SOURCE AND RESPONSE

(Root and Fruit)

   Matthew 3:8-12 (12-30-07)

Background: We have shared the background of these passages in depth.  The significance of vs. 8 is that John is allowing them to be corrected.  The Pharisees/Sadducees have opportunity to shift, to repent.  God is about destroying the wrong source, not the person.  The fact is, the root (source) is the issue, not the symptom.  Today’s message is really, really good news.  God wants to change the root, not treat the symptom of our lives.  Deliverance or Destruction comes by what source we hold onto.  The fruit will be a result of the root!!

OLD ROOT:  Matt 3:8  Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.  “Therefore” is but or now “bring forth” (poieo) fruits that draw on repentance.  V.9 Establishes that they must have a different source.  In Matt. 7:15-23 Jesus really goes after the source idea.  Notice that Jesus in 7:19-20 is preaching exactly what John preaches in 3:10.  Jesus is so strong that fruit that looks good and seems “wonderful” means nothing to Him.  If it has the wrong source it is bad, evil, fruit, period!  In John 15:5 Jesus says if we abide in Him we would produce much fruit, and without Him we can do nothing.!!   What is going to change this?  The destruction of the “old” source and a new source!

Matt 3:10  Even NOW the axe is laid to the root of the trees.  There are different views on this.  Most would say John is talking about getting rid of the old leaders.  I don’t see that as the essence, though it is part of the possibilities.  In the context John offers them a chance to repent, v.2 and v.8.  If they do not repent, axe is being laid to their kind of sourcing.  This is a response deal all the way through.  IF THEY DO NOT RESPOND...then they will be destroyed.  Malachi 4:1 says, “For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the LORD of hosts, “ That will leave them neither root nor branch.”

THE NEW ROOT AND THE REMNANT: Oh but there is a new root and a new remnant.

Isaiah 11:10 And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.” Isaiah 37:31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit  upward. There will be a new root down, and real fruit up.  Isaiah 53:2-5  For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground.  Then we are told He would be wounded, afflicted, bruised and beaten, but those stripes would be our healing.  We would have a new source, a new style to live, the style of Him, the style of the Cross.

Malachi 4:2-6 tells us the Sun of righteousness would come with healing in His wings, and before that Elijah would come and would turn the hearts of the father’s to the children and the children to the fathers.  Luke 1:17 tells us that John the Baptist was coming in the spirit and power of Elijah to usher this whole new root and response in. 

Then John, in Matthew 3:11, tells us there is a mightier one coming!  There is an open door, If they will respond they can have a new baptism a new source of living, that will separate the wheat from the chaff, and burn up the old stuff in their lives.  Paul the Apostle put it like this in Romans 11:16: “For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”