I. Introduction
“What shall we do?” Imagine that you are standing among a group of people who have just been told that unless they change their ways, change the way they think, change the way they act, change the way they talk, change the way they live – in short, change their minds about everything, including and most importantly, about Jesus Christ – they will all perish. They will all spend eternity in hell.
If you can imagine that, then you have some idea of what it was like to hear John the Baptist preach his message of repentance. Repentance is defined as changing your mind. Changing your mind leads to turning around, changing the direction of your life. That manifests itself in how you think, act, talk, live, and view the person of Jesus Christ.
Now can you imagine the responses of those around you? Most scoff and walk away. There is no repentance there! Many laugh it off but decide to stay and hear what else this fellow is going to say. There’s some curiosity but there’s no repentance there either.
Then there are some who seem genuinely concerned. They do not want to perish and go to hell. But they’re not about to change any aspect of their lives either, so they will remain long enough to do this water baptism, this ritual, if by doing so it will “pay the premium on a life insurance policy.” You know how it is. If another act of religious devotion will somehow solidify their ability to get into heaven, then they’ll do it. At least they’re religious, but there is only a false repentance.
However, there are a few in the crowd who are convicted of their sin. They recognize it for the offense against God that it really is. They express a heartfelt sorrow for it. And they turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation. That is true repentance. True repentance leads to salvation. There is no salvation without it. The two are inseparable.
“What shall we do?” That’s the question asked by three different groups of people in this morning’s text. It is the question that, at some point in every life, must be answered.
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II. Text
John set the stage in Luke 3:3-6. He quoted the Prophet Isaiah who, seven centuries earlier, had told the people to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming. That preparation would require a personal change of heart and mind in every person who would receive the Lord. In other words, they would have to repent. They would have to turn away from their sin and turn to Christ.
In today’s text we’ll hear what John the Baptist said and we’ll see how the people responded.
*Luke 3:7-17 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
7 (John) therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 “Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham.
9 “And also the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree there-fore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”
11 And he would answer and say to them, “Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.”
12 and some tax-gatherers also came to be baptized, and they said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?”
13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you have been ordered to.”
14 And some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse them falsely, and be content with your wages.”
15 Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were won-dering in their hearts about John, as to whether he might be the Christ,
16 John answered and said to them, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
17 “And His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Wow! Such preaching today is almost unheard of. To say that John is being direct would be understatement at best. He isn’t preaching a message of love and acceptance. On the contrary, he is preaching a message of judgment and repentance. Why? God is love, isn’t He? But think about it. If you have no intention of changing your ways, and you don’t know or believe that there is a judgment to come, why would you pay any attention to a preacher telling you to repent, to prepare your heart to receive the Lord?
Or let me ask it this way. A person who thinks he has no sin, or thinks he has too few to worry about, or thinks that a God of love will routinely overlook his sins, regardless of how many or how heinous they may be, sees no need to repent at all. So a message of forgiveness for sins means nothing to one who thinks he needs no forgiveness for sins.
The message of God’s love and forgiveness would soon come in the person of God’s Son, but first the people must believe that they actually need God’s love and forgiveness.
Thus John prepares the way with a message of judgment. Of course it should surprise no one that those who preach such a message are not popular. Sooner or later, most of them pay with their lives. John the Baptist would be among them. But that’s for later.
For now, suffice it to say that those who preach a gospel of God’s love with no call for repentance are preaching an incomplete gospel. Therefore it is a false gospel, a gospel that has no power to save. It is just such shallow preaching that inevitably results in a shallow response. It fills churches with people who think they are Christians but are not.
Many immerse themselves in ritual and tradition and good works. As the good works increase they become more and more convinced that God will have to accept them into His heaven. And why not? They’re “good” people, aren’t they? They claim to know Jesus, but the tragedy is that Jesus doesn’t know them. Matthew tells us about them.
*Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven.
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
What is the will of the Father that Jesus speaks of in v. 21?
Acts 17:30
30 …God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.
John the Baptist pulls no punches and softens no blows. He hits the people who are coming to him right between the eyes with the truth.
*Luke 3:7-8a
7 He therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be bap-tized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8a “Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance…”
Obviously, “You brood of vipers” is a strong epithet. But before you scold John for using such language, you may want to remember that Jesus angrily used the very same words against the Pharisees in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew 23:33
33 “…you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?”
John can call them vipers because he sees through their hypocrisy. But these religious leaders and those who follow them are coming to be baptized. They aren’t scoffing or laughing and walking away. The problem is that they’re coming to do a work of religion. They’re coming to the Jordan looking for that “life insurance” I talked about earlier.
By calling the Pharisees vipers John relates them directly to Satan. Jesus did that too.
John 8:44
44 “You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him…”
These people John is talking to have come to him for the wrong reason. To them John’s baptism is just another religious work, another “good deed,” that will keep them out of hell. They may be repentant, but it’s a superficial and false repentance. It is a repentance that is steeped in religious hypocrisy. Therefore John tells them they are children of the devil. How’s that for a welcome to open the service?
But he’s not finished. John asks, “…who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” What he is asking is this. Where did they get the idea they could escape God’s wrath by being baptized in water or engaging in other rituals and religious traditions? God loves changed hearts, but He hates hypocritical and ritualistic religion. He even hates our traditions if they aren’t accompanied by changed hearts.
*Matthew 15:7-9
7 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you saying,
8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”
In Luke 3:8 when John tells them to “bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance,” he’s saying that they need to show their repentance by changed lives. That leads back to the old argument about good works. Religious people often think good works save, but that has never been true. Good works cannot earn salvation. Good works are the inevitable result of salvation. Thus Paul can say in his letter to the church at Ephesus…
*Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We are new creatures in Christ FOR good works, not BY them. These good works have been prepared by GOD, not by us. Could it be any clearer? John says their religion can’t save them. Then while still reeling from that, he drops a second bomb on them.
*Luke 3:8b
8b “…and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up child-ren of Abraham.”
What is he saying? He’s saying, “And don’t think being Jewish is going to save you either.” He tells them that just as God made Adam from the dust of the earth, He can make sons of Abraham the same way.
Whether we are Jew or Gentile, salvation is never a corporate thing; it is always an indi-vidual thing. We come by ourselves, one at time. Neither our ethnicity, nor our church heritage, nor our family tree, nor our parents’ beliefs or religious traditions possess any ability whatsoever to save our eternal souls.
This is a serious problem among Americans. My own father insisted that since he was born in America, and since America is a Christian country, he was born a Christian. He wanted to know just who I thought I was to tell him he needed to become one.
Over at Arbor Village both Jeff and Chuck deal with the issue of people sincerely believing they are Christians because they are good people. Many of them believe that just by being Catholic or Lutheran or Methodist or whatever, they are saved.
After all, they were baptized as infants. They spent seventy or eighty years in the church. Surely, if they were not saved, if they were hell-bound, surely the churches would have told them. If there was any need to repent, to change their life-style, or to mourn over their sin, surely their pastors would have said something about it.
Back in 1986 the man who hired me and started me in my career in industrial sales died. He was a classic Irish Catholic tough guy from the south side of Chicago. He was also a womanizer, a heavy-smoking, hard-drinking, hard-living, and pretty much godless man. But professionally, he was my mentor. He knew I was a Christian. We couldn’t have been much more different, but we truly liked each other. His family knew that. At his funeral Mass – I was asked to lead his casket in and out of the church.
Unless he came to saving faith in the last hours of his life, I knew he was lost. I knew I’d never see him again. Yet, in the priest’s homily, he assured everyone that my old friend was saved, and that his time in Purgatory would be short. How did the priest know that? Well, here are the three reasons he gave.
• My friend was a good American. He served in the Navy in World War II, and was a member of the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). He was that.
• He was a faithful husband. He wasn’t that.
• Finally, being a good Roman Catholic, my friend was devoted to the blessed virgin. Well, I doubt that, but I’m not really sure what such devotion even means.
You can see the problem, can’t you? Catholic or Protestant or Jewish – it doesn’t matter. Just be good, as the leaders of your religion define it, and you’re fine. Just do good works, as the leaders of your religion define them, and you’re in. Or, as my old Irish friend used to say, “In like Flynn!”
It is this attitude, this mindset that John the Baptist just shreds here in Luke 3:8. A person who trusts in anything or anyone other than Christ alone has no hope. People must change their minds about Jesus. People must repent. And their repentance must be genuine because…
*Luke 3:9
9 “…the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
This is a picture of the danger that results from a false or insincere repentance. It is also the kind of statement that can easily offend, isn’t it? Listen, that axe is laid right at the root of our personal pride, our hypocrisy, and our self-righteousness. The problem is that those who take offense and walk away will never be prepared for the wrath to come, because they refuse to hear the truth, either about themselves or about God.
Romans 1:18
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
The final destination for all who suppress God’s truth is what Jesus called “the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).”
This is the sobering message that John preaches. People must consider their own lives. They must think about where they stand with God because, as John has made so clear, it’s not about religion or heritage or good works. It’s about your own personal relation-ship with the Lord Jesus Christ. As Matthew has told us (Matthew 7:23), it is not, “Do you know Jesus,” it is “Does Jesus know you?”
In the introduction I spoke of the few people in the crowd who heard John and were con-victed of their sin. Now in the next five verses they respond.
*Luke 3:10-14
10 And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”
11 And he would answer and say to them, “Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.”
12 and some tax-gatherers also came to be baptized, and they said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?”
13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you have been ordered to.”
14 And some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse them falsely, and be content with your wages.”
“What shall we do?” The same question comes from three different sources, but the answer, while specific for each one, is in reality the same for all. It is, “Demonstrate true repentance!” You do it with the fruit that emanates from a changed mind and a changed heart. You do it with fruit of changed lives, not so-called religious good works, which Isaiah compared to filthy rags. Therefore it is not the spoiled and rotted fruit of human achievement. It is the eternal and glorious fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit of God.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Remember? Those who have truly repented are “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them
(Ephesians 2:10). You can see why relying on ourselves is hopeless, can’t you?
I suspect you can also see that preaching through a passage like this can be difficult. Such things just naturally offend human sensibilities. I hope you all understand that I take no particular pleasure in that. But I must not gloss over the truths that are presented here. There is already far too much of that going on in the church today.
1 Timothy 4:1
1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…
Peter describes those who know the truth but refuse to preach and teach it. Then he speaks of their fate.
2 Peter 2:17-19, 21
17 (They) are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by the fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,
19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption…
21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteous-ness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.
One of the books the men’s group is currently reading is Holiness, by J. C. Ryle. He was a nineteenth century Anglican Bishop who had a rich understanding of God and His Word. The men have come to appreciate both the scope and the depth of Ryle’s writing. In 1860 he wrote a book called Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. In it he said this:
“Let us beware of being…more charitable than Scripture itself. Let the lan-guage of John the Baptist be graven in your hearts. Let us never be ashamed to avow our firm belief, that there is a ‘wrath to come’ for the impenitent (those who will not repent), and that it is possible for a man to be lost as well as saved.
“To be silent on the subject is positive treachery to men’s souls. It only encourages them to persevere in wickedness, and fosters in their minds the devil’s old delusion, ‘Ye shall surely not die.’
“That minister is surely our best friend who tells us honestly of danger, and warns us, like John the Baptist, to ‘flee the wrath to come.’”
Look at the lessons for each of us in Luke 3:11-14. Do you have more than you need? Almost all of us do. Then share it. Do you have a job to do? Virtually all of us have something we are to do. Then do it honestly and do it well. Do you earn an income? Again, most of us do. Then be satisfied with what God is giving you. Do you see? True repentance results in changed minds about everything.
*Luke 3:15-17
15 Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were won-dering in their hearts about John, as to whether he might be the Christ,
16 John answered and said to them, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
17 “And His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The Jews were expecting their Messiah and some of them thought John just might be Him. But he only humbles himself and points ahead to Jesus. He understands his call.
John 3:28, 30
28 “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.”
30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John makes the point that he is inferior to the One who is coming, that he is not even fit to stoop down and untie Jesus’ sandals. In v. 16 John reiterates that his baptism was only for an outward confession of repentance for sin, but Jesus would baptize with both the Holy Spirit at His first coming, and the fire of eternal judgment at His second coming.
His words confirm the Prophet Malachi’s words at the end of the OT.
*Malachi 3:1-2
1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.
2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like a fullers’ (laundrymen’s) soap.”
Fire is symbolic of judgment throughout the Scriptures. In v. 17 John continues along the same path he has been on. He says that the judgment to come may be compared to what is done when a winnowing fork is used to separate the wheat from the chaff. “Winnow” is an interesting word. Its basic meaning is to analyze or carefully examine something in order to separate its various elements.
So a winnowing fork is used to throw wheat into the air where the wind carries away the chaff (husks) but leave the heavier seed to fall back to the ground.
John says Jesus will do that when He judges mankind. All of the wheat will be gathered into the barn. All of the chaff will be burned up. There is no mistaking the symbolism, is there? The wheat symbolizes the repentant who will be taken to heaven. The chaff symbolizes the unrepentant who will be sent to hell.
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III. Conclusion
This is the message from John. Obviously it is a message that is intended to get our attention. What has he said? To summarize, in plain English, he has said…
“Listen, you who belong to Satan, neither your heritage nor your religion will ever save you. You are about to be judged, and if you have not sincerely repented and sincerely sought forgiveness for your sin, you will perish and burn in eternal hell.”
Not exactly “PC”, is it? But I have exaggerated nothing. I have sensationalized nothing. That is what John the Baptist has said! And everything he has said is true. He has delivered a message of judgment and of the wrath to come.
But how does he end it? Is there hope? Remember that John is the last of the OT prophets and, like them, He is pointing ahead to Jesus. Jesus will bring the good news of the gospel.
Before God’s wrath is poured out on the earth and its inhabitants, Jesus will come and offer you the way out. “I am the way…” That’s what the rest of Luke’s gospel is about.
“What shall we do?” First, believe John’s message. There is wrath to come. Then repent. Change your mind about who you are and what you have done. Change your mind about who Jesus is and what He will do, and then turn around. Put your faith and trust in Him and in Him alone and the truth of our closing verse will be yours.
*1 Thessalonians 5:9
9 For God has not destined (you) for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ…
~ Pray ~