Truth: Repentance must be real.
Key verse: Matt. 3:8
Reading Assignment: Matthew 3:1-12
John taught four lessons about Jesus:
1. Readiness: We must be ready for Jesus.
2. Fruit: Those who are truly repentant will show it with real actions.
3. Holy Sprit: Jesus baptizes people with the Holy Spirt. The holy presence of God through His Spirit transforms people from the inside, something John could never do.
4. Judgment: Jesus will come to judge the world with righteousness. As the righteous God, He will deal justly with everyone’s sins. Unless a person repents, Jesus Himself will bring upon them the consequence for their sins and they will face the unquenchable fire of hell.
Genuine repentance produces fruit. This was John’ message that:
1. Those who are truly repentant will show it with their actions (fruit).
2. Those who do not repent will face the judgment of God.
3. Internal change can only come through the Holy Spirit whom Jesus gives to those who repent.
Prayer:
Jesus, I want to be ready for Your kingdom.
I submit to Your word. I no longer want to live my life according to my own ideas and ambitions. I want to live for You as Your worshiper and Your servant.
I want to repent truly. I want to honestly deal with every area of rebellion against You. So, open my eyes to see where I am unrighteous, even where I may be self-deceived. Please show me the sins I need to give up. Show me where I am sinning against Your word so that I can truly repent. I want more than anything to be right with You.
I need Your Holy Spirit’s presence with Me to make me the person You want me to be. I ask for Your help. I have no Savior beside You. There is no one else who can help me to be changed from the inside. I am committed and willing to do my part to learn from Your word. I am asking You to give me every encouragement and power through Your Holy Spirit so that I may become the true worshiper and servant that You deserve.
Transcript
All right. We will pray and we will begin our time together. Let's pray. Our gracious God, thank You.
Thank You for Your rich blessing upon our lives every day. Every day that we have life and breath, even the roof over our heads at all is the evidence of Your continued goodness upon our lives, and our souls know it. Thank You for Your healing hand on Simon's children and all the ways in which You have healed us over and over again and sustained our lives. This is just another evidence of how indebted we are to You that You are God, that You are the sustainer of all of our lives, and that it is true wisdom, therefore, to turn to You with an honest heart of faith and repentance, a heart that seeks to be right with you. We thank You for Jesus, Your Son who came to save all those who are repentant and all who look to Him by faith, seeking Him to be our Savior and Lord. Thank You that He has come for us. He has come to bear upon Himself all our sin that we might be restored to You, to a right relationship with You. And God, I pray that You by Your Spirit would encourage everyone here to walk rightly with You, and that You would fill all their hearts with Your joy as they walk in honest and true relationship with You. To that end we commit this time to You, and we ask that You would bless it. Guide us now, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Today we move on to Matthew Chapter 3 and the reading assignment for this time around will be verses 1 through 12. We are not reading the entire chapter because from verse 13 on, there is a new idea that then spills over into Chapter 4. So it only makes sense to break it off a little bit differently than the chapter breaks in your Bibles. The main truth I want to emphasize today from this passage is this, that repentance must be real. Repentance must be real. The key verse I want to highlight is verse 8. John the Baptist preaches this message, “Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” When John said these words, he meant that repentance must be real, that a person who really seeks to be right with God, if they really are genuine, their lives will show it. Now, John is the one who preached this message as God's prophet, God's final prophet, before the coming of the Messiah Jesus. In fact, this was John's job, to prepare everyone for Jesus's coming. And his message is summarized for us in verse 2. And the words are very familiar because they're just like the words of Jesus: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now, this is not meant to say that John the Baptist and Jesus are exactly the same. Obviously they're not. John was merely a prophet. Jesus is actually the Savior and the Lord. But in terms of their call to people to get right with God, it was still the same message of “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now, that message could be captured in just one word, Repent. That's the imperative. Then the question comes up, “What does it mean to repent?” To repent simply means to turn away from sin and to turn to God, to worship, serve, and to obey Him. Now, the reason why in verse 8 John says “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” is that there were some hypocrites whom John encountered, who were falsely pledging repentance toward God. But they actually were faking this, because when it came to truly dealing with the evil things in their lives, they were quite unwilling to let them go. And so John told them that they actually have to turn away from their evil actions and attitudes. Thus, he preached that they must bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Even as a real fruit tree bears real fruits, so real repentance produces real change. That's the sense here. John was also warning them that if there is no real change and if there is no real repentance, they will face the judgment of God.
Now, the reason why John preached this message was to prepare people for Jesus's arrival. God sent John to baptize people, to prepare them for the Messiah. And so the message of repentance was really a message of preparation for the coming of Jesus. And in many ways, it's no different for us today. Because Jesus is coming again, and we also need to be ready for Him. Having said all that, John's message of preparation was ultimately about Jesus, because it was to prepare everybody for Jesus's first coming. And in this passage, John teaches the people four lessons about Jesus.
The first lesson is what we just talked about that we have to be ready for Jesus when He comes. It has to do with readiness.
The second thing you'll notice when you read the passage is that John emphasizes the need for bearing fruit. Readiness is the first thing you'll see; fruitfulness is the second thing you'll see.
And then thirdly, he'll bring up the Holy Spirit. He distinguishes himself from Jesus by exalting Jesus as someone who is of a higher rank than him. But he also further adds that when Jesus comes He will bring about a real internal change that only comes through the Holy Spirit. And this is where Jesus's ministry and John's are completely different. Of course, there are more differences than this, but this is one major difference, that Jesus not only came to speak God's truth and to call sinners to repentance, but he also came to give His Holy Spirit to God's people. I must also say here that the Holy Spirit is not energy. It's not power. It is God Himself. It is God’s own presence. This is what Jesus came to bring, God's real holy presence into people's lives that can transform them from the inside. This is something John could never do. He could never transform people's hearts. Only Jesus could do that through His Holy Spirit. Therefore, when Jesus rose from the dead, then later ascended into heaven, He kept His promise to send His Holy Spirit. Now, the work of the Holy Spirit is such an overwhelming influence in a person's life that, as John talks about the giving of the Holy Spirit, he describes it as baptism. He says that when Jesus comes, he will baptize people with the Holy Spirit. The idea of baptism is one of immersion. It's where somebody is dunked under water. And so when John said that Jesus baptizes people with the Holy Spirit, he means that the influence of the Holy Spirit will be so visible that they would be as wet as a person is when that person gets baptized or dunked under. You see, when a person gets baptized they cannot be dry. Similarly, when a person has the influence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, they will be unmistakably changed.
He also preached that when Jesus comes, he will also bring judgment upon those who are unrepentant. This is the fourth lesson about the Messiah. There's the readiness. There's the fruit. There's the Holy Spirit. And finally, there is the judgment. Jesus will judge those who do not repent truly. There is no question that Jesus is the most gracious, the most compassionate and merciful person. But He is also God. He is also the God of righteousness and justice. This means He will always be true to His own character and He will hold every person accountable for their sins. By the way, this is the reason why Jesus doesn't just forgive people. He pays the debt for their sins. Because in the justice of God, sin has to be paid for. Either a person pays for their own sins through their own punishment under the wrath of God, or their sins are paid for by a substitute. And the most gracious, compassionate and merciful Jesus, He came to be our substitute on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. But coming back to the issue of judgment, Jesus is the righteous God. Therefore, anyone who is unwilling to repent, Jesus holds them fully accountable for their sins. Everyone who is unrepentant, they will face Jesus as their Judge. And He will deal with them according to His perfect justice. And this means what John calls the unquenchable fire. Jesus will not shy away from sending people to that awful place of eternal torment called hell. Because salvation was available to everyone, He offered it to everyone, and so anyone who refused Jesus and rejected the salvation offer from God, they will suffer the just consequence for their sin in the lake of fire which we know as hell. This may seem like an astonishing statement that Jesus is not only the Savior, but He is the Judge, but this is a resounding message of the Bible. When the Lord comes, He will come with judgment. When Jesus comes again, He will judge all who are unrepentant. And Jesus knows the difference between true repentance and a feigned repentance. And so He will be the most righteous Judge. And of course, the way we can tell whether we are truly repentant or not is whether we are bearing the fruit of repentance, as John preached. At the end of the day, Jesus knows exactly how to dispense justice. He knows who are genuinely repentant or not, and He will judge all who are unrepentant.
These are the lessons John taught about the Messiah. People must get ready for him. This is the readiness. Then he taught about fruit, that those who pledge true repentance, they will bear fruit of repentance. Thirdly, Jesus came to bring the Holy Spirit. And fourthly, Jesus will judge all those who are unrepentant. Of these, the main truth that I wanted to encourage us to think about is that message of bearing fruit, because this is something that we can all do in response to the Lord. And if we be truly repentant, we will experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. And as John explains, repentance must be real. It must bear fruit. We cannot tell Jesus, “I'm committed to following You,” but do nothing to actually follow through with that commitment. To do so would be like a man telling his bride “I do” on his wedding day, but then he goes from there womanizing and seeking other relationships. It turns out his “I do” was as actually a lie. He may have been very emotional and seemingly genuine on his wedding day, but the reality is that there was no real commitment to remain true and loyal. Similarly, repentance is not about emotions and seeming authenticity. It's about real actions that are seen in the way we follow through with our pledge to repent. This means our priorities will be altered. Our decisions will be different.
And when we respond to the Lord with genuine repentance, we will experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit because Jesus came to bring the Holy Spirit and to immerse people under the influence of the holy presence of God. So how do we respond to Jesus with these things? Let me guide us in some prayers. If your heart is repentant before the Lord, I think you can honestly pray your prayer like this. Again, as I said to you the times before, there is no magic in the words. You must pray to the Lord from your heart. If you believe in Him, the words will simply be the vehicle by which you can communicate what is in your heart to the Lord. But a prayer in response to this message of genuine repentance would go something like this.
Jesus. I know You're coming. You are coming to bring Your Kingdom. And when You come, I want to be ready for You. I don't want to be afraid when You come. I want to be ready. And I really believe You're coming, and therefore, I repent in the best way I know how. And Lord, this means I am open to every correction You have for me so that I would be righted with You. I want to be right with You, and so I ask You to show me where I am wrong in my thoughts, in my affections, and in my ambitions. And help me, O Lord, help me to become a true worshiper and a true servant of Yours. In my heart, I am willing to give up anything and everything that is wrong in Your eyes. I want to deal honestly before You with every area of rebellion in me. So please open my eyes to see where I am going wrong, so that I can make practical changes to live a life that is right in Your eyes. I want to repent. I want to be right with you. So please show me. Please show me my sins, those things that are offensive in Your eyes, and lead me in Your righteous path. And I need Your Holy Spirit, I need God's holy presence in my life in a strong, powerful, and immersive way. So, I pray that You would grant me that powerful work of Your Spirit to change me from the inside. To that end, I give myself to You. Amen.
I encourage you to pray something like that in your prayer. And seek to be ready when Jesus comes again. And with that, we'll close our time and we’ll resume again next week. Thank you for joining us and have a blessed weekend, and God willing, I'll see you all on Sunday.