WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.880 You see, the entire focus of Matthew 3 and John's message is repentance. 2 00:00:04.880 --> 00:00:08.640 It is repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. 3 00:00:15.020 --> 00:00:16.680 Hey, welcome back to our Matthew devotional. 4 00:00:16.680 --> 00:00:18.860 Today, we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter three. 5 00:00:19.400 --> 00:00:22.320 It says this in those days, John the Baptist came into the wilderness of 6 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:26.760 Judea, proclaiming repent for the kingdom of heaven is near for he is the one 7 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:30.680 whom the prophet Isaiah had spoken, the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, 8 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:33.520 prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 9 00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:37.080 Now John wore clothing made from camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. 10 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:39.600 And his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. 11 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.560 Then people from Jerusalem, as well as all Judea and all the region around the 12 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:47.800 Jordan were going out to him and he was baptizing them in the Jordan river as 13 00:00:47.800 --> 00:00:49.040 they confessed their sins. 14 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:53.080 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said 15 00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:56.720 to them, you offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 16 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:00.280 Therefore produce fruits that proves your repentance. 17 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.920 And don't think that you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. 18 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:07.760 For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 19 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:11.920 Even now, the ax is laid at the root of its trees and every tree that does not 20 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:14.440 produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 21 00:01:15.160 --> 00:01:19.480 I baptize with water for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful 22 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:20.040 than I am. 23 00:01:20.360 --> 00:01:22.480 I am not worthy to even carry his sandals. 24 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:25.320 He will baptize you with the Holy spirit and with fire. 25 00:01:25.720 --> 00:01:29.160 His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clean out the threshing floor and 26 00:01:29.160 --> 00:01:33.080 will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with 27 00:01:33.080 --> 00:01:34.520 inextinguishable fire. 28 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:39.240 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him in the Jordan. 29 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:42.640 But John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you and yet you 30 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:43.240 come to me. 31 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.760 So Jesus replied to him, let it happen now for it is right for us to fulfill all 32 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:48.520 righteousness. 33 00:01:49.080 --> 00:01:50.160 Then John yielded to him. 34 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:54.280 After Jesus was baptized, just as he was coming out of the water, the heavens 35 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:57.960 opened up and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest 36 00:01:57.960 --> 00:02:02.640 on him and a voice from heaven saying, this is my one dear son and him. 37 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:03.800 I take great delight. 38 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:08.479 We see in Matthew three, three, it says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. 39 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:13.480 This entire phrase, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near is actually the entire 40 00:02:13.480 --> 00:02:16.120 focus of the gospel message. 41 00:02:16.320 --> 00:02:20.440 Now, a lot of us, uh, you know, we hear from a lot of different teachings today. 42 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:23.400 You know, we hear things like Jesus loves you. 43 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:25.000 Invite Jesus into your heart. 44 00:02:25.160 --> 00:02:28.600 Just say yes to Jesus, invite the Holy spirit in. 45 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:29.240 But here's the thing. 46 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:31.840 You don't find any of that kind of stuff in scripture. 47 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:33.320 Does Jesus love us? 48 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:34.040 Yes. 49 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.000 Uh, when we accept Jesus and become a follower of him, are we Christians? 50 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:39.560 Yes. 51 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:44.040 What I am saying is that these types of phrases though are missing a key element 52 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:47.560 when it comes to sharing the gospel and that piece is repentance. 53 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:52.520 You see the entire focus of Matthew three and John's message is repentance. 54 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:56.360 It is repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. 55 00:02:56.520 --> 00:03:00.160 You see, this is the message that John the Baptist preached all throughout his 56 00:03:00.160 --> 00:03:05.240 ministry, and it is also the same message that Jesus preached as, as it says in 57 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:09.760 Mark one 15, all throughout Matthew three, John the Baptist speaks of repentance. 58 00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:13.240 His remark to the religious leaders is to bear fruit and repent. 59 00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:18.120 He mentions an ax at the root of the tree, uh, waiting to be cut down. 60 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.920 If there's not good fruit or a winnowing fork ready to clear out the threshing 61 00:03:21.920 --> 00:03:25.200 floor, you see these things aren't said to scare you. 62 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:28.440 Now I'm no tree expert, but, but I do know that a fruit bearing tree 63 00:03:28.640 --> 00:03:30.240 takes time for it to bear fruit. 64 00:03:30.600 --> 00:03:35.200 Actually farmers from my understanding will actually wait several seasons to 65 00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:39.760 give the, uh, this tree opportunity to bear fruit, whether it be apples, oranges, 66 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.880 lemons, fig trees, whatever they, they must first be planted. 67 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:47.200 And then after they're planted, they have to grow deep roots to get the 68 00:03:47.200 --> 00:03:51.400 nutrients from the soil, and then they have to grow tall and then they have 69 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:54.160 to grow season after season. 70 00:03:54.200 --> 00:03:58.360 Only once this process is completed, will they be able to have fruit that starts to 71 00:03:58.360 --> 00:03:58.760 grow? 72 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:01.080 You see, it takes time to grow fruit. 73 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:03.280 Now, does the farmer cut down the tree? 74 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:05.640 If the tree doesn't produce fruit one year? 75 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:06.360 No, not at all. 76 00:04:06.440 --> 00:04:10.320 You see, the farmer gives a few seasons before he decides that the tree needs to 77 00:04:10.320 --> 00:04:10.920 be cut down. 78 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:14.960 The winnowing fork used by the farmers and field laborers, uh, to separate the 79 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:18.519 chaff and the wheat is actually a pretty cool concept in this, uh, what it means 80 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:19.040 to repent. 81 00:04:19.320 --> 00:04:22.800 You see what they would do is they would scoop a pile of grain or wheat and they 82 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:24.080 would throw it into the air. 83 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:28.280 And the, the grain was heavy enough to be able to fall back onto the ground, but it 84 00:04:28.280 --> 00:04:29.760 was the chaff that the wind took away. 85 00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:32.920 I don't know if you guys know how big a storehouse is, but it was big enough to 86 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:38.000 where it would take days, even weeks to separate the chaff from the grain. 87 00:04:38.080 --> 00:04:41.400 You see, only when the grain was left, did the farmer move it all back into the 88 00:04:41.400 --> 00:04:41.760 barn. 89 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:43.920 You see, this process takes time. 90 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:48.120 Repentance is the start of sanctification and it takes time. 91 00:04:48.320 --> 00:04:52.680 There's a Puritan writer named Thomas Brooks who explained repentance this way. 92 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:57.080 He says the best course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the 93 00:04:57.080 --> 00:04:58.160 greatest distance. 94 00:04:58.440 --> 00:05:00.080 He that will be so bold as to attempt. 95 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.840 to dance upon the brink of the pit may find woeful experience that it is right 96 00:05:04.840 --> 00:05:08.760 it is the righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit." In other 97 00:05:08.760 --> 00:05:13.060 words, he's asking the question, why even be near the pit at all? You see, repentance 98 00:05:13.060 --> 00:05:19.020 is a verb and it means to turn away from or to turn back from. You see, it's the 99 00:05:19.020 --> 00:05:23.540 act of turning away from sin and turning towards God. We see that as we turn to 100 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:28.240 God, we naturally turn away from the pit and we turn away from sin. And as we turn 101 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:32.640 our focus to God, we notice that in the entire direction of our body is 102 00:05:32.640 --> 00:05:36.280 actually shifted and we have a new trajectory and we have a new journey 103 00:05:36.280 --> 00:05:40.360 that we can walk. And as we start walking towards what takes us further and 104 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:44.280 further from the pit, we can actually look back and see actually how far we've 105 00:05:44.280 --> 00:05:48.800 came and we are no longer in danger of falling into the pit. So this whole idea 106 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:54.160 of repentance isn't a get it right or perish, do it right now or time's out. 107 00:05:54.200 --> 00:05:58.800 Rather, it's a call to hope and an act to enter into the grace and forgiveness of 108 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:03.960 God. You see, repentance is what God asks us to do. Sanctification and salvation is 109 00:06:03.960 --> 00:06:08.000 what he'll do in us and through us because of what the Holy Spirit does in 110 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.680 the work that Jesus has done for us on the cross. So this entire act of 111 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:15.680 repentance, this entire act of forgiveness is what the gospel messages 112 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:19.240 should always be about. Whenever you present the gospel to a friend, whenever 113 00:06:19.320 --> 00:06:24.560 you present it to a loved one, make sure you are saying in love, repent for the 114 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:28.560 kingdom of heaven is at hand. Well, thank you for your time. Thank you for 115 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:33.080 listening to this episode today. I hope you have a blessed day.