You see, the entire focus of Matthew 3 and John's message is repentance.
It is repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.
Hey, welcome back to our Matthew devotional.
Today, we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter three.
It says this in those days, John the Baptist came into the wilderness of
Judea, proclaiming repent for the kingdom of heaven is near for he is the one
whom the prophet Isaiah had spoken, the voice of one shouting in the wilderness,
prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Now John wore clothing made from camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist.
And his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey.
Then people from Jerusalem, as well as all Judea and all the region around the
Jordan were going out to him and he was baptizing them in the Jordan river as
they confessed their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said
to them, you offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Therefore produce fruits that proves your repentance.
And don't think that you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones.
Even now, the ax is laid at the root of its trees and every tree that does not
produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I baptize with water for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful
than I am.
I am not worthy to even carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy spirit and with fire.
His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clean out the threshing floor and
will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with
inextinguishable fire.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him in the Jordan.
But John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you and yet you
come to me.
So Jesus replied to him, let it happen now for it is right for us to fulfill all
righteousness.
Then John yielded to him.
After Jesus was baptized, just as he was coming out of the water, the heavens
opened up and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest
on him and a voice from heaven saying, this is my one dear son and him.
I take great delight.
We see in Matthew three, three, it says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.
This entire phrase, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near is actually the entire
focus of the gospel message.
Now, a lot of us, uh, you know, we hear from a lot of different teachings today.
You know, we hear things like Jesus loves you.
Invite Jesus into your heart.
Just say yes to Jesus, invite the Holy spirit in.
But here's the thing.
You don't find any of that kind of stuff in scripture.
Does Jesus love us?
Yes.
Uh, when we accept Jesus and become a follower of him, are we Christians?
Yes.
What I am saying is that these types of phrases though are missing a key element
when it comes to sharing the gospel and that piece is repentance.
You see the entire focus of Matthew three and John's message is repentance.
It is repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.
You see, this is the message that John the Baptist preached all throughout his
ministry, and it is also the same message that Jesus preached as, as it says in
Mark one 15, all throughout Matthew three, John the Baptist speaks of repentance.
His remark to the religious leaders is to bear fruit and repent.
He mentions an ax at the root of the tree, uh, waiting to be cut down.
If there's not good fruit or a winnowing fork ready to clear out the threshing
floor, you see these things aren't said to scare you.
Now I'm no tree expert, but, but I do know that a fruit bearing tree
takes time for it to bear fruit.
Actually farmers from my understanding will actually wait several seasons to
give the, uh, this tree opportunity to bear fruit, whether it be apples, oranges,
lemons, fig trees, whatever they, they must first be planted.
And then after they're planted, they have to grow deep roots to get the
nutrients from the soil, and then they have to grow tall and then they have
to grow season after season.
Only once this process is completed, will they be able to have fruit that starts to
grow?
You see, it takes time to grow fruit.
Now, does the farmer cut down the tree?
If the tree doesn't produce fruit one year?
No, not at all.
You see, the farmer gives a few seasons before he decides that the tree needs to
be cut down.
The winnowing fork used by the farmers and field laborers, uh, to separate the
chaff and the wheat is actually a pretty cool concept in this, uh, what it means
to repent.
You see what they would do is they would scoop a pile of grain or wheat and they
would throw it into the air.
And the, the grain was heavy enough to be able to fall back onto the ground, but it
was the chaff that the wind took away.
I don't know if you guys know how big a storehouse is, but it was big enough to
where it would take days, even weeks to separate the chaff from the grain.
You see, only when the grain was left, did the farmer move it all back into the
barn.
You see, this process takes time.
Repentance is the start of sanctification and it takes time.
There's a Puritan writer named Thomas Brooks who explained repentance this way.
He says the best course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the
greatest distance.
He that will be so bold as to attempt.
to dance upon the brink of the pit may find woeful experience that it is right
it is the righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit." In other
words, he's asking the question, why even be near the pit at all? You see, repentance
is a verb and it means to turn away from or to turn back from. You see, it's the
act of turning away from sin and turning towards God. We see that as we turn to
God, we naturally turn away from the pit and we turn away from sin. And as we turn
our focus to God, we notice that in the entire direction of our body is
actually shifted and we have a new trajectory and we have a new journey
that we can walk. And as we start walking towards what takes us further and
further from the pit, we can actually look back and see actually how far we've
came and we are no longer in danger of falling into the pit. So this whole idea
of repentance isn't a get it right or perish, do it right now or time's out.
Rather, it's a call to hope and an act to enter into the grace and forgiveness of
God. You see, repentance is what God asks us to do. Sanctification and salvation is
what he'll do in us and through us because of what the Holy Spirit does in
the work that Jesus has done for us on the cross. So this entire act of
repentance, this entire act of forgiveness is what the gospel messages
should always be about. Whenever you present the gospel to a friend, whenever
you present it to a loved one, make sure you are saying in love, repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. Well, thank you for your time. Thank you for
listening to this episode today. I hope you have a blessed day.