MIGHTIER THAN “I”

Matthew 3:8-12 (1/20/08)

In the New Year it is common to think of changes to be made.  How will my life be different?  Where shall I improve?  Shall I work out so my clothes will fit, or just buy new clothes.  What can I do that will make this year count or be more memorable.  I don’t know how many different ways there are  to change, but from the written Word today, I see three.  One of  them and possibly two might  fit even for unbelievers but one can only be accomplished by what Andrew Murray called, an “Absolute Surrender.”

            Methods: v.8-10.  Verse 8, “Therefore bear fruit worthy of repentance” is a great and needed call to God’s people.  John the Baptist emphasized it, Jesus taught much on it.  The idea of the word “worthy” here, is not to do outward deeds to look or feel better, but that the production of fruit would show the depth of the repentance.  The people John is talking to had methods nailed down.  We have come often to the place that if we have the right programs, the best location, the latest curriculum and the most prominent people, we can impress our world.  Green Bay is in the NFC championship game.  I saw a proper, sophisticated news woman last night wearing a “cheese head” hat at the end of her program.  Cute, but I know it is a hat, it is not really cheese.  I know she is not really a cheese head, but is just wearing a hat to make her look like one.  My wife said, “how can she do that with a straight face?”  I know how.  I have done it.  You probably have too.  It is a pretend thing, a costume.  There was a survey recently, a poll that said 77% of Americans believe Christians are “annoying.”  I hoped it was because we expelled the darkness and they were convicted, drawn to Him.  My daughter in law knew instantly what it was.  She said it is because “we are no different than them.”  The guys John was talking to were outwardly doing all the methods of righteousness.  They had the cosmetics down.  In Verse 9 John exposes that way of operating.  This is not about your claim to heritage, this is not about the position you hold, this is not even about your function, gift, call or duty.  This is about what your source is.   Dedications,  baptisms, confirmations, reading the church liturgy properly or saying the memorized prayers, will NOT, I  repeat will NOT stand up as your source.  Oh God deliver us from our “institutional methods” as a means of claiming our identity.  Verse 10 John makes it clear the whole TREE is about to be taken down.  This is not the “branch” problem only.  This is the whole tree, the whole institution.  The axe has not sliced in yet, but it is laying at the base ready to cut.

            Mind Change (repentance): v.11a “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.”  The “unto” is a motion towards or into, the eis word.  Your “fruit” is going to come out of a whole new way of thinking.  The baptism is going to be a symbol that you have forsaken the desire to depend on outward acts as your claim to spiritual power.  John is clear, this is not the mere performing of acts that imitate repentance, this is repentance producing fruit.  The word indeed here is translated that way about 22 times, and 18 of them or so are followed by a but, to show a contrast.  “Indeed” here means affirmation and concession.  John is just into his ministry and he is already conceding there is something more.  Repentance is a continual thing that is seeking, hungry and open for change.  I...but He.  John, of whom Jesus said no greater man was born of woman, John who was Spirit filled in the womb, John who was the Elijah of the “new covenant,” is already prepared to place his way of doing things, his ministry, under a new thing to come.