BEAR FRUIT OR BURN
Text: Matthew 3:1-12
Good morning. If you have your bibles please turn with me to the gospel of Matthew 3:1-12.
Today we begin a new series that begins here in Matthew 3 and ends with the Sermon on the Mount through chapter 7. And this section of Scripture in the gospel of Matthew is arguably the most concise, haunting and confrontational part of the Bible. The Sermon on the Mount represents the essence and core of Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God and living under the reign of God. Mark Twain once said that it wasn’t the words of Jesus that he didn’t understand that disturbed him, but rather the words that he did. And for the next few months, we will be looking at this disturbing and unsettling portion of the Bible in order that we might actually obey it and live it out in our lives. And so let’s look specifically at the ministry and message of John the Baptist.
Teaching
MATTHEW 3:1-3
We are introduced to the man John the Baptist who was a contemporary of Jesus – in fact, he was related to Jesus through his mother Elizabeth’s relationship with Mary. This man John was preaching and baptizing people in the desert of Judea with a simple message, “REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NEAR.”
The word ‘repent’ is metanoia and it means to change one’s mind and one’s entire life and set of prior presuppositions and attitudes of life; change of how one views the world and reality; a radical reorientation of a person’s life, purpose and direction. Furthermore, repentance is not remorse or regret which tend to be emotions contained within a person. Instead, repentance is an action, a literal turning one’s life around in another direction and of turning away from everything they once assumed as the goals and purposes for their lives.
The quote from the prophet Isaiah also clarifies the message of repentance proclaimed by John – specifically that to repent meant to make crooked paths straight, to level the high mountains and to fill in the valleys…a drastic reform was need in order for the arrival of an awesome Presence.
MATTHEW 3:4…
Background of John
- John was sort of a freak…he’s not the sort of person that most of us would hang out with or invite home for dinner…he doesn’t fit with our notions of civility and proper cleanliness. Although camel’s hair may in today’s world signify wealth and luxury, it was back then an indication of poverty, of being relegated to animal skins – crude and unfashionable – nothing like the fine linens and garments adorned by city dwellers.
- The leather belt is a specific similarity to the prophet Elijah who was also described as a man wearing a leather belt.
- Locusts and wild honey was also a further reflection of poverty.
- John’s entire being reflected a rejection of the civilized world – he was an ascetic – sort of like an ancient monk who rejected all worldly comforts of the flesh and instead opted for communion with God via simplicity and poverty.
- JOHN NOT ONLY MINISTERED IN THE DESERT, HE EMBODIED THE DESERT. AND IT WAS BECAUSE OF THIS DESERT-LIKE EXISTENCE THAT HE POSSESSED A GREAT SENSE OF CLAIRVOYANCE IN TERMS OF UNDERSTANDING THE WILL OF GOD. Unhindered by the temptations and distractions of city or suburban life, the desert provided John with the ability to see true reality from God’s perspective and to hear distinctly the words and will of his heavenly Father.
The Christian disciplines share many similarities with the desert. If we ever want to grow and go deeper with the Lord, we need to remove ourselves from the context of the familiar and escape to a quiet place void of distractions, temptations and demands in order to seek hard after the Lord.
- This is why prayer is referred to as having a quiet time with the Lord. Oftentimes the only quiet period of the day is very early in the morning when everyone else is still asleep –and the discipline of prayer oftentimes means establishing habits that are not comfortable, out of the ordinary, not easy or convenient.
- Same goes with fasting – to voluntarily deny ourselves food or drink for a period of time in order to seek the Lord.
- Other disciplines of solitude and simplicity – all of these are attempts by Christians to create for themselves a desert-like experience in order to rid ourselves of distractions do serious business with the Lord.
Too often we wonder what the will of God is and we wonder why we never hear or sense God’s voice, leading or direction. For most of us American Christians, we’ve lost our way and have been duped into thinking that we could have both the American Dream and still go to church and everything will work out – when deep down we still lack life purpose, a God-given vision or picture of what we are to do to make an impact that would honor the Lord. Instead, we fumble, stumble and bumble through life without a clue as to the will and purpose of God for our lives. This is precisely why the call of the desert – that empty, deserted and lonely place called prayer, fasting and solitude can help to make sense of the chaos and restore unto us the peace and knowledge of the will of God.
MATTHEW 3:5-6
But because of his clarity and understanding of God’s truth, thousands of people come to John in the desert. Normally, Jerusalem was considered the spiritual center of Israel with the multitudes making their pilgrimages to the city of David. But instead, they leave their cities and towns and are drawn to the wilderness in order to get right with God. They sense that in the place of nothingness comes the answers they’ve been looking for.
And John’s executes God’s ministry to the multitudes as they come confessing their sins and being washed clean spiritually through the waters of baptism in the Jordan river. A great revival is taking place as if the prophecy of Isaiah 43 is coming to fruition – “Truly now I will do something new! Soon it will come to pass…I am making a way in the desert, streams in the wasteland!” The crooked paths are being made straight, the people are coming to repent and change their ways and make things right with their God once again.
MATTHEW 3:7-10
But with this great revival comes curiosity seekers such as the Pharisees and Sadducees. Look at verses 7 and following. John sees them and addresses them with an unflattering name – you brood of vipers! The common people are not the only ones who need to straighten up, but also the religious elite. And so John confronts them with a message of the coming wrath of God.
Verse 8 – produce fruit in keeping with repentance and do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ What John confronts with religious elite with is their own smug sense of security in their salvation. They believed, as did many Jews, that because of their ethnicity as descendants of Abraham that this secured their redemption and salvation in God. They believed that simply being children of Abraham was good enough to be saved when in fact John warns them that avoiding the coming wrath of God means that one produces fruit in keeping with repentance.
Earlier, we discussed how repentance was more than remorse or regret – it was a radical change in one’s entire life as one turned away from their own path and turned towards following God. Here, John gives us more insight into repentance – true and authentic repentance means bearing fruit. The two are one in the same – they are two sides of the same coin. To repent means that one bears fruit and to bear fruit is validation of our repentance.
In other words, the Pharisees could not content themselves with mere belief in God and being God’s child, there must be a repentant bearing or producing of God-honoring fruit from their lives.
And the consequences for not bearing fruit in keeping with repentance were quite disturbing. John pulls out an agricultural image of the axe positioned perfectly at the root of a tree and that those trees or people that produced no fruit would be chopped down and thrown into the fire. Those so-called children of God that did not bear fruit would be purged, uprooted and burned to a crisp. (Zippo, Nada, Hasta-la-vista, Adios, eliminated, disqualified, cut off, vaporized…you get the picture)
MATTHEW 3:11-12
Now you might be thinking, wow, that’s harsh, that’s brutal…but then again, that’s John the Baptist for you! But keep in mind that this is not John’s will, but the true intentions of God himself. Look at verse 11…
John understands his identity and role – he is merely a voice preparing the way for the Lord. Someone greater and more powerful than him would arrive and this is the one to be truly afraid of…
Whereas John’s baptism was of water for washing and repentance, the Lord’s baptism would be of two things – the Holy Spirit and of fire. The Holy Spirit will come upon the church in the book of Acts when the presence of God comes upon the people and empowers them to go out and advance and proclaim the Kingdom of God.
The second kind of Baptism of Jesus would consist of fire. And this word is the same word used earlier by John – pyros – where we get the term pyrotechnics or pyromaniac. And the fire here represents God’s judgment. Verse 12 fills this out…”His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The judgment of God is likened to a harvesting of wheat where a winnowing fork is used to toss up the wheat in order for the wind to blow away the chaff or husk of the wheat so that the heavier, more desirable kernel falls to the ground. And the coming judgment of God will be as if he tosses each person in all of human history up in the air and only the people of substance will be saved, and all the others – the chaff – will be gathered up and thrown into a burning pit of unquenchable fire. This reference is to the un-extinguishable flames of Hell itself.
John’s message is not his own – he was simply conveying the truth of God’s approaching wrath and mercifully warning people before it was too late. Although John himself was out of the ordinary, it was his message revealing the truth of God that was more upsetting. And yet the multitudes came and responded in repentance to John’s message.
Application
And that leaves us with how you and will respond to John’s message – which is in fact God’s message through his servant John. If I could sum up this entire message of John in a few words it would be this:
BEAR FRUIT OR BURN
Yea, it sounds pretty harsh – but it’s succinct, concise, and I believe it sums up what John was essentially trying to communicate. Bear fruit or burn. There’s no other way, there’s no middle ground. You and I are either extremely for Jesus and repentantly bearing fruit as evidence of our extreme allegiance to Jesus or we are bound for an unquenchable fire where all the useless fruitless trees and chaff end up.
And as stark as this phrase may come across, I kind of like it…in fact, I think this reflects everything about my life right now and it serves to motivate me like a fire under my rear end as well as it causes me to constantly evaluate my life in terms of this fruit bearing criteria – am I bearing fruit? Am I producing something that is genuinely God-honoring in and through my life? Others have put it another way – am I living out a purpose driven life? Am I doing what Jesus would do? Am I obeying the Great Commission?
- As pastor of Congregational Life Ministries, I believe one of the central missions of our church is to make disciples who in turn make disciples – of nurturing mature faith in our church and thus fulfilling the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations.
- Reminiscent of John 15 – Jesus is the vine and we are the branches – we can do nothing apart from him, but when we abide in him we bear much fruit
- The parable of the sower and the seeds discusses how seed sown in good soil – i.e. faithful disciples of Jesus Christ – will yield a harvest 30, 60 and 100 fold.
Although it may not be the most comforting mantra or personal mission statement to live by, it serves me very well. So much so, that I’ve thought about creating bumper stickers with this, or getting this printed on T-shirts and selling them as the next wave of popular Christian paraphernalia to make a bundle on.
BEAR FRUIT OR BURN
I think we all need a kind of threat looming over us – not to create shame and paranoia – but a little of it actually might help in terms of reforming our lives in such a way as to begin bearing Kingdom fruit in keeping with repentance. We need a threat sometimes to get us to obey and we need an evaluation tool to diagnose whether or not we’re on the right track.
Well the, what does it mean to actually bear fruit, good fruit that honors our heavenly Father? Let me share with you a partial list of what this might look like – by no means exhaustive…
Bearing Fruit –
- Become a youth advisor who mentors and disciples our students and collegians towards purity, godliness and righteousness
- Teach church school and inform our children with the foundation of faith
- Join or lead a missions team and be a witness for Jesus Christ
- Learn how to share your faith and evangelize your friends, neighbors, relatives, and co-workers
- Join the Road Crew and relieve those who arrive at 6:45 every Sunday morning to set up the sound equipment
- Become a Sunday driver who brings people who can’t drive here to church on Sundays
- Host a Bible study and use your nice home to facilitate the teaching of God’s Holy Word
- Serve at a soup kitchen and give yourself to the needs of the poor in our city
- Be a person of integrity and a person of his or her word in your workplace even though the liars and cheaters seem to always get ahead quicker
- Stop thinking about your own needs and look to the needs of others
- Wave ‘hi’ to the guards at the Rio Hondo entrance and thank the custodians who serve us week in and week out
- Serve on your school’s PTA and get involved with others in order to create contact points of witness and testimony
- Build a house for the homeless or help repair someone’s in disrepair
- Start a new ministry that’s never been done before in the church but is waiting for you to help start it
- Coach a basketball team with the intent of developing Christ in and among the players
- Make friends with a non-Christian
- Pay for lunch for someone without thought of them paying you back
- Tutor a child in math or the SAT’s because God has gifted you with high intelligence
- Mentor a new Christian in the ways of following Jesus
- Become an active, faithful part of this church instead of hidden, aloof church-hopper
- Learn to be generous with your income, your time and your resources
Bearing fruit is not some mystical proverb but instead has very practical, everyday possibilities…what I’m talking about are practical ways to fulfill the Greatest Commandment – to Love God and Love Others…
And the reason why bearing fruit and repentance are one and the same is because our flesh would tend to choose otherwise. In fact, each and every day presents us with a choice – do we go our own way and do our own thing OR choose to repentantly follow Jesus and bear fruit.
One of the reasons why I appreciate our youth advisors so much is that they’ve made practical, real choices about their time and energy by devoting Friday evenings to hang out with church kids instead of going to happy hour with their co-workers or seeing a flick. BY SHOWING UP ON FRIDAY NIGHTS TO MINISTER TO THE KIDS, THEY ARE REPENTANTLY BEARING FRUIT THAT PLEASES THE FATHER.
One of the lies that Satan, the culture or even our relatives tell us is that instead of being a fruit-bearing Christian, we should opt instead for being well-rounded world citizens who happen to go to church.
- We shouldn’t get too serious about our faith and focusing our lives towards living out a daily, repentant faith intent on bearing fruit for Jesus.
- Instead, we should be more sensible, work God around our schedule instead of arranging our schedule around His
- Get our master’s degree first, buy our home, by no means give ten percent of your income to God – be sensible!
- Instead, think of yourself first and indulge in all of the lovely things that come with making lots of money
- Get a job that looks prestigious even though it drains the life out of you and leaves you no time with your family and results in leaving your kids resentful and bitter towards you well into their adult years
- Go out and become all that this world has to offer - tell the world that you’ve arrived, you’re important, you’re someone to be envied
- Save your life! Protect yourself! Think of yourself first and others second.
- Build a fortress around your life, your possessions and interests
- Eat, drink and be merry for you only live once
- Become well rounded and bushy with full plumage instead of those fruit bearing Christians whose lives look a lot plainer
PLAIN BUT FILLED WITH JOY AND PURPOSE
One of the things that the world and we agree with, however, is that to become a fruit bearing Christian will mean that our lives will be simpler, more plain, less fancy with less plumage that the world citizens.
- Money won’t matter as much as loving people will
- Fame and accomplishments will only rust on the shelf and so why waste so much time chasing after them?
- We may be criticized, laughed at, made fun of because we don’t keep up with the Jones’, Wongs and Kim’s, but with time and God’s grace, that doesn’t matter as much anymore…
But on the other hand, to bear fruit is to discover God’s will for our lives, to be given a deeper purpose, and to be filled with joy that this world does not understand…
- To see a non-Christian come to saving faith in Christ is great
- To see them mature and drink in the truth of God’s word is even better
- To see their lives healed from the inside out, seeing them discover their gifts and honor the Lord by using what God has given them to bear fruit – this is awesome! Not only is God pleased, but he gives us a taste of how good fruit really tastes.
- To see lives changed and transformed into Christ-likeness is absolutely delicious! I savor every opportunity to taste this.
- To pray over and play with orphans in China must be a taste of doing what Jesus does
- To see rowdy students become mature, faithful leaders in the church is better than prime rib!
ARE YOU BEGINNING TO SEE AND TASTE WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT? OUR LIVES WILL BECOME FILLED WITH A JOY AND PURPOSE FOR LIVING WHEN WE TAP INTO BEARING FRUIT THAT HONORS THE LORD.
THE GOOD NEWS OF THE MESSAGE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST IS THAT YOU AND I GET TO BEAR KINGDOM FRUIT – AND WHAT WE’LL DISCOVER IS THAT THIS IS THE GREAT JOY THAT ACCORDING TO GOD SIGNALS A LIFE WELL LIVED, A RACE THAT WAS FINISHED WELL.
BECAUSE THE OPPOSITE OF BEARING FRUIT THAT HONORS GOD IS QUITE HORRIBLE AND TERRIFYING…
IT’S ALL GONNA BURN!
I met a man who was a serious, John-the-Baptist type of person who didn’t mince words…one thing I remember him saying was, “It’s all gonna burn…” and he would apply this to things like buildings and homes and cars and fashion and anything and everything that this world currently and historically has idolized…he simply said, “It’s all gonna burn.” And according to John the Baptist and the oncoming ultimate judgment of Jesus over every single person in the world, it’s true.
THE COMING WRATH OF GOD SIGNALS A DEVASTATING FIRE THAT WILL SWEEP OVER AND ENGULF EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE ENTIRE WORLD WHO HASN’T REPENTANTLY BORN FRUIT TO THE GLORY OF GOD.
- IF YOU HAVEN’T REPENTED AND GIVEN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE OVER TO THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST, THEN THE CONSEQUENCES ARE HORRIFYING.
- IF YOUR PARENTS OR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS AVOID GOD, THE CHURCH AND ANYTHING TO DO WITH TRUSTING AND FOLLOWING JESUS CHRIST THEN THEIR END IS HORRIFYING
- AND IF YOU AND I CLAIM TO BE CHRISTIANS BECAUSE WE SAID A PRAYER LONG AGO AT SUNDAY SCHOOL OR VBS OR DURING A SERMON, BUT HAVE STILL NOT PRODUCED ANY GOD-HONORING FRUIT, THEN I FEAR FOR OUR ETERNAL SAFETY.
I’ve been asking other Christians if they believe what I’m about to share and all of them have agreed with me – there are people today in the Christian church that have professed their faith in Jesus Christ and believe that they are saved and going to heaven that will unfortunately discover on judgment day that Jesus never knew them and will be cast out of heaven to the eternal fire of Hell.
And according to John, unless you and I repent and bear fruit, we have an unquenchable fire awaiting us. I’m sorry to be the bearer of such troubling news…it’s said that us preachers are called to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable and as hard as it is to receive this, keep in mind that I afflict myself repeatedly with these warnings from the Bible.
This is why, like Paul, I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling…I’m not coasting into the Kingdom but I’m straining to remain faithful and fruitful, diligent and perseverant through this journey, this pilgrim’s progress through the land of vanity fair. And the Good News for this day is that John is warning us now before it’s too late. Better to know what’s expected of you by the Lord than to discover when it’s too late. May we all repent this day of a barren life in terms of Christian service and ministry, and begin to bear fruit instead of burn. Let’s pray.
