He Said Turn Right :: Matthew 3:1-12

Every time I read or hear about John the Baptizer, I am reminded of a man I encountered years ago at a rest area along I-55 in Illinois. I was walking back to the car when I saw a state trooper pulled up in front of me. Out stepped two men: the trooper and the guy who today reminds me of John the Baptizer. This guy was wild looking. He had a full beard, long hair, long coat. He clearly had been outside for a long time. Kinda dirty, you know.

Where’d he come from, I wondered. 

“Can I get a ride,” he asked. Woah, he spoke to me. My heart skipped a beat. 

“Um, I am only going up to the next exit,” I muttered, knowing that I was going much farther. I quickly made my way to the car and drove off, feeling like I couldn’t get away fast enough.

“Turn around, Jerry,” I told myself. “Turn around, and give this guy a ride.” 

“What are you crazy,” I thought. 

“No, seriously; turn around and take him to a motel and buy him a meal.”

For 30 miles, I pleaded with myself, “Turn around.” 

I didn’t turn around ... To this day, I wish I would have turned around. I wish I would have gone the other direction. 

Here lies the underlying theme of our text today. Turning around, and going the other direction. Turning around, and recognizing our sinfulness, turning around and seeing our need for God to turn us in the right direction. This is what Matthew 3:1-12 is about. So, ask yourself:   

ARE YOU TURNING THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

If John the Baptist thought the spiritual condition of first-century Israel was challenging, imagine what he’d think if he were preaching in the spiritual wilderness of our United States. We have the whole menu of false religions from Islam to Mormons, a huge segment of the population with no religion at all, and a significant portion of Christian churches denying the central tenets of the faith such as justification by faith alone, the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper that delivers the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the body. 

It is specifically because of these challenges that this account of John the Baptist continues to contain an important message for the Church. As we look at this text again this Advent season, we the Church continue John the Baptizer’s important work in Advent: Turning us around from unbelief to faith in Christ.

To do that we need to first get over ourselves and the shock John the Baptizer brings into our lives. John doesn’t sugarcoat anything for us, even if he does have some wild honey on hand. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he cries out to you, me, and everyone of us who are within earshot. Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths. Repent, you brood of vipers. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Don’t you dare presume to think once saved, always saved.

It’s a hard message to hear, isn’t it? Especially from a guy who isn’t wearing soft clothing. Can you visualize John the Baptizer? Can you visualize his rough camel’s hair clothing? It frightens you, doesn’t it? It makes you suspicious doesn’t it? Can you see him eating bugs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, even if it is with wild honey? Bugs?

If you saw a guy like this standing on the corner of Locust and 4th Streets calling you a brood of vipers who are stuck in church traditions that tells you that you can receive the forgiveness of sins too often, wouldn’t you get upset, too? If you heard him crying out, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, (v.2) what would you do? 

Would you turn around and go the other way? 

Or would you cross the street so you don’t have to cross paths with him? 

It is difficult to listen to people who tell us like it is. The fact is, God hates sin. He hates your sin. He hates mine. He hates that you do unspeakable things in the dark. He hates that you withhold the forgiveness of sins from your brothers and sisters, from your sons and daughters. He hates that you gossip, and hold grudges. So John has come telling us like it is. Sin will fuel an unquenchable fire. So turn around, brothers and sisters in Christ. Turn around toward the true God. 

John’s message does remind us of a question we have all asked, “Which way do we go to find God? Only in this sanctuary? Where can we find him? Can sit quietly in my deer stand instead? Where is the God who gives the blind sight, the deaf hearing? Where is the God who takes our limps away? Where is the God who gives the dead and dying new life? 

Too often we expect someone other than the LORD described in scripture. We want the good man with the good word about good living, who tells us what to do. We want the social justice warrior who breaks the oppression we see all around us. We want the bread king, who gives to us so that we can be like some fat cat who doesn’t have to work any more.

So John comes calling: Turn around. 

This was John’s purpose: To turn us around and point us to Jesus, who breaks our misconceptions. As Matthew reveals: John is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy so long ago. He is the voice in the wilderness, alerting the people that ... their long-awaited Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ ... was among them. 

So turn and see the real Jesus. 

We too need to do that. We have been just like those Israelites: lost in the darkness; wandering in the wilderness of sinful lives. The Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert, committing adultery against the Lord by worshipping other gods. Which gods are you worshipping? Me, myself, and I? 

The I-can-do-it-myself God, the I-can-take-care-of-myself God?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand (v.2). 

Turn around, John cries to you, your king is coming and you need to be ready. 

Turn around. Return to your baptism; confess your sins which are blinding you, which are separating you from God. Return to the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Feast of forgiveness, which nourishes your faith in the promises of Christ. You can never receive forgiveness too often in baptism and the Supper. Forgiveness never becomes less special.  

We can start turning around by turning away from common Christian misunderstandings of repentance. Repentance is not about doing good works to gain favor with God. It’s not about your feelings. It’s not about giving more money to the church or your community, thinking your money is doing the work God has called you to do. Repentance is not about thinking you can be sorry enough for your sins. Repentance is not about replacing vices with wholesome virtues. 

Certainly these are all good things. But a more complete understanding of the Greek word for repent is turning from unbelief to belief, from faithlessness in the love of God to faith in his promises. Properly speaking, repentance has two parts: terror of the sin that is destroying not only your life but all of creation, and faith that Christ is setting you free from the punishment you deserve through the forgiveness He delivers to you. 

So John has come calling to you: Turn around and Recognize your sin. Then Hear the promise: The forgiveness of sins belongs to you. 

Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word, which shows us our sin and our need for a savior, but more than that it reveals exactly what John came to do, point us toward Christ. 

The bottom line here, repentance ... is about turning around to the one true God, Jesus the Christ, and recognizing that he is God, that he is who he says he is ... and will be who he says he will be. He is the one who condemns sin. And He is the one who changes your heart so that you know that Christ really does come to you, that he really did die on the cross for you, that he really did rise from the dead and ascend into heaven for you. And that our Lord Jesus Christ really has promised to give you a clean bill of health for eternity with him. 

So, turn around: God calling you back from the wilderness.  

There are two destinations in the Bible to turn to: the Land of Milk and Honey, and the Wilderness. Most people have been in the wilderness so long, they don’t know they are lost and they don’t know what the Land of Milk and Honey really looks like. 

So John comes to us beckoning us to turn around. Not coincidentally, here in Matthew 3, we have found John standing in the Jordan River, at the border between the wilderness and the promised land, where he is calling those of us who, like our ancestors, have been wandering in the wrong direction. 

Come, he beckons. Join Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan in returning to your baptism, confessing your sins and receiving absolution. Then come, joining your brothers and sisters at the feast of forgiveness.

Where would anyone be without repentance? 

As Martin Luther reminds us: “One side thinks: ‘But we have already done repentance.’ The other side thinks: ‘We do not need repentance.’ But John the Baptizer says, ‘All of you repent! All of you turn around. You all need forgiveness of sins because you all still do not know what true sin is, let alone that you ought to repent of it or avoid it. Not one of you is any good.

But Jesus was good enough. 

Jesus, true God, begotten of the father before all worlds, and true man, born of the virgin Mary. He is my Lord. He alone has redeemed me, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood, and innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own to live with him in everlasting innocence, blessedness and righteousness.

And when we turn around, that is exactly what God leads us to do through baptism. Because of your baptism, You have been saved ... and have become an heir to the hope of eternal life. Because of baptism, God has given you ears to hear and eyes to see that Jesus is your savior. 

Rejoice O Gentiles with his people. Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the people extol him. He has washed you with his word and given you living water ... And He can nourish your soul with his body and blood that is for the forgiveness of your sins. Salvation is not founded upon your holiness any longer. It is not founded upon your feelings. It is founded only upon the holiness of Christ, who bore the full wrath of God for you on the cross ... dying for you. Turn away from your self-improvement efforts, and turn toward your Lord who delivers to you the forgiveness of sins through water and word, body and blood. Do it as often as you can.

Through these gifts of God, the Holy Spirit works in us the true fruits of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. 

John the Baptist must have been overwhelmed with his task. We too may feel overwhelmed with ours. But it all starts within each of us by repenting and confessing our sins, living in our baptismal grace, and bearing the fruit of repentance worked by the Holy Spirit. Cling to this truth, cherish this truth. 

Your salvation is here.