Wilderness Preacher

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

John the Baptist and the Call to Repentance in Matthew 3

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 3, verses 1 through 12. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Now John wore a garment of camel's hair, a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw that many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees were coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and don't presume 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 axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

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

Why John the Baptist Sounds Nothing Like Joel Osteen

In the name of Jesus. All right, buckle up. This sermon is going to be a bumpy ride. If you haven't figured out that from the text, you might want to grab a crash helmet, some knee pads, some protective gear.

And by the way, this is not a throwaway warning. I am telling you the truth. Our gospel text begins with these words. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Think of it this way. Here comes that preacher that no one likes. This guy never has anything positive to say. And have you seen what he's wearing? And even worse, have you heard what this crazed homeless person eats?

I'm pretty sure that honey doesn't make locusts taste better. Hashtag gag me with a spoon. Now, by way of contrast, I want you to picture in your mind Joel Osteen for a minute. Okay, got him in your mind.

Now, notice his perfectly styled hair. I have a theory regarding his hair, by the way. And I hope Breanne will help me out with this. My theory works like this, that different hair gels kind of set the hair a little bit harder.

And I use the tornado scale for figuring out how stiff someone's hair is. F5, that's the worst category of tornado that you can get. I'm pretty sure Joel Osteen's hair can survive an F5. So I call it F5 hair gel.

I think it worked. So his hair is perfectly styled. His expensive suit is perfectly pressed. His tie, unlike mine, has no coffee stains on it. And his shirt has no mustard stains. And his teeth, oh, they're perfectly pearly white.

Oh, and his messages, they're always designed to make you feel so good about you. Telling you to look in the mirror and say things like, I am the head and not the tail. I am smart. I'm healthy. I'm strong.

I'm wise. It's like the preaching equivalent of a Snuggie. Now, does it bother you that Joel Osteen doesn't sound anything like John the Baptist? Does it bother you? It should. Now, the text continues.

Regarding John the Baptist, this, John the Baptist, is he who was spoken by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.

It is John the Baptist's type of message that prepares the way of the Lord, not Joel Osteen's type of message. Osteen tells you how wonderful and amazing you are. John the Baptist tells you how sinful you are.

Osteen tells you that you are a child of the king, even though you've probably never repented of your sins. John, on the other hand, tells you that you are a snake, and it's actually a little bit stronger than that.

Okay, brood of vipers, kind of roughly translated, it's like a your mama joke. Your mama's a snake is what brood of vipers means. So he tells you, your mama's a snake, and you are steeped in sin. You need to repent, and the day of God's wrath is soon to be unleashed.

And if you don't confess your sins and wickedness, and note this, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, you will be swept away in the fury of God's wrath and be utterly destroyed as you ought. Which, of course, you hear something like that.

Immediately, our mind begins to race a little bit. You can feel the heart going, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is hitting a little too close to home. And oftentimes, the first question that comes up is, well, what do you mean by repentance?

What does that look like? Let's make sure we got that one figured out. Now, we're going to spend a little bit of time focusing on what repentance is and what it isn't in our sermon today. Now, repentance, the Greek word is metanoia.

Down at its basic level, it is, well, it means to change your mind, to change your mind. It's in a sense saying, well, God is right, and I am wrong. But the Augsburg Confession from our Lutheran confessions actually does a very good job of summarizing what the scripture teaches regarding what real repentance is.

And here's what it says in Article 12 of our confessions. Properly speaking, true repentance is nothing else than to have, listen to these words, contrition and sorrow or even terror on account of your sins.

And yet, at the same time, to believe the gospel, the absolution, namely that sin has been forgiven and grace has been obtained through Christ and this faith will comfort the heart and set it at rest.

Amendment of life, that's bearing fruit and keeping with repentance and forsaking the sin would then follow. These must be the fruits of repentance. As John the Baptist says, bear fruit that befits repentance.

So the idea is this repentance really is. I have sorrow, fear, contrition over my sins, and at the same time, I believe that Christ has bled and died for me. The two go together and from that flows the amendment of life, the mortification of the flesh.

In fact, the person who says, oh, I've repented and there's no amendment of life. Hmm, we've got a problem. Now we're going to look at two Old Testament examples of repentance. One is not repentance and one is.

We're going to start by looking at the first two kings of Israel, King Saul and King David. If you'd like to flip over to 1 Samuel chapter 15, we'll begin our first study of what repentance isn't by looking at Saul.

And you're going to note when we get to the end of this passage, Saul confesses he's a sinner, but he's not absolved. And there's a very specific reason why he will not hear an absolution. When we get to David, David will confess his sin and he will receive an absolution.

Saul’s Self-Justification and Rejected Repentance

1 Samuel chapter 15. Here's what it says. Samuel, the prophet said to Saul, Yahweh sent me to anoint you king over his people. Now, therefore, listen to the words of Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh of hosts.

I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill them, both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

In other words, God has determined that Amalek is to be judged for their wickedness, for their idolatry and their evil. And the means by which God's judgment will be exacted is King Saul and the armies of Israel.

So Saul summoned the people, numbered them in Telaim, 200 ,000 men on foot, 10 ,000 men of Judah. Saul came to the city of Amalek, lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go depart down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them.

For you showed kindness to all of the people of Israel. When they came out of the, out of Egypt, so the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt.

And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive. What? Why did he take them alive? God said, devote everyone and everything to destruction. The command of God was clear. Agag should have died by now.

So already we've got a problem. And this little fact will help us to know that Saul is not telling the truth when he's confronted with his sin. So he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless.

They devoted, well, that to destruction. You see that ganky little sheep over there with the three legs and the blind eyes. We're going to kill that one. But whoa, that little fat one over there. Oh boy, that one's going to make a good meal.

We'll keep that one. Lamb chops tonight. We got a problem. The good sheep are to die with all of them, according to what the Lord said. So God's not happy. The next text continues. The word of the Lord came to Samuel.

I regret that I have made Saul king for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. Whoops. God talked like this right before the flood, by the way, where he said that he regretted that he had made man on the earth.

These are words of judgment. So Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told to Samuel, Saul, come to Carmel. And behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.

Who does that, by the way? Sets up a monument to himself. I'd like to dedicate this statue to Pastor Roseborough. Notice the pose. It's an honor of just how great of a pastor I am. And of course, you all know how great I am.

You'd stone me, right? And rightfully so, you should. So he set up a monument to himself, turned and passed on and went to Gilgal. Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him, blessed be your Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.

And Samuel said, what then is this bleeding of sheep that I hear in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear? And watch this. This is what we call a pious lie. Well, Saul said, well, they brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to Yahweh, your God.

Liar. Why is Agag still alive? God doesn't accept human sacrifices like that. We're going to sacrifice him too. So he said, they spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord, your God, and the rest we while we've devoted to destruction.

Then Samuel said to Saul, stop. I will tell you what Yahweh said to me this night. And he said to him, speak. Samuel said, though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?

The Lord anointed you king over Israel and Yahweh sent you on a mission and said, go devote to destruction. The sinners, the Amalekites fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?

Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of Yahweh? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I've gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I've devoted the Amalekites to destruction.

But the people, the people, they took the spoil, the sheep, the oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord, your God and Gilgal. This sounds a lot like that garden of Eden incident.

Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to eat? Well, the woman, the woman that you gave me, you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate. It's your fault, God. Notice the buck is passing rather quickly.

This looks like a UND hockey game. Samuel said, has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to listen than the fat of rams.

And I want you to hear these next words carefully. Rebellion is as the sin of divination. Divination is witchcraft. Rebellion against God is just like the sin of witchcraft and presumption thinking, you know, better than God.

Well, it is as the iniquity of idolatry. That's exactly what presumption is. And presumption is as the iniquity of idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected you from being king.

Tough words. The law speaks. The law has condemned him. And watch this confession. Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because well, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

Is that repentance? All right. I sinned, but it's their fault. They made me do it. No, that is not repentance. That is not changing your mind and saying, you're right, God, I am wrong. I've done evil.

I have no one to blame but myself. Repentance begins really with that frame of mind. And I want you to watch what happens. Saul's going to beg for an absolution. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.

Is a prophet or a pastor to absolve a sinner who is not repentant? No. Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

So he gets no absolution, none whatsoever. He hasn't repented. Repentance is not, OK, Lord, I'm guilty, but they made me do it. I'm guilty, but they also participated with me. And if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have.

That's not repentance. That's self-justification. And that will damn you. Now, compare this with 2 Samuel chapter 11. We'll start at verse 27. King David, I won't recount the entire Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite affair, but you know how it went.

There was this woman bathing on a rooftop. David was out on the balcony and went, whoa, I got to meet her. And one thing led to another. She got pregnant. Tried to figure out how to make it look like her husband had knocked her up, even though he was out fighting in a war and that didn't work.

So he had him killed through a very slick plot. Well, let's look at the aftermath. 11 verse 27. When the morning was over, the morning for Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba's mourning the death of her husband, David sent and brought her to his house.

She became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. So the Lord sent Nathan and Nathan is a prophet, just like Samuel. So Nathan, the prophet, is there to confront David.

And here's what he said. He came into David and said, all right, there were two men in a certain city, one rich, the other poor. Oh, a nice parable to kind of draw you in. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought.

And he brought it up and it grew up with him and his children. It used to eat from his morsels and drink from his cup and lie in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him.

But he took the poor man's lamb, prepared it for the man who had come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.

He shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing. And because he had no pity. And I like to picture that there's a little bit of a pause. Nathan, for effect, kind of just sits there for a second and let silence cover the conversation.

And then the first words that David hears from Nathan are, you are the man. I'm talking about you. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

Thus says Yahweh, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun for you did it secretly.

But I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the sun. And what does David do? Watch. David said to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord. Full stop. No, yeah, but Bathsheba was. No, none of that.

He owns it. And watch what he receives from Nathan. An absolution. The prophet said, David, the Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die. He receives an absolution. Saul did not. David did. And we know that David takes full responsibility because no sooner does Nathan leave the palace that, well, David pulls out parchment and quill and pens the 51st Psalm, which begins with these words.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. That's true repentance. I alone am guilty. Have mercy on me, God.

And that is what John the Baptist was preaching for. True repentance. We return to our gospel text. John wore a garment of camel's hair, a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

Notice he lives in the wilderness. He's practically homeless. He's totally trusting on the Lord to supply him for his food. And, well, the uniform he's wearing harkens back to Elijah the prophet himself.

Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, they were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Religious people who haven't really repented. Religious people who think that they can earn their way to heaven by their good works and their good deeds rather than an acknowledging that they are sinners in need of a savior.

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, John said. Don't presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the axe 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. The fire he's referring to is hell. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

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

The Church’s Wilderness Calling and the Gospel of Repentance

Now, I want you to consider this. The church right now is in her wilderness wanderings. We are between the times of our release from slavery to sin, death, and the devil, on our way to the true promised land, the true promised land being the new earth and the new Jerusalem.

But we are not yet there. And we have been commissioned to preach repentance just like John in the wilderness. How do I know this? Luke 24, verses 45 through 47 states, Jesus opened their minds, his disciples, to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ, the Messiah, should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, listen, repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem, Norway's second.

I just threw that in. So we are currently in our wilderness wanderings. As I've noted, we have been set free from slavery and the tyranny of the dominion of darkness, baptized in the red sea of Christ's blood, and we are now heading to the new Jerusalem and the new earth.

And we've been instructed to join our voices with John the Baptist and to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, to baptize and make disciples of all nations. And by the way, this is the only message that prepares the way of the Lord.

This is the only message that can make crooked paths straight. I asked earlier if it bothered you that Joel Osteen doesn't sound anything like John the Baptist. I said it should, and hopefully the reason it should bother you is now obvious.

Osteen doesn't preach repentance. He's not a wilderness preacher. He's a palace preacher. He's a mansion preacher. He's a snuggie preacher. He's not making paths straight. Osteen and every preacher like him is trying to convince you to become comfortable in your sins and convince you that God really doesn't care.

John, on the other hand, makes us all very uncomfortable with our sins, so uncomfortable that we can actually begin to feel the heat from the fires of hell blowing on our faces, and it's quite unnerving.

And this should make you feel guilt and shame, maybe even terror. But this causes us to run to Christ, to confess our wickedness, to blame nobody but ourselves, and to seek Christ's mercy. And then the good news is that Christ forgives us.

You see, John is the law. Jesus is the gospel. And the church has been ordered, commanded by Christ to preach both the gospel and the law, repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Not one or the other.

You don't get to say, well, I'm going to preach the law and see if we can get people to be really good, but I'll withhold the gospel. Or I'm going to preach the gospel and never tell anybody about, well, repenting or their sins.

In fact, I no longer will tell anybody that there's hell or that God has wrath or anything like that. I'll just make love into God. You don't get to do that either. So let's try this on. And please note that when I'm preaching to you, I am also preaching to myself.

So I join my voice with John the Baptist, and I say to you, repent. You are not as holy as you ought to be. Neither am I. You do not keep God's law as you ought, and neither do I. So don't become comfortable in your sins, because I'm going to assure you of this.

There are people who are suffering in the flames of hell right now for far less than you are guilty of. You have not loved God with your whole heart. You have not loved your neighbor as yourself. You have loved yourself, sought your own glory while coveting your neighbor's belongings, spouse, while gossiping about him or her, destroying their good name.

You've murdered your neighbor in your heart and, well, with your words, and you've stolen from your neighbor. And don't even get me started regarding sexual immorality. You and I are guilty. And if you're trusting in your own repentance and your piety and your good works, you're trusting in the wrong thing.

And don't think for a second that you can pass the buck and say, well, but my husband or yeah, but my wife, or you don't even realize how difficult my children are. Or if you had my boss, what would you, what would you have done?

Knock that nonsense off. And don't even begin to say, well, listen, I'm a child of Lutheran Norway. Trust me. When I tell you this, God can raise up Norwegian Lutherans from the sugar beets growing in the fields out here.

So repent, repent, say the truth about you. You're guilty. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. The day of God's wrath is coming. In fact, Christ is right at the threshold. And when he appears, he will have his winnowing fork in his hand and all the chaff will be gathered up and burned in the fires of hell.

So repent. And if this type of preaching sounds like God is opposed to you and hostile to you because of your wickedness and your sin and your transgressions, well, good. You're finally starting to catch on because he is.

But Christ. And see, that's the thing. God is at war with us because of our sin, and we are at war with him because of our sin. But Christ, in Ephesians 2, 13, it says this, but now Christ Jesus in him, you who once were far off, you have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace.

He is the one who is our peace with God. He has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, the dividing wall of hostility between us and God by abolishing the law and the commandments expressed in ordinances so that he might create in himself one new man in place of two.

So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Remember the words of the prophet Samuel, to obey is better than sacrifice. Remember those words?

Christ did both. He obeyed perfectly for you, and he offered himself as a sacrifice for your sins. Suspended on the cross between heaven and earth, he is the one who broke down the hostility between us and God through his atoning sacrifice, bearing your sins and taking the full wrath of God in your place.

Paul writes it this way in Romans five, starting at verse six, for while we were still weak at the right time, God Christ died for the ungodly. And if you don't think that's you, you still haven't repented.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare to die, but God demonstrates his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, his blood shed for us on the cross, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, and this is what we were because of our sin, we were enemies of God. If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, how much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life?

More than that, we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. So I say, repent, repent of your sins and be forgiven. Christ has made peace with God for you.

Do you believe this good news? Then hear the word of the Lord through the prophet Nathan. God has put away your sin. You will not die. In the name of Jesus.

Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax-free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744.

And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.

And again, thank you for listening.