November 30, 2025 SERMON

The Voice of John the Baptist

Matthew 3:1-12

We are beginning a season on the church calendar called Advent. Advent is a four week time dedicated to reflective preparation for the arrival, "advent", of Jesus Christ’s birth, as well as Christ's expected return in the Second Coming. Christians from all denominations and backgrounds celebrate Advent in different ways but all focus on the anticipation of waiting and preparing for the arrival of Jesus.

If nothing changes, we’ll focus on this topic until our Christmas message.

So, this morning we’re going to start with John the Baptist as found in Matthew 3:1-12. Follow along with me as we read.

Listen to the Voice of John
1. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near
2. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance

Matthew chapter 3 tells us that John was living in the desertof Judea, out by the Jordan  River. His message was very simple: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Jesus, the Messiah, was coming.

The Savior of the nations would soon take away the sins of the world. Soon, He would send His apostles and disciples into the world to share the Gospel with others. And soon, He would come again on Judgment Day. All that and more is the kingdom of heaven, and it’s near, John says. It’s time to repent.

John the Baptizer is perhaps one of the best-known characters in Bible history. We know him as the babe who leaped in his mother’s womb when Mary came to visit. We know him as the forerunner of Christ whom God set aside to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming. 

But most of all we remember John because of the message that he preached in the desert of Judea. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 

 There’s an interesting illustration for repentance here. Matthew tells us that John the Baptist “was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice of 

one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”

Hundreds of years earlier, the prophet Isaiah said that John the Baptist was coming. Look at the illustration for repentance: “make straight paths for him.” Make straight paths in your heart, and in your life. 

Repentance is radical road construction which takes place inside of us. Our thoughts, our desires, our wants, our feelings, all these things tend to be 

crooked inside of us. 

Spiritual potholes everywhere in our soul! Our love for God, unpleasantly up and down. “Repent,” John tells us, “Make straight paths for Him.” 

In Old Testament times, before a king would visit a town, radical road construction would take place. If the road had high spots, they would be chopped down. If the road had low spots, they would be filled in. If the road was crooked, it would be straightened out. 

Once the road was smooth and straight, it was ready for the king. Do this inside of you, John tells the people. Your thoughts, your desires, your wants, your feelings, your love for God, straighten it out.

Of all the Christmas decorations, this one is the most important one of them all, an attitude of repentance. It’s invisible because it’s a change that takes place inside of us, a big change. 

That’s what John was illustrating with his lifestyle. He didn’t wear designer jeans; he wore camel’s hair. His leather belt was considered as something cheap. He ate grasshoppers and honey for his diet. 

He lived in the open desert, instead of in a nice condo. Do you see the point John was making with his life? “What I’m doing on the outside, I want you to do on the inside, get rid of your love for things, your materialism. Get rid of your pride. Be someone who is humble, someone who is focused on spiritual things, someone who is focused on worshipping God and serving others.”

John uses strong language in our text for today. The Pharisees and the Sadducees had arrived. They were very pious outwardly, but inwardly, they were proud and materialistic. John calls them a brood of vipers and tells them to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 

The Pharisees and Sadducees claimed to be humble and spiritual, but everything they said and did showed them to be proud and materialistic. 

John compares them to a fruit tree and tells them that the “ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” 

He condemns the Pharisees and Sadducees, because they would not change. They would not repent. They would say and do things to make themselves look pious and spiritual. But there was no real change in their hearts and lives. They were proud and materialistic and liked it that way.

We struggle with this too. It’s easy to act humble and spiritual. It’s easy to show up in church and smile and shake a hand and talk about the real meaning of Christmas. It’s easy to frown when people talk about pride and materialism. 

But let me ask you this, what kind of religion are we really looking for? Most people are looking for a religion that makes them feel good about themselves. “Oh, I love that TV show,” people say about whatever pseudo-Christian TV show that they are watching. “It makes me feel so good.” Is that what you are looking for? Something that makes you feel good about yourself?

That’s not what Christianity, or John the Baptist, are all about. John the Baptist isn’t standing out in the desert telling everyone to smile, because God loves you just the way you are. And then everyone leaves the desert and goes home and feels good about themselves. 

John the Baptist is telling us to change, to stop being ourselves, to repent, to be different from how we normally are. But we don’t like that. 

We are the Pharisees and Sadducees that John condemns in the desert, people who act religious, but deep down inside, we like being proud and materialistic, and that’s how we will continue to be. 

John condemns us in these verses and warns us that the fire of God’s wrath is coming our way. 

But we can repent, we can do what those people did in verse 8, “confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” 

Those people confessed their pride, their materialism, and they were forgiven by God at their baptisms. In the same we, we can confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness. God completely forgives us for our pride, our materialism, our hesitancy to repent and truly change our hearts. God forgives us because of the one that would come after John. “After me, will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.” 

He was powerful, and yet, was humble, not obsessed with material things, but spiritual. This one who’s coming produced more fruit than any other person that ever lived. He allowed Himself to be cut down and thrown into the fire, even though He had done nothing wrong. 

This man, Jesus Christ, lived perfectly, for us. He was cut down and crucified on the cross, to take away all our sins. He was raised from the dead, and just as John baptized people for the forgiveness of sins, so also Jesus has baptized us. 

Perhaps it was through a pastor, or someone else, but when that happened, it really was Jesus baptizing us into His Family. 

If ever there were a message and a messenger clearly identifiable with each other, it is John the Baptizer and the call to repentance. John’s title was the Baptizer but first and foremost he was a prophet of God. 

And as a prophet he came to God’s people proclaiming God’s word. Telling the people to prepare for the coming of the messiah. His message – Repent! 

The message to repent had become a familiar theme for God’s people. Throughout their history the children of Israel had led lives that required God to send one of His prophets to call His people to repentance.

In the days of the Judges, the people would sin against God. God would call the people to repentance by allowing them to be oppressed and when they cried out to Him for deliverance, He would send a deliverer to rescue them. 

At this time in salvation history God was calling His people to repentance again! They had fallen away from God once again! Their worship life had become one of half-hearted devotion. They were performing the required sacrifices, saying the right things, and giving the outward appearance that they were righteous and upright. 

They were trusting in their ability to keep God’s commandments and in their good works to enter the kingdom of heaven. Their hearts and minds were far from God and God sent John to call the people to repent of these sins and the people responded. 

God has also sent John to call us to repentance. As the people of Israel worshipped God half-heartedly, we also find ourselves guilty of the same sin. 

Whenever we come to God’s house and pay no attention to His word and treat worshipping Him like it is an effort instead of a privilege we need to repent. 

Whenever we think that our salvation is provided by church membership rather than trusting that Jesus has paid the price for our salvation, we need to repent. 

In the Bible the word, “repent” literally means, "To change one’s mind." 

Genuine repentance involves a change of mind. It involves a change of heart. It involves a complete change of direction in our lives.

But our sinful nature renders us completely incapable of effecting this change in ourselves and on our own. True genuine repentance is something that must be worked in us by the power of God almighty. Only the Holy Spirit is able to effect this kind of change in our hearts and in our minds and in our lives.

The people through the preaching of God’s Holy Law had been brought to recognize the seriousness of their sins and through the power of the Holy Spirit they had been led to confess their sins. These individuals were baptized “with water for repentance.” 

As the Holy Spirit led people to John as he proclaimed the word of God so also has the Spirit led us to God by the preaching of His word. 

In our baptism the Holy Spirit has created saving faith in our hearts; created faith that trusts in God and His promises, created faith in the fact that God has done everything for our salvation. He promised to send the messiah who would save the world from their sins. He kept that promise by sending Jesus to be our substitute, to receive the punishment for our sins.

Because Jesus lived that perfect life God requires and suffered an innocent death as payment for our sins, God no longer holds us accountable and we are covered in Jesus’ righteousness.

As we celebrate the advent season, we praise God for at least two things, first, for Jesus’ first advent. We are reminded that God has indeed blessed us by sending His one and only Son to this world to save us from our sins.

Secondly, we are reminded to listen to the advent voice of John as he reminds us of Jesus’ Second Advent when He comes to judge the world. 

As we wait for Jesus to return John the Baptizer tells us to repent of our sins because the kingdom of God is near. But John also tells us that after we repent, we are to produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

Many people had come to John, repented of their sins and were baptized. But not all who came to John were truly repentant. A very good example of this is found in our text when we read, “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: ’You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father." 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.” 

The Pharisees and Sadducees, people, who were proud of their own self-righteousness, people who were proud of their own skepticism, came to John.

Like many people today neither the Pharisees nor the Sadducees recognized the seriousness of their sins. They did not recognize their need for a Savior from sin. They did not recognize the necessity of changing their outward lives by producing fruits of repentance in their lives. 

The Pharisees and the Sadducees did, however, put a great deal of confidence in the fact that they had the blood of Abraham coursing through their veins. 

So, in a very powerful, unmistakable way John the Baptist reminded the Pharisees and the Sadducees that not only does God have the power to raise up children for Abraham out of these stones on the ground, but God also had the right to chop down and burn up "every tree that does not produce 

good fruit." 

In other words, living and dying with unrepented sins in our hearts and in our lives condemns a person to an eternity of suffering in the fires of hell. 

Since the term fruit of repentance is somewhat misunderstood by many people today I would like to discuss it this morning. 

First John’s call to "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance" was not a call to people to earn the forgiveness of sins. Fruit of repentance is a result of forgiveness and not a cause of forgiveness. 

Fruit of repentance is produced without any legal compulsion. That is why we find that Scripture does not set up a code book that specifies the exact form which fruit of repentance must take in the case of every sin. 

While at times we might wish that the Bible would say, "If you commit this sin then do this penance and then God will be satisfied," it simply does not work that way. The Bible is not to be used as a codebook of Canon Law. Scripture does, however, give us three broad principles when it comes to the fruit of repentance in our lives.

Principle Number One: The fruit of repentance is to turn away from the sin you are repenting of. In Luke’s account of this very same incident, we are told that people were coming up to John the Baptist and asking, “What should we do?” To the crowd in general John said, "Share with those in need." Instead of being greedy, instead of simply accumulating things for ourselves, share with those in need. 

To the tax collectors that were despised for collecting more taxes than the Romans required John simply said, "Don’t collect any more than you 

are required to." 

And to the soldiers who were notorious for abusing their power and authority and for extorting money from the people John very simply said, "Be content with your pay." 

What did Jesus say to the woman who was caught in adultery? He said, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

If our sin consists of taking God’s Name in vain by allowing our conversations to be sprinkled with curse words or suggestive talk then the fruit of repentance would include cleaning up our language.

If our sin were one of neglecting God’s Holy Word and Sacrament by a lack of regular Christian fellowship, by neglecting personal Bible study attendance at worship, etc. guess what the fruit of repentance would be? 

Have we harbored a dislike for someone in our heart? The fruit of repentance is to turn away from the sin you are repenting of. 

Principle Number Two: The fruit of repentance is to restore, if possible, what sin has ruined. When Zacchaeus came down from the sycamore-fig tree he voluntarily said to Jesus, "Look, Lord! Here and now, I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount" (Luke 19:8).

It is true that sometimes a sin results in irreparable damage. A drunk driver runs a red light and kills innocent people. Hateful gossip damages someone’s reputation. But if there is a way, any way, to even partially restore what our sin has ruined, the fruit of repentance will lead us to do just that.

Principle Number Three: The fruit of repentance is to do everything to the glory of God, whether we eat or drink, or work or play.

Since the root of all sin is idolatry, striving to take the glory and the honor and the praise which rightfully belongs to God alone and giving it to someone or something else, the fruit of repentance will include re-focusing our heart, re-focusing our mind and re-focusing our life so that in everything we think do and say we strive to bring glory to the God who loves us enough that He died on the cross to completely pay for all of our sins.

God because of His great love for us has grafted us into His vine so that we can produce fruit and He nourishes us with His Word and Sacraments. In His Word He tells us how He sent Jesus into this world to be our substitute. He tells us how He punished Jesus for our sins instead of us. He tells us that Jesus gave up His life for you and me and now we have peace with God. 

The call that rings in our ears today, folks, is a call that we all need to hear. It is the voice of John the Baptist calling out to us to repent of our sins, to prepare our hearts and to prepare our lives so that we are indeed ready to again meet our King. May God graciously grant that we will indeed listen, truly listen to the Advent voice of John. 

We pray, O Lord, give us the heart of John the Baptist, a heart of repentance, a heart that is humble and spiritual, a heart that is prepared to welcome you, and show it, by the way we live our life. 

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.