WWUTT 1908 The Announcement of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-3)

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So far in Matthew's Gospel, we've had various announcements concerning Christ and we've seen different people's reactions to the announcement of Christ.

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How do you respond to the Word of Christ when we understand the text? This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the Word of God that we may be conformed to the image of Christ.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com and don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we're up to Chapter 3 today.

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If you have a Bible and want to open it with me, I'm going to read verses 1 -12 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Now, in those days

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John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

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Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

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Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan, and they were being baptized by him in the

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Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. But when he saw many of the

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Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them,

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You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

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Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not suppose that you can say to yourselves,

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We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

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And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

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As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals.

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He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

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So far in the Gospel of Matthew, we have seen various responses to the announcement of Christ.

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The narrative began in chapter 1 with Mary and Joseph. And it was found that Mary was with child.

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And that child did not belong to Joseph, for they had not yet consummated their marriage. So he resolved to divorce her quietly.

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But an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the one who has been conceived in her is of the

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Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

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The announcement of Christ to Joseph in a dream. And how did he respond to that announcement?

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He obeyed God, and he took Mary as his wife, and she gave birth to a son, and they indeed called his name

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Jesus. And this fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah. Next up in chapter 2, we had the

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Magi, these foreigners, these pagans from a distant land, who had come to Jerusalem saying,

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Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and we have come to worship him.

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Now, how did the people in Jerusalem respond to that announcement? It says that they were troubled.

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And Herod the king, he was troubled along with them. They were all clueless as to this announcement.

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What in the world are they talking about? So that Herod had to consult his own wise men to figure out who's this king they're talking about, and where is he supposed to be born?

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And they tell him the scriptures. Yeah, it's right there. It says, You, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a leader who will shepherd my people

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Israel. Now how did Herod respond to that message? He wanted to kill the child, and he lied to the

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Magi, hoping that they would reveal to him where the child was so that Herod could have him killed.

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The Magi followed the star that they had been following until it came over the house in which was

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Mary and Joseph and Jesus in Bethlehem. And when they saw the child, they fell down and worshipped him, and opened their treasures presenting to him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

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When they saw the child, they worshipped. That's how the Magi responded to the announcement of Christ.

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They sought for him. They gave to him. They worshipped him.

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Herod sought for him too, but for a completely different reason. The Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they went back to their country by another way.

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Mary and Joseph and the Christ child, they get up and flee to Egypt. Herod is enraged.

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And now his response is with violent action, trying to destroy this

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Christ who threatens his throne. And so he murders children in an attempt to get him.

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There's dispute as to exactly how many children Herod slaughtered in the massacre of the innocents, but however many kids it was, it was one less than what he wanted.

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Herod would soon meet his end after that, and he would stand in judgment before God to answer for the evil that he had done while he was king in Judea.

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But Mary and Joseph and Jesus come back into the land, and Joseph finds out that Herod's son is reigning, so he doesn't want to go back to Bethlehem.

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That's too close to Jerusalem. It was only about four miles away. You could see the walls of Jerusalem from Bethlehem.

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So instead, Joseph heads back up to the town that he came from when he and Mary first journeyed to Bethlehem.

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That's not recalled in Matthew's gospel. That would be later on in Luke. But he goes back up to the town of Nazareth, and that's where Jesus would be raised, fulfilling what was said by the prophets that he shall be called a

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Nazarene. That's where we finished up yesterday in Matthew 2 .23. Now, some amount of time transpires.

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We don't have anything written about Christ from the age of 12 to the age of 30.

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And I mention the age of 12 because that's how old Jesus was when there was that episode that's recalled in Luke's gospel.

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Jesus leaves his parents while they're there in Jerusalem. He goes into the temple to teach, and they have to look all over the place to find him.

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And then they finally do. He's in the temple teaching, and he said to them, did you not know that I must be in my father's house about my father's business?

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So that was at the age of 12 that that happened. It's really the only childhood account that we have recalled to us about the life of Christ.

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Everything else is mystery. Whatever it was that was going on in the life of Jesus is not for us to speculate.

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We cannot know. We have to go by what the Scripture says. Remember that the Apostle Paul said to the

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Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4, learn not to go beyond what is written.

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And going beyond what is written leads to all kinds of speculations and divisions. It does not grow a person in the knowledge of the truth.

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It leads people to wander after myths. Perhaps you're familiar with a series of books that were written by Anne Rice.

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She was the author of the Vampire Chronicles. If you know the 90s film

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Interview with a Vampire, that was made after one of her books. I've not read or watched any of this, so don't take this as endorsement.

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I'm just letting you know who Anne Rice is. But anyway, she wrote a series of books about Jesus and wrote them from a first -person perspective through his eyes.

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And I think it was a trilogy if I remember right. But all of it about things that we don't have record of in the

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Scriptures. So she wrote about his childhood. I think there was one about being a teenager. And then there were some things that we read about in the

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Gospels. But she gave it a first -person perspective, like being in the mind of Jesus and telling us what he would have thought and experienced through all of those things.

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There was a period of her life where she thought that she was now a Christian. But later on in life, she would renounce all of that.

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It was like a passing phase where she just wanted to write some Jesus books.

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But what she wrote was totally outside of Scripture. In fact, if I remember right, there was an account of Jesus getting angry at a boy and killing him, and then feeling bad that he had killed him, and so he raised him again to life.

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That was a fictional account of something that happened in the life of Christ that Anne Rice came up with.

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That is incredibly blasphemous for her to be writing things like that.

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Of course, she felt no shame in it. She cashed her checks, wrote her books, cashed her checks, made her money. One of those books was made into a film.

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I cannot remember the name of it, but apparently I watched it. I have a very foggy memory about it.

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I do remember some scenes from it, but very little. I just discovered recently that I had watched the film.

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I totally had forgotten about it. But then I saw that I had written a review of it.

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I was like, oh wow, that's funny. When I was reading the review, the scenes of the movie started coming back in my mind.

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I rightly had blocked that from my memory. I should have just left it buried. But anyway, you know, this strange fascination that people have with wanting to know about these years of Christ's life that the

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Bible doesn't tell us about. That's okay to wonder that. I'm curious about it. Why wasn't anybody keeping a journal?

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Jesus is in the house. Write some things down. What was he doing? What was going on?

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What was it about this child that made him so different than everybody else? There's a song written by Rich Mullins, one of my favorite songs,

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Boy Like Me, Man Like You, where he thinks about those kinds of things. What was it like being a boy, being around Jesus as a boy?

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What would he have been like? It's good to ponder those things, but we've got to be careful with those things, not to go beyond what is written.

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We have to stick with what scripture says. And there's nothing in the Bible telling us about what happened in the life of Christ between the age of 12 and 30.

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What we do have in the Bible is everything God means for us to know. So we have to be content with not knowing what happened in his life in those 18 years.

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One day we will. Someday we'll get to heaven and we'll get to know the entire story. But for now, we're given the gospels and this is sufficient.

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This is good for us. I am totally satisfied with this, though I do wonder what else was going on in his life before these things that we read about picking up in Matthew chapter 3.

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But this is sufficient for everything we need to know about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

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Now, funny thing is, as we come into chapter 3, of course, it's not Jesus that we're really talking to. It's John the

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Baptist. But we have another announcement made about Jesus. And what are people's reactions going to be to this announcement?

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The announcement being made by one who was prophesied about in Isaiah, the one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the

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Lord, this John the Baptist who fulfills that prophecy. So the amount of time that passes from the end of chapter 2 to the start of chapter 3 is quantified in a few simple words at the start of the chapter.

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Now in those days, that's it. That's how Matthew has sagged into Judea at this particular time, with John the

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Baptist preaching in the wilderness, saying, verse 2, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Remember those words, because we're going to hear them again. But what essentially is

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John saying? What was he preaching? Surely he preached many, many more words than this, but Matthew seems to summarize all the great sermons that John the

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Baptist would have preached into one simple sentence. The theme of everything he preached was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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To repent is to turn back, to turn around, or to change one's mind and to think in a way contrary to the way that you were thinking before.

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So the way that we apply this with regards to faith is repent and believe, right?

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Repent of your sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So your orientation in your mind, even in your very morality, in your spiritual direction, you are not going in the direction of sin anymore.

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You are to turn yourself from that to Jesus Christ and be in pursuit of him and of his righteousness.

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So where have you oriented your life? Are you going after the world? Or are you going after the sinful passions of your flesh?

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Or are you going after Jesus Christ? Is your whole self turned in his direction, desiring him, pursuing him, wanting to be like him, wanting to be with him?

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This is what John is proclaiming when he says, repent, turn away from your unbelief, turn away from your rebellion against God, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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And when God brings in his kingdom, he's going to remove those who are not part of it.

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And so this very word causes the people to stop and wonder, what is he talking about?

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What must we hear? What must we do to prepare ourselves for the coming of this kingdom, the coming of this king?

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Because, of course, as John the Baptist is speaking about the kingdom of heaven being at hand, he is, of course, announcing the coming of a king.

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When the kingdom of heaven is at hand, it means the victors are coming in to proclaim their victory, to have their parade, to celebrate their strength and their win.

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So where are you going to be in that procession? Are you going to be among the enemies that will be chained, that will be paraded through as well?

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Look at the enemies that we've conquered, that we've defeated. Or will you be with the victors, shouting hooray with them as the enemies have been triumphed over?

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Now, the people probably don't understand what all of this means, but it's the very announcement that John is making that causes them to pause so that they may hear and they may know.

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They did not listen when the magi came, saying, where is he who's been born king of the Jews? The people were just troubled by them, but they didn't listen to what it was they had to say.

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Here is John, the forerunner to Christ, the crier who is preparing the people for the king who is coming.

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And now the people hear it and they are listening. And John is speaking from the scriptures, just as it says in Romans 3 20, that through the law, every mouth is stopped.

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And here is John proclaiming what the prophets proclaim so that all the people's mouths are stopped.

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They can't proclaim their own righteousness. There's nothing good in themselves to celebrate.

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When they hear John's message, they recognize their sin and need for preparedness.

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And that's what baptism therefore becomes. It is preparing these people, washing them for the king who is on the way.

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So once again, John proclaiming, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then verse three, for this is the one referred to by Isaiah, the prophet saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the

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Lord, make his paths straight. In other words, prepare yourselves, prepare the way he is coming.

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Welcome him. Be ready for his arrival. Now, that's where the first portion of chapter three concludes.

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We kind of have this introduction telling us about John the Baptist and his ministry that he was doing, preparing the people for the coming of Christ.

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That's verses one through three. In the next part, we have a description of John the Baptist verses four through six.

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And then we have John's warning, particularly to the teachers of Israel.

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That's in verses seven through 12. Now we're not going to get any farther than verses one through three today.

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But once again, we've had various occasions over the course of Matthew's gospel, where an announcement has been made about Christ.

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How do the people respond to that announcement? How did Joseph respond? How did the

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Magi respond? How did Herod and Jerusalem respond? And now how do the people respond to what

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John the Baptist is saying? My friends, an announcement has been made to you and me concerning the

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Christ as well. When I say that, surely you think, well, of course, the gospel was proclaimed to us.

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We were told, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

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He who died on a cross for us, who rose again from the dead, who ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

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Amen, Pastor Gabe. I've heard that. I've turned from my sin. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Yes, that is certainly an announcement that was proclaimed to us. That's the first announcement concerning Christ that you hear.

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But it's also been announced to us to follow him. Not just believe in him, but believing in him also means following him, obeying him, doing what he commands of us.

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As he said to his disciples in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

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So we must also turn from the ways this world lives and we must walk in the way of Christ.

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As it says in 1 John 2, 5, 6, if we say that we are his followers, then we should walk as Jesus walked.

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A third way we hear the announcement of Christ, it's the promise of his coming again.

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We know that he is going to return. So may we be ready for that day, whenever that day happens, whether we die or Christ returns, whichever day comes first, we will be found as being faithful to the

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Lord, prepared and ready for the coming of the kingdom of Christ. It is even here among us in our midst.

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So my friends, the announcement has been made. How do you respond to the announcement of Christ?

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Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read here and may it work in our hearts, that desire to follow

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Jesus. We want to be as our savior. We want to do what honors and pleases our savior.

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And may we do it with our whole lives, everything about us. When we sin, we ask forgiveness for that sin, knowing that Jesus will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and help us to grow in sanctification.

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So we become more and more holy until the day of Christ, when we join with him in glory.

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And give us the courage to share this message with others, that they too would repent of their sin and believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in his name, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.