Turn Away from Evil and Receive the Baptism of Repentance

Turn Away from Evil and Receive the Baptism of Repentance

Luke: 3:3, 6-18

Rev. Lu on 12/13/09 translated by Howard Chang

At the beginning of Chapter 3, Luke told us that it was the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when John the Baptist started to proclaim God’s message. Tiberius is the second emperor of the Roman Empire and the power of the Romans had reached its peak at that time. John the Baptist had gone into all the country around the Jordan River, preaching to the people that they should turn away from evil and receive baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This simple message had attracted throngs of people to come to be baptized. This must be the calling of the Holy Spirit, but these people might have just come because they thought that John the Baptist was the Christ, was the Messiah, and he would lead them out of Roman rules.

No matter how people thought, the prophets always proclaimed the same message. Just like last Sunday’s sermon, prophet Malachi told Israelites that:

1. Don’t complain and don’t think God doesn’t care, or not fair, or not righteous. Don’t turn good to evil or treat evildoers as kind.

2. Your are not a good person either. You do not treat God sincerely, use damaged animals for sacrifice to defile God.

3. You should change your attitude. Give God His rightful share. Relying in God with all your heart and mind.

4. To worship God, He has never given up His people. The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come suddenly.

5. When He comes, it will be a turning point but it is full of perils as well. It will be the Day of Judgment. Judgment means to find out right from wrong, sentence the evildoers and reward the kind hearted. Judgment comes with punishment and salvation. Each person will receive his due judgment depends on what kind of attitude, life style, and whether he truly honor God or not at that time.

The people in John’s time, when they heard John said “God will forgive your sins”, they probably had more intense and more personalized appreciation then people in our generation. Through the Bible teachings and historical experiences, Israelites learn that as long as they worship Yahweh wholeheartedly, Yahweh will be with them and they will be prosperous. When they turn their back against Yahweh, they would be oppressed by others, just like the time of John the Baptist. They must be thinking that they were suffering under Roman Empire because of their sins. If their sins could be forgiven, then they would have their country back. Therefore, they all came rushing in to be baptized by John.

Most likely, John the Baptist could see through their intention. He knew they were a bunch of evildoers would only misuse God’s grace; therefore, he rebuked them by calling them “brood of vipers!” He admonished them not trying to get the easy way out by doing simple baptism to receive forgiveness to avoid God’s judgment and God’s wrath. John insisted that they needed to use their actions as the proof that they had forsaken their sinful ways, and then they can receive God’s mercy.

For some unknown period of time, Jews had developed delusional belief that since they were God’s chosen people, as long as they are the children of Abraham and received circumcisions, they would have privileges in front of the God and nothing to worry about. A Rabbi, Trypho stated:” they who are the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, shall in any case, even if they be sinners and unbelieving and disobedient toward God, share in the eternal kingdom.” The writer of the book of wisdom said,” these as a father, admonishing them, thou didst prove I but those as a stern king, condemning them, thou didst search out.” And “while therefore thou didst chasten us, thou scourge our enemies a thousand times more.”

Jews did not believe they need good deeds. They believed that they can avoid God’s wrath just because they are Jews. They also did not believe they need to repent because they were sure that God would forgive. With these as background, John warned them that “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.” (Luke 3:8-9)

John was very clear to them that unless they truly repent, do good deeds; God would not care for them. He can easily raises up stones to replace them, cut them down and throw them into fire.

With the seriousness of the consequence, some people naturally would ask “then what should we do?” Simple, John answered, first, “share! The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Sharing sounds simple and easy, we mush already “have” in order to share with others. However, we all know, unless there is love, we do not share. Human beings are selfish, and believe the more we have, the safer we will be. Only when we truly believe that God is the rock of our faith, believe in His Love, and then His Love and faithfulness will be the guarantee of our safety, we will be able to share with others, even when we are not wealthy. Like apostle John said, “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Throughout the history, Jews had never share Yahweh’s good news, and seldom share their wealth with others. This is the warning to all Christians.

Second, John asked them to do their best and abide by the laws. Do not abuse their power, strong arm others, blackmail, or self seeking. At that time, tax collectors and military personnel were all part of the elite with Roman Empire as their backing. John did not ask them to give up their careers, but he asked them to abide by the laws, not abuse their power, and not be greedy. Greedy is the source of all evil. The quickest way to accumulate wealth is by using authority to take over others, as Chinese love to say that once you secure the power, money will come.

If a person do not or unwilling to abide by the earthly law, it is hard to imagine that this person will abide by the law in kingdom of Heaven. A person who does not love his brothers, how can you expect this person to love the invisible Father in Heaven?

Those Jews thought John the Baptist could be the long awaiting Messiah, because he was proclaiming the gospel of God will forgive your sins. But John clearly told them that he was not the Messiah. He foretold that there will be a more power one who would come and baptize them with Holy Spirit and with fire. (Luke 3:16)

Baptizing with water means the person receives baptism has decided to forsake one’s sinful way of living. Whether this person indeed fulfills this promise afterward, no one will know. But John told them that once Messiah comes, He will judge people’s thoughts and attitude with refiner’s fire. No one will be able to escape His judgment.

Advent is a very moving and touching season; the music lingering in the air keeps reminding us how great is the kindness of our God and how great the sacrificial love that Christ has shown us is. Even media is more focusing on reporting the good deeds. You can see on TV how people help in disaster relief and how they share with those who are less fortunate. All these seem to indicate that we are ready to receive our King. But the experiences tell us that once this season is over, the whole world appears to darken. Most people just treat the Christmas as a wonderful ancient story and indulge themselves in the atmosphere once a year.

How lucky are Christians! We know our God, and we know he care how are we conducting our daily living. We know He loves us first, so we are urged to love Him and others. Today, John’s simple message reminds us to turn back to God (receive baptism), and live a faithful, obedient, and sharing life then we will receive salvation.

Lord Jesus once revealed to the apostles the secret recipe of knowing he is always with us: “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” (John 14:21)