But as we come before you, we like to commit Burrell's family
a lot. Into your hands, into your
presence. Well, we pray that you will
comfort them, knowing for sure that your promises are for sure.
It stands forever. The Lord God has promised that
those who are His, those who have died in Christ, will one
day rise again. And those who are yours, Lord,
has gone from this earth, are with you.
And Father God, that's a promise on which we stand.
And we pray, our Lord, that this promise of yours, the word of
God that stands forever, would come for the hearts of burials
family. So we commit them and bring them
before your Lord. And we also pray for whatever
the preparations that are made with regards to the funeral,
with regards to A10 time of Thanksgiving and remembrance
this coming Tuesday. Father, we pray that you would
help them through all of these process, but more importantly,
that they'll draw comfort. They'll draw Lord God in this
time of sorrow to know for sure not only that your word stands,
but burial at the moment is in a better place is with you.
We thank and praise you for that, but we also pray for those
amongst us who are not well. Many are Lord God are suffering
in terms of physical health. Some have gone through surgery
and are in the process of recovery.
Father God, we pray that you be with them, each and everyone of
them, knowing for sure, Lord, that your word says that.
Cast all your cares and worries upon you, that you care for
them. And we pray for that, Lord,
they'll stand on those promises. And so far the God we thank you
then in spite of all what's happening around us that we can
draw comfort on you that our foundation in new issue and its
steadfast and we thank and praise you for that.
And for that this time we also pray for our Sunday School kids
as they go to their respective Sunday school classes that you
will bless all the little children a lot.
And the teachers were especially those who have committed their
time and were involved in this wonderful ministry.
Father, we pray for your blessings upon them too.
We pray for every kid who Lord in our church here that as I
hear the word of God, that your word the Lord would stand sure
in their lives that they'll grow up one day with tremendous men
and women for the Lord. We also pray at this time that
as your word is brought by Billy, Father God, we pray that
your word would not return void. We pray our Lord God, that you
will open our hearts to receive your word.
And so we commit this time once again into your hands and save
your precious. And in his worthy name we pray,
I mean. Thank you, Peter, as the kids
hit out for Sunday school, would you open with me to loop Chapter
3, Luke Chapter 3 as we continue going through the book of Luke?
Well, we're gonna read the passage and then we will jump
into it together. This is the Word of God.
Luke chapter 3, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius.
Caesar punches Pilot being the governor of Judea, and Herod
being tit track of Galilee and his brother Phillip tit track of
the region of Iturria, and Trigonitis in Lithuania's
Tetrick of Abilene during the high priesthood of Ennis and
Caiphus. It will get easier from there, I
promise. The Word of God came to John the
son of Zechariah in the wilderness, and he went into all
of the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins 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, every mountain shall be made
low, the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places
shall become live always, and all flesh shall see the
salvation of God. He said therefore to the crowds
that came out to be baptised 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 from Abraham. Even now the Acts is laid to the
root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does
not bear good fruit, as 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 baptised by him and said,
teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, collect no
more than you're authorised 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
as the people ruined. We're in expectation.
And all were questioning in their hearts concerning John
whether he might be the Christ. John answered them, saying, I
baptise you with water, but he who was mightier than I is
coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to
untie. He will baptise you with the
Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his
hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into
his barn. But the chef, he will burn with
unquenchable fire. So with many other exhortations,
he preached good news to the people.
But here are the Tetrarch who'd been reproved by him for
Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that
Kieran had done, added this to them all, and he locked up John
in prison. This is the word of the Lord.
Well, we are continuing our journey through this letter,
this gospel written by Luke, and it's written to this man named
Theophilus. So we've been talking about that
as we've been going through to give Theophilus certainty.
So by all means, he was a, he was an outsider.
He wasn't a Jew, he was a Gentile.
And this is a written account, an orderly account of the life
of Jesus Christ to give Theophilus certainty about who
Jesus Christ is and about the Christian message and the
Christian faith. And so because of that, I guess
as we've been journeying through Luke, we've been asking some
really foundational questions. So far we've asked the question,
hey, who is Jesus? How does the birth of Christ,
How does the childhood of Christ tell us about who Jesus Christ
is? We're asking the question, what
is God doing in the world? What is God's plan to make
everything right? We look around, we see things
are not right. What's got actually doing?
And when we come to this passage this morning, we're coming to
another very foundational question, a question that really
comes to the foundation of Christianity.
So this morning I'll just say to you, if if you've come and
you're seeking you, you don't know Christ, maybe you're you're
curious, you're interested. What John has to say is, is a
message for you. It is foundational, but also for
for those of us who know Christ, this is one that really cuts to
the heart as well for us because the question is, what does it
look like to receive Christ? What does it look like to
receive Christ? We're gonna find that answer in
the words of John the Baptist. And I guess as we do that, I
wanna ask the question firstly, why did John the Baptist come?
What was his purpose? What?
Why do we have John the Baptist? He was the last prophet.
So in the Old Testament, if you look through the Old Testament,
you have plenty of profits. You'll have Elijah, Isaiah,
Zachariah, people like that who came to speak God's word to the
nation of Israel to call them back to God.
He spoke on behalf of God to Israel.
And we know John, we're speaking about a prophet here because
it's showing the same pattern. The Word of the God and Word of
God in verse 2 came to John. Now that's the same pattern.
At the start of each prophet, the Word of God came to Isaiah
or Elijah. And so let's see, okay, Why did
John come? What was his purpose?
We're going to see it in verses 4 through 6, and I'm gonna read
it again. This is quoting from Isaiah
chapter 40. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled,
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.
So this has come on the back of 400 years of silence in Israel,
from the time that the last prophet died, the time the last
prophet spoke to. Now, when the word of God comes
to John and he's speaking to the people of Israel, you've had 400
years of silence. You can imagine the people in
Israel, they've got all of these promises that the prophets have
brought. Hey, one day God is gonna make
away. He's gonna bring one who's who's
gonna make everything right. He's gonna bring redemption.
He's gonna bring restoration. He's gonna bring reconciliation.
And you can imagine 400 years. I mean, that's a long time.
We're talking back to the 1600s. If we're going from our time,
that's before New Zealand was a thing.
It's before the USA was a thing. That's a long time, right?
You can imagine the people in Israel, they're starting to
wonder, is this actually going to happen?
Should I stay true to these promises that God has given me?
Or maybe should I just kind of look for something else?
400 years. But nestled in this, in the Old
Testament, there there's a promise that when this Messiah,
when the Saviour comes, one will come before him to prepare the
way of the Lord. And the illustration used here
in Isaiah is really helpful for us to understand the purpose of
John. The picture here is if if you've
got a king and, and in olden times, in ancient times, and the
king is going to travel to a city or to a town.
Now, now the roads are nothing like there's no state highway 1.
The roads are horrible. They're hilly, there's valleys,
there's mountains. If there's a big boulder in the
way, you've got to go around it. It's not a good journey.
But when a king would go and travel, his servants would go
out before him and literally prepare the way for the king.
That would be breaking down boulders that are in the way,
trying to make the the road smooth, make the path easy for
the king to travel. So that's kind of the picture,
that illustration, prepare the way for the king.
So John the Baptist purpose using that illustration, using
that imagery, he is not preparing the way for a king.
He is preparing a way for someone much greater for the
Messiah. And he's not, he's not on the
road literally paving roads. He's preparing the way and the
hearts of the people of Israel. So, so he to the people of
Israel, John the Baptist is coming before Jesus Christ to,
to breakdown the boulders that are in the way to, to flatten
out the roads in their hearts so that when Jesus Christ comes and
when Jesus Christ comes and brings his message, they are
prepared, they are willing and they are ready to hear it, to
respond and to receive Christ. You can think about it like if
you go to any concert, any big concert, there's the main act,
but there's the opening act. And so the opening act comes
out. They're not the main thing, but
they're coming out to warm up the crowd to kind of get people
in the mood, get people excited and to build the anticipation so
that when Coldplay walks up on stage after an hour and a half
of a not very good opening act. I went to Coldplay and did not
like the opening act at all. But but when Coldplay comes out,
when the main act comes out, people are really the
anticipation has built. They're warmed up, they go
right, let's go. You think about that more or
less like the purse. The the purpose of John the
Baptist. He is preparing the way in the
hearts of the people of Israel so that when Christ comes they
are really the barriers are taken away.
And so in his preparation is he preparing the hearts for Christ.
And in the hearts of the people of Israel.
There has to be a reorientation of perspective and of mindset.
And I mean, we just read it. It is a he doesn't pull his
punches. It is a blunt message.
He is up front. I'll try be upfront myself in
his tone, but his purpose here is to prepare the people of
Israel for the coming King. He's preparing the people of
Israel so that they can receive Christ when Christ comes.
And so that's the message of John.
And, and that's why I want to come to it this morning and ask
the question, well, what does it look like to receive Christ?
That's what John is wanting to get ready for here.
Get ready. Christ is coming.
Get ready to receive him. What does it look like to
receive Christ? And it's a simple message, but
it is up front. It's twofold.
Firstly, to receive Christ is to turn from sin to to receive
Christ as to turn from sin. If I could boil the message of
John the Baptist down to one word, it would be the word
repent. Verse 3 it kind of summarises
his message. It says he was proclaiming a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and the key
command that he has is in verse 8.
He tells them bear fruits and keeping with repentance.
This is also covered in the other gospels that talk about
John the Baptist. Matthew 3 verse 2 it says John
the Baptist said repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mark one verse 4. It says he was proclaiming a
baptism of repentance. So the message of John the
Baptist is to repent. So what does that word repent
mean? It comes from a Hebrew root word
which literally means to turn. So you picture it literally to
repent. I'm turning 180° from this way
to this way. I'm turning from this pillar
from this side of the stage, and I'm turning to this side of the
stage. Pictures 180° turn 1.
Commentator summarises repentance as a change of mind.
It's a change of heart and it's a change of direction.
It is a tune and it's very common, I guess in the Old
Testament for the prophets to call Israel to repent.
Often they use the word return to the Lord, right?
You've been living in sin, you've been living in idolatry,
whatever it's looked like. And he says, hey, you need to
return, you need to repent, you need to turn from your sin, and
you need to turn to God. So if we are to repent, we are
turning from something and we are turning to something.
They're flip sides of the same coin.
If we are to turn to God, we are to turn from sin.
You cannot have one without the other.
There are flip sides of the same coin.
Let's read from verse 7 to see how John describes his message.
He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptised by
him. You brood of Vipers who warned
you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruits and keeping
with repentance. And it's interesting, Rod.
I mean, these crowds, they're not it doesn't say that they
came out. They were they weren't sussed.
They weren't going. What's this guy up to?
They came out to be baptised, right.
So at least they had some level of religious interest.
But John's messaged them as not like, man, good on you.
Come, come. He's saying repent.
John was not out to win friends and influence people.
He's saying repeat. That's a harsh message.
Matthew's account here shows us that he's especially looking at
the the Pharisees and the seduces.
So the religious elites in Israel and I thought, I guess,
and in themselves, they thought that they were good.
They thought that they were right before God.
But John wants to confront them about their spiritual standing
before God. And really, you think about it
when, when, when John's purpose is to prepare the way of the
Lord and we're thinking about a boulder and the path of ohh, do
I need Christ? John needs to show these people
actually. And John needs to show us as
soon as a problem at a very foundational level, our sin that
that that's an Archers term. You've missed the mark.
All of us have rebelled against God and it's a problem and
unless we realise that, we're not gonna realise that we
actually need to be saved, we actually need a saviour.
And John is trying to show them your sin is a problem, and he
tells them to bear fruit and keeping with repentance.
So in a sense his message is simple.
Christ is coming. The Messiah is coming.
You need to repent. You need to turn from your sin.
That's his motivation. He wants them to recognise their
spiritual state. He wants them to repent.
Now John's gonna. He's gonna address, like he
said, barrier to this recognition.
Let's read second-half of verse 8 and do not begin to say to
yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
You don't understand, John. I'm a Jew.
I'm an Israelite. Abraham's my father.
My, my, my dad was due. My dad's dad was a Jew.
I obey the law. Tell you what, I've memorised
the Torah. You don't get it, John.
See, John actually gets out ahead of them.
He goes, don't even think about saying that.
Don't play the the Israelite card salvation to to to stand
before God. It's individual.
It's not corporate. Yes, I ohh, Billy my I'm church
maybe 48 out of 52 weeks. That's pretty good.
Ohh, hey, I'm, I'm at Home group every week.
I mean, it's, it's simple stuff, but it's stuff that we can
easily try rely on. When we look at the group that
we're surrounded with, we look at the group of friends that
we're surrounded with and we assume all they all know Christ,
they all read their Bibles. I can kinda just get and be
right with God because I'm mixed in with that group.
That's like trying to go to a a sports event with with a bunch
of your friends and they've all got a ticket to get in and you
just assume, well, they've all got a ticket, they'll let me in
as well. Well, no, the person at the
ticket door is gonna scan each ticket.
If you don't have a ticket, you don't get in.
Each of us have to stand before God and we cannot rely on
heritage. We cannot rely on our family
name, we cannot rely on what church we went to.
It is where do we stand before God?
Have we put our trust in Jesus Christ?
And at the foundational level we need to recognise the reality of
our sin, the problem of our sin, that we stand beer before a holy
God who is completely good and we are sinful and that's a
problem. And as we recognise the reality
of our sin, the proper response is to turn.
Now, we've already seen an example of that this morning.
David, second Samuel 12. He's confronted by Nathan for
committing adultery, for committing murder, horrible
sins, and David confesses that before God and Psalm 51.
What does he say? The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit are broken and contrite heart.
Ohh. God you will not despise.
So at a foundational level we need to recognise, and John
wants the people of Israel to recognise, that before God our
sin is a problem, our sin as a problem because God is holy and
we are not and our sin stands an offence to God.
We need to confess that to God. When you say God, I am sinful
and I need a Saviour, but John has more in mind than that but a
life of repentance. Martin Luther said this.
When the Lord Jesus said repent, he whirled that the entire life
of a believer is to be 1 of repentance.
It is a continual life that is embodied by this attitude,
mindset and action of repentance.
Now this doesn't mean that we should be walking around every
10 seconds and going ohh I'm sorry God, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. But repentance doesn't mean
firstly to to repent. It doesn't mean that we will
then be sinless to repent. Doesn't mean that we will never
commit that sin again. If that's the case, I don't know
if anyone has truly repented, but to repent is an attitude
change which leads to an action change.
It's a change of our mind where we go.
Actually, this sin that I used to live for, that used to to
rule over me, that I used to love, I'm actually recognising
before God that that sin is wrong in the eyes of God.
And more than that, because I know it's wrong, I am going to
turn from it. I'm going to seek to fight it.
I'm gonna seek to run away from it.
That's what John means. Bear fruit and keeping with
repentance. It is not just saying, yeah, OK,
I'm sorry. It's actually going.
No, no, that that that true remorse over sin.
It needs to be a fruit in our lives.
And that fruit will not be perfect.
You need to hear that that fruit will not be perfect.
We will miss up and I'm really gonna stress that because there
is hope in the gospel, but the Christian life is one that seeks
to turn from sin. This is not an optional add on
to the Christian life and to to show this and to show the
importance of this, John is going to give us a picture in
verse 9. He says this.
Even now the ex 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. What he's saying here, the axe
has laid at the root of the tree.
Judgement is coming. The life that shows no evidence
or fruit of repentance is cast into judgement.
And notice how the acts of repentance there is described as
fruit. And I think that's a helpful
analogy for us to think through this repentance, a life that is
seeking to turn from sin and, and, and fight sin and not just
dwell in it, but turn from it. That those acts of repentance is
the natural outflow of a life that is turned to Jesus Christ.
It is not a work, it is a natural outflow.
It is a fruit. Like a fruit grows on a healthy
tree, acts of repentance flow from a life that is turned to
Christ. When that fruit is not there,
when there is no evidence of that fruit, John says.
We have calls to look at the route.
So what that's saying if I say to you, if I claim to know
Jesus, but my life is defined by continual, habitual, unrepentant
sin without sorrow, without effort to fight against it.
The Bible says we would have reason to ask whether our truly
know Jesus Christ with I truly genuinely know Christ, because a
life that knows Christ shows evidence of fruit, of
repentance, of a desire to turn from sin, a desire to fight
scene, and we need to take some seriously.
We need a desire to fight it, not live in it, not dwell it,
because our allegiance has changed from sin to Jesus
Christ. That repentance, that fighting
of sin does not save us. It is the outflow, it is the
evidence, it is the fruit of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
This is consistent with the teaching of Jesus Christ
himself, he says in John 15, using a similar similar analogy.
I am the true vine. My Father is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may be
a more fruit. Crosses and Matthew chapter 6.
You cannot have two masters. Matthew 624 You can either serve
God or money. Money.
An example of that. Either you love one or despise
the other. Cannot serve 2 masters.
Mark 115. Christ's first words on the
scene. Repent for the Kingdom of God is
at hand and Luke chapter 13 and incident happened.
Jesus is referring to where a tower in Siloam fell down and
killed 18 people. And Jesus essentially says,
well, what's the moral of that? The moral is, unless you repent,
you will all likewise perish to show a heart of repentance,
desiring to turn from sin as a natural outflow of the life that
has turned to Jesus Christ. That is the flip side of the
same coin. So what does this repentance
look like where we have these crowds asking Him Then verse 10,
What then shall we do? And I think in verse 11 is gonna
go and give them a general principle and then versus 12
through 14 is going to look at some specific instances. 1st 11
he answered them who were they has two tunics is to share with
him who has none and whoever has food is to do likewise.
So the general principle then is as a life that is saying sin is
no longer my master. I've turned to Jesus Christ will
then desire to live out the good news of the gospel in everyday
life, showing a generous heart, displaying care for one another.
I, I guess as a general principle, the Christian life as
a change life, one who looks outside of themselves.
But then I just wanna look. He's going to give a few
specific examples here where you have a tax collector and then
you have a Roman official soldier coming to him and
saying, well, what should we do? He says to the tax collector
that collects no more than you're authorised to do.
And he says to the soldier, do not extort money from anyone by
threats or by false accusation and be content with your wages.
Now, these are specific instructions based off their
sitting. And really what you're seeing
here is John is looking at these two professions.
You've got a text collector. So you've got a Jew who is
collecting taxes against his own people for the Roman occupiers.
And they're collecting more than they should so they can fill up
their own pockets. And then you've got the soldiers
who are looked down on and and often treat people harshly.
And so he's looking at these specific instances and he's he's
showing this is what repentance looks like in your sitting with
the sins that particularly the set you.
So he's saying, hey, a part of living a repentant life is
knowing in our life which sins we are vulnerable to and what
areas of our life are we vulnerable and desiring to fight
it and acting on it. So for a tax collector going
actually, if I wanna know Jesus Christ and walk with Jesus
Christ as a part of my turning from sin, I'm gonna look at my
occupation and go. That's gonna show itself and
that I'm not gonna collect more than I should.
And for a soldier, he saying. That's going to show itself.
I'm not gonna extort money. I'm not gonna threat people.
I'm not gonna use my power to wield it over people.
So for us, I mean, I think that looks very practically like
looking at our life looking Hey, where am I most basic person and
out of our love of Jesus Christ. So you remember this is not a
work out of our love for Jesus Christ and what He has done for
us on the cross. We go, man, what can I do to
fight that sin? If I recognise that I'm
especially prone to anger, I go. When am I most prone to my
anger? Maybe it's when I get home from
work and I'm tired and frustrated.
OK, what would it look like for me in the car ride home to be
intentional and going? Hey, I know I'm prone to anger
when I get home. How can I prepare my heart?
How can I work on that and grow to hates and and and and love
Jesus Christ? It is not just a one time
confession, it is a a continued call in the life of a believer
to turn from sin to fight sin. So does our life as Christians
look different to an unbeliever? Are we fighting sin or are we
just giving in to every desire? Now I guess I recognise as as
I'm Speaking of this, it can sound hopeless.
It can sound harsh, and I think this is where we turn to the
good news that and the Christian life.
What we're calling us to and what the Bible calls us to is
not just be good, be good, be good and, and, and if we mess up
to go. Have I done enough?
Because not only are we called to turn from sin, but we are
called to turn to the true Messiah.
You see, in these first verses, John has has, I guess, shown and
pointed his audience to the things that accompany salvation,
the outflow of salvation. But but he, he's not leaving
them there. And I'm not gonna leave you
there, but point you to the core, the source of salvation.
You see, repentance will not save us.
JC Ryle says this. No quantity of repentance can
ever justify us in the sight of God.
That's not the take home for today.
Hey hey, go and try, be bitter and and if you miss up, be
scared. That's not the gospel that the
good news that Jesus Christ offers is that we are saved if
we put our trust in Jesus Christ, our sins, past, present,
future, forgiven, gone, nailed on the cross with Jesus Christ
as a response and as an outflow. When we've put our faith and
hope in Jesus Christ, we live a life that because we've turned
to Christ, we've turned from sin.
And, and if we point in our life, we seek to fight, fight
against sin. We will not dwell in sin because
we've died to sin. It is an outflow.
It's really verse 15. You gotta turn to the true
Messiah as the people were in expectation and all the
questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he
might be the Christ. You see, through John's
preaching, he's preaching so boldly, people are starting to
wonder. It's building expectation.
And is this the one we've been waiting for?
Maybe John is the Christ. Maybe John is the Messiah but
John quickly says no I am the opening act, I'm not the main
event. Verse 16 John answered them all,
saying, I bet ties 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 baptise you with Holy
Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his
hand to clear the threshing floor and gather the wheat into
his barn. But the chef, he will burn with
unquenchable fire. So John is saying hate.
No, I am not the one you've been waiting for.
I'm not the one who's gonna bring you salvation.
And the way he shows this is as as he compares his baptism with
the baptism that Jesus Christ is going to bring.
So we've seen so far throughout this, John is baptising people.
And if we saw it, it would look very similar to the kind of
baptisms that we would see here on a baptism warning into the
water, out of the water. But John is saying, hey, my
baptism, that's all it is. What you see.
It is water. It was an act.
When he's preaching this repentance, people would be
baptised as a physical act to go.
Yeah, I actually want to take my repentance seriously.
I want to turn from my sin. I want to be prepared for Jesus
Christ to come. But John saying my baptism, that
I was doing, that's all it was. It was a symbol, but Jesus
Christ is coming, one who is coming, who is greater.
He's saying I can't even, I'm not even worthy to untie his
sandals, the lowest of tasks. And he compares and he sees
Jesus Christ's baptism, and mine was physical Jesus Christ the
baptism. He brings us spiritual it.
It's not of the body, it's of the heart.
You think if I, if I get a, a Weetbix card and I've got the
boat and Barrett Wheatbix card and I say, hey, I've got Boden
Barrett here, it's a far different thing than actually
having Bowden Barrett and the flesh right here.
See, the Weetbix card is a symbol of something that is
real, but it's not the real thing.
John is saying my baptism was a symbol.
The real thing is coming, and it's in the heart Speaking of
the salvation that Christ offers.
Because although John's baptism is with water, Jesus baptism is
with the Holy Spirit and fire. You see, the good news of
Christianity, the good news of the Bible, of what we call the
Gospel, is that for those who say no, I don't wanna live in my
sin. I don't wanna follow my sin.
I wanna turn from my sin and accept Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ forgives us of our sin and as we'll see, it will
develop as we journey through the book of Luke.
He came and lived a perfect life and willingly went to a cross to
be executed, bearing the weight and the wrath of God, the
punishment against sin, and then that all who accept Jesus Christ
are given the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that Ephesians 1
describes it. It's a seal.
It's a guarantee of our inheritance.
If we have the Holy Spirit, we are sealed and Jesus Christ and
you know that same Holy Spirit is what works in us to draw us
to fight sin, to hate sin, to live a life that is repentant
and continuing to turn to Jesus Christ.
So to those who who believe in Jesus Christ and accept this
free gift, we are given the Holy Spirit.
We are forgiven, but to those who reject it, here is the fire
of God's judgement. You have the baptism of Spirit
and fire. It's meaning how we respond to
the baptism, meaning the salvation that Jesus Christ
offers. It is determinative.
It determines what happens. Are we saved or are we
condemned? It depends whether we put our
trust in Jesus Christ, and that needs to come from a foundation
of recognising that our sin is a problem.
A sin must be dealt with, it must be confessed before God,
and not paid for by us, but paid for by Jesus Christ on the
cross. So John showed them their need
for Christ, the reality of their sin, and all of this is
preparing them for the coming of Christ.
He's saying Christ is coming and you're not ready.
But the great news is that we have the baptism of Jesus
Christ. We have the salvation offer of
Jesus Christ. And if you've come this morning
and you're curious, you're on the fence, you don't quite know
about Christianity, I'll plead you to, to, to look at this
offer that John brings. Hey, I was just baptising you in
water. But but Jesus Christ has come
and He's offered you complete full cleansing of sin,
forgiveness, a right relationship with God, and He's
going to seal you with His Holy Spirit, which will equip you and
allow you to live a life that continues to fight soon and turn
to God. And as Christians, we have the
physical act of baptism, which their physical active baptism in
itself doesn't save us, but it is a symbol of the cleansing
that we have in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
And so just a side note, I, I would and urge you and encourage
you, if you know Christ and you haven't taken that step, that
baptism is this beautiful picture that is greater than
John's. It is a beautiful picture of
what has happened in our heart. It is an expression of what
Jesus Christ has done. So what does it look like to
receive Christ? To receive Christ is to turn
from sin and to turn to Him. To receive Christ as to turn
from sin and turn to Him. Jesus is coming, John says.
You need to be ready, and that's true for us today.
Although Christ came the first time, the Bible tells us that
Christ is coming again as judge and as king.
Are you ready for the coming of Christ?
Have you turned from your sin and turned to Christ?
If you know Christ, does your life display it?
Is that our our lives bearing the fruit of repentance?
Are our lives showing the fruit that comes from loving God and
growing to hates? And what would it look like this
week in your home and your workplace and the setting that
God has put you to live a repentant Christian life to, to,
to seek to understand the sins that so easily entangle us as
it's described in Hebrews 12, and seek to fight them and seek
to go. No, no, no, I don't want to be a
slave to sin. I've been purchased by Jesus
Christ. I think a helpful way for us to
frame this, and as we close is the way Paul puts it in Romans
chapter 12. You see our repentance.
This flows not from an active duty.
This flows from a love of God. See, we've got a King who loves
us, who who created us and he sent his Son to die for us and
rescue us. And so the Christian life is
looking at the glory of God and what he's done for us.
And as Paul says. By the mercies of God, present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Deliver a repentant Christian life seeking to fight sin.
Turn from sin. It is our spiritual wishes for
our God and our King who has saved us.
So may we go out this week and live those lives empowered by
God's Holy Spirit for His glory. This pray Almighty God, we thank
you for your word, we thank you for your message, and we thank
you for the message brought by John the Baptist pointing us.
What does it look like to receive Christ Load?
My prayer is that Your Holy Spirit would just equip us and
help us this week, Lord, powered by our love for You, to seek to
fight sin, turn from sin, to live repentant lives with our
lives. Just display the fruit of our
relationship with you, God. Yeah.
My prayer Lord is that for those who do not know you, Lord, that
you were just working there hard as they they read your word to
understand the goodness of the gospel and be moved to then turn
from sin and turn to you. God, we thank you for your word
and for your goodness, Lord Jesus name.