Luke 3:7-9 - "Therefore Bear Fruits Worthy of Repentance"

Remember we are told in Luke 3:23 that Jesus begin His ministry when He was about thirty years of age. This means that John the Baptist, who was born six months before the birth of Jesus, would have also been about thirty years old. Matthew’s Gospel tells us in Matthew 3; “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea!” And what a preacher he was! He didn’t come explaining, he came preaching! He didn’t come tickling people’s ears trying to make them feel better about themselves.   When you think about the background of John the Baptist, you will remember that he was the son of a priest, which means he would have grown up around Jerusalem and the temple. He saw and observed all the ceremonies, rituals and sacrifices being performed by the priest and the religious establishment. And what he saw was a dead religion full of corruption as the priests took advantage of the people buying sacrificial animals and other worship items when they arrived at the temple, by getting kickbacks from the sellers they allow to sell their ware there. He saw the hypocrisy of the priest and the religious leaders, and he was turned off to it. And as soon as he was old enough, he fled to the wilderness.   We are told that John most likely joined the Essenes who were down by the Dead Sea living in a small, very exclusive commune of hermit like men dedicated to making copies of the Old Testament Scriptures. You can imagine how John would have poured over the prophesies of Isaiah as the Spirit of God began to reveal to him that he was that voice that was “to cry in the wilderness and prepare the way of the Lord”. No doubt, as a boy he had been told by his father Zacharias and his mother Elizabeth about the miraculous birth of his cousin Jesus six months after he was born. And now he puts it all together and hears the call of God to go down by the Jordan River and preach!   Please get this picture as John begins to preach and the word begins to spread across the land and up to Jerusalem about this prophet wearing animal skins, eating locus and wild honey, preaching and baptizing lots of people. He was a sight to see and had a message that was changing lives. Even when people came out of curiosity, they came under conviction of their sins and entered the river to be baptized! And as more and more people came “the multitudes” began to show up, and with them came the religious leaders of Jerusalem trying to figure him out.   When the religious leaders show up, John first addresses them in his message and calls them “a brood of vipers”. Now for sure this group did not come to hear about their sins and their hypocrisy. They didn’t think they had anything to repent of. They thought their religion was enough to save them. Even Jesus would later say, “I didn’t come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17).   John was not afraid to call these religious leaders out first and expose them for their hypocrisy! I am convinced even today that the problem is not in the pew of our churches but in the pulpit. A pulpit full of preachers who are tickling people’s ears, scratching people’s backs, trying to explain the Bible so the people can feel like because they know the Bible they will also be in good standing with God.   But my friend, you can know the Bible from cover to cover and yet not be right with God. You can say that you have faith in all the right things found in the Bible, but James makes it clear in James 2:17-20; “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. .... This is John’s message! True faith will “bear fruits worthy of repentance”. John tells these religious people that just because they are Jews and have been born into the right family will not matter in the day of judgment. One day, “they will be cut down like a tree and be cast into the fire”.   Today are you sure you are saved? Are the fruits of righteousness evident in your life?   God bless!