What Shall We Then Do?
- Terry Sweeney
- Dec 13, 2009
Advent 3
12/13/2009
The Rev W Terry Sweeney
Luke 3.7-18
What Then Should We Do?
John preaches a baptism for Jews that is an initiatory rite of passage. . . people walk away from their usual lives (through the washing of water) and confess a repentance signifying a new or renewed allegiance to God’s purposes and go back to their usual lives to live daily in ways appropriate to true Children of the Lord.
In the Name of God: + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please turn to John 3 and find verse 7.
7He 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? 8Bear 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. 9Even 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."
Chapter three starts off by telling us a particular man named John, the son of Zechariah was in the wilderness (away from a large city, rural area) when God’s word came to him.
[Like the prophets, John received an inspired direction from God. God literally compelled John to start preaching a message of repentance]
John then went into all of the area around the Jordan, rural areas away from urban centers, undeveloped, unsettled country similar to that traveled through in the exodus.
God has made John a preacher – a herald, if you will – of an imminent, new age about to break in – He offers a strong message of redemption (Is. 40.1-9).
God has revealed to John that genuine conversion (Jer. 31.18) results in a straight path for God to enter our hearts; the mountains of pride must be made low and the valleys of arrogance filled in – deceitful habits are broken and indifference, and unconcern give way to genuine interest for God’s economy.
Jeremiah 31.18 explains this further . . . Ephraim sorrowfully crying and saying they’ve been punished and are now saying, “bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God.”
God loves us with an everlasting love and he will allow us to feel sorrow and wrath in order to get us to return to Him.
He says to Israel, “Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!”
He goes on to say in 31.13, “Then shall the young women rejoice and dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.”
God brings John on the scene to offer a way to prepare for the coming of a new kingdom.
The closest things that I can relate this to is an old style camp meeting – a revival – where the preacher stands up, bible in hand, and delivers a blistering message pleading with the sinner to turn away from sin and begin a new life.
People come from the region - John tells the truth about the state of their souls and lives and offers them a new way.
He also warns them of the wrath (anger of God) to come.
God righteous anger – an anger based upon His absolute rule of justice – will soon be upon those who claim Abraham as their father, but who in fact live outside the laws of the Covenant.
I can imagine sweat pouring down Johns face – pacing to and fro – his voice booming.
This is the best of times and the worst of times inasmuch as John is God’s sneak preview of Messiah – he’s like the opening act – who has got the people standing on their tip-toes wondering who he really is and what this is all about.
So John’s preaching is drawing interest and people from the surrounding areas start coming to hear him and see what actually goes on . . . . .
In v. 7 He scoffs at the people – are they coming just to save their souls or are they really ready for starting a new life?
Are they sinners soon to be saints or are they like new born vipers – hard hearted, with the character of evil bred in them – hostile to life - but smart enough to try to take a ritual bath in an effort to save themselves.
John points a righteous finger of justice and judgment because of day-to-day outrages committed against the poor by some who claim Abraham as their relative.
He reveals that being related to Abraham isn’t enough – a member of the covenant made by God to Abraham has to behave in ways that brings the aim of God to the community.
John believes the crises is so bad he uses the image of an axe poised to sever the root – sure and severe judgment – casting them like chaff into fire.
To make matters worse, the use of empty rituals only gives them false hope of security (Is. 1.10-17)
So he calls them to baptism . . . . . just as a pagan convert would be baptized.
He makes no distinction – come and repent – and as a sign enter into the Jordan and be immersed – made outwardly clean.
10And the crowds asked him, "What then shall we do?" 11And he answered them, "Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise." 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13And he said to them, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do." 14Soldiers 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."
What then should we do?
Tax-collector in 3.12 – a soldier in 3.14 – a lawyer in 10.25 – a ruler in 18.18 – A crowd in Jerusalem Acts 2.37 – the jailer in Acts 16.30 and a fired up zealous Jew in Acts 22.10
The question comes from two things: knowing their guilty and knowing they need to do something about it.
We may hear a heart piercing instruction – or sermon – or experience something miraculous . . . . .
Years ago I remember hearing Jimmy Swaggert on TV preach and felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit; Fr. Terry Fullam, Billy Graham, Bp. Keith Ackerman, and many others preach and teach a message of salvation that turned my heart in new and deeper ways toward God.
Bonnhoeffers, Cost of Discipleship, has had a profound impact upon me as have works by C. S. Lewis, J. I. Packer, John Stott, and Louis Berkhof.
The great Gospel Hymns: Amazing Grcae, were you there?, the Old Rugged Cross, Victory in Jesus, There is Power in the Blood, Rock of Ages and many more have inspired me more than once to turn again and again to Christ.
You cannot just sit on your hands doing nothing when God speaks and sends His Spirit upon us, a response is necessary!
When God works through the preacher, a book or music we must respond.
John is telling the crowd that to care for the naked, or feed the hungry, or to not extort money from the innocent are examples of fruits of being God’s covenant people, living stones whose hearts have turned to God and His kingdom purposes.
Claiming Abraham for an ancestor without the fruits of a covenant life, is like the valley of dry bones – lifeless, dead - dead things stay dead unless they are mad alive by the Spirit.
John is saying the time is NOW – change your hearts and behavior to embrace the LORD’s ways thereby an outcropping of good fruit will come from us.
John’s baptism is an outward cleansing and a sign of renewed commitment of following after God’s purposes.
One of the things church people like to do is to tell others how long they’ve been in the church or how their family has historical roots to the church or to the denomination. . . we do a type of name dropping or bragging about how we’re historically connected by the bishops we’ve known or the ministers we’ve worshipped under.
Sometimes that type of connection is the hallmark of a faith in the institution
Isaiah insisted that worship and fasting apart from seeking justice, sharing bread with the hungry, covering the naked and so forth is worthless (Isaiah 1.10-20; 58.6-7).
Ezekiel said the character of a righteous man included giving bread to the hungry and clothing the naked (Ezk. 18.5-9).
These are the natural responses of the outgrowth – fruit – when our lives are oriented toward God’s purposes.
Hungry people still exist – naked (?) what is the equivalent today? Not extorting by force (the word literally means “shake violently” – diaseio – we get “shake down”.)
Good Anglicans cannot rest on their laurels – it’s not about time and grade or how someone is connected to whom. . . . a simple life of obedience is necessary.
Our church then must ask itself “What then should we do?”
15As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 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 with fire. 17His 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." 18So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.
John warned that a covenant community, comprised of individual followers, whose moral and social behaviors were contrary to God’s nature and direction would be likened to being an unfruitful tree . . . . it would be cut down and discarded into the fire, like rubbish
His meaning is clear to anyone with ears – the time to change your ways is NOW.
Like the revival preacher, John wants to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
V. 15 can also be translated, “Now while the people were on tiptoe of expectation, and all were wondering in their hearts about John, whether he might be the Christ, he expressly answered them all . . . “
The power of the Holy Spirit is electrifying the people – they’re on their tiptoes with expectation – and John emphatically told them this:
Messiah is coming – His baptism – His teaching, actions and call into your lives will be so much greater than what you’ve seen and heard here!
You must go through the process of being winnowed – your thoughts are not like His; you’ll have to believe Him in faith; You’ll have to confess your wrong headedness and lukewarm love for God. . . . . and your neighbor.
What runs through these few verses is the sheer necessity to turn away from an old way of living and embrace the possibilities of God’s Kingdom living.
This requires newbirth/rebirth.
Rebirth brings about the regeneration of the Holy Spirit; turning away brings about the fire of judgment.
One fire brings new life and the other is a picture of Hell and judgment; one comes from humility and a contrite heart the other from arrogance and hard heartedness, if not unbelief.
Saying we have Abraham as our Father is not the life boat that will save us – only regeneration through the Spirit by grace through faith will. . . . .
The fruit of that is what John pleads for.
What Then Should I do?
Is a good question and one that I believe we should ask ourselves many times every day.
It’s a question that is asked in the context of – what would God want us to do or say or think or feel. . . . It’s a question searching for a way to do what God would do.
Sometimes the answer is what we shrug off as just common sense – at least till we learn that common sense and God don’t always go hand in hand sense His thoughts are not our thoughts . . . . . and His mercy far exceeds anything we can imagine . . . . and His holiness and hatred of sin are off the charts more than we can define. . . .
What Then Should I do? Has the potential of being a knock-your-socks-off-question.
A few years ago I was praying and was asking God what He wanted me to do the following Sunday during worship. . . . I was surprised to hear – sense – God say, “Give everyone who comes $100 and ask them to multiply it in ministry”.
We did not take up a collection that Sunday but had what someone called a “reverse collection”. (I never told my bishop about it, shhhh.)
I’m often asked the same question in the course of my daily ministry: What should I do?
Whether its people in distress, or someone seeking my direction or someone looking for advice . . . . . almost everyday I’m asked the question, “What then should I do?”
William Temple, Archbishop in the 1940s, used to illustrate this point from Shakespeare:
'It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it – I can't. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it – I can't. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like this. And if the Spirit could come into me, then I could live a life like His.'
The LORD graciously inhabits the believer and with our cooperation we grow in Christlikeness. Jesus is more than a model of idealic humanity; He’s more than the perfect second Adam . . . . He is God made flesh who has come to save us and to redeem and restore humanity and the world back to its fullest potential.
The world hated Him and even we today fight against Him and against one another. John Piper had this to say about liberals and conservatives: Liberals justify their support for butchery in the name of freedom, and conservatives justify their indifference to the miseries of poverty in the name of freedom, does not conceal the selective nature of the freedoms they want. The one says, Keep your hands off my body. The other says, Keep your hands off my wallet. Will there ever arise a leader who can articulate a dream for overcoming this divide? He goes on to say Jesus is such a leader and he was crucified because he was repulsive to the world. John Piper, Overcome Contradictory Compassion, April, 2008.
Friends, setting ideologies aside, this church – comprised of you and me – hear the call this Advent to prepare ye the way of the Lord. To make His paths straight, to fill in the valleys of arrogance, to lay low the mountains of pride and deceitful habits are to be broken; indifference, and unconcern are to give way to genuine interest for God’s economy. Like Jesus, should we not also be repulsive to the world? What Then Should We Do?
Amen.
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