Members are Sinners Who Repent
Clarify, Unify, Glorify in Matthew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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ME: Intro
ME: Intro
My mind is apparently lined up with the wrong time of year.
Because last month we were celebrating Christmas in April.
And now this morning,
I want to talk about New Year’s in May!
Because New Year’s is all about resolutions, right?
We look back at the last year and think about what went well,
And what went not so well.
Then we look ahead to the coming year and resolve to do certain things differently.
But the joke about New Year’s resolutions is that they never last.
Our resolution to go the gym or eat healthy or spend less time on social media,
Starts to fade before the end of February.
Yet, every year,
We humans make these new resolutions again and again.
Why?
Where does this come from?
It seems,
We humans have this inherent desire to change for the better.
Which is very interesting.
Because this desire is not only good,
But necessary.
This morning we are in Matthew 3,
Talking about the most essential change that needs to take place in all our lives.
Because the Bible says that all humans,
All of us,
Are sinners.
The only thing that makes Members of Christ’s body different,
Is that Members are Sinners Who Repent.
Slide
So, our outline for this passage is focused on repentance.
The Call of Repentance (vs. 1-6)
The Fruit of Repentance (vs. 7-12)
The Trust of Repentance (vs. 13-17)
WE: (vs. 1-6)
WE: (vs. 1-6)
Matthew 3 introduces us to John the Baptist,
Who is presenting this entirely new day in redemptive history.
As a part of this new day,
He calls for people to essentially start over with a new life.
Then begins the first day of Jesus Christ’s public ministry on earth.
We are taking a huge jump from ch. 2 to 3,
About a 30 year jump.
Matthew does not tell us about Jesus’ early childhood,
Or His teen years or twenties.
His focus is on that which is critical for us to hear and trust in Jesus.
Slide
So, ch. 3 begins by saying,
“In those days,”
Talking about Jesus residing in Nazareth,
The herald,
Or predecessor of the Messiah,
Came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.
We have to remember the context into what Matthew is writing.
God’s people only have the OT at this time.
Slide
And the last two verses of the OT end this way,
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
God ended the OT with a promise to send Elijah the prophet to announce the Day of the Lord.
Elijah would turn the people back,
While also proclaiming of impending destruction.
Since this prophecy,
400 years has come and gone.
Now Matthew 3 begins with John the Baptist,
Publicly teaching to this crowd that is coming to him outside of the city,
Stirring up the southern part of Palestine.
Because people were flocking to him on the banks of the Jordan,
Where he baptized thousands of people upon their repentance.
John’s message is about the necessity of repentance,
And the foolishness of trusting in external privileges like heritage, ethnicity, or religiousness.
But he fades just as quickly as he bursts on the scene.
Because as he says in John’s Gospel,
He must decrease that Christ might increase.
John testifies that Jesus is the Messiah,
He calls Jesus the Lamb of God!
Lord willing,
We will talk about him again later in Matthew 11,
Where we read about John’s imprisonment for calling out Herod’s sin of taking another man’s wife,
And sadly,
His death.
For now,
Our focus is on how clearly John parallels the prophet Elijah.
Jesus later calls John a prophet,
In fact,
He says John is more than a prophet,
He says John is the fulfillment of Mal 3:1,
Which says,
Malachi 3:1 (ESV)
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.”
Then, Jesus says,
John is the Elijah to come.
Malachi was not prophesying about a literal reappearance of Elijah.
Rather, he was prophesying of a prophet,
Who would come like Elijah,
To prepare the way of the Lord.
Slide
In vs. 4,
John’s described as an ascetic in the wilderness,
Wearing clothing and eating food similar to Elijah.
Also like Elijah,
John preaches boldly.
John’s message is that you either repent or face the coming judgment.
And the sheer multitude of people repenting and getting baptized in response,
Posed a political threat.
So, Herod feared the influence John had over the people might lead to a rebellion.
This is part of what prompted his eventual arrest.
But John’s call to repent in vs. 2 was not a mere suggestion or request.
He is boldly commanding repentance.
The same thing Jesus commanded in Matt. 4:17.
Repentance is more than just,
Feel bad for what you did.
No, repentance is a decisive internal and external change.
It is turning away from sin in your heart and by your actions,
And turning toward a life of obedience.
It comes from the OT command God repeatedly gave to His people,
To return to faithfulness to the covenant.
Repentance does not entail self-punishment,
It does not require depression,
And it is more than merely feeling remorse.
Repentance involves admitting or confessing sin.
Vs. 6 says that people who confessed sins were being baptized.
The Bible says all people are sinners,
So, we are called to take responsibility for our sins,
By confessing them.
But just admitting sins is useless.
For example,
Pharaoh acknowledged his sin in Exodus 9:27.
Saul confessed his sin in 1 Sam. 15:24.
But neither of them were forgiven,
Why?
Because repentance also involves contrition or sorrow over sin.
This is an internal heart recognition that you have sinned against God.
It is a brokenness like the one David expresses in Psalm 51,
Where he laments that against God and God only he has sinned.
This is not just being sorry for getting caught,
Or selfish regret.
Godly sorrow realizes that you have offended God,
And it leads to godly repentance.
But even feeling contrition over sin is not enough.
The rich young ruler in ch. 19 felt sorrow over his sin,
But he did not repent because he did not want to give up his stuff.,
Likewise, Judas felt sorrow for betraying Judas,
But he wasn’t repentant.
So, the third aspect of biblical repentance involves conversion.
That is literally what the word means,
To be converted.
So, repentance means we confess sin,
We feel a sense of godly sorrow,
But then we must renounce it,
And turn away from it!
And this is so urgent,
According to the second part of John’s message,
Because the kingdom of heaven is near!
This is the primary theme of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew.
In Mark and Luke, it is called the kingdom of God.
But the phrase kingdom of heaven is used over 30 times in Matthew.
The kingdom is the reign of God,
Breaking through into the world by way of the Person, work, and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son.
It is what the OT prophets awaited,
God’s display of His sovereignty in the redemption of His people.
The arrival of the kingdom means two realities.
First, it means salvation is here!
Jesus’ was named Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.
So, salvation has come in the person of Jesus Christ.
That is why we are called to confess our sins,
Because the One who has come to save us from our sins is here!
This proclamation is a wonderful encouragement!
But the second reality is also a warning,
Because it means damnation is near.
This sobering reality is made clear in vs. 12.
The announcement of God’s kingdom is terrible news for all who refuse to repent.
The day of the Lord is a day of blessing AND judgment.
That is why John proclaims his message with such urgency.
Both John,
And later, Jesus,
Are saying, the time of waiting is over!
The King has come!
In our present day,
We have seen how the death and resurrection of Jesus,
And the spread of the gospel,
Have largely fulfilled the OT promises from God!
Now, we are waiting for the complete realization when Christ returns!
Christ’s coming marks the fulfillment of God’s promises,
And the presence of God’s Kingdom!
John says in vs. 3,
That Jesus is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah,
Specifically quoting Isaiah 40:3.
The imagery from Isaiah,
Is a herald who would come before a king,
To announce the king is coming,
Ensuring the roads would be smooth and ready for the king’s arrival.
So, the first words John speak,
Are to prepare for the coming King.
But clearly,
He was no ordinary King!
In a literal sense,
John’s present ministry points forward to the greater ministry of the One Who would follow,
The Lord, God Himself.
This is the same ministry of the OT prophets.
By using a prophecy about the coming of the Lord to describe Jesus,
John is clearly stating that Jesus is God.
The Apostle Paul understood and taught this in the book of Acts,
Saying in 19:4-5,
“John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.”
Not only is John preaching boldly,
But he is also living simply.
We already know he is in the wilderness.
Then in vs. 4,
He is described as wearing a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt,
An allusion to Elijah,
Which we noted earlier.
And his diet of locusts and wild honey communicates how their was nothing elaborate about him.
Slide
Vs. 5-6 say that John was on the banks of the Jordan River,
Where he was baptizing those who were confessing their sins.
The Jordan was the chief river of Palestine,
Flowing from north to south down a deep valley in the center of the country,
Into the Dead Sea.
It is historically significant throughout the OT,
Mentioned about 180 times,
Serving as a natural border for the promised land.
But it becomes much less prominent in the NT,
Only being mentioned 15 times.
Also here is where John gets his name for what he is doing,
Baptizing.
Those who confessed their sins in response to John’s proclamation,
Came down with John into the Jordan River,
And were baptized, plunged, immersed into the water by John,
As a symbol of repentance and purification.
The NT teaches that this is slightly different from our understanding of baptism.
By the end of Matthew,
Jesus says in the Great Commission,
That when we baptize,
We baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Slide
Because it symbolizes our union with Christ in His death and resurrection.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
John’s baptism does not yet share that symbolism,
Because it has not yet happened.
John’s baptism is a symbol of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
Which even still,
Is a gesture of radical repentance for the covenantal community of God’s people,
And a sign of the new covenant for God’s people.
Baptism was not a common OT practice.
The only people who were baptized were Gentiles who put their faith in Yahweh.
So, baptism was a way of saying,
“I am an outsider,
Renouncing my former ways,
And embracing faith in the God of Israel.”
So, it is an astonishing thing that people from Judea,
Jews,
Would be coming to the Jordan to be baptized.
Because they were admitting that being a Jew did not guarantee them a right standing before God.
They realized they needed to confess their sins,
And express their faith in God.
This is why baptism is so significant.
Likewise, for us today,
Baptism is a sign of initiation into the Body of Christ.
It is designed to be observed by the Body of Christ upon belief in Christ until He returns.
It is one of two ordinances observed by the Body of Christ.
The other, is the Lord’s Supper,
Which we are observing this morning.
Baptism renounces our dependence on self,
And acknowledges that nothing we can do will save us.
We cannot miss the imagery of baptism.
It is a picture of death.
Immersing under the water,
Symbolizes a decisive turning away from your self and your life,
Indicating that you are relying on the mercy of God.
It is a confession that their is nothing you can do to save yourself from your sins,
You need Jesus to do that!
So, while baptism is a symbol of passing from death into life through Christ’s resurrection.
John’s baptism did not serve this same purpose.
John was baptizing to awaken the Jewish people to the reality of their coming Messiah.
As he makes clear later in our passage,
Their Jewish ethnicity is not a prerequisite for salvation.
When John baptizes Jesus, however,
It serves as a declaration that Jesus is the Son of God,
Inaugurating His ministry on earth,
And validating John’s ministry.
This was a bold move for John.
Because the Jews believed they were saved by their ethnicity.
Now he is telling them that they did not belong to God by their heritage,
They need to repent to come into the kingdom of heaven just like everyone else.
But John’s baptism was unlike the repetitive ritual washings of other religions.
It was a one-time event associated with permanent repentance,
And a transformed life.
This baptism for the forgiveness of sins contributed to John’s strong influence.
Because this was something that was not really available.
Forgiveness of sins was tied to the temple in Jerusalem.
So, John was going against the establishment of the temple.
This was especially confrontational,
Because John descends from a priestly family.
Now, here he is,
Forgiving sins in the wilderness,
Rather than the temple,
Where forgiveness of sins belongs.
John is a central an pivotal figure,
Who connects the OT and NT.
He was also a mysterious figure,
And he served a significant function in the Gospels.
John was a righteous, wild man.
He was a prophet who became a prisoner.
He was a rabbi who criticized the religious.
But perhaps most of all,
He was a light shining bright for the glory of God in Christ.
GOD: (vs. 7-12)
GOD: (vs. 7-12)
Slide
Next, in vs. 7-12,
John talks about the Fruit of Repentance.
First, it says he sees the Pharisees and Sadducees.
These were two of the three main Jewish sects during the time of Jesus.
The Pharisees were devoted to strict observance of laws and traditions.
The traditions were their extensions of the law that they saw as maintaining religious identity and purity.
The term, Pharisee,
Comes from the Aramaic word for distinguish or separate.
They emerged as a sect by separating themselves as essentially the most righteous of the Jews.
So, they kept themselves distinguished from any social sympathizers with Greek culture,
And from the uneducated commoners.
And some were so radical that they would take up arms to defend their beliefs.
Of the four Gospels,
Matthew presents the most disdain for the Pharisees.
This is seen from John’s words right here in vs. 7.
This is the very first time we see the Pharisees in the NT.
So, from the start,
They are presented as bitter and persistent enemies of God.
But throughout the Gospel,
Matthew presents them as the antithesis to the genuine righteousness of Christ.
They are described as outwardly pious,
Where righteousness is an inward disposition.
In the sermon on the mount,
Jesus teaches that His followers must demonstrate true righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees.
His point is that they are not truly righteous,
But that their external show lacks genuine internal righteousness.
So, the Pharisees regularly oppose Jesus,
And are indignant toward Him.
Which is somewhat understandable,
Because Jesus condemns them and their practices;
Their public demonstrations,
Their entitlement,
And their self-proclaimed honor.
As a result, they could not bear Christ’s teachings.
So, they sought every chance they could,
To destroy Christ’s influence among the Jews.
Which was significant because they controlled the synagogues,
And as a result,
Had a great sense of control over the population.
The other group listed here,
The Sadducees,
Were one of the other main Jewish sects during this time.
They were also a pretty strict sect,
But they were notably distinct in their rejection of the resurrection and spirits.
They also were influenced by Greek customs and philosophies in a way that Pharisees would never consider.
So, they are not as frequently opposed by Christ.
But whenever they are included in the Gospel,
It is in some form of rebuke.
In fact, the next time they are mentioned comes all the way in ch. 16,
Where they are called hypocrites,
And a wicked and adulterous generation.
Along with the Pharisees,
They formed the religious council of the time,
Called the Sanhedrin.
Together, this group hated Jesus,
And participated in His condemnation.
This is why John goes right at them in vs. 7,
Calling them a brood of vipers,
And asking them,
Who warned them to flee from the wrath to come?
John is stressing that second reality I mentioned earlier,
The punishment for the unrepentant.
He is talking about the OT promise of the Lord coming in righteous judgment.
Slide
For example,
before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.
In calling out the religious leaders,
John does not allow them to suppose that God’s wrath is only for their enemies.
He knows they have no intention of confessing their sins,
Because they presume,
As he mentions in vs. 9,
That being descendants of Abraham guarantees that they would escape God’s wrath.
But they are wrong.
They are not going to escape by their heritage,
And they are not going to escape by their religiousness.
If they refuse to repent, they will be judged.
Slide
So, John commands them in vs. 8,
To bear fruit that is consistent with repentance.
He is talking about outward actions that indicate an inward change.
It is total abandonment of one’s former disposition,
And the results of that new self,
Manifested in new behavior,
He is confronting their fake outward religious conformity.
He is challenging them to consider that they are not as righteous as they like to think and act.
John wants the Jews to understand that being Jewish was not enough.
Yes, there were covenantal privileges for being Jewish.
But the true children of God are the children of God by God’s actions,
Not by their birth.
Only God can change hearts of stone.
He explains this in Ezek. 36:25-26,
Slide
When He said,
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Although John was addressing the Jews of his day,
His message is still applicable to us.
Just because you are born in a Christian family,
Raised in a Christian home,
Or even go to church,
Does not mean you are spared from God’s judgment.
The only way a person can know,
Is by bearing fruit that gives evidence of repentance and faith.
So, John says,
“Do not assume!”
The Almighty God can transform a rock into a person,
And include that person in His covenant people,
If He wanted to.
So, it does not matter what type of family you are born into.
God incorporates Jews and Gentiles into His family.
He saves those born in Christians homes and those who are not.
But John’s point here is to really warn against a sense of entitlement.
Slide
He says in vs. 10,
That the axe is already at the root of the trees.
Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
The point is that these bad trees represent false disciples.
And being thrown in the fire,
Means that false disciples face God’s punishment.
Just as the owner of an orchard uses an ax to cut down dead trees,
Likewise,
God will punish those who fail to produce fruit that is consistent with repentance,
As he said back in vs. 8.
Fruit represents good works that result from the miraculous inner transformation of repentance.
We need to constantly be reminded that family heritage cannot save us.
We cannot baptize our children into salvation.
It is dangerous to lead people to believe that because their parents baptized them as children,
They are saved.
They will think they are secure,
Thinking that being Christian is merely a family or social identification.
That is not what the Bible teaches.
Baptism is not about your parents faith or your family’s faith.
It is a sign that says regardless of what family you have been born into,
You have repented,
Confessed your sins,
And put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Baptism renounces your heritage,
Your personal righteousness,
And your worldly success.
The Pharisees could not attain their righteousness before God.
So, baptism admits that you are not righteous,
But you are renouncing your sinful ways.
It does not matter how wealthy you are in this world,
Baptism confesses that you are living for an eternal wealth.
Slide
Looking ahead to Christ,
John says in vs. 11 that Christ much more powerful.
He is not even worthy to remove Christ’s sandals.
This was such a menial task that slave owners could not even ask their slaves to do it.
So, John saw himself as so unworthy in comparison to Jesus,
That he couldn’t even perform the lowliest task imaginable in relation to the Lord.
John is expressing a deep humility in comparison to Christ’s power.
He knew his role.
He knew his place in human history was not to point people to himself,
But to prepare the people for the King!
John makes this comparison by comparing their baptisms.
John’s was a public expression of repentance that did not change a person’s heart.
Jesus, however,
Will baptize His people with the Holy Spirit and fire.
This makes God’s people holy through inward transformation,
Symbolized outwardly by water baptism.
But Jesus has the power to transform humankind in a way John never could.
This is not talking about some special baptism of the Spirit,
Where you start speaking in tongues.
No, baptism by the Spirit,
Refers to Jesus’ transforming work of indwelling us with His Spirit,
Changing our hearts from the inside out.
This baptism happens at the point of our salvation.
Jesus transforms your heart by the Spirit,
And He purifies your life by the fire.
Fire refines God’s people,
But it consumes those who are not God’s people, like chaff.
Several OT passages communicate this.
Slide
But John gives his own fire and brimstone message in vs. 12.
Jesus does not come only as the Savior King,
But also as the Righteous Judge.
You may or may not be familiar with this imagery.
But a winnowing fork is used to toss grain in the air.
When you do,
The husks, or chaff,
Are blown off,
And the seeds or grains,
Would fall to the threshing floor.
The farmer then keeps the grain,
But all the chaff would get swept up and burned.
So, John is using this idea to vividly describe God’s judgment,
Where all people are sifted.
Christ’s followers are preserved,
But the unrepentant are gathered for punishment.
Real chaff is highly flammable and burns away quickly.
But John makes it clear here that when it comes to God’s judgment,
It is an unquenchable fire that never goes out.
This is damnation,
Hell,
Eternal punishment,
For all the wicked.
Although this may seem a little severe to us.
We must understand that God is righteous,
Fully set against sin.
But God is not only about hellfire and brimstone,
That is why He gives us the message of grace, mercy, and rescue through Jesus Christ.
All people are rightfully condemned by sin.
That means we all deserve God’s wrath.
But the Savior King provides us a way out.
YOU: (vs. 13-17)
YOU: (vs. 13-17)
Slide
Matthew seems to intentionally switch the scene after the fire and brimstone message in vs. 12.
We are introduced to Jesus in vs. 13.
So, it is almost this literary picture,
Where against the backdrop of the eternal fate of damnation we all deserve,
Then comes Jesus.
In vs. 13-17, we see His baptism,
Proving that He is the source of Trust of Repentance.
Understandably,
John was very reluctant.
He was actually trying to stop Jesus from letting him baptize Jesus.
Because he knew that Jesus was superior,
He was the only One who had no need to repent!
In fact, John knew that he needed Jesus’ baptism.
But, as Jesus commands in vs. 15,
In order for all righteousness to be fulfilled,
John needed to allow this to happen.
Fulfilling all righteousness describes Christ’s obedience to the commandments of God.
The purpose of Jesus’ baptism was fourfold.
First, it demonstrates His obedience to the Father’s will.
Reinforcing His perfection.
Jesus wanted to please the Father by obeying the prophets.
If Jesus refused to participate in John’s baptism,
He would have been a rebel rather than one who came to fulfill all righteousness.
Second, it allows Jesus to identify with His people as the bearer of their sins.
Which Paul explains in 2 Cor. 5:21,
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Third, He is an example for us.
He obeys what He commands us to do.
He is validating the importance of baptism.
He is beginning His ministry by showing what is central in our mission.
No human made up baptism,
God commands it!
He calls us to do it!
And He Himself does it!
Fourth, It is a picture of salvation.
We have talked about this already,
But baptism pictures death and resurrection to new life.
At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry,
We get a picture of the climax,
When Jesus dies on the cross,
And rises from the grave.
So, now,
Every person who trusts in Christ for salvation is baptized,
As a picture of our dying to sin and self,
And rising to new life in Christ.
Only Jesus’ death on the cross could take away sins.
In fact, referring to His death on the cross,
Jesus says in Luke 12:50,
I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!
In the sermon on the mount,
Jesus teaches that God requires perfect righteousness.
So, Jesus secures God’s righteousness for sinners.
Now, His baptism point to His death as a ransom for many.
As He teaches in Matt. 20:28,
even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
For us today,
The removal of sins and the gift of righteousness is received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Anyone who lacks God’s standard of perfect righteousness,
But hungers and thirsts for His righteousness,
Will be filled.
Jesus teaches this during the sermon on the mount.
He says,
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Trying to bear the load of perfect righteousness on your own is an overwhelming burden.
That is why Jesus invites you to come to Him,
You, who are burdened and heavy laden.
He says come to Him,
And He will give you rest.
Because He is gentle and lowly in heart.
The baptism of Jesus truly was a miracle.
Because in His baptism, we see all three members of the Triune God.
We see Jesus the Son.
But after John consents to baptize Jesus,
He immediately went up from the water,
The heavens suddenly opened for Him,
And He saw the Spirit descend on Him,
Like a dove,
Anointing Jesus,
Coming down to rest on Him.
This was not Jesus literally receiving the Spirit as if He had been without.
It was a public display of what Isaiah prophesied,
That the Lord would anoint the Messiah to bring good news to the poor,
To heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captive,
And to bring freedom to the prisoners.
So, Jesus was set apart for His ministry by the Spirit at His baptism.
Then, in vs. 17,
A voice from heaven,
Which is the voice of God the Father,
Speaks directly,
Testifying that Jesus is His Son,
With whom He is well-pleased.
The Father takes a high degree of pleasure and satisfaction in Jesus,
Expressing His approval of Him.
These words blend together two OT texts,
First, it alludes to the Servant of the Lord from Isaiah 42:1,
Which says,
Behold 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.
Second, it echoes Psalm 2:7,
Which says,
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
Psalm 2 was a song sung at the crowning of Israel’s kings.
By the Father applying this song to Jesus,
Identifies Jesus as the divinely appointed King,
Who rules with divine authority,
And whose kingdom extends to the ends of the earth.
The Isaiah 42 allusion identifies Jesus as the Servant,
The Messiah.
Matthew applies this allusion to Jesus again,
Later in Matthew 12.
So, the OT background shows how the Father’s words here,
Identify Jesus as both King and Savior.
WE: Conc.
WE: Conc.
Slide
John’s ministry was unique in many ways,
But also similar to our ministry today as Christ’s body.
First, we must tell people to repent like John did.
Second, we must resolve to proclaim this gospel.
John’s purpose in life was to prepare the way for the coming of Christ.
Everything he did was for that purpose.
Unlike John,
We don’t prepare the way.
But like John,
We tell the world that Christ has come!
He has come to judge those who do not repent.
But He also came to save us from our sins.
By dying for us and rising from the dead.
On the night that Jesus was betrayed,
Which led to His death.
He gathered together with His closest friends for a final meal.
Here He taught them about His death for all our sins.
So, as we prepare to close this morning.
We are going to close with the Lord’s Supper followed by a final song.
The Lord’s Supper is for any sinner who has repented of sin and self,
And trusted in Jesus Christ.
If that is not you,
Then you remain in your sin and the Lord’s Supper is not for you.
But that can change in an instant.
By repenting of your sin,
As we talked about earlier this morning,
And trusting in Jesus’ death on your behalf.
The Bible says if you believe this in your heart,
And confess Him as Lord and Savior,
You will be saved.
For all sinners who have repented,
I am going to lead us in a word of prayer,
Then you are invited to come to the table.
As they were eating,
Jesus took the bread,
After He blessed it,
He broke it and give it to the disciples and said,
This is My body broken for you,
Take and eat of it.
So, together we eat.
Likewise, He took the cup,
And when He had given thanks,
He gave it to the disciples, saying,
Drink of it,
All of you,
For this is my blood of the covenant,
Which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
So, together, we drink.