The Last Prophet of Old (Luke 3:1-22, Jeff Kliewer)

Gracious Father, we praise you this morning. We know that we stand here in your presence, that we are able to come into the nearest place, the

Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. We know we have no righteousness of our own, but we are here only because of you.

So thankful that we could be in your presence and we're so thankful that you would speak to us, that you would tell us things that we need to hear.

You would speak to our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Let our hearts be open to your word this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

The prophets of old, that is the Old Testament, had some antics. Their antics were very unusual and one of the examples is

Ezekiel. You were familiar with the story of Ezekiel and one of the things that he did, because he was trying to demonstrate the judgment that was coming, was he cooked his food over dung.

Over dung, yeah, animal cow dung. And he did this to show the people of God, the

Israelites, that when they're taken into captivity, they're going to be forced to eat unclean food. So in order to demonstrate that, he himself cooked his food that way for a period of time.

He also had another interesting thing he did. He built a siege works, like a small miniature thing to show a city under siege and he laid on his side for 390 days to demonstrate that they were gonna be conquered by the

Assyrians and after he finished laying on one side for 390 days, he flipped over and laid on the other side for the same amount of time, demonstrating the message that he had to bring with his mouth, he demonstrated it through his actions.

Another interesting one was Isaiah and I blush to tell you what he did.

Some of you are familiar. To prophesy against Egypt and against Ethiopia, he walked around naked for a period of time, for a long period of time, to demonstrate to them that they were going to be taken captive and ashamed and taken into captivity by the

Assyrian army. So Isaiah humiliated himself that way. The antics of the prophets are interesting, they're strange and aren't you glad we live in the

New Covenant, by the way? Yeah, praise God that we live in the New Covenant, not the old, but these prophets were strange.

Now, when I see that, I'm interested by the things that they did and you read through the Old Testament and it's eye -popping stuff, but what really catches my attention is the level to which these prophets were sold out to God.

They had truly cut ties with the world. Think about it for a minute. They were willing to do whatever it was that God told them to do, even if it meant humiliating themselves.

They were willing to forsake all their possessions to go do whatever it is that God said. They had cut ties with the world.

Now, today we're gonna study a guy named John the Baptist and we read about John the Baptist where?

In the New Testament. We read about the promise of his birth in Luke 1.

Today we're gonna be in Luke 3, so we think, okay, this is the New Testament, but I want you to think of John the

Baptist as the last of the Old Testament prophets. Even though we read about him in the

New Testament, he is truly a prophet of the Old Covenant. He preaches before the cross, before Jesus dies for our sins and he comes in the mode of an

Old Testament prophet. What should we learn from him? Well, one thing that the text does for us today is it gives us certainty about the word of God and that the prophets that spoke so long ago, those

Old Testament guys like Ezekiel and Isaiah and all of the books of the Old Testament and what we have in the

New Testament, it still speaks today and it's trustworthy for our lives.

What does a prophet do, though? Well, with all those antics, there was a reason for it. Prophets were calling sinners to repentance.

So they bring what looks like bad news, calling out the total depravity of men and calling for repentance.

That's not all they do. Prophets also announce the coming of someone who can help. It's one thing to tell us our need and, you know, as I look at my own life,

I resonate with what the prophets say. I know that I need a savior. I know my sin. The prophets not only tell us about how much we need a savior, they tell us who the savior is,

Jesus Christ. So John the Baptist comes announcing the Messiah. Turn with me, if you will, to Luke chapter three and we are going to look at the life of John the

Baptist and what he has to say to us. Luke chapter three, verse one and following.

In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea and Herod being

Tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip, Tetrarch of the region of Iteria and Trachonitis and Lysanias, Tetrarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

And he went up into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall become straight and the rough places shall become level ways and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Now to understand what Luke is doing here at the beginning of the third chapter, we need to remember what he's already said in the first two.

He begins by stating his purpose for writing his gospel. He says,

I'm writing these things to you, Theophilus. Now Theophilus was a historical person, someone that he was writing to, but his name means

God lover, someone who loves God. So as much as he's speaking to Theophilus, he's speaking to you this morning if you love

God. He has a word for you. The book of Luke is for us as much as it was for this man named

Theophilus. And he writes for a purpose that you may have certainty, asphalia in the

Greek. That means sureness, safety in the things that you have been taught because they were taught by eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.

So his idea in writing this gospel is to make an orderly account, like a historian would, to take his time and to interview eyewitnesses, to sit down with them, get the story firsthand and write it in an orderly fashion so that we can really understand the things that happen and we can be sure in the faith that we have.

That's why Luke is writing. And so what he does is he introduces these eyewitnesses one after another.

First comes Mary. And she responds to the word of God with faith.

She's told that she will give birth to a son even though she's a virgin. And she says, yes, Lord, do whatever you have planned.

She has faith. Now Zechariah, on the other hand, struggles, doesn't he? First he talks back to the angel.

And so the angel says, you're gonna be silent until your son is born. But eventually, as faith is born in his heart, he testifies with that powerful end to Luke chapter one, proclaiming that Jesus is the horn of our salvation.

He is the savior. So Zechariah testifies, as did Elizabeth, as did

John the Baptist while he was still in the womb. He leaped for joy when Jesus came in the room, still in the womb of his mother,

Mary. So you have these testimonies that Jesus is the son of God, Luke chapter two, we're all familiar with that now, right?

Given that we just came through Christmas, the shepherds are keeping watch over their flocks by night.

And suddenly a chorus of angels declares to them that the Messiah is born. So there's the testimony of angels.

And now the shepherds come and they speak, declaring that Jesus is the Christ. And Mary marvels at these things.

So Luke is lining up eyewitnesses. It's almost like you're in a courtroom. And one after another,

Luke is calling witnesses to the stand. And Mary testifies, and Zechariah testifies, angels testify, shepherds testify.

And now we get to the star witness, the main witness, the guy who will speak with authority, with passion, that will seal the deal, that your faith will be sure and strong.

So we see in chapter three, verse one, this happens in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

What year is that? Probably 29 AD. Probably 29 AD. How do we know that?

Because historians tell us that Caesar Augustus, the first Caesar of Rome, died in 14

AD and passed the throne to Tiberius of 14, plus the 15th year means that this is probably 29

AD when John begins his ministry. Now, interestingly, if you look at the end of chapter three, verse 23, it says when

Jesus begins his ministry, he was about 30 years of age. So if he begins about a year after John, around 30

AD, how old does that make Jesus? He may have been as old as 36 or 37 years old because his birth is often dated to around three or four

BC. So if he dies in 33 AD, that means he could have been about 37 years old, potentially.

Now, there's some debate among scholars on the placement of each of those dates, but that's kind of how

I think it is. The 15th year of Tiberius Caesar is 29

AD when these events begin to unfold. Now, notice, though, what

Luke is trying to do here. Luke is a historian. He wants you to be sure in your faith. It's not just a myth passed on from your parents that you should just believe because someone told you, believe.

But this is anchored in real history. You should believe because God has spoken, and it's anchored in truth.

So notice in the first verse, how many markers to prove the historicity of these events do you find?

I see seven. Do you see them? We are told who is the emperor?

Tiberius Caesar, his 15th year. Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea. Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee.

It almost gets overwhelming to read each marker. Why do you think Luke is doing that?

You think he's trying to make a point? These are real people in time and space.

This is history he's recording. He is demonstrating his merits as a historian.

He's marking the reign of the emperor and backing it up with details to show that this actually happened in a certain time and place.

Verse two, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.

When you hear that phrase, the word of God came, that should evoke in your mind language of Old Testament prophets.

Think of that. Haggai, when he sees that the temple is in ruins and all the people are just building their house, we read in Haggai chapter one, the word of the

Lord came to him. He sees something with his eyes, but something supernatural happens where he,

Jeremiah describes it as being like a fire in his bones. If he doesn't say something, that fire will consume him.

He has to speak. It's something wells up inside of him from heaven and he speaks.

So Haggai says, is it time for you to live in your paneled houses while God's house remains in ruins?

Haggai received the word of the Lord and so he spoke. And we see that language time and again in the

Old Testament. Malachi, or as my friend Bill says, Malachi is

Malachi, the Italian prophet. We're gonna go there a little bit later. So the word of the

Lord comes to John, the son of Zechariah. He's a prophet. He's an Old Testament prophet.

And where is he? He's in the wilderness, we're told.

Now that's a key to understanding John because John has left his hometown.

He's left the comforts of his home and he's gone out into the wilderness. And we learn from other synoptic gospels, what he was like out there in the wilderness.

You guys know, what was his food? What did he eat? Locusts and honey. And his clothes were camel's hair and he had a leather belt.

And that was the extent of his possessions. And he lived out in the wilderness, growing a beard

I'm sure, looking like a wild man. John the Baptist, living in the wilderness, having cut ties with the world and gone off to serve

God. He's out in the wilderness. Verse three, he went into all the regions around the

Jordan. So he goes to proclaim to the people where they are.

He proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So John the

Baptist is an Old Testament prophet, proclaiming a baptism of repentance.

We'll get to what that means in a minute. But first I want you to notice this quote that happens, verses four to six.

What's happening here is according to what was written. Catch that?

So we know that there's prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming Christ. But here we learn, not only

Christ, but even the prophet who would prophesy about the Christ was prophesied.

You see what God is doing here? He is giving you sureness in your faith in Jesus Christ. Not only

Jesus is prophesied, but the prophet is prophesied, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

Lord. Make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled. And every mountain and hill shall be made low.

And the crooked shall become straight. And the rough places shall become level ways. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

This passage that's being quoted comes from Isaiah chapter 40, verses three to five.

It foretells one who will come and announce the Messiah. A voice in the wilderness saying prepare the way of Yahweh.

Prepare the way for the Messiah. John is prophesied there in Isaiah. But there's another place where he's prophesied.

And that's in the book of Malachi. And I'd like us to turn there, if you will. Flip back in your Bible or click there on your phone to Malachi chapter three, verse one.

This is a second place where John the Baptist was foretold. Where he was announced ahead of time.

It says, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the

Lord of hosts. So Malachi three, one is a prophecy that tells about John the

Baptist and his coming ministry. And that passage continues all the way through to the end of Malachi's book.

Look at the last two verses of the Old Testament. This is significant, this is interesting.

The last two verses of the Old Testament end like this.

Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the

Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction.

And that's the end of the Old Testament. Kind of seems like an odd place to finish, doesn't it?

If there is no Messiah who would come and complete this story, you kind of are left hanging here, aren't you?

But Jesus tells us, if you are able to receive it, John the Baptist is the

Elijah to come. Jesus references Malachi four, verses five and six.

Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet. And so if you were to turn to 2

Kings 1 .8, you can just trust me here, you don't have to flip. What do you suppose Elijah the

Tishbite was wearing when the word of God came to him? Could it be camel hair and a leather belt?

Elijah the prophet wore camel hair and a leather belt, and when John the Baptist came, he was even wearing the very garb of the prophet

Elijah in fulfillment of this prophecy. Why does this matter so much?

Why do we need all this information? Isaiah chapter 40, verses three to five.

Malachi three, one. Malachi four, five and six. All foretold that when it's time, when the time has reached the fullness, the

Messiah is to come into the world. God will send an announcer ahead of him.

He will send an Elijah, the last Old Testament prophet to announce that the

Messiah has come. Luke tells us these things so that we would be sure in our faith, that we would trust the word of God.

We live in a day and an age and a country that no longer trusts the word of God.

Even many who claim to be evangelicals are no longer trusting in the words of this book.

There's a whole movement called openness theology, and it says that God is essentially learning what's gonna happen based on the free will decisions of men.

How could God have knowledge of the future when our free will is determining what's happening?

How could God know what's gonna happen if I choose right instead of choosing left, as he suspected?

Openness theology has come in to the ranks and even calls itself evangelical. But the testimony of Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in the new proves the folly of that system.

It was not possible that God's words would fail. When he said that Elijah would come,

Elijah would come. In fact, John the Baptist was jumping for Jesus before he had a mind formed in him to jump.

In the womb of his mother, he was filled with the Holy Spirit, we are told. That is the freedom of God.

In the sovereignty of God, he chose John for that role. And it was certain that it would be fulfilled.

And so my point is, my overall point here before we move on, is that this word that we have is so deep.

It's so consistent. As you begin to study the scriptures and you see how everything fits together, the 39 books of the old, the 27 of the new, and how everything fits together in one coherent system of theology, it builds faith.

It strengthens your sureness. You will be a bold witness like these witnesses as your faith is strengthened.

So that's what Luke is doing here. He quotes Isaiah 43 to five to bring sureness to our faith.

Now let's move on to the actual message now because this speaks not only to the

Galileans in the surrounding area that John the Baptist went to preach to, this cuts to my heart.

I hope it cuts to yours as well. He said therefore to the crowds, verse seven.

Luke 3, seven. He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him.

Note, these are the responsive ones in Israel. These are the ones that want to go see

John, not the ones who are so preoccupied in their businesses and with their family affairs and whatever that they don't care about that crazy prophet out in the wilderness.

These are the ones coming out to see him and the crowds coming to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers.

Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? You know, we've talked about maybe renaming our church to sound a little bit more fun.

How about brood of vipers? Be a good church name, wouldn't it? I think that's what

John the Baptist would choose. It's a brood of vipers. This is how he addresses the

Israelites. He is not seeker sensitive in this way. He calls them a brood of vipers.

You can just picture these baby snakes all crawling over one another, just born. And as Romans describes, our mouths are like the poison of vipers.

Vipers, poisonous snakes. The way John sees the

Israelites is not very encouraging. A brood of vipers.

Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? What was

Adam's last name? We're not told. What was Eve's last name? We're not told. But after Genesis three, it could very well be

Sinner. Because the sin that Adam committed in the garden was passed on like a last name from generation to generation.

The sin that infected Adam infected Cain and Abel, which is why

Cain killed Abel. And the other sons and daughters that came from them populated the whole earth, and here we are.

A brood of vipers. Totally depraved. Now what does total depravity mean?

Does that mean that we are as bad as we possibly could be in everything that we do? No. It means that even in the good things that we do, there's still a tinge of selfishness, a motive twisted in all of our actions.

As Isaiah says, even your righteous deeds are like filthy rags in the sight of God.

We are a depraved people. Romans chapter one, verses 18 through 320 describe the universal lostness of mankind.

It's bad news if it stopped there. It would be bad news if John stopped here, but there's good news coming.

Let's hang on for it. Verses eight and following, he's still talking about repentance. He tells the

Israelites, 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.

Even now, the ax 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.

So these Israelites who are coming out to be baptized, they can be saved. They're still under the old covenant.

They can believe and by faith be justified, but he tells them, believe genuinely and let the fruit of your life bear testimony to what you say is in your heart.

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Now he knew the way they tended to think.

We have Abraham as our father. We're Jews, we're Israelites. We're not like those Gentile dogs. We're the holy ones, the chosen ones, and the same thinking can infect us.

We're born in America. We're Christian. We're a Christian country. Our parents were

Christian. Our grandparents were Christian. I'm fine. John would say, don't rest in who your parents are or who your grandparents are.

Don't rest if your father is Abraham. You need to repent.

You yourself need to turn from your sin and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Religion won't save you. Interesting study I've been doing recently on the

EFCA and the roots of our denomination. And one of the things that I see, and I think it comes up throughout church history in general, is there's a tendency for future generations following a

Christian revival or a group of Christians to become apathetic and to hold on in their minds to the doctrines that they're taught and have an orthodox belief system in their brains, but for that to increasingly separate from the way they live their lives.

Jesus talked about this when he addressed the seven churches of Asia. In the beginning, the first few chapters of Revelation, he addresses the churches and he tells them, be careful, don't become lukewarm, because if you become lukewarm,

I'm going to spit you out. And he says, if you don't repent, I'm gonna take away your lampstand.

The center of Christianity in that part of Turkey in the first century, even though that was the strength, the stronghold, was in danger of losing their lampstand.

Why? Because there is a tendency for what begins as a genuine work of God to become signing a doctrinal statement.

Without truly being transformed in the heart. So I mentioned the EFCA. What had happened after that great revival of, it's been 500 years this year, 1517,

October 31st, Martin Luther nails the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, the Reformation breaks out and sweeps across Europe and even presses all the way up into Scandinavia, to Sweden and Denmark and Norway, and there's

Christians there now who understand the true gospel of grace. And they're believing.

But just a couple hundred years after that revival, the church is almost entirely orthodox in being able to sign the right doctrinal statement of the

Reformation. And yet almost entirely unbelieving. There was a state church at that time.

And everybody born there was baptized into the church as infants. And so would grow up assuming that they were

Christians, and yet very few believed. And this problem has persisted even to today. In fact, in the 1990s, almost the entire population of Sweden was registered as a member of the state church, which was a

Lutheran denomination. Almost the entire population, whereas less than 5 % of Swedes actually believed the gospel.

Would actually say they affirmed the scripture for themselves and believe in Christ. So there was a disconnect from what was on the outside, a show of orthodoxy versus a genuine conversion of the heart that results in fruit being born in a person's life.

The free church was a response to that. That said, we don't accept that just because you were born in this country, and you're part of the state church, and you were baptized, that you're born again.

And they said, no, we will be free of the state church. We formed a movement.

There was what was called a reader's revival, as people began to read the scripture. A reader's movement in Scandinavia, where Christians would gather in one another's homes and begin to study the scripture for themselves.

And people came to personal saving faith in Christ, and their lives were transformed.

Many of those people immigrated to the United States of America, in the central parts of Iowa, Minneapolis, Minnesota area, and formed a denomination.

These are our roots as a free church, saying we're not gonna settle for dry orthodoxy that simply signs the doctrinal statement.

We want something real. We want an encounter with the living

Christ that saves us and changes the way we live. This is the message of John the

Baptist. Before Jesus comes on the scene, he wasn't content to say, okay, you're

Israelites. You're descendants of Abraham. You're good to go. He calls him a brood of vipers, and he says, repent and turn from your sin, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

It's a message that I need to hear again and again. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Even now, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. What happens to that tree that bears no fruit? Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Religion won't save. So what are some examples of these fruits? Well, he's going to give three examples, and all three of them that he uses in this context have to do with your finances.

Evidently, there's something about how we spend our money that indicates what's in our heart.

Let's hear it. Verses 10 through 14. And the crowds asked him, what then shall we do?

And he answered them, whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none.

And whoever has food is to do likewise. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do?

And he said to them, collect no more than you are authorized to do. 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.

Notice here what John the Baptist does not say. He does not say become a social justice advocate for the redistribution of wealth that Rome would raise taxes and redistribute to change the world that way.

What does he say? He says you, person, personally, tax collector, soldier, you, you give.

He doesn't advocate for a social program here. He calls on the believer to give from his or her own possessions.

When you see that kid in the city who doesn't have a coat and you have a coat in your closet, you give your coat to him.

You give to the poor. You care for those in need. You sacrifice for God, recognizing this, that everything that you have comes from God.

Anything that you give is only God's anyway. And this brings us back to Malachi, chapter four, where we had left off in the

Old Testament. The very last thing he said before announcing John the Baptist, which ties with this, is don't forget to pay your tithe.

Now, in the new covenant, I believe that we are taught from 2 Corinthians that we should give willingly, not according to a law.

Tithe means 10%. But if the Israelites were commanded to give 10 % of their income,

I say to myself, how much more should I be willing to give, being as though Christ has died for my sins, he's given his precious blood, and I can see that.

I'm on this side of the cross. I should use that as a standard to begin with and give over and above what the

Israelites did. And yet, without law. Tithe means 10%.

If the Israelites, by law, were commanded to give 10%, how much more should we give from the heart willingly?

And C, test him in this, he says. I don't know how this ties in with prosperity theology, because I think the prosperity theologians love to take these verses and compound them and add things that aren't there.

If you give to the church 10%, you will be healthy and wealthy and wise, and you'll get a jet.

That's not there. It's interesting that it's always the people receiving those tithes that get the jet.

I think they should tie the jet to somebody in the congregation. Or something like that. There's error in that.

But I do think there's something true that we need to take note of. And I've seen it throughout my life. As you give and obey

God, in sowing into the kingdom of God, he provides everything that you need.

If you make that your first priority in terms of how you spend your money, he will provide everything that you need.

And he knows what you need. It may not be a plane. He will provide.

So take note from what John the Baptist is teaching here. Walk in faith and produce fruit.

This is the first example. If you can trust him with the first part of your paycheck every week, you can trust him in other things.

If you recognize I'm willing to trust him here, why can't I trust him there? It will build your faith in all areas of your life.

So John starts here. He speaks of three financial issues. Now, that's half of the story.

If I were to just close the book now, it would be a pretty hopeless message. You guys would be brood of vipers.

Go home, brood of vipers! There's good news. Let's get to this. As the people were in expectation, we'll be quick, but let's not miss this part.

This is the best part. And all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the

Christ. 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. 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. So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.

They begin to ask John, are you the Christ? He essentially says, no,

I'm the Elijah. I'm the forerunner of the Christ. I'm here to tell you about him. And how much greater is he than I?

I'm not even worthy to bend down and take his shoe off for him to wash his feet. I'm not anything close to him.

He exalts the coming Christ, Jesus the Messiah, so far above himself.

And later he'll say, he must increase, I must decrease. Here's the good news.

Yes, you're a brood of vipers. We are a brood of vipers. Yet the father has loved us so much that he sent his only son to bear that curse, to take the wrath of our tongues.

Think of how he was cursed and mocked before going to the cross. You saved others, save yourself.

Why don't you come down from there if you're a savior? If you're the Christ, they mock him, they beat him, they hang him on a cross.

Cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree. He bears that curse to take our sin away, to transform us.

And so he redeems a people for himself. Out of the brood of vipers, he transforms a people that will bear good fruit in keeping with repentance.

Follow this, this is amazing. Out of the brood of vipers comes a people that are redeemed and changed.

And yet not all believe. And so the second part there, 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.

That's the hard part to hear. Many don't go out to get baptized. Many won't believe the message.

So there's a separating between the righteous and the unrighteous. The saved and the unsaved.

A people for himself are redeemed. And now here's the example of one who doesn't believe.

Verse 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.

Adding this, added this to them all, he had him locked up in prison. Herod the

Tetrarch, evil man, had illegally married and taken

Herodias, his brother's wife. John the

Baptist called him out publicly for that. And Herod, he didn't wanna hear it.

He didn't wanna repent. And so what did he do in response? He locked John up.

He added this guilt to that. And we find out later that ultimately he kills him. Jesus grieves over this when

John is killed. And he says that there hasn't been anyone like John. His heart was moved when he hears the news of John being killed.

Among those born of women, there haven't been any like John. He was so devoted to Christ.

So John here is the announcer. He announces the good news of the Christ. And here's the crucial culminating event of John's ministry.

So there's that insert there about Herod because it fit with the flow of the context, but it goes back to when

John now is in the Jordan, this is what he came to do, to identify.

Verses 21 and 22. Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened 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. This is why John was sent as a forerunner, to identify the

Son of God, to announce him. Baptism essentially is identification with.

The meaning of baptism is to identify with Christ. When I go under the water and buried underwater and come back out,

I identify with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection.

These were people coming out to be baptized by John, so they identify with him, with the ministry that he's proclaiming.

And with repentance, the baptism of repentance was an identification that these are people now who have forsaken their sins and they're going in a new direction, as John the prophet has called them to it.

They've identified with John, they've identified in repentance. But here, Jesus is identified in two ways.

One, he's identified with sinners. The Son of God does not need to be baptized. He doesn't need to repent.

And so he is baptized to identify with us. That we are the sinners who need to be saved.

And he has come in our stead to bear our punishment. So he's identified as a human, with us, as our representative.

He's a representative Israel, he's a representative Adam. And in his baptism then,

God identifies him a second way. He's identified as man, being able to bear our sin, but he's identified as the

Son of God. And so in his baptism, the Father literally speaks from heaven.

A voice comes from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son. And there also, the

Holy Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove. And so you see, for the first time, fully revealed the triune nature of God.

This is important. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are present in the baptism of Jesus.

The Son there in the water, in real time, in real space, among us, tabernacling where we are.

Baptized in water, the Father's voice from heaven and the Spirit like a dove. This is the way of life.

This is salvation. Here's your Savior. God is Trinity. Baptism, the baptism of John identified this.

And so in closing, we are called by John to repent of our sin.

Don't rest in your religiosity, even that you go to church on Sunday. We're told, repent of our sin and keep bearing fruit in keeping with that repentance.

Maybe you need to repent of something this morning. Repent means to change your mind, literally in the

Greek, but it also has a turning away idea. Is there something you need to turn away from today?

To turn your eyes upon Christ. John announced the Christ. Turn your eyes on that Savior.

The prophets all point us to him. We can be sure and safe in him. It's the only safe place to be because there is coming a separating.

If you've repented, you're keeping fruit in that. And if you haven't, there is an unquenchable fire that awaits us.

And so I ask you, have you been born again? Have you been identified with Christ? First of all, spiritually, but then even in the water to make that a public demonstration, even as John's ministry was public, have you been baptized to identify with the church of the firstborn,

Jesus Christ? We'll do it again in the spring, but if you haven't been baptized, please come let me know.

If you want to identify publicly with Jesus Christ. But even right now in your heart, you can pray to receive him.

And finally, some applications going forward. This year is a year for us to be real in our faith, to be disciples.

And I've given some challenges for the new year. As we're studying through Luke and Acts, I would challenge every person in this room to read through it on your own, even as we're gonna preach through Luke, Acts this year.

Better, if you could one up that, read one chapter a day, and you'll go through it seven times in the course of 2017.

I think each of us could do that. One chapter a day, five to 10 minutes a day. And a third challenge to do that, but also memorize one chapter of the

Bible. That's Acts chapter two. My daughter and I are doing that one. And we're about four verses in. It's not that hard to do, just a little bit each night.

I challenge you to do that. And finally, this is probably only for a few, to memorize the entire book of Acts.

But there is someone trying that. And it is doable. I challenge you to think not like the cultural

American Christian, but like the prophet who's in the wilderness, who says,

I cut ties with the world and this is what I'm all about. Do you see the difference? John the

Baptist was sold out to the kingdom of God. He had cut ties with the world and it had become his complete consuming passion.

For him, this challenge would be something to just, huh, memorize the book of Acts. I did that when

I was four. Well, it wasn't written yet, but he probably memorized Isaiah by then.

So the point is to abandon yourself, to cut ties with the world. I know that a football game takes three hours to watch.

You could memorize probably 10 verses in that one game if you really set aside the time for that.

And then again, remember finances. As John the Baptist talked about, giving. Give to the church, to the kingdom of God.

Make that a priority. It shows where your heart is. Is it with money or is it with God?

Make a decision this year to be faithful in that department. Prayer meetings, make that a commitment.

And finally, invite others into relationship with Christ. If there's anything that John the Baptist was, it was an announcer.

Will you go forth announcing to your family and friends that Jesus is the Christ and bring them to saving faith as well?

Let's call on the worship team to come up and pray. You have those in your notes, you can take home and pray and see what the

Lord's calling you to do this year. As they're coming, I just want you guys to bow your heads.

Maybe there's someone here, you're not sure that you've repented and that you're bearing fruit in keeping with that repentance.

Maybe you don't know if you've been born again. Right now, just don't be distracted.

Turn your heart and your mind to Jesus. Think of that area in your life that you need to repent from.

Turn away from and turn to the Savior who is able to save you. Ask him right now to forgive you of your sins, call on his name for salvation.

I can't give you the words to say it, it has to be real, it has to come from your heart. Call on Christ to save you, to change you from the inside so you would be part of this people that are for his own possession.

Call on the Savior right now. His name is Jesus, he died on a cross, he rose from the dead, he is the true

God. Ask him to save you. And maybe you're saved but you've been becoming dry.

Maybe you have the right orthodoxy but you're not bearing fruit. Ask him that this year would be a year of bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, to obey.

It's better than to sacrifice. Ask him to help you now to be like John the

Baptist and cut ties with this world and all the distractions and the thorns that so easily entangle our lives and to run for Christ and his kingdom.

Seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness. Ask him to take hold of you right now.

God, I ask that for myself, that you would take hold of this heart, that I would cut ties with the world and the distractions of this life, take hold of Christ and eternal life.

Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice on the cross. It's in your name we pray, amen.