What Then Should We Do
Notes
Transcript
Series: A Lamp Unto My Feet
Passage: Luke 3:1-20
Sermon in a Sentence:
Those who are forgiven produce fruit consistent with repentance.
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
3 He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
This was completely different than what the Jewish Faith taught, — That you were forgiven through specific sacrifices at the temple through the priests — Moses, Mt. Sinai ~1,476 years, minus the time in exile in Babylon and Assyria.
Same message as Jesus
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
After Herod arrested John the Baptist and threw him in prison it says:
17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
so Matthew says that both John and Jesus preached the exact same message, it did not change from John to Jesus. — Luke tells us the same thing, This is what Luke said that John preached:
3 He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and if we jump to the very end of Luke’s gospel we will see that Jesus, after his resurrection, and right before he ascends to heaven, the last instructions he gives to his disciples, this is what he says:
45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
46 He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day,
47 and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Notice what he said: He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures —
and REPENTANCE for FORGIVENESS of sins will be proclaimed IN HIS NAME to all the nations,
From the very beginning, God has never separated the two concepts, of repenting and believing in Jesus,
So when Jesus preached to repent and believe in Mark 1:14
14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God:
He was preaching the same message that John preached. This message that you could be forgiven of your sins through repentance and faith in Jesus stood completely against how the Jews had been worshiping God for the past 1,400 years. Because without making a sacrifice at the alter by a priest, there was no way for you to be forgiven. So imagine how different John and Jesus’ message of forgiveness through repentance and faith in the one sacrifice for all time.
4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!
5 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth,
6 and everyone will see the salvation of God.
7 He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Notice how John wasn’t trying to tell the crowds what they wanted to hear to become popular, he told them what they needed to hear. John would have stood in stark contrast to someone who pandered to the people to create a following. He did not wear nice clothes, he did not eat nice food, he did not go to wealthy people’s parties, he did not speak only encouraging words to make people like him. He saw that people were in danger and he warned them that everyone will face judgement before God, and that we will all be found guilty because we all are sinful and evil. But God has provided a way for us to be forgiven, but it is not through our race or ethnicity, it is through repentance and faith.
8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.
9 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 “What then should we do?” the crowds were asking him.
Keep in mind, he has already told them how they can be saved.
3 He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
they are to repent and believe in the one to come after him. So then Luke includes the next section with groups of people asking what they should do?
10 “What then should we do?” the crowds were asking him.
The first group that asks what they should do is the crowds in general, in other words, everyone in general. What should everyone in general do if they want to produce fruit consistent with repentance? And this is what John said:
11 He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”
You see, you can say that you repented and believed, but John is saying, it doesn’t matter what you say, if what you say is not true. So he let’s you know what the life of someone looks like who truly does repent and believe. They actually make sacrifices for others. Because when you truly repent and believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will come to live within you and you will be born again. You will be made alive spiritually and changed into a new creation, your heart of stone will be removed and it will be replaced with a heart of flesh. And so you will look out, not just for yourself, but for others. You will care more about them and their salvation, than you will about yourself and having more more more. What what does it look like, for the general crowd of people who repent and believe? It looks like people who loves their neighbor as their self. So then the next group that asks John what they should do is the tax collectors:
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?”
Now Tax collectors were considered traitor. They were Jewish citizens who collected money from Jews and gave that money to the Romans and kept a lot for themselves. They were despised, and many didn’t believe that tax collectors would be saved, so the majority of the religious leaders probably would have responded by telling them to abandon their jobs as tax collectors and ask God to forgive them of taking money from them and giving it to a pagan enemy government who is oppressing God’s people. but this is what John said:
13 He told them, “Don’t collect any more than what you have been authorized.”
That’s it! He didn’t tell them to quit their jobs. He didn’t tell them to end any cooperation with a pagan enemy nation that oppressed God’s people. He just said, be honest. If the Roman government said the people owe a certain amount of taxes, then just collect that amount of taxes and no more. Don’t be dishonest. Love your neighbor as yourself. And so we come to the third and final group that asks Jesus what they should do?
14 Some soldiers also questioned him, “What should we do?” He said to them, “Don’t take money from anyone by force or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now based on the situation at the time, Rome was occupying Israel. Rome gave a lot of freedom to Israel to how they could live out their daily lives, but they had Roman appointed kings, and governors, and soldiers stationed in Israel that ruled the nation and Israel would not have been allowed to have their own army. It is also highly unlikely that they would have been allowed to serve in the military within their own country as well, because then they could form a rebellion. So implicit in this question is the fact that these soldiers where almost certainly Romans. Foreigners, and pagans, who were stationed in Israel in order to maintain their dominance over Israel and to squash any potential uprising. And notice what John said, and notice what he DIDN’T say. How was a Roman soldier to repent and to believe in the Jewish Messiah that would soon come and be given a kingdom that he would reign over forever?
He was not to extort or bribe people for money. He was to be honest, to turn from sin. Notice John did not tell them that they must renounce their allegiance to Caesar. John did not tell them that they must lay down their swords and refuse to ever kill anyone again. John did not say that in order to repent and serve God that you can not serve in the military. John simply said in order for a gentile soldier who serves a pagan enemy, in order to repent, God wants you to love your neighbor as yourself.
In all three groups John addressed the most common sin that each group was guilty of.
The most common sin the general people are guilty of is greed and selfishness. Therefore we should give to others in need.
The most common sin that tax collectors are guilty of is taking more taxes than they must give to Rome so they can get wealthy themselves. Therefore they should not take more than they have been authorized to take.
And the most common sin that foreign oppressive soldiers were guilty of was bribery and extortion because they were the ones with power. Therefore they should not abuse their powers to take money from people.
Keep in mind, that not every soldier bribed and extorted people, but every soldier did serve Caesar, and did have to kill anyone they were ordered to kill. Bakers bake bread. Carpenters carve wood. And Soldiers kill anyone declared by their government to be an enemy. If their sin in God’s sight was that they had to kill, then when they asked John what they should do, he would have told them they must lay down their swords. But he didn’t. He said they could still be soldiers, they just couldn’t bribe and extort people.
There are a lot of people who need to hear that, because there are a lot of people who tell our service men and women that they can’t serve God if they serve in the military, and if that were true, then Luke chapter three would have been written differently by the Holy Spirit. But it isn’t, and no other New Testament author said they must lay down their swords in order to serve God either. And when Paul wrote to the Romans, he actually said that the government was ordained by God and that it did not carry a sword for no reason
1 Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.
2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval.
4 For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.
5 Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience.
6 And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks.
7 Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.
Notice what Paul said through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, because there are many who are anti-military and anti-gun who never in a thousand lifetimes would write these things to other Christians as the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to do.
He said:
Government authorities are instituted by God.
Those who resist their governing authorities are opposing God’s command and will receive God’s judgment.
Government rulers are God’s servants for your good.
Governing authorities AS God’s servants CARRY swords to avenge those who do wrong.
You must submit to those authorities as God’s servants.
You must financially support those authorities by paying your taxes and tolls.
You must emotionally support those authorities by paying them your honor and respect.
Now my question to you is, if God doesn’t believe any of this stuff, then why on earth did He inspire Paul to write this to the church in Rome? Keep in mind, all of their authorities and rulers and soldiers, served a pagan Emperor who was extremely hostile to the faith. The same Roman Emperor who ended up executing Paul, the guy God inspired to write this. Let that sink in for a second.
Jesus ascended to heaven around 33 A.D. Paul was a young man when Stephen was martyred sometime after 33 A.D. Paul later persecuted Christians until he was converted on the way to Damascus, we don’t know how many years later that was. Then after his conversion, three years later he said he went up to Jerusalem, then 14 years after that he went up to Jerusalem again, so at minimum we are at least up to around 55 A.D. when he went to Jerusalem and met with the Apostles the second time, and then he had more ministry after that. Why is that important? Because it means Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans during the mid- to late 50s A.D. Maybe early 60s. The Roman Emperor from 54 A.D. to 68 A.D. was a man named Nero Claudius Caesar. Emperor Nero assassinated his step-brother, tried to poison his mother several times, then had engineers try to create a collapsible ceiling in her bedroom that would fall on her in her sleep, then had a ship built that would break apart in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea while she was on it, which it did, but his mother survived that murder attempt also by swimming to a nearby island. Then Nero finally claimed that she had tried to assassinate him and had his soldiers go club her to death on the island. He murdered two of his wives, one of which he kicked to death while she was pregnant. He then burned a huge portion of Rome to the ground and he blamed it on Christians who he hated. Tacitus, who was a Roman Historian who lived from 56 to 118 AD said: “Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians … Vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: They were covered with wild beasts’ skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night.” That’s Nero! Extra biblical history also tells us that Peter had to watch his wife be executed by Nero. This same Nero that threw Christians to the beasts for everyone in the arena to watch get torn to pieces for entertainment, and burned Christians on crosses as lamps to light the way to the city, this Nero was the emperor when the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write the epistle to the Romans telling them the 7 things I mentioned earlier. that:
Government authorities are instituted by God.
Those who resist their governing authorities are opposing God’s command and will receive God’s judgment.
Government rulers are God’s servants for your good.
Governing authorities AS God’s servants CARRY swords to avenge those who do wrong.
You must submit to those authorities as God’s servants.
You must financially support those authorities by paying your taxes and tolls.
You must emotionally support those authorities by paying them your honor and respect.
So all of that to say that it doesn’t matter who the government is or who the leaders of that government are, if you had to stop serving in the military to serve God, then He would have said so. He wasn’t afraid to say all the other things he said that you have to give up, and he wouldn’t have shied away from saying that. Nero and the way the Roman government treated Christians when Paul wrote his epistle was far more evil than Christians have ever faced in this country in our lifetimes, so those who say that you can’t be a service man or woman in our country and have a clean conscience before God would never have told Paul to write any of these things to the Christians in Rome under Nero, but the Holy Spirit did Paul to write these things. So who’s voice are you going to listen to? I’m going to listen to what God says, and not what man says.
If you are a service member or used to be in the service, I want you to know that you don’t have to feel guilt for serving our country and for following orders. God can forgive you of anything you believe you shouldn’t have done while in the service. Our military is serving the greatest country on the face of this planet. You shouldn’t be shamed by anyone for your service, you should be honored by everyone and respected by everyone, because God said so.
7 Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.
People who are upset with me for saying that don’t realize it, but the truth is they’re not upset with me for saying it, they are really upset with God for saying it to Christians in Rome under Nero. They are really upset that God would tell christians under Nero that they should submit to him and honor him. They can’t understand why God would say that to Christians under such an evil leader.
And Peter, who was also crucified by the Roman Emperor, God inspired him to say this:
13 Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority
14 or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.
15 For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.
16 Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves.
17 Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Again, God inspired both men, who would be executed by a pagan evil emperor to submit to him and honor him as those ordained by God. Now does that leave us with questions as to HOW this could be true? HOW could God ordain an evil pagan leader and expect us to honor and submit to him? Yes, there will be lots of questions as to HOW it could be true. But we don’t obey only the things God commands us IF we understand why we should.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
Trust God and do not rely on your own understanding, but follow him, whether you understand or not and he will lead you down the straight and narrow path. If you only obey God when you understand why you should and finally come to a place of agreement that you should, you really aren’t obeying him. You are completely autonomous, You don’t obey anyone, you do what you want to do, and when you finally agree that YOU think YOU should do what God says THEN you do it. That’s not obeying God, That’s obeying yourself. That’s you deciding for yourself how you are going to live, and maybe you agree with God a lot, but when you don’t agree with him, do you obey him anyways, or do you do what you want to do, until you agree with him? You see, if you have to understand why God tells you to do something you disagree with, before you will obey him, that’s called relying on your own understanding. And when you do that, you’re not acknowledging him in all your ways and you’re not trusting him, you’re doing the opposite. You see, you have to obey God, when you understand why He tells you to do something, and when you don’t understand, that’s called trusting him. That’s the example we see with Abraham. He didn’t understand why God told him to take Isaac up the mountain and sacrifice him, but he trusted him and obeyed him, even though you and I wouldn’t have. And God stopped him, and told Abraham that He Himself would provide the sacrifice on that same mountain of his own son one day for us to be forgiven. There is no possible way that Abraham could have figured that out on his own. If Abraham had to understand why first, he would never have gone up that mountain. And we would not know how to be saved by faith. Because it was Jesus’ sacrifice on that mountain that made a way for us to be forgiven, but God has decided that His forgiveness will only be given to those who believe Him.
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
[CHECK TIME]
15 Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
17 His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”
18 Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people.
19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the evil things he had done,
20 Herod added this to everything else—he locked up John in prison.
we tend to focus on just the negative and ignore the positive.
farmer’s don’t grow wheat and separate the wheat berry (or seed) from the husk, just so they can burn the husks (or chaff), they grow it and separate it for the seeds.
Wheat farmers aren’t angry people who work really hard to grow a lot of wheat because they hate the inedible parts of wheat. They don’t go through all that trouble of tilling the soil, watering it, harvesting it, and separating the seeds from the husks, just so they can have a big pile of chaff to burn. — imagine several farmers working together and finally standing around that fire at night at the end of the harvest — “All of our hard work and prayers have paid off this year. God was really good to us to give us such a large crop. Now I can rest easy tonight, it’ll be the first good night’s sleep I’ve gotten in months.” “What are we going to do with all that wheat we had to store in the barn from this year’s crop?” “Who care’s, I didn’t grow it for the wheat, I grew it so that I could burn all this chaff. I hate chaff! I worked hard all season to get as much chaff as I could get. Send a message to town tomorrow that says we’ve got a bunch of wheat left over from our crop this year and that anyone who wants can come get whatever they want.”
You know and I know that’s ridiculous, but we do that when we read the Bible a lot of times. We focus in on the negative, as if that is the only thing the author cared about, and ignore the positive.
17 His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”
John wasn’t just calling everyone vipers and telling them they would burn in hell forever. Although, that’s the only parts we remember after we’ve read it, because that’s all we are thinking about when we first hear his words. We go into shock mode and we aren’t thinking about the parts that aren’t shocking, we only think about the parts that are shocking, and so after time goes by, we only spent time thinking about the shocking parts, so we only remember the shocking parts.
But again, Jesus is likened to a farmer who has his winnowing shovel in his hand and uses it to separate the wheat from the chaff. He gathers the wheat into his barn, and he burns the chaff. This is as simple of an explanation of what a farmer does as you can get. If you were to explain to someone how a farmer farms wheat and told them: When it comes time to harvest, the farmer takes his winnowing shovel, tosses the wheat into the air, separates the wheat berries from the husks, gathers the wheat and stores it into his barn, and takes the husks and burns them. No one would listen to that and say to themselves, “Wow! He does all that work, just to burn the husks?” No, he did all that work, not to burn the husks, but to gather the wheat.
And Jesus is the same way. He doesn’t go through the trouble of coming to earth to be born as a man, live a perfect life, serve us, and die a brutal death on a cross, just to burn people in hell. He could have done that without ever suffering. He came to earth and suffered and died in our place, so that he could gather us into his barn. But he won’t force us to worship him, he gives us free will to make our own choice, which is why he warns us. If he did force us, then we wouldn’t really love him, and if he didn’t warn us then he wouldn’t really love us.
So yeah, it’s easy to get stuck on the parts where he called them a brood of vipers, and told them that the coming messiah would throw many of them into a fire that never goes out and say that John was just some guy that was angry and hated everyone and just yelled at people, but that would be completely wrong. Let’s read these two verses again: Verses 17 and 18
17 His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”
18 Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people.
So verse 17 says the Messiah will separate everyone, he will gather his family into heaven, and he will cast his enemies into hell.
And verse 18 says with many other exhortations (Earnest attempts to urge and persuade), he proclaimed good news.
So it’s really all about good news. He proclaimed good news to the people! He earnestly tried to urge and persuade the people to accept the good news. The good news is that the farmer is coming to gather his wheat into his barn. The other good news is that you actually get to choose if you will be the wheat or the chaff. It’s not something that is decided for you that you have no control over.
The bad news for the wheat husk in real life is that when it’s born, it’s born as husk and it can never change into the seed. If you are the husk, you will always be the husk, and you will get burned up. That’s bad news in real life, but that’s what makes the gospel that John is proclaiming good news. The good news is you get to choose to become the wheat. That’s why it’s good news. If John said, some of you will be saved, but most of you will not, and there is nothing you can do about it, there is nothing you can do to change which you will be, then that would NOT be good news. And there would be no point in his ministry, in the same way it would be pointless to go out into a grain field and tell the wheat that’s growing that only the seeds will be saved and used, and all the rest of the wheat will be burned, therefore be the seed, turn from being a husk and commit to being a seed, because only the seeds will be saved. If the wheat can’t change, because it has no ability to change, then you are wasting your time warning the husks, because not one single husk will EVER change into a seed, not one. So no one could honestly say to you to go into the field and warn the husks so that some might be saved. They could not say that honestly, therefore if they were an honest person they wouldn’t say that at all.
He also said back in verses 15-16 that He was not the coming Messiah but that one would come after him that he was not worthy to untie his sandals.
15 Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
17 His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”
18 Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people.
John’s message was to repent and believe in the coming Messiah. So his message was a message of repentance and faith in a coming Messiah, and then after Jesus showed up, Jesus preached the same message, repent and believe that He was the Messiah.
So John proclaimed the good news that those who choose to repent will be saved, and that’s good news because anyone can choose to repent. You can choose to repent and place your faith in Jesus as the Messiah. You can choose to repent even if you are a tax collector, and you don’t have to stop being a tax collector. You can choose to repent even if you serve in the military, and you don’t have to stop serving in the military. You can choose to repent, to turn from sin, right now, and you can receive the Holy Spirit today and be born again and know that when your time is up on this earth, that you will be gathered into God’s barn forever, and not burned with those who refuse to repent and believe in Jesus. It’s good news because it’s your choice, and there is nothing stopping you from choosing life right now.