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Sermon of the Week

  

             

11/1/98.

            

   
 

Voices at the River

Luke 3:1-22

 

"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." Have you noticed how stories are often prefaced by some important time or date information. "It was a warm November day. I remember it well because as we drove down the road the announcement came over the radio that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated." Dates are important aren't they? And often the more important the event, the more important the date. If you're an Australian, January 26th or April 25th or even November 11th are significant dates that evoke important memories or feelings.

 

It's the same as we read Luke ch 3. What's about to happen is so important that Luke relates it not just to one important date but to several: the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar; when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene; and during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. In case we were in any doubt, this is a real historic event, set in real time, important enough to date it by both Roman and Judean events, both secular and religious. And what is it that's so important? "The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness." This is the way the words of a prophet are announced. For example, listen to how Jeremiah begins: (Jer 1:1-3 NRSV) "The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, ... 2to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign."

 

This date in Luke is made even more significant because there hasn't been a prophet in Israel for 400 years. And so he comes into Judea preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

 

Now I want you to imagine what that would have been like for the local people of the time. For some this would have seemed very strange. Baptism was used by the Jews as an initiation rite for Gentiles who wanted to become Jews. It was the way you gained entry to the Jewish people if you weren't born a Jew. So to call on Jews to be baptised would have seemed all wrong to many. Yet many were attracted to John to hear his message.

 

Perhaps the style of his appearing attracted them. As I just said, it was hundreds of years since a prophet had spoken, and John was obviously such a man. Mark tells us that his clothing was like that of Elijah. His message was clearly that of a prophet, and perhaps what he said rang true to what they knew in their hearts. Yet as he spoke, the things he said would have been hard to take. He certainly wasn't out to win friends and influence people! "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits worthy of repentance." That was bad enough. Who wants to be likened to a snake? But then he goes on. "Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

 

What would they have thought of that? "How dare he say such things? Who does he think he is?" Or would they have been reminded of the reason for the prophecy in Isaiah 40 that Luke quotes. "As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Why did Isaiah need to make that prophecy? Well, because the people of Israel were in exile. They'd relied for so long on their relationship with Abraham but hadn't borne the fruit that God looked for. In fact the opposite was the case. They'd rebelled against God's rule over and over and over again, until God's patience had run out and he'd given them up to exile in Babylon. Jerusalem with its beautiful temple had been destroyed and the nation all but wiped out. And now John was here to warn them that the same thing was going to happen again. The axe was laid to the tree, ready to cut it down.

 

It wasn't enough to claim to be a child of Abraham. Abraham was a fallen human being like anyone else. What you needed was to be a child of God. What you needed was to show by your lives that God lived in you. That's what he means when he talks about producing good fruit, fruit worthy of repentance. Now he isn't just talking about living a good life. I was talking to someone the other day who told me what a good life he led. And he was right. The things he described were very good. He was a good neighbour and family man. A hard working Aussie bloke. But that isn't necessarily enough. What John calls for is fruit in keeping with repentance. The nature of the fruit comes from what's inside the tree: from it's essential character, from its roots. You see this message of John to those people 2000 years ago is a timeless message. It's a call to examine your heart. To ask what fruit do you see being produced in your life? Where does it come from? What it is that motivates you? What is it that produces that fruit in you?

 

As the people listen to John, their voices rise above his shouts: "What then should we do?" There'll come a time in the gospel when the people won't want to hear the answer to that question but here they do. As we read in v.15 they were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah. They were prepared to listen and reform their lives, but they needed some guidance. And so he gives it. Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.

 

Now we regularly give away clothes to the Red Cross or Smith family or whoever has the nearest clothing bin. But it's usually clothing that we no longer have a need for. Shirts that are getting too faded or thin to wear in public. Coats that I've grown out of. Trousers that are getting too creased or worn. But that's not what John is talking about. He says if you happen to have a spare coat give it to someone who has none. There's plenty of those around. If you have more food than you need, share it with someone who has none. There's even more of those.

 

When some tax collectors ask him he says: "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." There's a radical idea. The tax collectors were given a contract to collect taxes for the Romans and as long as they paid the agreed amount to Rome they could collect whatever they could get away with. So there weren't many poor tax collectors. Nor many popular ones for that matter, which of course made it easier to justify ripping people off.. But John says don't rip people off. Collect only what you have to. Similarly he tells the soldiers: "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages." Again, soldiers were in a position of power over people where they could make a killing, - on the threat of making a killing! But they were to act honestly and be satisfied with their wages. I wonder is that a word to us. Especially to those who are in a position of power in business where it's easy to inflate their salaries at the expense of their shareholders or their employees.

 

Notice though, that what John is saying isn't "do these things and you'll be all right." He's saying these are the fruits that go with repentance. First truly repent, and then this is how you'll live. It's a subtle difference but an important one. What matters is that they repent of their rebellion against God and then change the way they act.

 

But the people start asking him whether he's the one they're waiting for, the promised Messiah. "No," he answers, He's yet to come. "And don't get too excited, because he isn't what you're expecting either. "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." When the Messiah does come, it won't be to save them from the Romans as they thought. It'll be to bring judgement. The salvation that Jesus brings is life to those who respond to him, but death to those who reject him. If they thought that John's words were harsh, if they thought his words were hard to take, the coming of Jesus would be even harder to take. Their response to Jesus would carry its own judgement within itself.

 

The reason for that comes out in the next small section as we hear the third voice in this series of voices at the river. Jesus comes to be baptised by John, to identify himself with fallen people everywhere, to be numbered with the transgressors, as Isaiah puts it. But as he's praying after the baptism, the Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove, and God speaks and says "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

 

Jesus comes to identify himself with fallen people, and a voice comes from heaven, identifying him as God's own son, the one on whom his favour rests. The Spirit descends on him in bodily form, again identifying him as one who has the Spirit of God. Now this is straight out of Is 42, our first reading today. "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations." Jesus is the servant of the Lord who comes to bring justice to the nations. That is, who comes to rid the world of all kinds of evil, but more importantly, who comes to declare us just before God. Who brings justice, because he grants righteousness to all who call on his name.

 

This brings us back to John's statement about not relying on Abraham as your father. Jesus comes to bring us to a place where we can call God our Father, because God has adopted us as his sons and daughters. But first we have to take John's advice, and repent of our rebellion before God. We have to call on God for forgiveness. We have to turn to Jesus Christ in faith that his death on our behalf can cleanse us from our sin. Hopefully everyone here today has done that at some stage in the past. I trust you continue to do it day by day. If you haven't ever done it, then do it now. Tell God you're sorry for ignoring his rule over your life and ask him to forgive you. Ask him to make you one of his children right now.

 

But it doesn't stop there. The other half of what John said also applies. Ask yourself whether the fruit of your life is fruit that's in keeping with repentance. Is it fruit that goes with your status as one of God's sons and daughters?

 

I wonder if you've made any New Year's resolutions this year. I saw a Ginger Meggs cartoon when I was in Sydney last week. Ginger's uncle asked him whether he'd made any New Year's resolutions this year, and Ginger replied, "No, I've looked back at what I was like last year and I know all the areas where I failed, so I'm not going to make any resolutions this year. I'm just going to ask God to change me on the inside, to make me better this year than I was last year." Now I thought that was a pretty amazing thing to find in the Sydney Morning Herald funnies. But isn't it a great way of looking at what we've been thinking about today? What better way to make a New Year's resolution than to ask God to change you on the inside. To change the sort of tree you are so that your life produces fruit in keeping with repentance. Just as Jesus was given the Holy Spirit, we too can ask God to give us his Spirit to live within us and change us on the inside.

 

Are you a child of God? Then ask God to help you bear fruit that goes with that position in God's family. Ask him how you can best show his nature to the world around you.

     
 
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