Matthew 3:7-10 Luke 3:7-9
Confrontation is something that very few of us like. By that I mean that we usually don’t like to
be confronted and we also don’t like to confront others. Most of us prefer to be left alone and would
rather just leave others alone as well.
The path of least resistance is a very popular one. However, it is clear from Scripture that this
is rarely the path that Jesus walked and is therefore rarely the path that God
would have us to walk. Today’s passage
is a clear demonstration of that truth as illustrated in the life of John the
Baptist. Crowds from all different walks
of life were coming out to him claiming to be repentant and desirous of
baptism. For most evangelists this would
have been a golden opportunity to rejoice in a successful campaign, dunk the
people, maybe collect an offering and move on to the next village. Instead of taking the path of least
resistance and providing a “path to God” without resistance; John decides to
confront. He does not use comforting or
politically correct words. He is not
concerned with losing his popularity or the number of people he can report as “converts.” His goals are the same as God’s goals:
repentance and reconciliation. He knows
that these goals can only be accomplished through confrontation of sin, genuine
faith and the supernatural transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
JOHN CONFRONTS THEIR SINCERITY: The Scribes and Pharisees
come out to John and express a desire to be baptized. John’s baptism was a call to repentance so it
would seem that the religious leaders were at least demonstrating the external
fruit of repentance. However, John seems
very skeptical of their sincerity. His
words are far from conciliatory or comforting.
He calls them a brood of vipers and asks them who had warned them to
flee from God’s impending wrath. The
logical answer to his question would have been that he had warned them but apparently
John did not recognize them as people to whom he had been preaching. Instead John suspects that these hypocritical
men had heard about the crowds of people gathering to see John and were simply
coming out to see what was going on. Perhaps
they saw John’s baptism as another religious ritual they could perform as a
means of gaining favor with God.
Whatever their motives might have been; John was not about to simply
play along and not make any waves. He
confronts them and calls them to a genuine repentance that goes further than
skin deep. God’s wrath is coming and
curiosity, religious rituals, self-righteousness and external conformity without
internal repentance and transformation will not provide protection from God’s
wrath.
JOHN CONFRONTS THEIR SECURITY: These Jewish leaders apparently
did not respond to John’s warning with repentance and faith. Instead it seems like they just rolled their
eyes and were saying: “how could the wrath of God come on us? We are descendants of Abraham.” These men lived under the false sense of
security that their standing before God was based on their birthright as
children of Israel. They had begun to
believe and live in light of the belief that as God’s chosen people they were
the only people God could or would choose.
Apparently, they thought that if God rejected them that God would simply
not have any people so He would never do that.
John points out to them that he is surrounded by tax collectors, sinners
and even Roman soldiers that are coming forward in genuine repentance. He lets them know that God is able to raise
up children from rocks so raising them from sinners and Gentiles would be no
problem. The Scribes and Pharisees were
living under a false sense of security that God protect them from any wrath
simply because of their Jewish heritage.
They were sorely mistaken. God
does not have any grandchildren; He only has children. None of us can find security in the repentance
or faith of our fathers. Our security
before God comes only through our own genuine repentance from sin and faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
JOHN CONFRONTS THEIR STABILITY: John’s message of
confrontation is not going very well in the hearts of these religious
leaders. John seems to be using the
terrain as an illustration of what he is talking about. The rocks represent the sinners and Gentiles
that are coming to John in genuine repentance and are being born again as
children of God. The trees represent the
Jewish self-righteous that think that they are the only productive ones available
to God. They continue to thing that
their nationality provides them with stability before God and exemption from
His judgment. John warns them that, as
trees, God is standing at their trunk with an ax in His hand and is about to
chop them down. Not only is He going to
put the ax to the trunk of the tree but it is going to go to the very root of
the tree so that they will be removed from the very soil and rot in judgment of
the ground. John makes it clear to them
that they only have two options: either truly repent of their sin, turn from
their self-righteousness and hypocrisy to embrace Jesus as their Messiah or be judged
under the wrath of God. John was not
fooled by their external show of repentance; he insisted that that they produce
the genuine fruits of repentance that will be demonstrated in the following verses. Religion, national heritage and external
rituals provide no stability before the ax of God’s wrath. He will judge and reject all who refuse to
repent and believe and He will give new life and rebirth to all who turn from
sin to embrace the cross of Christ. God
is able to make rocks walk and trees tumble.
APPLICATION: Confront our own hearts and the hearts of
others in order to reveal the sincerity of repentance that is found
within. Examine if our faith is based on
that what we have simply inherited from our family or if it is truly our own. Trust in the super-natural ability of God to
transform even the hardest heart. God
loves to take rocks and turn them into fruit bearing trees through repentance
and faith in Jesus. God is willing to
take self-righteous trees the produce no fruit and turn them into dirt.
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