Are You Ready?
Words & Works of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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More than Ready
More than Ready
Dementia is hard. Those of you who’ve been thru this w/ a loved one know, few diagnoses are harder to deal with.
You lose the person you love long before you lose them.
Sara went thru this w/ her mom. She passed about year and half ago. Sara will tell you, she lost her mom long before.
Early on, we didn’t know. You don’t know. They say things, do things, lose things and the family is quick to correct or make fun of.
She was intelligent, capable, competent, even a little OCD. Her details would drive us crazy. So when she lost her details we were a little hard on her. There was some guilt when we realized later what was really going on.
You learn, w/ dementia or Alzheimer's, there are websites, classes, counselors who can help w/ how to communicate w/ someone who is losing their memory.
Among other things:
Eliminate distractions in the room
Ask simple questions.
Speak in short, clear sentences
Listen w/ your eyes and heart, too
Don’t correct them, redirect them.
Be patient
Stay positive, be affectionate and reassuring
(Maybe most important)
Keep your sense of humor
Sara’s mom was raised Southern Baptist. She never lost her faith. She never forgot she believed in God or that Jesus was her Savior.
One day, sitting at their table, Mom was coloring in a coloring book. Coloring books are one of those activities that Dementia patients may enjoy and can be good for their brain.
Sara found a channel on her phone that played all the old hymns that mom sang in church for her 80+ years.
She remembered all of them. She keep her head down, concentrating on the coloring book, singing “How Great Thou Art”.
She remembered all of them.
Sometimes, in caring for her, you just had to laugh. It’s incredibly sad, the grief is real while they are still alive, but there are poignant moments that were serious, but amusing.
Mom had an infection, or something that required hospitalization. Sara was there so when mom was discharged Sara arrived to help her and take her home.
Sara showed up that morning, packed up her things.
Her mom asked, “Where am I going?”
Sara said, “You’re going home.”
Mom, w/ a puzzled look on her face, asked, “How am I getting there?”
Sara said, “I’m taking you.”
Sara could tell something wasn’t registering. W/ dementia patients you don’t know what’s not connecting. And you can’t really ask b/c they cant really tell you.
The drive wasn’t far. Mom commented, “Everything looks the same.”
Sara replied, “Well, yes, you weren’t in the hospital that long.”
Sara turned at the stoplight into their neighborhood and it suddenly dawned on mom, she said, “Oh. I’m going to my house.”
She thought she was going home, to heaven. An old school euphemism for going to heaven is going home. She’d been in the hospital and thought she’d passed.
She had been ready for while. She wanted to go. So many adults who know where they are going want to get there before God is ready for it to happen.
Interestingly, when mom’s sister died years earlier. It caused a bit of a crisis of faith in her. She’d believed all her life. But when it came right down to it, was it true?
She asked me, the family pastor, others, her pastor and the family discussed it, where did Mary Nelle go? What happened? Where is she now? We ref’d the thief on the cross.
Jesus told him that he would see him in Paradise that afternoon. Wherever it is, however we get there. Hours later that man who deserved to die on the cross next to the man who didn’t ended up in the place he didn’t deserve to be w/ the man who did.
From that crisis, mom somewhat impatiently waited for her time to meet Jesus, in Paradise, face to face. By the time it happened, she was more than ready.
This morning we are looking at the message John the Baptist had for those who came to hear him speak in the wilderness.
His message intended to prepare ppl to meet Jesus face to face. He was not the Messiah. But he was about to introduce Him.
So he challenged everyone with this. Jesus is about to arrive. Are you ready to meet Him?
Here’s how you get ready. Repent. Admit, apologize, and adapt.
How to be ready to meet Jesus face to face; admit you’re a sinner, apologize for every sin you commit, and adapt to the new lifestyle that God deserves from you.
The story is told in 3 passages; Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; and Luke 3:1-18. We’re going to spend our time in the Luke passage.
We were introduced to John’s parents at his conception and birth. Now, he’s an adult and fulfilling the calling God gave him.
He is the last OT prophet
Last OT Prophet
Last OT Prophet
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
This is the kind of thing that is weird to think about. Both professional and amateur theologians love to debate this. It’s like, did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?
In theory, if Israel had accepted Jesus as their Messiah when He showed up, then the NT never would have been written. There would have been no church. No need for it.
Jesus still would have had to die. The High Priest would have carried it out in the temple b/c the Lamb of God still had to do what no literal lamb could. Pay for the sins of the pp.
Jesus’s death fulfilled the OT law. Until his death, the OT administration is still in affect.
The NT admin begins at Pentecost, Acts 2, and the establishment of the church.
So, even though we consider the gospels to be NT, at this point in Luke, and Mt. and Mk., they were still in the OT administration. Mosaic Law.
Therefore, when JB showed up on the scene, Luke used the phrase, “the word of God came to John...”, which is identical to how many of the OT prophets were introduced. And John’s message was very similar to their message so many years ago.
In the OT, prophets never showed up and preached when things were going good. They came to warn Israel to change their ways or else. They could change their ways. Repent and return to God. They rarely did so the “or else” happened most of the time.
The setting here, this is God’s first public message for Israel since Malachi wrote, over 400 years prior. He had spoken privately to John’s parents, Jesus’s parents, the shepherds and the Magi.
The ppl were not used to the idea that God would speak to them. 400 years ago. For the most part, the religious leadership had to make it up as they went b/c God wasn’t speaking to them nor leading them.
Rome had begun its decline and was in need of a spiritual awakening. Public morality was a joke. The treatment of slaves was horrible and inhumane.
You see the list of Roman leadership here, they were all arrogant self-promoters and vile. The emperor would butcher thousands in the arena for sport. The colosseum wold sell out w/ spectators for their gross entertainment.
Charity was all but gone. Manuel labor was looked at w/ contempt.
Israel was oppressed by Rome. Tolerated, but not respected. Annas had been the high priest but he was deposed by Rome and replaced w/ his son-in-law, Caiaphas who was Rome’s puppet. The Jews still recognized Annas as High priest while Rome recognized Caiaphas.
It was a religious and political mess throughout the Roman empire.
There was a lot of religiosity but little sincere religion. Superstition and tradition was elevated over the love of God and high morality. Rome had rules. Jews had rules. The ppl rebelled against both and were hungry for genuine spirituality.
Here comes JB into this environment. He was an outsider. Outside in the wilderness. Outside organized religion. He did not come to reform it or even transform it, but separate from it.
He dressed like an OT prophet. A camel hair suit was the suit of mourning. He ate whatever was available in the wilderness, locust and honey.
Nobody would have wanted to hug him or kiss him between what he said and how he looked and smelled. Not pretty. He matched his message.
This was his message:
Turn Around
Turn Around
He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation.’ ”
All 3 gospels quote Isaiah 40 here. Isaiah, writing about Elijah’s message, that God would eventually clear the way for Israel to return to the PL after being exiled by Babylon.
God had used the Babylonians to punish Israel for their faithless, disob. Not that they deserved to return, but b/c God promised they would, he made it happen.
In the process of the return was the warning. This is why you were kicked out. Now, God is giving you the opportunity to repent and return to Him so that what happened before doesn’t happen again.
So, in c.1, JB’s message is the Messiah is on the way. He will free you from what binds you and make it possible for you to get into the next PL, the kingdom.
In the midst of the political and religious mess, Messiah is coming. Get ready to meet Him face to face. JB is his forerunner, preparing to introduce Him to everyone.
B/C of the religious mess, God provided as outsider from outside the establishment, to be that forerunner. So for those who were interested in his message, they had to come out to the River to hear it.
God had long since left the temple. 500 years earlier. And, God had stopped talking to Israel 400 years earlier. Only the most stubborn and arrogant would have bel’d he’d show up again in the temple w/out major changes there.
Baptism was a common word used in a couple of settings in the c.1.
Literally, it means to dip or immerse to make something look different or give it a new ID.
Seamstresses and tailors would use the word.
Sheep would be sheared and the wool woven into thread and fabric. First, it would be immersed in bleach to clean it and color it pure white. Then the fabric would be immersed in a color like red or purple.
Immersed in dye to give it a new ID.
Baptism also had a religious meaning in the OT. When someone was unclean, physically or spiritually, they would immerse themselves in water to be cleansed.
For instance, if someone touched a dead body they would be considered ceremonially unclean. The law gave specific worship instructions but it also kept Israel healthy and alive. Dead bodies carry disease. So, if you came into contact w/ a dead body, you went into quarantine for 2 weeks and the first thing you did in quarantine was wash in fresh water, preferably a river w/ moving water.
Long before germs were discovered under a microscope, God included in the law the requirement to wash after you had come into contact w/ something contaminated w/ bad germs. 1 or 2 weeks in quarantine to make sure you were healthy, then you could come back out and socialize again.
Once you’ve been baptized and quarantined, your contaminated ID is gone and you’ve been given a new, clean ID.
Not only will dead bodies defile you, sin defiles you, contaminates you. And no one contaminated by sin can be in the presence of God. Your contaminated ID needs to be cleaned up and given a new ID.
Jesus is God. So, you see the potential problem when Jesus arrives on the scene.
While the water washes away the germs that contaminate you physically, it does nothing other than symbolically to help you spiritually.
So, when John says he is baptizing them for repentance. His baptism was for ppl who had already repented and follows their repentance. It did not cause repentance.
Repentance means, admitting you’re a sinner. Apologizing for each and every sin. Then, adapting to a new lifestyle.
Own it. Apologize for it. Stop doing it. W/out the change in direction, repentance didn’t really happen. You can admit your sin, but if you keep doing it then you’re not really sorry about it.
A husband caught in an affair can tearfully say he is sorry. But, what is he sorry for? Is he sorry everyone is mad at him? Is he sorry he’s embarrassed? Or, is he sorry he made a horrible mistake, has sinned against God, and wrecked his marriage and family?
The best way to know is how does he act next and for the next few weeks.
If he continues in his affair, then that tells us a lot. If he breaks it off and sets out to rebuild trust w/ his wife and kids, that tells you something else.
How do you know if someone is repentant and sorry for the right things they did wrong? By how they act next.
And, his message was for Jews and Gentiles alike. The repentance would work regardless of your religious background. That was new. A foreshadowing of the end of Jewish tradition and law and the beginning of equality in eternity.
Baptism rep’d terminating a person’s relationship w/ his old society including his allegiance w/ his old gods, rules, and traditions and now joining himself w/ the One True God. Turn from your old ways, and turn to, or return to, God and His ways.
Old ID gone. New ID est’d.
The only way this works is by faith, thru God’s grace. That is the message of both the OT prophets and the NT epistles.
Baptism apart from faith accomplishes nothing except getting you wet. It didn’t then. It doesn’t now. We must have faith in Jesus before getting into the water to accomplish anything good.
Only repentant believers get into the Kingdom. And John’s message was the Kingdom is coming. The biggest obstacle for anyone, everyone is admitting they need to repent.
Many thought the Messiah would be a political or military leader and force His kingdom on the ppl. That’s next time. The first time He came as a spiritual leader who gives us the option to choose Him. But to choose Him, requires admitting we’re sinners.
Not everyone could do that.
Well, they could. They didn’t want to b/c they didn’t think the needed to.
See the Need
See the Need
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
John didn’t mince words. He told it like it was.
A viper was a snake that slithered on the ground. It stayed contaminated b/c of what it always crawled thru. Open sewage running down roadside ditches.
The religious ppl who came to hear John thought they were pure, not contaminated, b/c of their perceived birthright and behavior in the temple. They denied they were sinners and in need of repentance.
Those ppl did. Them. Over there. But, not us.
They rejected John’s message, and by extension, they rejected Jesus, too.
As mentioned earlier, a person’s behavior is a great indicator of his beliefs.
No one but God can see a person’s heart to know for sure. None of us has the authority or responsibility to judge whether a person is saved or not.
But, John, by observing the behavior of the religious felt confident in calling them out for their lack of fruit. Their life did not exhibit the evidence of faith nor did they influence anyone else to come to faith. In fact, their behavior pushed ppl away from God.
Contrast that w/ John’s behavior, direct words included, that drew ppl to God.
“What must we do?”
John described the fruit of faith. The behavior that stems from belief.
And, it was to his fellow outcasts.
Be gracious and generous. Be givers, not takers. The ppl don’t deserve it, do it anyway.
If you have 2 shirts, give one to someone who has none. They cannot pay nor repay you. That’s grace.
Tax-collectors. No one like them. It was normal for them to collect the required amount for Rome then extort more from the tax-payers for themselves. If they didn’t get what they wanted, they could make ppl’s lives miserable, like the IRS.
Soldiers could extort money from the citizens. If they didn’t pay up, the soldiers would rob the ppl themselves or allow criminals to do the deed w/out fear of arrest.
These ppl were well aware of their need of God. Prisoners are more aware of their need for freedom and forgiveness than the un-incarcerated.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Based on Isaiah 53:6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
If someone does anything contrary to God’s standard for behavior they are contaminated. It doesn’t matter whether the slightest slip or most egregious intentional error. Guilty.
No one is immune. Everyone needs the Lamb and the cross.
John was keenly aware of who he was. He knew his limitations. The ppl were drawn to his message. He directed them to the Messiah.
He prepared them and introduced them. But Jesus would do the heavy lifting and bring the biggest changes.
Change-Agent
Change-Agent
The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps 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 he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.
When ppl come across someone who had a big influence in their lives they can over cook who he is and what he does. They did this to John.
Fortunately, he had a clear idea of his own ID. He did not claim t/b someone he wasn’t.
It’s easy to let compliments like this go to your head. He stayed humble and clarified the chasm that is the difference between who he is and what he could do versus who Jesus is and what He could do.
John’s baptism was an outward expression of what had already happened on the inside. Jesus’s baptism made the inward change happen.
Immersed in God. Changed. Looking different on the inside when God sees you.
The fire burns up the old, unhealthy, contaminating behavior. So that the new believer can live a different life that measures up to the standards God demands.
That is, we have power and ability to do better. But we still need the work of Jesus to make us right.
When we meet Jesus, when we believe in Jesus, He changes us inside and out.
The peace, joy, patience, self-control, power, wisdom, and the like are real. We can’t make these things happen on our own. We have to admit that our bad behavior creates a distance between us and God.
Our bad behavior begins w/ a bad belief system about ourselves and God.
Change what you believe and change how you behave. Once you believe the right things about yourself and God, God changes you so you can behave in a way that is more accepting by Him.
He has already accepted you. Now, accept him.
Admit you are a sinner in need of the Lamb on the cross.
Apologize for each and every sin you commit..
Adapt to a lifestyle God deserves from the ppl who love him and have a relationship Him.
Nobody is perfect. Jesus covers our imperfections w/ his gracious actions.
If you’ve done this, then have responded to John’s message and you’re ready to meet Jesus face to face. We’ll see you in Paradise someday.
Applications
Applications
Admit
Admit
Own it. You’re a sinner. So am I.
Welcome to the latest meeting for sinners’ anonymous.
Hi. My name’s Steve. I’m a sinner.
And I’m saved by grace!
Because I’m human. My mom and dad passed their flawed DNA on to me. I am contaminated not just by what I do, but who I am.
Can you own it?
Maybe, start here. Accept the fact of your imperfect make-up that prompts imperfect actions.
Admit it. We’re all sinners.
Next...
Apologize
Apologize
Apologize for the specific things you do that you know God does not want you do to.
Can you name the last sin you committed? If you can’t, either you’re Jesus, the HS isn’t in you b/c that’s one of the things He does is convict you, or you’re not listening.
Don’t beat yourself up for something you’re not responsible for. There’s plenty if you just limit yourself to the reality of what you do.
Jesus has already forgiven you. He’s not waiting for you to apologize. You didn’t surprise Him by what you did.
The apology helps us process so we can stop doing it.
So, next...
Adapt
Adapt
What needs to change? If Jesus has already changed you on the inside, then He has freed you from the bondage to the behaviors that are hurting you.
Surrender your desire to continue doing it. He will separate you from it.
What do you need to stop doing? Or, start doing?
Today’s the day.
You next behavior will indicate to whomever is watching what you’re sorry for.
Maybe, only God is watching as close as needs to be. He knows.
Are you sorry you got caught? Or, are you sorry you did it in the first place, creating that distance between you and God, and hurting your relationship w/ the rest of us that you care about?
Adapt. Change. Stop going where you used to go. Start the new direction today.
Are you ready to meet Jesus? You know it could happen in a moment.
We’ve had some tough stuff happen to ppl we care about in the past couple of weeks.
A car accident. Everyone is okay.
A stroke. Everyone is not okay.
A heart attack. We’ll see how it goes.
Here’s how you get ready. so when it happens to you, the kingdom is your next stop.
Repent. Admit, apologize, and adapt.
So you are ready to meet Jesus face to face; admit you’re a sinner, apologize for every sin you commit, and adapt to the new lifestyle that God deserves from you.