow Jesus, we have to be different from the
rest of the world. We have to leave our old way of living to live with Jesus.
In this season of Advent, we are called on to remember Jesus’ first coming and
to prepare for Jesus’ Second Coming. In order to prepare for the Second Coming,
we have to repent.
In
order for us to receive the miracle of John the Baptist’s message, we have to
go to the wilderness, just like the people had to go to the wilderness to hear
John the Baptist’s message. For us, the wilderness is any place where we become
absorbed in God’s powerful presence. The wilderness is a place where we are
totally alone with the ultimate issues of life, death and eternity. In the
wilderness, we hear the voices of John the Baptist and God calling us to
repent. Only then will we be able to see the long-promised Messiah. This ties
in with the original purpose of Matthew’s Gospel. He wanted the Jewish nation
to see in Jesus the long-promised Messiah.
John
the Baptist could sense the true nature of the people who came to hear him
preach. That’s why he called the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of vipers”.
Vipers were snakes that were known for their subtle movements and lethal
strikes. As we see elsewhere in the Bible, this was an accurate description of
the Pharisees and Sadducees. John the Baptist knew that the Pharisees and
Sadducees were not sincere in their desire to repent. They only came to hear
John the Baptist to satisfy their own curiosity.
John
the Baptist’s message has two points. First, we have to have a change of heart
and repent of our sins because God is coming. Second, our actions have to
reflect genuine, changed hearts. John the Baptist urged the people to repent
rather than face God’s harsh, upcoming judgement. He urges us as modern-day
Christians to repent instead of facing God’s wrath. The Pharisees and Sadducees
thought that because they were Jews, or “children of Abraham”, they were exempt
from God’s anger. Abraham did God’s will. God’s good will toward Abraham was so
great that the Jews thought God’s good will would cover their own sins. John
the Baptist argued that this idea was false. The coming of Christ leads to
coming judgment and good things that are coming. Jesus’ coming represented a
move from the old way of doing things (such as the Law) to the kingdom. In
other words, the Jewish Law and all of the associated rules were replaced by
Jesus’ two Great Commandments.
Repentance
also means changing our attitude and changing the way we treat others. When
John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees “vipers”, he was referring
to their self-righteous, “holier than thou” attitude. They did not do anything
more than the Law required when it came to how they treated the poor, widows
and orphans. Their actions did not reflect what they said.
If
we are truly repentant, our words will be reflected in our deeds. True
repentance will lead to peace in our hearts and souls. Those who truly repent will
be refined by God’s desire to transform their lives into missions that show
God’s love to a lost and hurting world.
John
the Baptist’s message of repentance is both good news and bad news. It
proclaims that God’s reign over heaven and earth has come to us. It is time for
us to think about our lives in a new way. It awakens us so we can see things
from God’s point of view. We can prepare for the kingdom by simplifying our
lives. We need to slow down. This can be hard to do in our fast-paced world,
especially at this time of year when there are so many gifts to buy, so many
Christmas events to attend and so many family members and friends to visit. We
need to make time for worship. We need to make time to be baptized by the Holy
Spirit so we can appreciate the true meaning of the season. When we slow down
and worship with fellow Christians, we declare God’s deeds, including coming to
earth as Jesus to do what we could not do for ourselves-namely, reconcile us to
him.
John
the Baptist’s message of repentance is still needed today. There are many
people in the church and the world today who are like the Pharisees and
Sadducees. They come to church in body, but their minds and hearts are
elsewhere. They act like believers, but their hearts are elsewhere. They need
to “turn or burn”. They need to turn toward God in faith or else they will burn
in hell. Our lives have to reflect the faith we proclaim. We need to shut off
the autopilot of our lives and make room for a word from God.
Repentance
also means setting aside anything that is a roadblock to our faith journey. It
doesn’t matter if the roadblocks are internal or external. These obstacles need
to be removed so that we will not need to face the fires of eternal damnation
when Jesus separates the saved from the unsaved. Repentance and faith are
linked in Scripture. Repentance means turning from sin, and faith means turning
to God. John the Baptist and the apostle Paul urged the people to turn to the
Scriptures, and they urge us to turn to the Scriptures today. The Scriptures
give us strength, courage and wisdom to persevere in our walk of faith.
The
Gospel reading from Matthew holds out hope that better things are coming. Jesus
will do good things for those who truly repent and believe in him. He will
restore their relationship with God. True repentance will lead to a true change
in our lives. One day Jesus will return to take all of his followers with him.
Will we be going with him, or will we remain here and face judgment and eternal
damnation? The nearness of the kingdom means that we begin to live kingdom
lives the moment we allow God to be our king-the moment we begin to try to do
what God wants us to do. We do not have to wait until we die and go to heaven
to begin to live our kingdom lives.
We,
like John the Baptist, need to have spiritual discernment so that we will not
be deceived by false teachers and false doctrines. Spiritual discernment will
also allow us to see the truth about ourselves. It will keep us from trying to
make excuses for our sins. God isn’t interested in excuses. He is only
interested only in our true repentance. John the Baptist’s message cuts through
the hype of a secular kingdom to tell the people to change their hearts and
ways, and the same message cuts through our secular society to reach us today.
In
this season of Advent, as we prepare for Christ’s return, we must hear and heed
the call to repentance. It is a life-giving call from a loving Saviour. We must
examine ourselves and cleanse our lives. We must repent because the kingdom is
here with us now. We need to choose to be full-fledged citizens in that
kingdom.
During
the season of Advent, we are called on to look at our souls and clear the way
for the rule and reign of God. This fits in with the nature of John the
Baptist’s mission-a mission of preparation. It is a beginning, not an ending. Our confession of sin and our repentance must
bear fruit. The fruit must not be the basis of our lives. We must point others
to Christ and his life-changing, life-saving work. Only then will we have hope,
which will be much better than the injustice, suffering and violence in the world
around us. There is no better time for
us to change than Advent, when we prepare to celebrate the greatest Christian
gift of all-the birth of the Saviour.
Bibliography
1.
ESV Study
Bible. Part of Wordsearch 10 Bible software package
2.
Lectionary
Homiletics, Vol. XXV, Number 1 (St. Paul, MN: Luther Seminary, pp. 11-18)
3.
Preaching
Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Nashville, TN: Salem Publishing Inc., p. 36)
4.
Jamieson, R.;
Fawcett, A.R.; & Brown, D: Commentary
Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbour, WA: Logos
Research Systems Inc.)
5.
MacArthur,
J.F. Jr.: The MacArthur Study Bible, NASB
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers; 2006)
6.
Jude
Siciliano, O.P., “First Impressions, 2nd Sunday in Advent, Year A”.
Retrieved from www.preacherexchange.org
9.
Dr. Charles
Stanley, “Discerning John the Baptist”. Retrieved from In_Touch_with_Dr_Charles_Stanley@crosswalkmail.com
13. The Rev. Edward Markquart, “A Parable: The City and
the Wilderness”. Retrieved from www.sermonsfromseattle.com
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