Do

Transcript Search
Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  34:44
0 ratings
· 63 views
Files
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

Luke 3:8 ESV
8 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 for Abraham.
Luke 3:9 ESV
9 Even now the axe 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.”
Luke 3:10 ESV
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?”
Luke 3:11 ESV
11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”
Luke 3:12 ESV
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”
Luke 3:13 ESV
13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”
Luke 3:14 ESV
14 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.”
Luke 3:15 ESV
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ,
Luke 3:16 ESV
16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize 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 baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Luke 3:17 ESV
17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

DO

There’s Nothing to do.
You never wanted to say that in my house growing up.
You never wanted to say that in my house if you were growing up in my house.
Doing is an important concept. Something we value and we seek in others.
We greet each other , “How do you do?”
We ask each other, “What do you do?” What did you do before you retired?
So much of what we do is tied to who we are. It at times is a superficial question, but it always produces a revealing answer.
Every year when I come before my supervisors, the question is asked “What have you done?” in the past year. What have you done in the churches you have served? What shows us evidence of your ministry? It’s all found in the “do”s of our lives.
The evidence of who you are is what you do. What you do can reveal character. It can also reveal competency. What you do can reveal what’s important to you. What you do tells others a lot.
So is it any wonder that John the Baptist, when approached by a very mixed bag of people who want to be baptized… begins to look at what they’ve done. What is their evidence?
Luke 3:7 ESV
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Brood of vipers? He may have been able to pick a more civil way of addressing his guests! Notice that he apparently has not yet understood the notion of hospitality and welcoming.
Make no mistake, John believes they are requesting the right thing. He jus thinks there may be alterior motives and he wants to get to that. You have to look back in this passage to verse 3 to get a proper understanding.
Verse 3 says,
Luke 3:3 ESV
3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The chief characteristic of John’s baptism was it indicated sorrow for sin and a moral change on the part of the person to be baptized.
A baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. Essentially, John is asking if you’ve received the forgiveness of God, then what evidence is there in your life that you repented. God has done all of the work in forgiveness, and he always does. Remember the Pharisees loved to say, everytime Jesus forgave sins- Who can forgive sin but God?
So John is asking, “If you’ve been forgiven of your sins… the next logical step is that you’ve repented- you’ve changed your ways. That if you’re forgiven you’ve started on a new path. A new direction.
Because you see, the Jewish religion, up to his point, was purely a one way transaction. You came to the temple annually, you bought an animal for a sacrifice, it was givne to the priest who sacrificed it and that transaction brought atonement for sin- forgiveness. It was a transaction.
It had been that way forever. The Jewish religion was a transaction. Any meaning in that transaction was lost- it was gone. There was no emotion in it, no recognition of the individual, no personal relationship implied. This was a corporate action a corporate religion.
And here’s John, and he’s looking for evidence. He wants to see some personal evidence of change in the people’s lives before they come for his baptism- which noted that change, in repentance… and he wanted to know if they had begun to go in a new direction.
The problem is , most people liked the novelty of John’s baptism- not necessarily the new meaning revealed in that baptism.
Baptism meant that there was a change in the heart that was being lived out in life. Evidence.
And so, that’s why Jesus asks for some evidence. Look at how he speaks in Luke 3.8
Luke 3:8 ESV
8 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 for Abraham.
Yellow letter “Bear Fruits”
Bear Fruits- show me your change. Show me the transformation that brings you to me. Because if you are still on the same path, you are not changed. You have to start a new direction, a new way of living.
When you see this word, “Bear”, in this passage … you need to look closer at it. It’s a common word, but not necessarily that common. But in this little passage in Luke, concerning John the Baptist, it’s actually all over the place even though you can’t see it. It’s a greek word, “poieo” and it means to do, or to produce. It has its roots in the creative activity of God.. as in God produces. And you see it throughout this passage when the crowd, the tax collectors, and the soldiers ask John what they are to “do”. In other words, “what do we have to do , or produce, in order to show you that we have started down a new path? And he tells them. What htey need to do.
So here’s John, and he is telling them to bear fruit.
And typically, he knew what most of them were going to say. Everybody there, for the most part, were Jews. They knew the Jewish religion, they were descendants of Abraham. And so they were going to refer John back to their lineage- to their blood line. We are children of Abraham.. we have automatic acceptance with God… we are the ones, so whatever "Get Out of Jail Free card” you are looking for , we got it.
You see, John already knew what they were going to respond… They always did. They went back to the transaction. They went back to the religious virtue of their blood line- and it was absolutely not what John was looking for. They were pointing to a transaction- John was looking for transformation.
And we, so many times, do the same thing. We’ve lost the meaning and the mystique of our relationship with God- if we ever had it. And our relationship is nothing because we’ve turned it into a transaction to replace the transformation that should be there.
We attend church and believe that’s enough.
We give and/or serve in some way and we believe that’s enough. And much like these first century Jews, we begin to tell ourselves that we are good people and we do good things.
I always give change at the salvation army kettle. I teach a Sunday School class. I belong to the right civic clubs and I’m generally a good neighbor. My family likes me, I think.
And it almost seems like we are trying to convince ourselves. And let me tell you something. You may be fudging on the truth with your wife, your family, and your best friends. But you can’t do that with God. There are no mulligans with God.
If there is anywhere that we need to be brutally honest- it’s with God and it’s with our selves. And I think, sometimes, we can’t be honest with God until we are honest with ourselves. It’s hard.
Notice how John says this-”Don’t say to yourselves, “We have abraham for our father.” Don’t lie to yourselves about this transactional religion that you have going on right now. It’s not enough. Never will be. And you’d better be honest with yourself about that so that at some point you can be honest with God about that.
And we do that all the time. We tell ourselves that we are basically good people, acceptable among our peers- who are all jsut like us- and therefore we’re going to bank on that “do good” religion of “I’m ok and you’re ok” and trust that it’s sufficient. And the whole point of John’s coming is to point out that Jesus is coming and the transactional religion of the Jews is exactly the reason he had to come- It wasn’t working!
And this corporate understanding of religion was now being brought down to a personal relationship with a person and there needed to be more than a transaction- there needed to be a transformation. And sometimes , when you get so caught up in your transactional religion you can’t see the personal transformational change that Christ can bring in your life. And I’m ahead of myself.
And if you can’t see the change necessary in your life, the moral compass has broken to the piont that you are convinced you are “good enough” or above that- you are invery dangerous territory, my friend. When you have arrived at the place where the Jews were, that they were convinced that their religion was their “Get out of jail free” card- nothing else was necessary, you are in deep trouble. And make no mistake, that’s exactly why John uses the language he does. He says things like the axe is laid to the root of the tree if there’s no fruit.” The chaff is to be thrown into the fire. That’s all about religion that has no effect, religion that produces no lasting fruit or transformation.
We can lie to ourselves to the point that we miss the necessity of the transformation that only forgiveness of sins by God can bring.
Luke 5.27-32
Luke 5:27–32 ESV
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Now look at this story, please. Jesus is walking along and sees this tax collector, “Matthew”. He calls out to him and he says, “Hey, Matthew! Come follow me.” And they wind up at Matthew’s house- with all of Matthew’s tax collector friends.
Please note that tax collecting was not popular among the tax payers- odd notion. But it was particularaly unsavory in Jesus’ day. They essentially bid on the job of tax collector so they could steal from their neighbors and friends. And the job, by its very nature, made you unclean religiously. These were the worst of the worst.
And here’s Jesus, at Matthew the tax collector’s house, and he’s having a good time. And his disciples are all with him.
And of course, just outside the door was the religious folk- the scribes and the pharisees- watching Jesus every move. They couldn’t believe that a Jewish “rabbi” with such a following would hang out with people like this… so look what they say: Luke 5:30
Luke 5:30 ESV
30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
We’d never do that. We’re good people. We are religious, don’t you know . We are the keepers of the law, the chosen of God… we’d never eat with tax collectors and sinners.
And Jesus’ response is classic.: Luke 5:31-32
Luke 5:31–32 ESV
31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Can you see the look on the Pharisees’ faces? He really had them here. They claimed they were righteous- well, they didn’t need Jesus. Their religious transaction was what they were counting on and that was all they could get.
But, can you see the look on Matthew’s face? Jesus, did you just call me sick? You are sitting at my table in my house with my friends- and you just insulted me?
I can interject here for Jesus:”Yes, Matthew, as a matter of fact I did. And you are sick and you need me. I’m not going to have you believe a lie, I’m going to tell you the truth even when it hurts. You need to acknowledge your sin, seek forgiveness, change your ways (repent) and follow me.”
We don’t know that’s what happened in this story, but we know it happened some day because eventually Matthew turns out to be a follower of Jesus. Not an unclean tax collector, not a religious transaction- but a forgiven transformed person with fruit to show it.
Go look at Luke 15:1-7
Luke 15:1–7 ESV
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
It’s the same story again as the call of Matthew. Tax collectors and sinners- the worst of the worst-were coming to Jesus. And the religious folk, the transactional religionists of Jesus day were talking about him.
So Jesus responds with a parable. The lost sheep. And he adds the zinger to the story with this:
Luke 15.7
Luke 15:7 ESV
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
I don’t think anywhere the point of Jesus becomes more evident than in the story of The Rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16
It is found in luke 16:19-31, and it deserves its own sermon series. I’ll give you a general description of the story and then I’m just going to point out the things that are important here.
Remember, what we are actually talking about here is a group of people who are religious transactionalists- counting on their religious transactionwith God to earn them enough points. And John the Baptist has told them, don’t say you’re Abraham’s children- don’t tell me about your religiosity, right?
Now, listen to the story of Lazarus and the Rich man. And just look at the conversation from the Rich man....
Luke 16:24 ESV
24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’
Luke 16:27 ESV
27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—
Luke 16:30 ESV
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
Now, let’s get back to the Jordan River.
You see, religious people are a dime a dozen. You heard me correctly. Religious people, who are counting on their transaction with God- whatever that looks like- are a dime a dozen. Look again at what john the baptist said,
Luke 3.8
Luke 3:8 ESV
8 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 for Abraham.
God can create his own religious transactional people out of the stones if he wants. He wants something different. He wants people who are changed- transformed- people who, because of the transformation that has taken place in them have not only turned in a new direction but are doing the things that people following me in a new direction do. Jesus things.
Remember what I told you in the beginning about the “do” word? Poieo? it means to create, to bear fruit. Do you see the word play that John the baptist has going on in this passage?
God can create anything he wants anytime he wants. God can do what only God can do. But he created you… .with creative abilities.
Stop. Do you see raccoons baking cookies or painting portraits or writing music? No. Humans are uniquely made with the ability to create. To “poieo”, to do, to create. part of being made in the image of God is to be able to “do” in a creative and purposeful fashion.
So what is it that your version of religion is creating? John the baptist said, it ought to be bearing out in fruit. If there’s a change, if there’s been an understanding of forgiveness of sin that has moved you to repent- to go in a new direction- then the change will be evidenced in a moral change that will live itself out in the actions you produce- give away that second coat, don’t extort, don’t whatever. And DO! DO! DO! Do the things that a changed repentant and forgiven life would do.
Luke is Lto now tell us what our doing should and shouldn’t look like.
He gives us the story of Herod. See Luke 3.18-20
Luke 3:18–20 ESV
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
The evil of Herod… personified evil.
Luke 3.21-22
Luke 3:21–22 ESV
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The goodness of Jesus- God personified.
Look at Luke 3:23-fff.... it establishes clearly that Jesus was a child of Abraham.
But it also establishes Jesus as the Son of God. And when he goes tothe temple in Luke 4.28, they immediately establish that he is persona non grata.. the religious transactionalists.
Luke 4:28 ESV
28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

DO

Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more