October 9, 2012
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 3:1-6
OBSERVATIONS
1. This guy was a crazy man. I’ve seen guys like him in downtown Toronto, preaching repent or perish or turn or burn. And yet John must have been different; people were drawn to him in crowds, but people avoid these guys downtown. If someone came like John today, many (most?) churchy people would avoid him. His message and his method were too harsh, to critical… and yet…
2. The kingdom of God (heaven) has come near: God’s rule, God’s power, God’s authority is coming soon, get ready! Somehow John – like Jonah – convinced the masses that they ended to repent. Or more likely, it was heaven itself (God by His Spirit) that made people respond. God was stepping in, God was doing something, His royal authority was being unleashed, and people were responding – positively and negatively.
3. The natural and necessary response to God is repentance – turning from sin and turning to God. This is not because God is mean, but because we are guilty. We have fallen far short of the glory that God created us for. Our sin and guilt are barriers (road blocks as opposed to straight, unobstructed roads), keeping us from experiencing and enjoying God.
What do you notice in this passage?
APPLICATION
1. If Jesus is still God’s kingdom come near, repentance is still the natural and necessary response for me. When is the last time I honestly and thoroughly confessed my sin before God. Not individual sins, but openly faced the dark side within me, the pride, the greed, the lust, the selfishness? These are still roadblocks to my experiencing and enjoying God and His kingdom blessing. I sense God saying that my repentance needs to go deeper.
2. I also sense the Lord challenging me to not look at the weaknesses of the messenger, but to listen to the heart of the message. Maybe those guys downtown Toronto are more like John than I care to admit, and maybe I am ignoring God’s message because the messenger is a crazy man. Maybe I am the crazy one, not paying attention to God’s loving challenge and rebuke. If I sense God calling me to repent, will I?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Truth – Jesus was the Truth; John spoke the truth; people talk about wanting the truth, yet very few really want or can hear the truth (however it is presented to them). Instead of looking at everyone else, we need to look deep within our own selves and truly look to see what God can see – how humbling!! Thank you Jesus that you died on the cross to take away all my sins…yesterday, today and tomorrow. Praise God that I can come to Him and repent for my mess-ups, wrong choices, and my human shortfalls. Thanksgiving is just that – giving thanks that each day I have another chance to be less of me and more of Him, with His help, and my humbleness to repent and my acceptance of His grace.
As I was going out for a walk yesterday, I came accross a large grasshopper. I don’t know about you, but I did not have any urge to pick it up and eat it. But maybe if I lived in a desert and had nothing else to eat, it may seem more appetizing. Maybe a little honey would help it slide down better.
John was a voice in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord” . What am I doing to prepare the way for Jesus. Am I making paths straight for Him? What does this even mean?
If the Kingdom of Heaven was near when John the Baptizer was preaching, then is the kingdom now here? Is it in each one of us?
This is the first we see of someone baptizing people, after they confessed their sins. I wonder where this idea came from? And the church has decided to make a sacrament out of the process.
Lot’s of questions today. Not too many answers.
I pray that I will be kept aware of my need to confess my sins, and to come to Jesus for forgiveness, and to prepare the way for the Lord.
Observations:
God’s Word comes to pass. That was spoken in the OT is fulfilled in the NT.
John was certainly set apart from the people – not only where he lived but also with his clothing and food.
People came to hear him and were baptized. A new beginning.
Application:
I too need to be cleansed by the washing away of my sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. A new beginning.
I too need to live a life that is different – in the world and not of the world. As John was unique so I too must be unique living the new life I have in Christ Jesus. A living epistle read by all.
As John was His champion in the working of His kingdom, so I too need to be a Kingdom builder, His champion, so that I too am an attraction in the building and not a distraction for those hearing His Word.
Prayer:
Use me Lord as an instrument of Your peace.
1. Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me bring you love;
Where there is injury, your healing pow’r,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
2. Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there’s despair in life let me bring hope;
Where there is darkness, – only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
3. O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consolded as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul – .
4. Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving to all that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.