"What Shall We Do?" Sermon: Luke 3:7-18

“What Shall We Do?”

[Luke 3:7-18]

December 16, 2012 Second Reformed Church

            Last week, we began looking at John's baptizing of Jews with the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We saw that this means that forgiveness – salvation from God's Wrath – the wages of sin – is based on a true belief and confession that results in change.

            “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? 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. 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.’”

            John speaks a harsh word to the people who've come to him – indicating that they had not come with a response to the Scripture, but in response to seeing the crowds gathered around John.  Matthew specifies that the Pharisees and Sadducees (cf. Matthew 3:7) had come to John for the wrong reasons – thinking that the baptism itself would save them.

            John explained to them that coming and confessing itself and claiming Abraham as their father was not enough for salvation. He warned them that this alone would lead to the ax being laid at the root of the tree – that they would fall and die and suffer the hellfire if they did not actually believe and repent and change their ways.

            If you have come this morning believing the historical facts of the Gospel, but not changing your life – not receiving the Work of the Holy Spirit in your life –  you have not truly believed. And you will suffer the same hellfire that John warned the Pharisees and Sadducees of – merely reciting the facts of the Gospel is not enough – it must change your life. And if you're not changed by the facts of the Gospel, then you have not truly believed – and you are not saved.

            Paul explains: “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6, ESV).

            “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9, ESV).

            “and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10, ESV).

            “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:7-9, ESV).

            The point Paul is making is that the Wrath of God is indeed against those who do not repent and believe – and repentance includes turning around – changing – becoming a new creation. Belief in the words alone is not enough – yes, we are saved by faith alone, but it is not a faith that is alone – as the reformers would tell us. Belief in the Gospel must lead to a change of life – we must flee from temptation and we must repent of our sins. Otherwise, we have not been saved.

            There are plenty of people who hear the words of the Gospel and think it sounds all very well, who even believe the facts of the history of Jesus Christ, but do not truly repent and change their lives. That is not saying that we are saved by works – we are saved by faith alone – but that faith leads to growth – to the production of fruit – we prove our faith by living as God has called us to live – and if we do not, then we prove that we are not really saved.

            Do we understand the point that the John is making? The Pharisees and the Sadducees were coming – they were saying they were descendents of Abraham – they were saying that they had done the good works of the Law – but they had not truly believed. John says – the Scripture says – that belief leads to good works – belief leads to the proof of belief by good works. Good works alone –  biology alone – is not enough. Jesus did not merely come to save people who are of a certain race. Jesus did not merely come to save those who do what is good in the eyes of humanity. Jesus came to save those who believe in the historical facts of the Gospel and change their lives because of it – because God uses the facts of the Gospel to cause belief, people change their lives as proof of the belief that they have – that is salvation.

            John says that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from the stones. Now, whether John meant this literally – referring back to the Creation, when Adam and Eve were created from the dirt and a rib – or whether he was referring to the fact that God takes our heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh when we are caused to believe in the Gospel – the result is the same.

            If we do not believe the Gsoepl and change our lives – repent and do the good works that God has set before us – we have ot truly believed and the eternal fires of hell are still awaiting us.

            “And the crowds asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’ And he answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than you are authorized to do.’ 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.’

            Three types of people approached John with true repentance and asked what they should do: people in general, tax collectors, and soldiers.

            John told the people in general that they should love their neighbors. They should show generosity and love – not that everyone should be equal and have an equal amount of money and things – but if someone was in need, and they had the ability to meet that need, they ought to meet that need.

            To the tax collectors, John told them that they ought not to overcharge – they ought to be honest in their work and in the authority that they had been given. They should collect only what they needed to collect and not abuse their authority so they could profit by it.

            To the soldiers, John told them that they ought not to shake people down – they ought not to torture slaves to get them to lie about their masters hiding money – they ought to treat people with respect and to get true answers about the money they received in the taxes that were due to be paid.

            For all of the people:  John told them to be content with what they had. God is Sovereign over all things and He has given each one of us different things, different jobs, different gifts, and we ought to be joyful with that and thank God for that and be pleased for the way that God has chosen to show Himself and provide for us.

            Overall, John was telling the people to love their neighbors – not to lie, not to cheat, not to embezzle, not to work the system to their benefit. Rather, John told them that they ought to love their neighbors, to seek the best for them, and for each person – no matter what God has given them – no matter what God has given us – to be satisfied – to truly give thanks to God for what we have received – and to learn how to steward that – how to manage that well, to the Glory of God.

            Are you satisfied with what you have? I suspect the general American answer would be, “no.” We are not satisfied. We think we deserve more. No matter how much we accumulate – no matter how much we have, and have received – we are not truly thankful. Am I wrong? Are you truly thankful for what you have? Are you using what you have to the Glory of God? Are you believing the Gospel, doing the good works that God has set before you, and being thankful for what you have – no, “but this” or “that”?

            Generally, the people sought to build up for themselves – to collect more for themselves – they were not satisfied. The tax collectors where not satisfied with their wages, but they sought to overcharge the people they were charged with collecting taxes from. And the soldiers sought to torture people into false confessions so they could receive more money. Have you been honest in the position that God has given you? Are you satisfied with what God has given you? Are you using everything you have to the Glory of God?

            Paul wrote:  “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Ephesians 4:28, ESV).

            Don't be confused by what Paul has said, just because you are not a thief – per se – does not mean that you have not stolen. If you have abused your position in any way to get something that does not belong to you, you have stolen – we talked about that last week. God has given each one of us enough – and called us to work that we might provide for our needs – and that we would have enough to share with someone else.

            Have you helpped anyone this week? Are you prepared to give sacrificially in  thanksgiving this morning to God? John asked the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who warned them – why they were there – and I ask us the same question, why are we here? Are we here to get something? Or are we here to worship God? To feel a true sense of satisfaction in God and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or are welooking for one more thing we don't deserve?

            John told the people to be careful – to truly believe and then to follow God by doing the good works that He is calling us to do. Stop cheating. Stop being selfish. Stop being covetous. Stop lusting. Stop being unsatisfied with what God knows you need. Stop using your position to abuse other people. To hear what John is saying? Or are you being prepared for the hellfire?

            As James wrote:  “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17, ESV).

            And John wrote: “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17, ESV).

            Don't misunderstand what they are saying: they are not saying that salvation is by works – by the good works that we do – good works are a fruit – they are a sign of true belief in the Gospel. But if we don't care – if we don't do anything – if you don't seek to make the Gospel known through every means that you have to make it known, do you really believe? And don't say you don't have the means to make it known, because if you made it here this morning, you have the means to make it known. If nothing else – and we are the richest country in the world – if nothing else, have you opened your mouth this week?

            The time is grown short. We don't have time to play games in church any more. Jesus Christ has called us to faithfulness – and believing the Gospel – truly with all our hearts – the historical facts of what happened – and living it out by good works that other people would see that we truly believe that Jesus Christ is God the Savior.

In 1979, my pastor said – and I believe he was right –“we don't have much time” – how much time then might we have in 2012? 

Examine your hearts. Ask yourself if you truly believe the facts of the Gospel. Ask yourself if you have truly repented of your sin. Ask yourself if you are truly seeking to follow God, and all the good works that He has called you to do. If you are, may Christ be praised. If you are not, know you're not safe. The Wrath of God is against all unbelievers – and our only hope is to faith in Jesus Christ Alone. And once our hearts have been changed, God causes us to do good works to His Glory.

Are you a Pharisee or a Sadducees, or are you one of the people that asked John, “what shall we do?”– People who asked in true heart repentance how they might live in a way that is pleasing to God. I am truly afraid for most people who call themselves Christians – because they think that being a Christian is being a good person – and you and I are not good enough.

            The people were impressed with the way that John was speaking. They wondered if he might be the Messiah – the Savior – the Christ:

            “As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 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. 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.’

            John explained to them that he is not the Christ – the Messiah – the Savior – he was merely one calling the people to repentance and washing them with water to symbolically wash away their sin. The Savior who would come – Jesus Christ – the birth of Whom we especially remember in these coming weeks – He is the Almighty God – and John had the good sense to understand that he was not worthy to untie the dirty sandals of His feet.  John understood that Jesus came to save through His life and death and to give them in indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, Who would work in them and lead them in holy living – in becoming more like Jesus Himself.

            John explained to them that when the Christ came, He would separate the people with the winnowing fork – that He would clear the threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn. And I doubt many of us have done that. In the days of Jesus and John wheat was brought into a barn, and it was beaten on the ground – on the threshing floor until the heads of wheat broke loose from the stems onto the ground. And then the farmer would take his winnowing fork and throw the grains of wheat into the air and the chaff – the papery covering of the wheat would separate from the seed itself, which would could be made into bread. The chaff – that papery covering which seem to be part of the wheat, but was actually useless in the making of bread –  would be separated and taken and burned in the fire. Whereas the seed itself would be ground into flour and made into bread.

            The point that John was making is that Jesus knows the difference between people who look like Christians and people who are Christians. And in the end, Jesus will separate those people who thought they were good enough – to have the right heritage – who had good works behind them – but did not truly believe the historical facts which make up the Gospel – and He will throw them into the fire. The wheat – the true seeds – He will grind into flour and make into holy bread – those who truly believe in the facts of the Gospel and who have changed lives because of it – Jesus will make like Him and welcome them into His Eternal Kingdom.

            “So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.”

            And so John preach the Good News – let us not mistakenly read this passage to say that the Good News is to do good works, and we will be saved – because that is a lie. The Good News is that God came to earth in the person of Jesus, lived a perfect life under God's law, died for the sins of everyone would ever believe, and physically rose from the dead and ascended back to His throne. All those who believe these facts of the Gospel are indwelled by God the Holy Spirit, and we are motivated by the Spirit to do good works – to follow the Law of God – not for our salvation – but to show that we have been saved by Christ Alone.

            Do you believe the Gospel, or are you here for some other reason?

            John is not saying that we are saved by our works, he is saying that good works are result of being saved by Jesus Alone – by the Gospel. Your good works cannot save you.

            What shall we do? Believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

            Then what shall we do? Live in a way that is pleasing and glorify to Jesus Christ – obey what He has told us to obey, repent of your sin – truly turn away and fight temptation to sin – be honestly satisfied with where God has placed you and steward what God has given you to His Glory.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, it often seems to us that we should be able to earn our way to heaven. Convinces us of our sin – of our desperate need of Jesus Christ Alone for salvation – cause us to believe His Gospel, to long for His salvation, to seek to follow him in every way that He has taught us, and cause us to be satisfied with what He sees is right for each of us – and then cause us to steward – to give – to live our lives in such a way that show that You are God – our Only Hope – the Savior Whose Grace we receive through the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper – for it is in Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.