Luke 3:15-20 - Kingdom of Christ

You know, everyone has an idea what they think heaven will be like.

For some, you've studied this a lot and you've studied the scriptures and you've thought a lot about heaven.

Maybe it's because you feel like you're closer to heaven than other people.

Maybe you're just wondering, well, what's next?

What will heaven be like?

For others, you just assume that heaven will be like an eternal church service, or this kind of meal that goes on and on, or this kind of city with gold streets and pearls and all this stuff that we walk on, and there'll be some worship and there'll be some food.

But we don't know a lot about what heaven is going to be like, and we speculate.

We have ideas, or we don't have ideas floating around in our head.

But whatever you imagine heaven to be, I guarantee you, it will be much better than you imagine.

And it'll be very probably pretty different than you imagine.

You know, similarly, the Jews who would read about the coming Messiah, they had an idea of what the king would be like and how he would come and what that kingdom would look like, and what it would be like to be a part of that kingdom.

The Old Testament, the Old, the Hebrew books, they tell us, and they told them that the Messiah was coming, and they told them how and where from and these kinds of things.

But still the Jews would speculate a lot about what that kingdom would look like.

Here in Luke 3, we're starting to see how the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the people, the Jews, were different.

And it brought on more and more questions.

Last time we were in Luke 3, the crowds were asking John the Baptist, what must they do to be cleansed?

And John replied, essentially, saying, Stop living for yourselves.

And then here in verse 15, there's another question that comes up.

Right after the question, stop living for yourselves, and this is how you can be cleansed, verse 15 of Luke 3, as the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ.

Now the other question they were asking out loud.

In this question about the kingdom, they were asking in their hearts, could this be the Christ?

Again, they had known the scriptures, what it would say about a king coming and a Messiah coming.

Could this be him?

Who is the Christ?

That is a powerful question that every person who's looking for the truth and whoever's ever read the Bible has to deal with.

Who is the Christ?

Is it John the Baptist?

That was essentially their question.

Is this the Christ?

Who is he?

In some regards, they knew, as Jews, what the Messiah was coming to do.

Scripture had said he was coming to free his people, to establish his kingdom, to glorify God.

Oftentimes in our own hearts, a similar question of who is the Christ.

Well, for us, it's not as clear.

We're not a first-century Jewish people.

We don't grow up memorizing the Torah, studying the ancient books and traditions.

So for us, we're, some of us are left to figure out this answer on our own.

You go into the world and you begin to ask people, who is the Christ?

You get all kinds of answers, right?

And I would even imagine in this room this morning, we have some of our preconceived notions.

Now, for most of us, we have the Bible, hopefully, we're students of the Bible, and we know what the Bible says who Christ is.

But then there's our own heart.

When I ask you who is the Christ, what's your heart say to that?

Is he the divine ruler over all things?

Is he a judge?

Is he a savior?

A condemner?

A brother?

A king?

In a sense, yes, he's all of those things and more.

But our hearts are often prone to not have the most accurate answer of who Christ is.

That's why we have God's Word, that's why we have the Holy Spirit, and that's why we have the local church.

To refine our thinking so that our emotions don't run away and deceive us.

That, yeah, sure, Jesus is a good person, but he seems pretty harsh.

Or he seems pretty distant.

He seems unrelatable.

Maybe he's a sweet friend, but is he really the sovereign ruler of the nations?

Can he really bring me peace and happiness and hope and joy?

What does our heart say when that question is posed?

Who is the Christ?

Again, the Jews, they would have known from the scriptures who the Christ was, that he was coming.

In Zechariah 9.9, it says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Micah 5.2 says, But you, O Bethlehem, Epaphrah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, the one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

These guys, these gals, they would have had this knowledge of these passages.

And here they are looking at John the Baptist after he's teaching them.

And the question is, is this it?

Is he the Christ?

Is he the Messiah?

John, we know, isn't it dwelt with the Holy Spirit since he was in the womb?

He's not God, though, but he's given insight.

In verse 16, he answers their questions.

So we have these questions about who the Christ is, and then he goes and he begins to tell them about the kingdom of Christ.

John answers them, verse 16.

Answers them all, saying, I baptize you with water.

But he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in the hand in his hand to clear his thrashing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn.

But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

John begins to tell them, one, that he is not the Christ, he's not the Messiah, the Messiah.

He begins to tell them who the Messiah is.

And by doing that, he begins to tell them about his kingdom.

First, the Christ is holy.

He is mightier.

He's holier.

He's so holy that John tells him, I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals.

And they had a saying in Jewish culture then that between a teacher and a student, that a student was so submitted to the teacher he would do anything like a slave for him, except for untie his sandals.

This would have been an act for truly only a slave, someone viewed as subhuman.

To untie someone's sandals was something that Jewish culture would not tolerate.

It was viewed as despicable almost, dirty and filthy.

And so John is using this language to communicate how holy Christ is.

And he says, listen, no, no, no.

I am nothing compared to him.

His holiness is beyond your comprehension.

And he is mightier, and he is holy.

And he will baptize, he will mark off his people, establishing his kingdom through holiness.

And that will be evident through a baptism of the Holy Spirit.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

We know that different church traditions have taken that and done different things with it.

What we believe is that that means when the Lord saves you, he gives you the Holy Spirit.

You've been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

He regenerates your heart.

He takes your old heart of flesh, he takes it out, he puts a new heart of stone in.

He makes you a new creation in Christ Jesus.

You've been baptized through the Holy Spirit in fire.

So your physical baptism into water is to symbolize this reality which's already taken place in you, that you have been baptized into Christ.

You are to be, to belong to him, that you are his.

So what's the fire element of it?

Baptized with the Holy Spirit?

Yes, with fire, it's interesting.

Well, some church traditions think that means that you will then get a second baptism and you'll be able to speak in tongues and do all these kind of unique things.

We don't believe that here at Proclamation Church.

We believe that you receive the Holy Spirit once.

That's when you are, again, converted and saved.

Some people think that John is referring to Pentecost, the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

That the tongues of fire would come onto the disciples.

Most commentators, I think I agree with this, believe that this is referring to our sanctification.

That this is the ongoing work of God in us to sanctify us, to purge away, if you will, our sinful nature, to cleanse us more and more.

So you have this kingdom being established through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Now, in the old covenant, right, God gave his people his law and he gave us the commandments and the temple and all those things.

But he did not give him their indwelling covenant promise that we would have the Holy Spirit like we do in the new covenant.

Here, I just want to list a few examples of what this does for us as believers who are now a part of the kingdom of Christ.

First of all, there's regeneration that comes with this baptism.

As I just mentioned, He baptizes us, brings us into his family.

There's this indwellingness.

Such as a one-time thing.

It doesn't just happen and then you move on and you look back, that was a great moment when I was baptized and the Holy Spirit was with me.

No, the Holy Spirit indwells us, as John 14, 16 and 17 says.

Jesus says, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

If you are a part of the kingdom of Christ, that John is talking about here, you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

He's with you.

We also know having the benefit of this is that we're sealed with Christ.

Ephesians 1, 13 through 14.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Another blessing of being in the kingdom of Christ, having the Holy Spirit, is that the Holy Spirit prays for us in Romans 8, 26 through 27.

Likewise, the Spirit Himself helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray as we ought.

But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what is what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if you by the Spirit put the put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons whom cry, Abba, Father.

Verse 16 the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

So they're looking at John in this story, and they're saying, Is this the Messiah?

Is this the Christ?

And John begins to tell them, No, no, no.

There is one mightier than I.

And he will baptize with the Holy Spirit in fire.

He will begin to establish his kingdom.

He will mark off his people by giving them the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, to indwell them forever.

And so they will be mine and they will mature and grow in their faith, in their understanding, in their obedience.

Another aspect of the kingdom is that there is a judgment.

Verse 17, his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his thrashing floor and to gather wheat into his barn.

But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

There is a judgment that will come.

Wheat is to be gathered.

It's put in the barn to save chaff to the fire.

This windowing fork is kind of like a pitchfork they would use, and they'd kind of throw the wheat up, and the chaff would come out.

The wind would drive the chaff out and then be left with the wheat.

It's a way of separating the wheat and the chaff.

Again, this is just a few verses earlier.

John's talking about judgment, a tree and fruit, good fruit being saved, and trees that bear good fruit saved, and trees that bear bad fruit being cut down and thrown into the fire.

What's interesting is we read all about this kingdom and the regeneration we have in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And we're sealed for the day of redemption, we're prayed for by the Holy Spirit, and we have victory over sin through the Holy Spirit.

And these things are great and exciting and compelling.

And we want them.

But we also are tempted and we want our sin.

We want the thing that brings us comfort or joy for a moment.

We want the thing that we look to to give us significance.

We want to cling to that as we also want to cling to Christ.

We want to be a part of the kingdom, we want to take our kingdom with us into his kingdom.

And that clearly is not the offer.

That's not what Christ has come to do.

When Christ came saying, Listen, you need a savior.

You've fallen in your sin and you will be condemned and you will face judgment.

You need a savior.

Christ is that savior.

But we must forsake the things of this world.

And I know this message of forsaking and clinging to Christ.

Hopefully, if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, definitely for a long time, you've heard this again and again and again.

And you know it as much as I know that every day you face the temptation to cling to the things of this world.

To look at the kingdom of this world and say, it's not too bad.

There's things in this kingdom that I want.

There's things in this kingdom that seem joyful to me or bring me pleasure.

But what we're called to as Christians is to forsake that kingdom.

Cling to Christ and operate in his kingdom.

Because judgment will come.

John then the story here then gives us an example.

Just a little taste of what it means to be in this kingdom.

Verse 18.

So with many other exhortations, John preached good news to the people.

The next verse.

But Herod, the Tetrarch, who had been reproved by him, meaning John, for Herodias, 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.

Seems like a kind of a weird passage stuck at the end of this passage.

Here John's out preaching.

He's proclaiming, calling people to repent and be cleansed.

He's telling people that Christ the Messiah is coming and he's holy and righteous, and he will gather up his people.

They'll be identified as him through the Holy Spirit.

They'll belong to him.

And then what happens to John?

Well, he keeps preaching and then he gets put in jail.

If you know your Bible, you know that this is a little bit later on chronologically, and then he will be beheaded.

John the Baptist's head cut off.

Why?

Because he was preaching the good news.

He was telling people what God's word says.

Herod was having an inappropriate relationship with his brother's wife.

He was tired of all these things.

And so the story goes.

I just want to encourage us this morning, even in though that feels a little dark and heavy, preaching the kingdom is not optional.

If we're going to belong to the kingdom of Christ, we're not given the option.

Well, do you want to be identified with the kingdom?

Or do you want to be a secret citizen of the kingdom?

Do you want to be someone who holds to the scriptures and calls out sin, or would you just want to be kind of in the shadows and not have to worry about those things because your life might get disrupted?

The message of the kingdom of Christ is offensive.

The gospel, church, is offensive.

And sometimes we we just we hear it a lot, and maybe you miss that.

But it's offensive to go to someone and say, listen, do you realize that you are a sinful person?

And you're actually so sinful that you deserve to be in hell for eternity.

Because God is that holy and you have sinned against a holy God.

It's an offensive message.

It's not going to be popular, it never has been popular, it never will be popular.

There might be soft versions that are actually false gospels that get really popular, and people like those because there's no consequences to them.

And the gospel has been taken out of them.

But the message of the kingdom is offensive.

And the cost of following the king can be very high.

It can cost you everything.

And sometimes we say that, like, are you willing to give everything?

Are you willing to forsake all?

Oftentimes, I think we all agree to that, hoping that that won't be required of us.

But I want to encourage you, church, that whatever is required of you, you're a Christian.

Christian, Christ will sustain you.

He will hold you fast.

So you might be thinking, well, I don't know how it would respond if all these accusations came and I was put in prison or my family was taken away or all these terrible things happened.

I don't know how you would respond.

I don't know how I would respond, but I do trust God's word when it says that He will hold us fast, that He will preserve us, keep us.

But on this side of glory, on this side, in the already part of the already and not yet of the kingdom, it might cost us severely.

It might cost us our lives, certainly our jobs, our friends, neighbors, opportunities, people's respect.

It will cost us our comfort.

It will cost us financially to belong to and live in the kingdom of Christ.

But that is worth it's worth it for you and for me to follow Christ, looking at what he's done for us, redeeming us from our sin, saving us, indwelling us with the Holy Spirit.

So when you think about your own life, you think about Christ, is he the sovereign ruler of your days and your nights?

Does he rule supreme over you?

Or are you trying to add Jesus into your life?

Well, you do all the other some good things and you just kind of add Jesus into these things.

What happens in your heart when you behold Jesus?

When you think about Jesus.

Is it kind of like, yeah, Jesus, I know Jesus?

Or does your mind get flooded with feelings of inadequacy and just kind of judgment over these things?

Or are you encouraged that Jesus Christ is real, he's come for you, and he loves you, and he saved you.

Listen, if we don't expect much, usually we don't get much.

If your expectation of Jesus is little, then your experience of Jesus will be little.

If you think, man, Jesus is just here to judge everyone, then that's kind of gonna be your experience with Jesus.

If you think, well, Jesus is just kind of a nice idea that gets people through hard times, that's probably gonna be your experience with Jesus.

The problem is that's not really who Jesus is, and you're missing out.

So even as these people, these the crowd is questioning in their heart, who is this person?

And John tells them, no, no, no.

Listen, the Messiah is to come, and he's mightier than I am, and he's so holy.

You can't imagine how holy he is, and he is coming to baptize, not just not with water like I am, but with the Holy Spirit.

No one else can baptize with the Holy Spirit.

He's gonna baptize with the Holy Spirit, and he's gonna mature his people, he's gonna bring them into glory, he's gonna mark off his people, his kingdom, he's gonna preserve them and save them.

That is the Christ, that is the one to come.

As we know throughout the Gospels, that again and again Jesus came and did miracles, he did healings, he did signs, he spoke the truth.

And often people rejected, turned away.

They continued in their rebellion, their hard-heartedness.

Church, let's be a people.

That when we think about Christ, we're filled with joy and hope.

That we're quick to share that hope with one another in those who don't have that hope.

That we encourage one another, pray for one another.

Let's be a people who fully live in the kingdom of Christ, remembering that we are just strangers and aliens in this life.

That this world should not feel like home.

It should feel foreign, like we're in foreign lands, that we're a foreign people, and we're here on a mission to proclaim the glories of God and to share the good news of the gospel with those around us.

Church, let us be faithful to that.

Let's pray.