Matthew 3: 1-12

Petaluma is not known for having the best roads.   Some of the potholes are so deep you can see light at the bottom of them.  Well not quite.  But there are some deep ones you need to avoid.

Well just imagine some big golf tournament decided to come to Petaluma , like the US Open.   You can believe the city leaders  would somehow find the money to make sure the roads leading to the golf course were good to go.   They’d prepare the way.

That was John the Baptist’s God-given assignment.  He was to go ahead and call the people to prepare the way.    Back then, when news came that your King was coming for a visit, you got busy with your neighbors preparing the road.  You wanted that King to have a good impression of your town.   You didn’t want him raising your taxes.  You wanted him to send the army to protect you from an enemy.  So you got the road ready.

But John did not come to gather a road crew to go out with picks and shovels.   His work was about the heart.   The hearts of people needed to be ready for a very special coming.  So do hearts today, yours and mine included.  For soon we will gather to celebrate the coming of  God’s Son who came to set us free.   And now he comes to us in very special ways.  In the gospel of forgiveness and peace.  In water, where sins are washed away.  In bread and  wine where he gives us himself.  Yes, the Lord comes.    And one day he will come in the clouds

What do our hearts tell us this morning about his coming?  Are we anxious or indifferent?  Are we looking for rescue or not seeing our need?   Are we ready to welcome this King or think we can just do fine without him?

Well even though John  came at a very special time, his work was not really different than the work that goes on today..   God’s messengers  continue to call out:

The Lord is Coming… Prepare the way
I.   With repentance

1. In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” What was John calling for?  Think about it. You’re heading down the road thinking you’re  going to Mendocino.  Everything seems fine until you see a sign that says.  San Rafael  25 miles.  San Francisco 40 miles.  Suddenly you realize things are not fine.  You’re heading south when you should be heading north.

Repent means to see that in your heart and life.  To realize and admit that all too often I have headed in a direction I ought not to go- away from God, against his will for my life.  To repent means to look up from this clueless world and see that’s the big picture of you and me.  And it’s not a pretty one.  God have mercy on me, a sinner.

But to repent means also to zero in on what’s wrong with my life.  If I see a problem to repent means to turn away from it, not ignore it or make excuses.  The repentant heart says, I can’t behave like this any longer because it offends my Father in heaven.

Yet  to repent means more than just recognizing I have a big, bad problem.  It means turning to God for forgiveness.  God have mercy on me, a sinner.

Well John came to point people to God’s forgiving answer. The Kingdom of heaven is near. It was near because the King was drawing near, the Lord Jesus.  And he is drawing near to you. He will soon come  in the good news of his birth for you and me.  We will hear the Christmas angels sing of the peace he brings.  We will remember how this Child came to give us the right to look forward to another day.  When the Lord comes on the last day to judge the living and the dead.

Well how we receive him, makes all the difference.   The Lord is coming…prepare the way with repentance. For then you will truly celebrate his birth for you.  And when you see him come in all his glory on the last day, you will look up into your Judge’s face and see your Savior there.

⁵ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.  But Matthew goes on to say, some others came out to see John.  Others that John did not expect.   In fact, Matthew uses a word that tells us to sit up and take notice of these men who came out with the crowds.  They came to be baptized but they saw no need to repent.

Well listen closely to what John says to them.  He teaches us a lesson about preparing the way.  Beware of misplaced confidence.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.  Boy oh boy!   John told it like it is.  These religious men were supposed to be  showing others the way.  But they saw no need to confess their sins.  They saw no need for God’s mercy.  They thought they were everything God wanted them to be.  John came down on them for their unspiritual attitude.   As far as John was concerned they were the devil’s slithering offspring deceiving themselves and others.  And so he tells them in so many words.  Don’t fool yourselves.

You see, these men prided themselves on being descendants of Abraham with whom God had made a special covenant.  Surely this must make us right with God.  We come from Abraham.

We can do the same if we are not careful.  My church teaches the Bible correctly.  I grew up in a Christian family.  I belong to an orthodox church. Friends, those are true blessings but they do not make us right with God.   The Lord is coming….prepare the way.   Beware of such misplaced confidence.

So John took a firm grip on  the bars of their spiritual prison and rattled them hard. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. God would do that when the gospel went out to us Gentiles.  He would take hearts of stone like ours once were and make them hearts of faith.  For it’s not bloodline that makes people children of Abraham.  It’s when people share the same faith as Abraham, faith in a promise, faith in the One through whom all nations would be blessed.  Faith in the coming Lord, Jesus Christ.

But how easy it is to neglect our faith.  How easy it is set aside those things that strengthen our faith, Bible reading, Sunday worship, our Lord’s Supper.  How easy it is maybe just to keep our head on our  pillow or stay home and drink coffee.  But it wouldn’t be so easy if we truly believed what John said to these men. ¹⁰ The ax 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.

So in a way John is here for us like he was long ago.  Like then, he’s not here to gain a following.   He’s here to prepare the way. He’s here to take the stage only long enough to introduce you to the One God wants you to know.  The Lord is coming… Prepare the way.  Look to him, his messenger urges.

John’ appearance tips us off.  John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. He  wore the plain clothes of an Old Testament prophet like Elijah.  He lived  out in the desert away from the people.  John  wanted his hearers to know.  It wasn’t about him.  It was about the One who would soon come among them. It was about the one who had come to seek and save the lost.

Yet it was John’s message that did the real pointing.. I baptize with water, he said.  In fact, that’s all any pastor can do.  All we can do is apply some water in the name of the triune God.  What gives baptism its power, what makes it a means of grace that brings forgiveness is the Lord who won our forgiveness on a cross long ago and the Spirit he gives.

So look to him, John urged his hearers.   …after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Jesus did that in a powerful way on Pentecost where his saving gospel began its march across time.   So that now 100’s of years later the Lord has come to you in the gospel and saved you by his grace.

So look to him, his messenger urges, whether it be John the Baptist or any other messenger faithful to his calling.  Look to Christ, his messenger urges.  For he will decide your eternity.  ¹² 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.” John paints a powerful picture of the last day.  He compares it to the farmer separating the wheat kernels from the chaff, the husk that we once threw away.  And I suppose what grabs our attention is what  happens to the chaff.  In short, it warns of hell

But let’s not overlook what it also says, what our Lord promises to all who look to him in faith.  At his coming, we will all be gathered like wheat. Those now living. Those fallen asleep in faith.  We will all be brought in from this sinful dying.  The angels will gather us together and we will be with the Lord forever!

So the Lord is coming.  The One born for you.  The One who forgives your sins  The One who gives you eternal hope.  Christian,  Prepare the way.