Churchgoers and Children
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
October 23, 2016
Four books in the Bible chiefly focus on the good news of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Over the next two years (on and off again), we are studying one of these four books. It’s called the gospel of Luke. Each week, we’ll look at one passage to see what it says about Jesus and how it applies to us.To orient us to the passage before us this morning, I’d like to read two sentences and then point out a few things about them. I made up these sentences, but as you listen to them, imagine that they are the beginning of a longer piece of writing. Again, I think they will help orient us to the passage in Luke 3.The sentences go like this:
In the autumn of the eighth year of Barack Obama’s presidency, two candidates seemed to rise above the others in their campaigns to be the next president: Senator Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump.
Additionally, Joel Osteen of Lakewood Baptist Church in Huston, Texas was often called “America’s favorite preacher.”
Those sentences have names and titles and lengths of reign and locations. And as we hear them, they do at least two things to us as an audience. First, they tip us off that an appeal to history is being made, an appeal to facts. In other words, this is not fiction. It’s real events, real people, real locations.But these names do not bring us merely into the realm of cold facts. The second thing these sentences do is bring us into a political and spiritual milieu. From these names and these titles, we have a sense of the moral and religious landscape.Politically, perhaps the names make us think of the acrimonious campaigns, as well as the differing, competing visions of what will make America thrive. Religiously, we are made to think of a preacher with a global audience who is heavy on encouragement but light on—if not missing entirely—gospel content.You see, my sentences give us facts but also more than facts. They bring us into a story. And this is precisely what Luke does in chapter 3. First, he’s making an appeal to history. Additionally, although the names are foreign to us, Luke is also giving us the invitation to consider the ethical and religious climate, which, by the way, was a time of occupation by godless rulers and priests who practiced an external religion but had hearts far from God.And it’s into this climate that—after over 400 years of relative silence from God—God begins to speak through a wild man in the wilderness named John.
Scripture Reading
I’m going to read our passage. Then I’ll pray, and we’ll study it together. It’s a very long passage that ends with a genealogy, which I won’t read except for the first and last lines. As we often say, I’ll do my best to read it well, if you will do your best to listen well. If you have a Bible, please follow along with me as I read Luke 3:1–24, and 38 (page 974).1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him,“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli . . . 38 the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Prayer
This is God’s word; thanks be to God. Would you please pray with me? “Heavenly Father . . .”
Introduction
I’ve joked before that this building is our “world headquarters.” Our satellite campus is a house that is a ¼ mile down the road in the neighborhood. This is where our church offices are and where we hold youth group.Anyway, if you’ve been by our offices any time in the last few months then you probably have noticed the orange-colored fencing that surrounds a gigantic hole in the parking lot. If you haven’t seen it, don’t think pothole; think crater. It’s a sinkhole.The good news is that it’s not the “unexplainable” type of sinkhole that comes out of nowhere and just keeps growing. The neighborhood storm-water piping that runs under the parking lot that is having, shall we say, issues. So, the city is working on it . . . we hope.Anyway, why do I bring this up? I bring it up because in May, our parking looked structurally sound. On the surface, everything was fine. But it wasn’t fine. There was a veneer of asphalt that looked good, but the substance that makes a parking lot safe and solid wasn’t actually there. The externals were there, but that’s not good enough, is it?As I read the passage, perhaps it seemed like John’s preaching was harsh—indeed, in a way it is—but it’s coming to people who have externals, but the substance of the thing itself is missing. And they are in grave danger.This is a temptation that we are not removed from. Too often, we don’t want to do the hard work of repenting and being transformed. Even those of us here who are Christians, so quickly we can begin to presume that if we have the externals—if we say and do the right things—then, well, those things (the externals) are the things that make us God’s children. But what we need is internal transformation, hearts of stone to become children of God.As we look at this passage closer, we’ll do so under two headings. First, John’s proclamation. Second, Jesus’s transformation.
1. John’s Proclamation, vv. 1–15
I want to start with this first point, John’s proclamation. But before we look closer at a few of his statements, I want to come to his preaching with a running start. In other words, I want to back up before we go forward.I mentioned earlier that when John begins to speak, it’s after some 400 years of relative silence from God towards his people, at least in new revelation from an authorized prophet.Now, not every book in the Bible is placed where it is because of its chronological order. Some books are grouped by theme and genre. But in the case of Malachi, it’s the last book in the Old Testament, and it’s the last word from God until the New Testament, roughly 400 years. And in the last two verses in this last book, we read this,
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
That is interesting, isn’t it? Here, God promises to send a prophet, a great prophet, a prophet like Elijah, who, when he comes, he will—as it says elsewhere—“prepare the way of the Lord” (v. 4; cf. Isaiah 40:3).This great prophet is going to get people ready for the Messiah, get people ready for Jesus. And how, how is he going to do that, how is this “Elijah of sorts” going to get people ready for Jesus? The text says, “He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.”Why do you think God emphasized this? Lots of neat things could be said at the end of the Old Testament, so why this do you think it ends this way?In the time of Malachi, the people of God have already been disciplined severely for the sins of their fathers. You see, generations before them the people of God were so steeped in idolatry and that God punished them for it. You could say, the people of God were sent to a rehab facility called “Babylonian Exile” where they could re-learn what was important in life, namely, God.And now in Malachi, things are a little better, at least so it seems on the outside. On the outside, the people have put away the idols. We might say, they go to church, they tithe, they have Bible verses on the walls of their homes. They have these externals. And they likely have orthodox beliefs. And when I say they have “orthodox beliefs” I mean they had correct, accurate, factual, true beliefs about God. They had right doctrine; they had orthodox beliefs.Yet, the problem in Malachi is this: their orthodoxy was a dead orthodoxy. Their beliefs and their religion were lifeless . . . or potentially could become that way. O, they know better than to engage in idol worship—they learned that the hard way in exile!—but God was after more than externals, more than going to church, more than dropping some money in the offering plate. God wants it all. Not a dead religion, but a living, vibrant orthodoxy that comes from the transformation of the heart.And so, back to that last verse in Malachi. Why end with the promise, “turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction”?Here is why (I think): God takes one aspect of a living, vibrant, transformed orthodoxy—namely the love, affection, protection, provision, and spiritual leadership that a father ought to have towards his sons—and God holds that up and says, “Yes, yes, that’s how deep your love for me must go. No more practicing mere religiosity that does not transform your actual lives; no more dead orthodoxy that leaves families in turmoil because the Messiah will the transform the hearts of fathers to love their children . . . because if that does not happen . . . well, then we’ve missed it.Now, with this running start, look again at the preaching of John! He is the Elijah that was promised, the one crying out in the wilderness. Let’s look at what he proclaims in v. 8,
8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
It’s difficult for us to hear the force of this statement. John is saying this to an audience that largely includes good, Jewish people (cf. Matthew 3:7). That’s radical. He looks at them and says,
You think you’re God’s children merely because you grew up in the right family? You think you’re God’s children because I dunk you in some water? I’ll tell you this: God can make children from rocks.”
If we invited John to be our guest preacher this morning he might put it like this:
You think you are one of God’s children? We’ll I hope so. But don’t tell me you’re a child of God because you “asked Jesus into your heart.” (What does that even mean?) And don’t tell me you are a Christian because you have a “personal relationship with Jesus.” If you are truly a child of God, then you’ll show it by the way the gospel transforms how you live.
And he might even say, “If your Christianity is meaningless to you on Monday morning, then just know it was meaningless to God on Sunday morning, too.”Church, don’t settle for a veneer of asphalt. You must repent and let God do inside of you what is necessary to transform you.Well, the people didn’t know exactly what to do with John’s proclamation, John’s preaching. Maybe you don’t either. Let’s go to the next point to see the climax of his proclamation where he focus is not so much on what you and I must do, but on the transformation that comes through Jesus.
2. Jesus’s Transformation, vv. 16–38
In this second point, we’ll see how John points them away from mere externals, even away from himself as the source of their transformation. Look at vv. 15–16.15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.The fact that the people were confused by John’s proclamation is telling. It subtly communicates that the type of preaching they were accustomed to was the kind of preaching that focused on externals—do this, and God will love you.But John’s preaching is different, and it confuses them. And they are so confused by it that they wonder if he might be the Messiah, the Christ. But what does John say to this?
No! Not even close! I’m not worthy to touch his feet and unlace his sandals. Look, I’m doing this thing in the desert with water and it’s important, but he’s going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit, which means he’s going to transform you from the inside out. He’s going to take your heart of stone and make you into children who are loved by the Heavenly Father.
But—you might ask—what is it that makes Jesus uniquely qualified to do this transforming work? Both the details of the baptism and the genealogy give us certainty that Jesus is uniquely qualified to do this transforming work.First, consider the baptism. On the one hand, Jesus doesn’t “need” a baptism of repentance, but he is baptized so that he can identify with those who do need to repent. Jesus is baptized to identify with us.It’s a short couple of verses, but I love the warmth of vv. 21–22. When Jesus is baptized, the voice of the Heavenly Father says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus is uniquely qualified to do this transforming work in our hearts because he has the love of his Father and the Holy Spirit was upon him!Now, consider how the genealogy shows that Jesus is uniquely qualified to do this transforming work. Other than the name Jesus, there are 77 names in the genealogy, 76 human names but the final name is God. Yes, Israel needed a Messiah who was a son of Adam . . . but also one who was the Son of God (v. 38).Jesus is uniquely qualified to do this transforming work because unlike John and unlike King David, and unlike Abraham and unlike Adam (who are all listed in the genealogy), and unlike every other human who has ever lived, Jesus is the Son of Man and the Son of God.In short, the “God-boy” that Jason spoke about last week is now the “God-man.” And he’s come here to save ordinary people—just like the ordinary people in this genealogy. They are like you and me. They were stones that needed transformation.There is a picture of this in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 51, God says tells Israel,1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
that I might bless him and multiply him.
God says to the nation of Israel, look where you came from. You came from a rock, and I cut you out of it. Just like I cut out Abraham.And there’s this awesome passage later in Luke’s gospel that speaks to this as well. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, and there’s all this commotion about him. And the religious leaders can’t see the value in him. Look at this exchanges that takes place.
39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:39–40)
Conclusion
Let me close with three very brief reflections on how radical all of this is. First, think how radical it was to hear. Just take v. 14.
14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
Most people have trouble living on their income. Now imagine taking a huge pay cut because you can no longer be unethical. I don’t know how much they made from extortion, but let’s just say that because they follow God, their income was cut in half. Perhaps that meant buying a smaller house or that their children could no longer attend private school. Or no more eating out four times a week and no more boat and vacation home. (By themselves, there’s nothing wrong with these, of course. The question is “how” and “why.”) But this would have been so radical to hear. But there’s more. They had to be content with it. How are they going to do that?But this proclamation wasn’t just radical to hear. It was radical to preach. In vv. 19–20, it alludes to the fact that for John following God meant rebuking a governmental official for his sexual immorality. I won’t go into the specifics, but Herod married his brother in-law’s wife. Let that sink in. That’s radical—rebuking a political leader for his sexual sin. Later, we learn it cost him not only jail time but his life (Luke 9:7–9)And think about this, too. The people come to John and say, “You’re so awesome; we think you might be the Messiah!” Many a leader has fallen through the flattery of his ego. But John rejects their praise, deflecting it instead to the one to whom it belongs. That’s radical.So it was radical to hear. And it was radical to preach.All of this must mean that the good news of the gospel transformation of Jesus is also radical. In fact, in v. 18, what John is preaching is called “good news.” This soldier can now be content with his wages, not because it’s easy, but because he’s now a child of God. And John can preach what he preaches because he knows that he, too, is a loved child of God.Let this humble you, and let it encourage you. Humble you in the sense that you can’t live the Christian life on your own. It’s impossible. But let it encourage you. That God is able to take me and you, in our deadness and brokenness, and cause us to live. The gospel teaches that all of the love that the Father has for the Son, he now has for us. Therefore, because of the gospel, God says over you, “You are my beloved son, beloved daughter, beloved children.”
