A Voice Crying in the Wilderness: Part 1 | Matthew 3:1-17

Thank you, Charles. Good morning, everyone. In keeping with the theme of the pulpit, how's

it? Terrible. Sorry. Not many South Africans here this morning. All right. Before we get

into our text this morning, we will be in the Word a lot. So if you want to have your

Bibles with you, we will be looking at the text of Matthew 3 quite a bit. But before

we get into it, let's come to our Father in Prayer. Father, these are indeed your words

given to us, your church. And we thank you that as we pray, as we speak to you, that

these words are not hitting the ceiling, but they're indeed coming before your throne of

grace. This morning we ask that we would see Christ more clearly, that you would show us

by your Holy Spirit in the work of the hearts and minds of your people, just the awesomeness

and the love of our Savior. We ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

So the book of Matthew has been an incredibly convincing book so far as to why the Jesus

that Matthew followed around for a good part of three years was the expected Messiah of

God. Matthew first showed us this by taking us through the family tree of Jesus and showed

us that he was a descendant of King David, meaning that Jesus was in the right family

to have a claim to the throne of Israel. But not only that, Matthew also showed us how

Jesus was related to Abraham. And we saw that that connection was significant because it

was to Abraham of all the people in the world that God made a promise. And that promise

was that there would come a day when God would bless the entire world through someone in

his family. So just in the opening verses of Matthew's

account of the gospel, he showed us that this Jesus was not only sent to be Israel's king,

but also to be the world's blessing. Interestingly though, Matthew didn't stop there, did he?

No, as we've seen, he started to take us through various prophetic utterances that were fulfilled

in the life of Jesus when he came to dwell among us. For example, in chapter one, Matthew

showed us that Jesus was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin named

Mary in Bethlehem, which just so happened to fulfill a prophetic utterance that was

made 700 years before that event even took place by a prophet named Isaiah. And he also

just so happened to say that when the child would be born, he would be known as Emmanuel,

which means God with us. Then in chapter two, Matthew turned his attention

to a couple more prophetic utterances that were made, in particular by the prophets Micah

and Jeremiah, who said that out of Bethlehem in Judea, which just so happened to be the

very town that King David was born in, that incredible turmoil would come. Yet in the

midst of it all, a shepherd would come out of that place and grow up to rule God's people,

which as we saw ended with Jesus's family fleeing Bethlehem, going to Egypt, and then

immigrating back to a little working class town called Nazareth. And that's kind of where

Matthew left Jesus's childhood. And not much else was said about what happened when that

little family came out of Egypt and immigrated to that little town of Nazareth all those

years ago. Yet in saying that, if we look at the other

evangelists, we can piece together that the child Jesus traveled with his family to Jerusalem

for the annual festivals, meaning that his family weren't just nominally adherent to

the Bible or the church life of their day. Luke tells us that Jesus even blew away the

theologians in Israel because of his grasp on difficult biblical truths before he was

even a teenager. All that to say, what we do know is that Jesus grew up in Nazareth

as the son of a village carpenter, most likely helping Joseph with the family business and

looking after his brothers and sisters, which Joseph and Mary went on to have after the

supernatural birth of Jesus. For whatever reason, church, we don't really know, but

the Holy Spirit thought it wise to not move Matthew to write on the Messiah's childhood.

No, he just jumped straight into telling us the story of Jesus's reparation for ministry,

picking up the story around 30 years after the events of chapter two, which we've been

going through for the last few weeks. So we're going to pick it up there this morning, but

not in Nazareth, mind you, but in a different context, which we're told about in verse one,

which is in the wilderness of Judea. So if you have your Bibles, let's look at chapter

three of Matthew's gospel, looking at verses one and two. In those days, John the Baptist

came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven

has come near. So there's a couple of things that I want you to notice here. We have this

guy called John preaching in the wilderness and his message was about repentance and the

kingdom of heaven. And so I want to slow down here so that we can get what Matthew is showing

us here this morning. So what we're going to do, we're going to do this in a couple

of ways. First, we're going to look at the man that Matthew introduces us to here, this

John the Baptist. And then second, we're going to look at his message. We're going to look

at the message he was preaching in the wilderness all those years ago. Okay, so first, John

the man. Now, Matthew says that he was named John the Baptist, and we're going to look

at why that's the case in just a moment. But notice what he was doing and where he was

doing it. He was preaching. But Matthew mentions that it wasn't in the temple or in the synagogue,

but in the desert of Judah, which is between the Dead Sea and the lower Jordan River. In

fact, where John preached is where the Dead Sea scrolls were found just some years ago,

which are some very, very old copies of the Bible that proves that our Old Testament is

word for word correct with what we have now. And Matthew presents John to us as somewhat

of a wild mountain man preacher, meaning he wasn't ordained by the religious authorities

of the day to get on out there and preach about the good news of the kingdom. Oh, it's

as we read here. John was out there in the wilderness, solo in the desert, in the hot

sun, living off the land, preaching day in and day out to whomever would come and listen

to him. This should remind us of somebody else as soon as we read these verses about

a rugged preacher out there in the wilderness who wore camel's hair and had a leather belt

around his waist, Matthew tells us in verse four. And that's of the prophet Elijah, who

had a very similar ministry and lifestyle as we see in first and second Kings. It's

there that we read that Elijah too was a preacher sent from God to warn Israel of her sins and

had to flee to the desert to live like a mountain man because of the wicked leaders of the day

that wanted him dead. And what makes all of this all the more interesting is the very

last thing that God said through Malachi to Israel almost 400 years before the ministry

of John even started. He said, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great

and dreadful day of the Lord comes, Malachi 4.4. Now that's interesting, right? Here you

have God saying to Israel that there's going to come a day when Elijah is going to rock

up before Yahweh himself comes on the scene. This is where things start to get pretty mind

blowing. You see, Matthew records that upon reflection of John's ministry, Jesus had some

things to say about John to his disciples. If you have your Bibles, you might want to

turn to chapter 11 verses 7 through to 15, but I'll read it for you. Chapter 11 verses

7 through to 15. Matthew writes, as John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak

to the crowd about John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed

by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those

who wear fine clothes are in King's palaces. And what did you go out to see? A prophet?

Yes, and I tell you more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, I will

send my messenger ahead of you, you who will prepare your way before you. Truly, I tell

you among those born of women, there is not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.

Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John

the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and violent

people have been raiding it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and here

we go, this is what's important. And if you're willing to accept it, here's the Elijah who

was to come. Now for some of you here this morning, this might be the first time you're

hearing anything like this. But what Jesus is saying here is that Malachi's prophecy

about Elijah isn't to be taken as a literal reappearance of Elijah or some sort of act

of reincarnation. Now Malachi when understood in light of what Jesus is saying here in chapter

11 means that someone would indeed come before Yahweh himself and he would be exactly like

Elijah. That's how Jesus understood it and that's who Jesus said John the Baptist was.

He was the Elijah to come. So in light of all of that John was more than just a preacher,

right? No, as we see here he was a prophet. In fact according to Jesus he was the greatest

prophet to ever live and one who operated in the likeness and the power of Elijah. If

that's pretty mind blowing, wait till we, wait till what we hear next, verse 3. Matthew

makes a really interesting comment here drawing on Isaiah 40 verse 3 in verse 3 of our text

Isaiah 40:3

this morning. And that was that John was he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah,

a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight

paths for him. Incredible, absolutely incredible and I say it's incredible because if we put

all of this together we have a clue as to why Jesus saw John as the greatest prophet

to ever live. It wasn't because he did the biggest miracles or raised the dead or turned

tyrants hearts, no he saw him as the greatest prophet because he was chosen by God to go

to Israel and prepare them to meet Yahweh himself. That's why John was the greatest

prophet to ever live because he was chosen to prepare Israel to meet their God. Okay

so that's a brief look at John and we're starting to get a picture here right church,

with Jesus's understanding of who John was and with Matthew's comment of why John was

sent to Israel drawing on the prophet Isaiah. We can clearly see that this was no ordinary

Messiah that was coming to his people. This was the Lord, this was Yahweh, Israel's God

himself that was coming to his people and John had been sent to Israel to get them ready

to receive him. That's John the man. Now second let's turn our attention to his ministry and

see the details of what he was doing to prepare Israel. Well Matthew as we've already read

in verse 2 said John's overall message was pretty straightforward. It's right there in

verse 2. It was repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Now that word repent

is really interesting because in the Old Testament the word repent was used in a way that meant

about face and to turn from the way that you were going and go back. You're going one way

and you turn and go the other. However the New Testament wasn't written in the Old Hebrew

language but in Greek and the Greek that's used for the word repent is the same word

that we would use when talking about changing your mind. Now this in no way contradicts

but complements the two uses of the word because the overall message of repent is one needs

a change of mind in order to turn back to God. And this is exactly what John was preaching

all those years ago in the wilderness to Israel. He was saying not just with his words mind

you but with his very context his very life that he was living. He was saying we are a

people who are in the wilderness and we need to turn back to God. How? Not by just having

a change of mind about your choices or wanting a better life but by making a decision and

that decision is to turn to God and confess your sin to him. That's what John was preaching

and when people were convinced of that message they would confess their sins says verse 6

and they were baptized. That's what John was out there doing. Preaching all those years

ago he was calling people's attention to the coming messianic kingdom or the kingdom of

heaven as Matthew calls it here and he was calling their attention to the fact that they

were in no way right with God and something needed to change. Preaching people needed

to recognize their sin and renounce and turn from it back to God. Very much like what Elijah

was doing in 1 Kings 18 who said decide today who you are going to follow. That's what John

was doing out there all those years ago. He was preaching to those in the wilderness.

Turn your minds, turn your lives back to the Lord because his kingdom is near. And I want

to say a couple of things here that we find in our text this morning on the kingdom of

heaven and baptism. Church we're going to see the kingdom of heaven come up a lot in

the book of Matthew. I think it's mentioned about 36 times and we're going to explore

it in greater detail as we work our way through this series. But for now what we need to understand

is that the kingdom of heaven understood by looking at the whole of biblical revelation

is that it's the perfect rule and reign of God. It's the perfect rule and reign of God

and by John preaching that the kingdom of heaven was near he was saying that God's perfect

rule and reign was breaking into history in an entirely new way because no longer was

it something to be expected but something that was going to be seen in the hearer's

lifetime which also meant salvation was near. It also meant that salvation had come to Israel.

And I say that salvation had finally come because we see this is why Jesus was born

right? It was as Isaiah said of the Immanuel, he will save people from their sins. Matthew

1.21. So that was John's ministry. He was announcing to Israel that the kingdom of heaven

was near. It was incredibly exciting stuff for those original hearers but I will also

say incredibly terrifying at the same time. You see on the one hand with the kingdom of

heaven coming you have salvation knocking on the door for those seeking it but on the

other hand you have damnation knocking on the door for all those who will reject John's

message and the Messiah. That's what you have in this text happening simultaneously. You

have this prophet sent from God preaching in the wilderness and those who believed his

message about the kingdom of heaven changed their minds and turned to God showing it by

confessing their sins and being baptised and others who were going to be met with the judgement

of God because they refused John's message. I want to stop here and ask the question,

what exactly was this baptism and why was John doing it? What is it and why was he doing

it? We need to remember the context here. John was a prophet in the old dispensation

of things. It's as Jesus said in the text we looked at before, all the prophets and

the law prophesied until John. Meaning John was the last of the Old Testament prophets

who came and pointed the way to Jesus. So the baptism that we're looking at here is

unique to John and the Jews of that time. Meaning this isn't the exact same baptism

that we practice now since the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and how we baptise

people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But that's not to say there's

not similarities because first of all it involved water. Now for us in the church age this is

normal but in those days the only people that would have been baptised would have been Gentiles

who were proselytised. Meaning they had decided to publicly renounce their pagan heritage

with its religious connections because they had put their hope in the God of Israel. That's

who was usually baptised, heathens who had publicly renounced their pagan ways and had

come to trust in Yahweh, the God of Israel and they symbolised the past being washed

clean by baptism. So for the original hearers of John's message it would have been surprising

to say the very least to see Jews getting baptised right? Because basically what they

were showing like the Gentiles were was they were no longer putting their trust in their

heritage or religious works. No by getting baptised they were saying I'm putting my trust

in Yahweh because I know I'm a sinner and I need to be washed clean. And what's significant

here was in doing this their Jewish heritage became nothing to these people. I mean this

is huge because Jewish people believe that simply by being part of the covenant people

of Israel meant you were right before God pretty much from birth. You just had to keep

on keeping on so to speak to remain in good standing. And this is why what John says in

verses 7 through to 10 is so powerful. He says when he saw many of the Pharisees and

Sadducees coming to where he was baptising he said to them you brutal vipers who warned

you to flee from the coming wrath, produce fruit in keeping with repentance and do not

think you can say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. I tell you out of these stones

God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe 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.

Do you see that? John was saying even to the religious elite of the day it's not what heritage

you come from, it's not what church you go to, it's not even what theological stripes

you bear or denominational lanes you run in. None of that is going to save you. None of

that means anything before Almighty God and none of that makes you right before him. You

must repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And brothers and sisters we too

need to be very very careful of this. We too have to be very careful that we don't put

our trust into the family that we were born into or put our trust in the tradition that

we were raised in and think that we're automatically right with God. The text before us is incredibly

clear. We are not saved by being born into a certain physical family. That's dangerous

and potentially damning if you don't see that. Just because some of us were born into a Christian

family, had a Christian education, maybe were even baptized as babies, that doesn't mean

that you were automatically saved. Family heritage does not make you right before God.

Friends and personal trust in Jesus Christ alone makes you right with God. Please if

you were here today and depending on your works, on your personal righteousness or on

your family heritage for your salvation, then you are here by no mistake. I implore you

to turn from trusting in those things and to trust in Christ alone. I mean this is John's

entire ministry to Israel right? We see it here in our passage before us. We see that

anticipation of the coming Messiah and his kingdom. John preached to Israel and those

that heard and believed confessed their sin and they were baptized. Meaning that people

were out there renouncing their ways and not trusting even in their Jewish heritage. Saying

that those things didn't make them right or righteous before God. That's what these people

were doing. They were confessing their sins and renouncing the things that they thought

had made them right before God and they were turning and relying on the mercy of God alone.

It's a little wonder that Jesus called John the greatest prophet to ever live. Because

he brought such an incredible truth, such amazing news so clearly to Israel. And that

message created a spiritual stir in the ancient world. The likes that have never been seen.

A revival that was so big that people were willing to leave the comforts of their homes,

the work of their farms, the safety of their families to travel out to the middle of nowhere

and confess their sin to God. That everything that they had been relying on, everything

what they thought made them right wasn't enough. Now they needed to renounce all of that and

confess that they weren't righteous. Confess that they couldn't make themselves righteous.

And so as they went out, as they confessed their sin, they were washed in the Jordan,

which was a symbol of purification before the God of Israel. And what is so striking

is what comes next in our text. You have a spiritual revival. You have hundreds, if not

thousands being converted out there in the middle of nowhere. And then we read in verses

11 and 12. John said, I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who

is more powerful than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with

the Holy Spirit and fire. 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.

Hear that church. Hear what John is saying here. He's saying, look at all of this. Well,

it's just a foretaste of what is to come. Just a glimpse of the reality that the kingdom

is going to bring in. I baptize you with water to signify purifying, but the one coming after

me, well, he's going to do this very thing, but, and this is important that you hear this

this morning. He's going to make you clean. He's going to purify you not with water, but

with the very Spirit of God himself and fire. Now I was hoping to get through this entire

passage this morning, but as I was praying through and writing the sermon, I didn't feel

like we would get everything done here and give the passage justice if we were just to

race past what John is talking about here. So we want to have a look at this a little

bit more in depth and what's coming up in verses 13 through to 17 next week. So as you

may have noticed this morning, this is part one of a two part sermon that I'm going to

do on this passage because John's ministry was so powerful, but it pointed to something

and someone so much greater than himself. And we really want to unpack what's happening

in the coming verses. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to end it here on

a bit of a exciting cliffhanger and next week we're going to get together and we're going

to find out what this fire is, why Jesus came to be baptized by John and why God announced,

why God himself announced to the world why his son had arrived. Because it's going to

set us up for the rest of the book as to why Jesus the Messiah really is the savior, not

just of the Jews, but of the entire world. That he really is the blessing that was promised

to the world all those years ago. But in saying all of that, I think there's something to

be said of John's ministry and something to be said of this passage that is directly applicable

to us this morning and it's this. Like John, we are all called to share the good news of

the coming of the Lord Jesus with other people. That's what we're all called to do. But admittedly,

we're not all like John, right? We can't all go into the wilderness, grow an amazing

beard, dress like, dress and eat like a rugged mountain man and then go hard on all who come

out to hear you. It can be really intimidating just even sitting there with someone and explaining

to them that they've broken God's law, that they're under a curse and that they're going

to spend eternity under the wrath of God. It's really hard to do and even as somebody

who has been set apart to do this very work, I have to confess, it's not easy to share

with people all the time. But brothers and sisters, we know that this isn't all the news

that God has given to us to share. No, we know the good news. And that though we are

under a curse, Jesus Christ has taken the curse for anyone who has put their life in

his hands by confessing and repenting and trusting. It is he who is the lamb of God,

the one who was put forward as a sacrifice for our sins, which is indeed good news. And

if you find that hard to articulate to people, well then let me encourage you here this morning

that we are actually learning the gospel from a letter. And that tells me that the gospel

doesn't always need to be spoken, shouted, preached in the wilderness or on the streets

or even from a pulpit for people to hear, but that the gospel can be shared in all sorts

of other ways. It might be in a letter, it might be in a tract, it might be in a conversation

over coffee. One way that I found really helpful is to sit with someone and to actually go

through the gospel according to Mark with them so that they can wrestle with the very

words of God themselves if they have time. It's a wonderful thing to do. I don't know,

but we are all called to share with others this incredibly wonderful good news. And it

is indeed good news to share as it is the power unto salvation for all who believe.

Brothers and sisters, we are all products of other people's faithfulness. We are all

products of others prayerful consideration for our souls. So let us be prayerful as to

how we might go about this wonderful work in the context that we find ourselves in.

Would you pray with me? Father, we do indeed thank you that we are here this morning. We

are thankful that we don't have to just wait to gather to be together to pray, but we can

indeed go to our secret place, our room, like King David even lay on our bed and call out

to you. But Father, we are so thankful that you have called us out of this world, that

you have gathered us together, that you have placed us not just in this room, but in all

different places all over the world at this very moment. Brothers and sisters crying out,

calling out, preaching, holding Christ high, and that you were pleased to bless that work.

Father, we have a wonderful truth. You have placed us in a wonderful city and we want

to tell those around us. We want to be a city, a light in Armidale. We ask that your spirit

would help us in the work. We ask that your spirit would give us opportunities and courage

and that Father, you have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.

Might we go? Might we explain? Might we not be clanging symbols, but might we do this

all in love, holding you high all the time. And we ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.