Prep for Ministry – Jesus’ Way

In your heart and mind there must be a way prepared to understand and receive Jesus.

If you want to keep your Bibles open, if you’re following along, go ahead and grab your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 3. We’ll be looking at a longer passage today, so it won’t all be on the screen. So, you can turn there now and be ready for that. We are going to do a little bit of a time hop this morning. You ever watched a movie where it starts off, and there’s a little boy or a little girl doing a couple of scenes, and then it fades to black, and then it fades up again, and it says present day, and that little boy or girl is now grown? Well, Luke is going to give us his version of that transition today. Because today we’re going to begin Jesus’ adult life, which is pretty exciting. We’ve made it to that portion. But I don’t want to disappoint you, Jesus does not even appear in our story today. The beginning of Jesus’ adult life and ministry doesn’t begin with Jesus doing anything at all. It actually begins with his relative John. John is the baby who was promised to Zechariah and Elizabeth. You may remember Zechariah as the guy who went mute there for a little while, when he didn’t believe everything that the angel told him. And when John was born, Zechariah started talking again to the astonishment and relief of everyone, probably including Zechariah. And when he started talking, and he started celebrating, he prophesied about his son. And just by way of reminder, remember that he said this, “and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

So, John’s entire ministry will be to go before the Lord and prepare the way. What does that mean? Well, he is going to give knowledge about the salvation of God to the people, and he is going to call them to repent of their sins. He’s going to remind them that this salvation from sins comes from a merciful God. What motivates God to save anyone from their sins is his merciful heart. That’s God’s heart. It’s his merciful heart that moves God to show us his grace. And John will announce that the coming of God’s salvation, it’s going to be like the sunrise. It’s going to be like when the sun comes up and light spills out into the world. It spills out into the dark places and subsequently it bathes in light all those people who have been sitting in darkness. They haven’t been able to see. They’ve been blind. And once they can see, now they’re going to be led into a way that is peaceful, into the way of peace. So, John’s whole job is to get people ready for that. He’s going to lay down the tracks on which the train of that salvation is coming.  My whole goal this morning is that you would have in your heart and mind a way prepared to understand and to receive Jesus. So go ahead, if you have your Bible, go ahead, and turn to chapter 3, that’s we’re going to begin. We’re going to pick it up right at the very beginning of the chapter. “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, 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.” That’s quite a list of names there, wouldn’t you say? This, by the way, is the way you would date something back then. This is the way you dated things. We might say something like back in 2009, and then we would tell the story of what happened back then. But you have to understand that modern numbering of years didn’t start until about 500 years after what we’re reading here now. And so back then, they would date things by the reign of rulers. So, who was ruling? When were they reigning? And you see this throughout the Old Testament. You actually see it throughout the ancient world, that this is the way it was done. The list starts at the top with Caesar and works down to local leaders. And the result of all of these names, if you put it all together and kind of map it all out, the result is that John’s ministry begins in the year A.D. 29. And I’m not going to tell you who all these guys are because there are seven guys listed here. And it would take us a long time this morning. I’m going to leave it to you, history buffs, to go ahead and look up all those names and figure out who those guys were.

Let’s move to what happened, though, during that time. Let’s go to what happened in the wilderness in the region around the Jordan River. The word of God came to John, and he began his prophetic ministry of proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now we have to talk about this baptism because we could pretty easily misunderstand what is happening here. Let me say very clearly that the baptism that John is doing here is not the same baptism that we do as Christians today. Okay? It’s a different kind of thing. John’s baptism is an indication of something that prepares the way for someone to receive Christian baptism. But we no longer baptize for that reason, and so there is no need for it. Let me explain that. John’s baptism is called a baptism of repentance. Repentance is something that the Jewish people would understand very, very well. It was throughout their entire Mosaic law that they’ve lived under the for their entire life. Their whole lives were built on a series of sacrifices that symbolized repentance, the need to go before the Lord and say, I’m sorry for what I’ve done and bring a sacrifice that would cover over that sin. So, the Jewish people, really, really understood repentance. What the Jews did not do is get baptized for repentance. That’s something very new. Priests would wash in water for purification. So, we have Old Testament imagery that points to the use of water for purity. But for everyone to show their repentance through baptism is something very new. So, John’s baptism prepared a person for Jesus’ baptism. Once Jesus was on the scene, John himself realized that Jesus needed to become greater, and he needed to actually to become less. And so, there was a handing off of ministry. And so, John’s baptism actually ceased to be. The Apostle Paul gives us a really helpful explanation of this. In Acts 19 he says, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Do you see the handing off that takes place there? It was for a time, but no longer.

So, then you might be saying, “well, Kyle, if we don’t baptize for this reason anymore, why are we talking about it right now? What is the purpose of even looking at this passage?” Well, it’s because while we no longer need John’s baptism, the heart attitudes symbolized in the act of his baptism is absolutely essential to pave the way for a person to receive Jesus’ salvation today. And that’s what we see in the prophecy. “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 paths 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.'” Have you ever thought about that weird practice that we do where we roll out a red carpet for important people, you know? This is kind of a strange thing we do. Or at least people that think they’re important. Usually it’s just actors, just self-important actors that have to walk down a red carpet. Right? But sometimes you see it with politicians, too. Anyway, the idea is you put down this way, and then that way standing out, shows the importance of the person walking down it. The way itself is not important, but it shows that the person coming through is the one who’s important. It’s preparation of the path that shows the importance of the person. In the ancient world, preparing the way was something that you would do for a king. They didn’t have a lot of roads back then. Romans started to build a lot of roads and a sort of a highway system, but they didn’t have a lot of roads back then. And so, when someone important was coming, there was actually a work project to go out and to prepare a way for this important person. But when the Lord comes, Isaiah says that a lot more is going to be filled than the potholes. In fact, entire valleys are going to be filled in. The space between the mountains is going to be filled. In fact, the mountains have to be brought low because you take the mountain, you flip it over into the valley, right? And you make a level way for the Lord to come. God’s presence will require the topography of the earth to shift in order to receive him properly. So, what is John asking them to do? Is he saying, go get your shovels? We have a lot of work to do here. We’ve got to flatten the world for Jesus to come. Of course, he’s not saying that, but John’s baptism represents the leveling of preparation.

When you see that the coming of Jesus means the entrance of God himself into the world to save sinners, you recognize that you need to look at your sin. You need to acknowledge that it’s not level, that you need to look at yourself, and you need to repent of these sins. We heard Isaiah 40 read earlier. Isaiah said, the Lord is coming to save you, you need to prepare the way. John is now saying, the Lord is coming to save you, you need to prepare the way. And preparing the way means recognizing your own sinful heart and the greatness of the merciful Lord who is coming to save you. That’s what the people who came to be baptized by John were coming to acknowledge. They came to be dipped in the Jordan to show that their heart and their mind were in alignment with their need for the Lord to come and to be merciful to them as sinners. They were leveling the way in themselves for the coming of God’s grace. We don’t get baptized for that anymore. But the truth that you will not understand, the truth is you won’t understand your need for Christ unless you recognize just how deeply sinful you are. You will not understand Jesus unless you properly understand what is going on in your heart and in your mind. You won’t understand your need for salvation if you don’t recognize that you need to turn and repent of your sin before the Lord. Jesus came to bring grace and forgiveness, but you won’t be able to receive him unless you prepare the way with repentance. You know, I actually get a little bit concerned when I hear someone has received Jesus. That’s usually a very good thing. But I get a little concerned when I hear someone says, I have received Jesus because of the new life he provides, or because he’s a comfort during my times of stress, or because he brings blessing into my life, or he has ways of solving problems for me. And by the way, all those things are true. Those are all great things about the gospel. I love those things. But when I hear someone talk about receiving Jesus, and there’s no talk of sin and repentance and turning from sins to obedience, I get a little bit concerned, because I don’t know if that person knows what Jesus came to do. Jesus’ grace is going to provide blessings, but the first blessing it provides is forgiveness for your sin. That’s the first thing that God’s atoning grace does. Until you see the wretchedness and the brokenness and the evil of your heart, and the rebellion that you’ve been waging against God, you are not yet prepared to understand the Gospel and to receive Jesus. I am not saying this morning clean your life up so that God will accept you. That is not the Gospel.  In fact, that’s the opposite of the Gospel. But what I am saying is that you can’t possibly want Jesus to come and clean up your life with his grace if you don’t think that there’s a sin mess there to clean. You have to acknowledge it.

So, what did John tell all these people who were coming out to see him? Verse 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? 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. 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.’ And the crowds asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’ And he answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than you are authorized to do.’ 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.'” That took a turn, didn’t it? Did you expect when you heard about the salvation that God provides, that you’d think, wow, this is going to be really, really positive toward this crowd? I mean, he’s out there trying to do his ministry and all these people are showing up. And you think he’d be like, this is fantastic, so many people coming out here to repent and be baptized. You’d think it’d be very positive. And by the way, salvation is incredibly positive. But what you’re being saved from is incredibly negative. The coming of God’s salvation is a two-edged sword. God is coming to save everyone who repents. But the other side of that is that those who don’t repent, whose hearts are not right, who are not sincere in their understanding of their sin, will not be saved. They’ll be judged for their sins, and they’ll be judged for their sins under the just wrath of God. God’s coming is not good news without his grace. God’s coming is wonderful, but it’s not good news unless it comes with his grace. And his grace is not applied to those who don’t repent. His justice is applied to those who don’t repent. And John knows his audience. You have to understand that’s a big part of why he responds this way. John knows these people that are coming out to them. Says, don’t for a second say to yourself because you’re part of national Israel that you are covered. Don’t say that. That was a big argument. That was a very typical argument back in that day. Hey, I have a great family. I can trace my heritage all the way back to Abraham. I am a Hebrew of Hebrews, Paul will eventually write to the Philippian church, when he’s describing the way, he used to think about himself. I’m one of the top Hebrews in the world. Today that argument sounds like, you know, I’m a good guy from a good family. I went to church my whole life. My mom prays all the time. I was confirmed in the church. My uncle is a pastor. Do you know how many times I’ve heard the “my uncle is a pastor story” from people who say that they are Christians but do not follow Jesus? There’s some comfort in that story for them. There’s some comfort in that identification for them. There’s this strange idea that somehow God is only concerned with the category of person that I am. Let me tell you, God is not concerned with your pedigree. He is not impressed with your status. That’s because he can see past all that status right down to your heart. He knows you. He knows who you are. In John it says, here’s how you can tell when repentance, when true acknowledgement of your sin before God, has reached your heart. That it hasn’t bounced off your status. It’s not been excused away, but that it’s actually penetrated all the way down to your heart. You bear fruits that come from that repentance. That’s another way of saying obedience.

Repentance will create in the heart of a penitent person a commitment to obedience. See, repentance isn’t just acknowledging that you have sin, it is turning from that sin and going a new way. Now, again, there’s something missing here that is vital to the gospel, and we’ll get to that here in just a second. But true repentance is going to bring about a life change that is wildly different from a pre-repentant person. You don’t repent, and then just go about your life in the same direction. If you do, you haven’t actually repented of anything. You don’t just do the same thing that you did before. In fact, if you think that’s sufficient, if you think simply acknowledging and then just going about your life is sufficient, you’ve got a rude and tragic awakening coming when the acts of God’s just wrath over your sin strikes at the root of who you are. That’s what John says here. I hope that you’re asking the same question that the crowd asked that day. What do we do? What do we do? Three times this question is asked in our passage. What do we do? I’m sure it was asked every day of John’s ministry as he was out there preaching. And each group that came to him for an answer to the what do we do question, they got an answer that called them to give up the idols of greed that plagued ancient Israel. And by the way, they plague our society as well. Do you see someone who’s in need, and you have enough to help? Well, then you need to help them. A repentant heart is going to acknowledge that in the past, you didn’t care about people, not like you should, but now you do. When you have a repentant heart, you’re judgementalism toward the plight of the poor plummets, and your love for them skyrockets, and your generosity skyrockets. Because you love people now, because you understand the plight of people, you understand that you were a sinner, saved by grace, and you want to give that grace away to other people. Tax collectors don’t take more than you’re authorized to take. That was a problem back then. Tax collectors were notorious for just taking as much money as they could get away with and paying themselves the price they would steal from people. That’s why Tax Collector was sometimes a synonym for sinner. And tax collectors and sinners, these guys were extorting people. But a repentant heart can’t treat people this way. Again, you love people now. You can’t step on the heads of others to climb your way to riches and have a heart that can receive Jesus. You can’t have both of those things. Soldiers don’t use your strength to take money from people. Instead, be content with your wages. Let me tell you this teaching is equally challenging to everyone. Are you rich? Then don’t extort the poor. Are you poor? Then don’t threaten to extort the rich. Everyone look and see what the other person needs and give it if you have it. See, the repentant heart that’s prepared for Jesus is not making any excuses for sin. You see the world differently now, and you don’t explain away your sin anymore. You’re not constantly excusing it and building yourself up. You’re saying this is a problem within me, and if you make excuses for your sin, you’re not ready for Jesus. You’re not ready for him.

John was so compelling, people started to think that maybe this guy is the Messiah we’ve been waiting for. Verse 15, “as the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 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. 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.'” So, John has caused a stir. People are questioning in their hearts about him, and they’re having some pretty deep questions, actually, about him. People are quietly starting to think in their hearts, is this the Messiah? Is this the one we’ve been waiting for? Is he the Lord who has come to provide the salvation? And no, John clarifies, that’s not who I am. He’s a whole lot less. He’s only there to get people ready to receive the Messiah. Compared to Christ, John says, I’m not even able to untie this man’s shoes. That’s a job no one would do. That’s a job so low even servants weren’t asked to do it. And John says, I can’t even aspire to that role for the Messiah who’s coming. So here’s the difference. John was baptizing people with water. Jesus, when he comes, will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John’s baptism was a symbol of a person’s heart attitude, that he or she is ready to receive the Christ. Jesus’ baptism will be a heart transformation that will come from the filling of the Holy Spirit. And like fire, the Spirit’s presence will purge sin from the life of a believer, and that same fire will consume all those who don’t trust in Jesus. The fire imagery of Jesus’ baptism divides people from each other. We’ll see this later in Luke chapter 12. Jesus talks about a fire that is kindled by him that is going to divide out those who trust in him from those who reject him. And here John is saying the same thing. Jesus’ baptism is going to gather up God’s people like wheat into God’s barn. That’s what he’s going to do. This baptism is going to gather all of God’s people like wheat. And what it also is going to do is it’s going to separate out the non-believing, the false repenting sinners like chaff that will be consumed by fire in the flames of judgment. So let me go back and see this passage all the way through. Okay? Let me just let me go back and summarize this.

Let me see if I can summarize what a truly prepared heart looks like so that you can compare it to your heart. John comes preaching repentance and baptizing for repentance because he’s preparing the way for the Lord to come. The salvation of God is coming. And so, people come out to see this man who is preaching that salvation is almost here, and their hearts need to be ready for it. And John says that they need to get ready by seeing their sin and calling it out for what it is. Don’t make excuses. Call out your sin for what it is. Friends, that’s how we prepare our hearts too. That’s how we prepare too. They get to him by the river. And John says, what are you doing here you brood of vipers, you poisonous people, you hypocrites, who think you can live in sin and yet claim to be God’s people because of who your grandpa is? Because of where you came from? Because you somehow deserve God’s salvation? Because of your status? He says, they have to bear fruit in keeping with this repentance that they say they have. And then he tells them what that looks like. And the people then agree that Christ is coming. And they want God’s salvation from their sin. And they prepare to receive that salvation by getting John’s baptism. And then they become John’s student. And so now what they’re doing, like John, is they’re waiting for the Christ to come too. Now they know they need to be saved from God’s wrath. They need to be gathered into God’s barn. And they know that only God’s grace to them, from the coming Messiah, will do that for them. Let me ask you, is that where your heart is? Is that where your heart is? We’re just looking at this from the other side of Jesus’ coming. You know, they were looking just slightly forward. Jesus was already about to start his ministry. They were looking slightly forward to the cross. We’re looking back 2000 years at the same event. We know that the Messiah is Jesus. So, let me ask you, have you recognized the depth of your sin? Have you recognized the depth of it? Have you thrown out all the false hope that your status or your relative goodness will somehow save you? And if you put your trust in Jesus, and if you’ve done that, praise God. That was a work of God’s grace in you. I know many of you, you love this truth, that because you’ve repented of your sin and you’ve said it’s not me that can save me, that I need Christ to save me, your life has been renewed in that truth. Praise God. It is the securest place you can be to be gathered by Christ into the storehouse of God. It is the most dangerous place you can be to be living in false repentance.

You might be a little thrown by how this passage ends. “So, with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. But Herod, the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodius, 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.” You see where it says he was preaching the good news? You might be thinking, well, how can news that includes God’s judgment be good news? Wouldn’t that have to be mixed news at best? Well, here’s the thing. Good news is that in the face of God’s justice, which we all deserve, all of us, God’s salvation has appeared in the sight of all flesh. That’s the incredible news. Everyone gets to see God’s grace. Not everyone will receive it, that’s true. But understand, no one deserves it. No one deserves God’s grace. It is amazing God saves anyone at all. It is good news that our Creator is a just God who will not allow sin and evil to go unpunished, but who came so that those of us who will receive the grace of Jesus will escape that judgment and be gathered into his family. Well, okay, but if Jesus came to save, and God is so safe, how does John end up in prison? How does that happen? Why did he get that? That doesn’t seem safe or good. Here’s this faithful guy preaching God’s good news, and he ends up in prison. Shouldn’t John just super blessed by God because he’s preaching this good news. He’s doing things faithfully like he’s supposed to do them. You need to understand something. You don’t understand that the people who reject God’s good news, who push away God’s grace, they aren’t neutral toward God. And they’re not neutral toward anyone who would preach this news. They hate them. They hate them, and they hate this gospel. People who love their sin hate the good news of the gospel of Jesus. They don’t want to hear about repentance or judgment or even, by the way, grace.  They don’t want to hear about that either. See, repentance means I’ve done something wrong, and judgment means I’m not going to get away with it. But grace means, I need something that I can’t earn. People who love their sin, they don’t want any of that. Herod Antipas left his wife and married his sister-in-law, and this guy from the wilderness is going to call him out on it? This guy out there preaching, this weird dude eating locusts and honey and stuff. This guy is going to call him out on it? Herod had two choices at this point. He could repent of his sin, make things right, and wait for Christ, or he could shut that guy up. And so, he shut him up. He closed his ears, his mind and his heart to the good news because it was bad news for the sin that he loved.

As I invite the worship team to come here and join on the stage, I want to lay out for you the same two choices. Those same two choices are before all of us. You can shut your ears and your mind and your heart to this good news of God’s salvation for you. You can lock it away and pretend that it has no effect on you, that it does not matter at all for you. Or you can repent. You can see that your sin has made you God’s enemy. He’s not neutral. You’re not neutral toward him. What then shall you do? Turn from your sin and receive the grace of Christ. We’re going to close this afternoon with a little bit of prayer, silent prayer, so that you can go before the Lord and do business. Take some time to go before the Lord and confess and repent of your sin. Church don’t let pride hold you back from that. Don’t let pride hold you back. Don’t lie to yourself and say there’s nothing you need from God, that somehow, you’re justified some other way. You need the grace of Christ. You need the salvation that comes only through Jesus. Let’s pray.