Prepare for Christmas like a Baptist. - Matthew 3:1-12
My first few years of parish ministry were spent in the deep south surrounded by Baptist. My neighbors were Baptist, most of my friends who were not members of my church were Baptist, and almost everyone on my prospect list was a Baptist (for the record, Baptist make phenomenal Lutherans. Most Baptist know their bibles like the back of their hands and once you get them to understand God’s grace; that they didn’t choose God but rather God chose them they, in my opinion, those Baptist turn into some of the best Lutherans.). I have a fair amount of experience with the Baptist. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert by any means. I have actually only attended a Baptist church maybe a dozen times; the neighbor’s Christmas concert, a funeral for a family member that sort of thing. I know several of you have years of extensive experience that makes you more qualified than me to comment on this subject, but my impression is the Baptist are a lot more, shall we say, actively engaged than Lutherans.
I have a friend who is a member of that deep south Lutheran church I once served deep in Baptist territory. A few years ago, my friend’s Baptist daddy visited my worship service. After the service was over the Baptist daddy asked his Lutheran son why it was so quiet in the church when the preacherman was preaching. The Lutheran son explained to his Baptist daddy that Lutherans sit quietly and respectfully as the pastor expounds on the word of God. The bewildered Baptist daddy asked his lethargic Lutheran son, “If you don’t holler out the occasional “Amen!”, “Halleluia!”, or “Preach it brother!” how does the preacherman know you are paying attention!?” The Lutheran son didn’t have an answer for his Baptist daddy.
Johns Creek Georgia is not what I would consider the deep south. Most of my neighbors are from foreign lands like Russia, India, Minesota, and California, but still, every now and then we have a Baptist daddy who worships with us here at Messiah. I am not going to say who it is because I don’t want to embarrass Brandon. But when that Baptist daddy worships with his Lutheran son, he doesn’t hold back. When I am preaching, I know that Baptist daddy is paying attention because I can HEAR him listening.
Today I am encouraging a room full of Lutherans to Prepare for Christmas Like a Baptist. And while I know that is a dangerous invitation for some of you yahoos, what I am really encouraging you to do is be actively engaged as you celebrate Christmas. That might mean hollerin out the occasional “Amen!”, “Halleluia!”, or “Preach it brother!” as you publicly worship but better than that be actively engaged as you privately examine your hearts. This morning, in Matthew 3:1-12, being actively engaged as we examine our heart is what a Baptist is encouraging us to do. And not just any ole Baptist, but the O.G. of Baptists. I am of course talking about John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is one of the more interesting characters in Scripture. In verse 4 Matthew writes, “4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” Any of you former Baptist can correct me if I am wrong, but, in my experience, that is not the diet and dress of the typical Baptist. It is, however, the diet and dress of the typical prophet. And that really is the point of the description. John the Baptist is the promised prophet who was to prepare the people for the coming of the savior. It is tempting to get distracted by John’s “interesting” diet and dress, but it is more beneficial for us to focus on the preaching of John the Baptist.
Theologically there are some notable differences between the preaching of John the Baptist and the modern-day Baptist preacher, but for some reason I like to imagine John the Baptist preaching in a similar style to a modern-day Baptist preacher. I know this is a bit ironic coming from me as I have been known to be a bit of a chancel prancer myself, but I imagine John the Baptist as a very animated preacher. I imagine if he had a pulpit to pound on he would. I say that because this short snippet we have of John’s preaching is full of powerful action-packed words like “Repent!” and “Prepare!” and he almost seems to be yelling them at the people who had come to hear him preach.
According to saint Matthew, John the Baptist yells at the people, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Repentance is an often used but also often misunderstood word. There are some who think repentance is a sense of guilt that accompanies a sinful thought, word, or action. There are others who think repentance is the embarrassment they feel when they get caught doing a sinful thing. There are still others who think repentance is the feeling of regret they get after doing a sinful thing. Finally, there are still more others who think repentance is a shameful realization that they deserve to burn in hell for doing a sinful thing. In a way, repentance is all these things and more. I’ll get to the more in a moment but first I think it will be helpful to understand repentance as John the Baptist uses the word. Repentance is in its essence a turning. First it is a turning away from sin.
This turning away from sin requires active engagement on the part of the part of the believer. — It is important to note this active engagement is only something we can do as believers, as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. I am encouraging you to celebrate like a Baptist not to believe like a Baptist. I am encouraging the kind of active engagement Martin Luther was talking about in the first of his 95 theses when he wrote, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent,” he willed that the whole life of believers should be one of repentance”.— Anyway, when John yells at us to repent he is not suggesting that we try sweeping our sin under the rug and hope that God won’t notice it or ignore the sin in the hopes that it will go away on its own or pretend like the sin doesn’t exist like a delusional lunatic. When John the Baptist yells at us to repent he is telling us to behold our sin as it is exposed by the light of God’s law and then turn away from our sin. John the Baptist is not yelling at us from the wilderness telling us to make a coarse correction, modify our behavior, or make some improvements. John the Baptist is yelling at us from the wilderness telling us to turn away from sin; want nothing to do with sin, get as far away from the sin as possible.
There were some in the crowd who listened to John the Baptist preach about repentance but didn’t see the need to be actively engaged in such a thing. The Pharisees were of the opinion that they had kept the righteous requirements of God’s law, they probably had impressive church attendance, gave generous offerings, and were the first ones to sign up to bring a casserole to the church potluck, the Pharisees didn’t see the need for repentance. The Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death, they were more concerned with how they could be the best version of themselves and exploring purpose in their life and speaking their own personal truth, therefore being actively engaged in repentance seemed like an unpleasant and unnecessary exercise to the Sadducees. John the Baptist doesn’t hold back on these people who were unwilling to actively engage in repentance. He calls them a “7… brood of vipers” basically he calls them the spawn of Satan. He tells them, “10 The ax is already at the root of the trees” and unless they actively engage in repentance they will be “cut down and thrown into the fire.” He tells them, Jesus’ “12 winnowing fork is in his hand” and unless they actively engage in repentance, they like chaff, like worthless waste, will be burned up “with unquenchable fire.”
I pray you are not one of those people who don’t see the need to be actively engaged in repentance. I pray you are more like the people in verse 6 who we are told, “6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him [John the Baptist] in the Jordan River.” I pray you allow your greed and envy and anger and lust and slander and all your sins to be exposed by the light of God’s law. I pray you do what the Pharisees and Sadducees were unwilling to do, I pray you produce fruit in keeping with repentance and turn away from your sin; want nothing to do with your sin, get as far away from your sin as possible.
I pray, as you prepare to celebrate Christmas, you are actively engaged in the examination of your hearts. First, I pray you are actively engaged in turning away from your sin, but finally I pray you are actively engaged in more than that. It’s time to talk about the “more” I alluded to a moment ago. According to the Prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist yells at the people, “3… ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” The word “prepare”, as it is used by Isaiah, is not all that different than the word “repent”. Like the word “repent” the word “prepare” means to turn. Except the way it is used here is not a turning away from something but rather it is a turning toward someone. That someone is of course Jesus.
John the Baptist tells us to turn toward Jesus because Jesus is the only one who can forgive all those sins that we confessed. The properly penitent person turns to Jesus trusting that He lived a life free of all greed and envy and anger and lust and slander and all the other sins we commit and confess. They turn to Jesus trusting that He suffered and died on the cross to pay their debt and suffer their damnation. They turn to Jesus trusting that when He clears His threshing floor with His winnowing fork, He will gather them like wheat into His barn. When John the Baptist yells at us to “prepare the way for the Lord”, he is telling us to turn toward Jesus
This turning toward Jesus also requires active engagement on the part of the believer (again as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit). Instead of treating our Savior like a seasonal sentiment, or a Sunday morning obligation, or an emergency backup plan, John the Baptist is telling us to behold our savior in the light of God’s Gospel and see Jesus as our rescuer, our redeemer, our deliverer, our one and only Savior from sin. Turning away from sin is the first thing every believer must do, but it is only when we turn toward Jesus that we receive forgiveness and salvation. Which is why John the Baptist yells at us to “prepare the way for the Lord”, turn toward Jesus.
When you read this short snippet of the sermon John the Baptist preached to the people who had come to hear him preach it is easy to imagine John is an angry pulpit pounding preacher, who is likely to throw a bible at people while yelling at them to stop being so bad. But I don’t think that is an accurate description of John the Baptist. Other than that section where he called the Pharisees and Sadducees the spawn of Satan (which is arguably worse than having a bible thrown at you), the tone of John’s preaching is incredibly positive. John isn’t yelling because he is angry, John is yelling because he is excited. John the Baptist was preaching about the “2… kingdom of heaven”. John knew that he was the forerunner of the savior of the world. He knew it was his job to get people ready for Jesus, so that they would put their faith in Jesus and spend eternity in the kingdom of heaven with Jesus. John the Baptist isn’t yelling at us to turn from sin and turn toward our savior because he is mad at us. John the Baptist is yelling at us to turn from our sin and turn toward our Savior because he wants us to be prepared for the coming of the Lord and spend eternity in the kingdom of heaven. John the Baptist is yelling at us to be actively engaged in the examination of our hearts so that we are prepared to celebrate Christmas
Today I encourage you to celebrate Christmas like a Baptist, like John the Baptist to be exact. Today I encourage you to be actively engaged in the examination of your heart. When believers turn away from their sin and turn toward their Savior, they are ready to celebrate Christmas. Therefore, my fellow Lutherans let us “repent for the kingdom of heaven is near!” and “Prepare the way for the Lord!” Can I get an “Amen”!... maybe someday we will work on that, but for now let’s focus our efforts on being actively engaged as we examine our hearts so that we are ready to celebrate Christmas like John the Baptist. Amen.