GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS??

Matthew 3:7  (11/25/07)

Background: What an exciting time.  400 years of silence and then “The kingdom is here!”  Really it is “The King is here!!”  This is the gospel, the good news, the long awaited fulfillment for God’s people.  John the Baptist is not chasing people down to drag them into this thing.  They are going out in droves to him.  They are after him, or after his message.  They want repentance, they want to change, they want to confess their  sin so it can be dealt with.  There is something else going on though, one message, opposite reactions/results.

3:7: BUT, the contrast.  It seems like a good news/bad news thing.  I think that something else is going on.  The message is not different or changed, the response of the Pharisees looks similar, but John was seeing something different that was not immediately noticeable to they eye.  John saw, and John focused on three things.  Who, warned, and wrath.  I did  not outline or literate that.  It’s in the verse.

WHO (or what) HAD JOHN SEEN?  This was not some great spiritual gift of sudden revelation.  It is safe to say John  had grown up in the temple.  Jesus did too.  They came as children, teens and adults.  Age 30 was the beginning of their manhood and their ministry.  That’s a lot of years to observe.  Verse 9 tells us.  John had heard this before, who knows how many times.  He surely had observed an attitude, their doctrine was better than others.  Jesus had warned the people of the “doctrine” of the Pharisees.  John 8:31-33 expands the portrait.  They were holding on to something,  THEY WERE SHUT DOWN.  They loved something.  Read Matt. 23:1-12.  It’s who they were.  They were guarding, protecting, shut down.  Their Pride was the “who.”

John 8:1-7 They were watching, testing, tempting, catching everyone else, but not their own sin;  they were shut down.  Their Pride was the “who.”

WHO WARNED THEM?  Warned means to “exhibit or examine under the eye.”  We don’t need to say much here.  There were not two messages from John the Baptist.  There was one.  One message was at the same time a welcome to one group, and a warning to the other group.  Both groups were coming, but one for change (repentance), and one for holding on.  It was their inward fear that warned them.  They actually were warning themselves.  It was an inside warning based on their lack of desire for change.  They had plotted with Herod instead of worshiping with the wise men.  They were closed, shut down.  John 11:47-54 will tell the whole story.  Verse 48 is the entire motivation of the matter.  There was no way they were going to have their place taken away.  Their “place” was the warning.

THE WRATH TO COME!!  This is a fascinating word.  The word wrath is from the Greek word orge (pronounced orgay).  It is used of anger or vengeance but it is properly “desire or passion.”  I could not find in John’s message that their’s was a message of wrath declared to the multitudes.  Nor did John have a different message of wrath made up for the Pharisees.  In fact, John asked them “who warned you of wrath.”  The wrath is defined by who they are, and a description coming out of their own lack of response to the “new way of thinking,” and the lack of confession to God of their own personal sin, in order to enter the Kingdom.  From the birth of Jesus, and John to the beginning of their ministries I do not find wrath being poured out is the message.  I hear “good news, good news, good news!!”  It was NOT a message of wrath, the wrath was in and their response.

Read 2 Corinthians 2:15-16.  Notice that in verse 15 there is ONE “fragrance” OF CHRIST!  BUT, in verse 16 it is an “aroma” of death leading to death- to one, and an “aroma” of life leading to life- for the other.

Application: The Kingdom is Good News!!!!  It is wrath ONLY when I have my own kingdoms that I will not surrender, will not confess, will not allow to die.  The Kingdom is either welcome, or it is wrath, and that difference rests in the heart of the “hearer,” not in the desire of God,  for His desire is to draw all men unto Himself.  That is why John offers the opportunity for fruit to be brought forth that is evidence of repentance.