Alex Huggett: would turn with me to Matthew, chapter three, and we'll be reading from verse one, matthew, chapter three, verse one In those days, john the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near, for he is the one spoken through the prophet Isaiah, who said, a voice of one crying out in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord, make his path straight.
Alex Huggett: Now.
Alex Huggett: John had a camel hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Alex Huggett: Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea and all the vicinity of the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
Alex Huggett: When he saw many of the Pharisees and said to his coming, to his baptism, he said to them Brut of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming wrath.
Alex Huggett: Therefore, produce fruit consistent with repentance and don't presume to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father.
Alex Huggett: For I tell you, god is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.
Alex Huggett: The axe is already at the root of the trees.
Alex Huggett: Therefore, every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Alex Huggett: I baptize you with water for repentance.
Alex Huggett: But the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I.
Alex Huggett: I am not worthy to remove his sandals.
Alex Huggett: He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Alex Huggett: His winnowing shovel is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn For the chaff he will burn with fire that will never go out.
Alex Huggett: Well, has everyone seen the Lion King?
Alex Huggett: Or you know about the Lion King.
Alex Huggett: You know how the Lion King starts right.
Alex Huggett: The baby cub Simba is being presented to all the animals, and it's a great scene.
Alex Huggett: Simba is suitably cute and harmless, in fact.
Alex Huggett: But this is the future king of the beasts.
Alex Huggett: So what do all the animals do?
Alex Huggett: They bow down before their future king.
Alex Huggett: Well, we're in the season of Advent, that four weeks that leads up to Christmas, and Advent means coming.
Alex Huggett: So Advent is a time of preparation for Jesus and of course, at Christmas, christmas day gets a lot of focus.
Alex Huggett: We focus on the nativity of Christ as first coming.
Alex Huggett: But Christmas isn't the only reason for Advent.
Alex Huggett: Advent is also a time for preparing Christ to come into our hearts, receiving Him into our hearts afresh or for the first time, and anticipating His future return.
Alex Huggett: Of course our culture loves baby Jesus, gentle, harmless, like Simba.
Alex Huggett: But, as Mr Beaver said, in the Lion, the witch in the wardrobe, he as land isn't safe, but he's good, he's the king, I tell you.
Alex Huggett: You know, when we divorce the baby and the manger from the man, we're actually celebrating something other than the real Jesus.
Alex Huggett: We risk creating a myth, one we've tamed and associate with other things in our culture, like family, which is that's good, but shopping really events more than the true call the king makes on our lives and we often forget as a culture that this Christmas cub grows up to be one day the lion of Judah.
Alex Huggett: And the fullness of who Jesus is encompasses both gentleness it does encompass that but also power, and he's beyond anything we contain.
Alex Huggett: So, roughly 30 years after Jesus was born, at Christmas John the Baptist began to prepare for Jesus' ministry, not with messages of comfort and a baby and a manger and all that stuff, but with dire warnings and with exhortations for the people to repent.
Alex Huggett: This might seem an overly negative passage at Christmas and around our expectations of the holiday season, but to truly grasp the good news of Christmas we really need to reckon with the true identity of Jesus as the coming king and the bad news.
Alex Huggett: That is the reason that Jesus came in the first place, that he came to address.
Alex Huggett: When the crowds came out to see John, he welcomed them, but he baptized them with this message of repentance.
Alex Huggett: They confessed their sins.
Alex Huggett: Revival seems to have been stirring, yeah, but when some of the religious leaders come, john ramps up a little bit.
Alex Huggett: It's more than a little suspicious, and he had a warning for them, and it's in two parts.
Alex Huggett: And the first, he said a day of wrath is coming, a day when God pours out His judgment and divine fury, a day when he's going to right wrong, restore justice and shine a light into the darkness.
Alex Huggett: Now, the idea of God's wrath can make us feel understandably uncomfortable.
Alex Huggett: Isn't God all about love?
Alex Huggett: Well, yes, he is.
Alex Huggett: But in a world of sin and evil and injustice such as fills our newsfeeds, can we really have love without anger as well?
Alex Huggett: Just bringing it back to home?
Alex Huggett: For those of us who are parents, what parent would not get angry if someone hurt our kids?
Alex Huggett: Why do we get angry?
Alex Huggett: Because we don't love our kids?
Alex Huggett: Of course not.
Alex Huggett: It's because we do love our kids, and so it is with God and the Old Testament particularly and the New, but the Old it's the precursor names a number of things that incur God's anger.
Alex Huggett: God's wrath Worshiping false idols, false gods, was one.
Alex Huggett: Exploiting and mistreating God's people, treating holy things casually, as if they're nothing, just every day.
Alex Huggett: Disobedient to God's covenant Now, some of these things were specific to Israel, but not all of them and the nations were also subject to God's wrath.
Alex Huggett: That was the Old Testament.
Alex Huggett: We still live in a world that doesn't just indulge in but actually embraces pride, worshiping false idols of different sorts we may not call them gods, but things like money and all sorts of things.
Alex Huggett: We live in a world that exploits people as much, if not more there's more ways probably to exploit people now than there's ever been.
Alex Huggett: We live in a world that refuses God's grace, and really, in such a world, justice and righteousness demand an answer, and love has to give one, and so a day will come when God gives that answer and writes every wrong.
Alex Huggett: A day to look forward to if you love justice, but it's not such good news if you love evil.
Alex Huggett: So that's the first part of John's message.
Alex Huggett: A day of wrath is coming, and the second is related to it is that the coming one, jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit that's good news.
Alex Huggett: We'll talk about that in a minute and with fire Now, putting the Holy Spirit and fire together like that.
Alex Huggett: You might think of something like revival fire or being set on fire for God, which is a good thing, but I don't think that's what John's talking about here.
Alex Huggett: Fire is only ever used of either physical fire or of judgment.
Alex Huggett: In the Gospels.
Alex Huggett: Here we see that Jesus is going to clear out the threshing floor and burn the char in fire.
Alex Huggett: I think this is what John is talking about the fire of judgment.
Alex Huggett: Even this idea of threshing is itself a pretty violent image.
Alex Huggett: To thresh grain, you have to beat it around and you're trying to separate the outer hus of the chaff from the actual kernel.
Alex Huggett: And the way they did that traditionally was they beat it with rods or drove over it with wheels and oxen and stuff like that to separate the two.
Alex Huggett: The chaff, john says, is those who don't produce the fruit of repentance, those who don't change their hearts and their ways.
Alex Huggett: They're the ones that will be burnt up in the fire, a fire that never goes out.
Alex Huggett: It's a picture of eternal judgment Again at Christmas.
Alex Huggett: Look, you know, there's some.
Alex Huggett: It's not a message we particularly like nowadays.
Alex Huggett: Some people say, oh, that's not Jesus.
Alex Huggett: He's full of grace and love, and yes, he is, but if it seems a bit extreme and not very Jesus.
Alex Huggett: He remember in Matthew 10, 34, jesus himself said I did not come to bring peace, but a sword the challenging words.
Alex Huggett: So this baby born in Bethlehem came to judge the world and purge it with divine fire.
Alex Huggett: The lion of Judah entered our world.
Alex Huggett: Changes up the sweet scene at the manger a bit, doesn't it?
Alex Huggett: Baby lion may be cute, but it still has sharp claws and pointy teeth.
Alex Huggett: So Isaiah the prophet said make straight paths for him.
Alex Huggett: That was John the Baptist's job.
Alex Huggett: How do we make straight paths for Jesus, then, in this Advent season?
Alex Huggett: Well, john's first part of his message was to repent, and the fruit and the proof of repentance would be evident in a changed life.
Alex Huggett: That was the fruit, a life lived God's way.
Alex Huggett: We talk about plenty here.
Alex Huggett: Repentance means to turn around.
Alex Huggett: So, in the things we've talked about, from idolatry, worshiping other things, worshiping self to worshiping God, from exploiting people to loving and serving them, from dishonoring holy things to treating them with reverence, from disobedience and faithlessness to faithful obedience, doing what God has commanded what is commanded for our good and for his glory.
Alex Huggett: You know, jesus said the whole law can be summed up in just four words Love God, love people.
Alex Huggett: That's pretty much it.
Alex Huggett: Now I want to be a bit careful here, because you might rightly point out that aren't we saved by faith, not our works?
Alex Huggett: And yes, we are saved by faith.
Alex Huggett: It's through Jesus' finished work on the cross that God made the way for us to be saved.
Alex Huggett: On the cross, jesus and this is the great news of Christmas on the cross, jesus took that wrath, that wrath of God, onto himself, and so for the believer, here's the good news the day of wrath has already happened.
Alex Huggett: That's good news.
Alex Huggett: There's no more wrath for us.
Alex Huggett: So the first step in repentance is putting our trust in the one who bore God's wrath so we can participate in His righteousness.
Alex Huggett: But here's the thing you can't have faith in Jesus if you don't always have also have faithfulness to Jesus.
Alex Huggett: They're the same word in the Greek it's our faith that saves us, or God's grace more strictly, through our faith.
Alex Huggett: But as the letter of James says, we prove our faith by what we do.
Alex Huggett: The evidence of faith in Jesus is faithfulness to Jesus.
Alex Huggett: So we need to repent and the second is we need to be baptized.
Alex Huggett: John baptized the people as a symbol of repentance, to prepare their hearts for Jesus, but he pointed to a greater baptism, baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Alex Huggett: Now it's as if well, it's not as if we are.
Alex Huggett: You know, jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Alex Huggett: We're all going to receive a baptism.
Alex Huggett: It's like Jesus offers us a choice.
Alex Huggett: We can receive a baptism in the fire of judgment by that bushfires that went through Wannaroo recently.
Alex Huggett: They just burned everything up.
Alex Huggett: What a mess.
Alex Huggett: Well, actually not a mess, there's not much left.
Alex Huggett: Or we can be baptized with the Holy Spirit, who transforms our hearts and makes us into something beautiful.
Alex Huggett: But we will be baptized.
Alex Huggett: In John 3, jesus said that to enter God's kingdom we must be born again, born of water and the Spirit.
Alex Huggett: The thing is in being baptized.
Alex Huggett: I say we have to be baptized, but it's not our action, is it the thing that is done to us?
Alex Huggett: You can't baptize yourself.
Alex Huggett: You kind of can, but it sort of doesn't really count in Christian theology.
Alex Huggett: If you try to baptize yourself, someone has to baptize you.
Alex Huggett: It's the same with the Holy Spirit.
Alex Huggett: You can't baptize yourself.
Alex Huggett: In the Holy Spirit, only God.
Alex Huggett: It's a sovereign act of God to bring about that renewal in the Holy Spirit.
Alex Huggett: You can't control it, but you can prepare for it by turning to God in faith and in repentance.
Alex Huggett: So how do we even know if we've been baptized by the Spirit then?
Alex Huggett: If it's so mysterious and we seem so helpless in it, well, we see it by the fruit of repentance.
Alex Huggett: If you see someone who's on a journey, not of perfection, they're moving towards perfection.
Alex Huggett: But very most of the time we're not perfect on this journey, are we?
Alex Huggett: But we see increasing love, we see increasing holiness towards God and His people, and we see that we see someone who has the Holy Spirit at work in their heart and their life and they're part of the week that's gathered into the barns that God is preparing.
Alex Huggett: So the bad news is that a day of Roth is coming.
Alex Huggett: God's going to judge sin and evil.
Alex Huggett: The great news of Christmas is that Jesus has come to bear God's wrath and as we reflect on Advent, we consider Jesus coming not only at the first Christmas, but His coming today into the heart of every believer by His Spirit, and we look with anticipation to the day when the Lion of Judah returns Now.
Alex Huggett: Of course, for those of us who have been walking with Jesus for a long time, this is a very familiar message I'm preaching to the converted, but it always does us well to check our hearts.
Alex Huggett: Advent is a great time for us just to recalibrate.
Alex Huggett: Do you know that in the Christian calendar, the beginning of the liturgical year was last week, with Advent 1?
Alex Huggett: Week 1, that's the beginning of our Christian calendar.
Alex Huggett: Traditionally, it's a great chance, isn't it?
Alex Huggett: Just to reflect and start to think about the coming year, reflect on the year that's gone, and are we then in a place where we can still receive Jesus and the transforming power of His Spirit to continue to work in us, and do we look forward to the day when he's going to return?
Alex Huggett: But, you know, for many of our friends and family, our colleagues, our community, roth still remains, and this grace is a message that they still need to receive, and so I want to encourage you at this Christmas simply to pray for them.
Alex Huggett: Pray for the people in your life who don't know Jesus that they'll see Jesus as more than just a sentimental story, a display and diminishing number of places but there's still some shopping centers that show it To see Jesus as more than just a baby in the manger.
Alex Huggett: Ask God to help you be a John the Baptist to them and prepare their hearts, prepare the way for Jesus to come to them.
Alex Huggett: And may God prepare our hearts this Advent season, bring fresh life by His Spirit.
Alex Huggett: May we receive Christ anew.
Alex Huggett: Let's pray and then we're going to have communion together.
Alex Huggett: Father, we thank you for the good news which really only makes sense when we just think back again on the bad news, the bad news of sin and evil and your Roth, your judgment, which must come if there's going to be any justice.
Alex Huggett: The Father, the Great News that Jesus has taken that all on Himself in our place.
Alex Huggett: We thank you, lord, for your just, mind-blowing love.
Alex Huggett: May we be a people who revel in that, who worship you and live appropriately because we understand the fullness of what you've done for us.
Alex Huggett: Let us have an increasing understanding of your love and this Christmas, help us, father, to be bold, to share your love with the people around us, that they can know this hope as well.
Alex Huggett: In Jesus' name, amen.