This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi everyone, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to Week 3 of our study
through the book of Matthew. This is Day 1 of Week 3. We're going to do
something a little bit different this week.

Usually we only take a chapter a week. That's sort of our rule, how we do
things, but rules, you know, sometimes should be broken if they're the right
kind of rules, and this one can be. So this week we're going to take a look at
two chapters together, chapters 3 and 4, because they focus on the beginning of
the ministry of Jesus, and that will also let us have some time in chapters 5,
6, and 7, which are the Sermon on the Mount, to actually take two weeks on each
of those chapters.

So not too much confusion for right now. We're going to do chapters 3 and 4 this
week and talk about the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. We're going to move
this week from the birth of Jesus to the launch of His ministry.

Chapter 3, verse 1 begins by saying, "In those days John the Baptist came,
preaching in the desert of Judea, and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is near. ' This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, a voice of
one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for
Him. ' John's clothes were made of camel's hair.

He had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the
Jordan, confessing their sins.

They were baptized by him in the Jordan River. " Now as I read through this
about John the Baptist, it's easy to focus on John's appearance because it's
pretty dramatic. Here's this guy dressing in camel's hair.

He's got this leather belt and then he's eating locusts and honey. It's a pretty
dramatic kind of thing when you look at John. But although that gives you the
picture of what kind of man he was, that's not the most important thing about
John.

The most important thing about him is the purpose that God brought him into this
world to do. He brought him to prepare the way for Jesus, a voice of one calling
in the desert, "Prepare the way for the Lord. " He got to prepare the way for
Jesus.

He got to share a message that supported the purpose that Jesus came to present.
And what was his message? Very simply, if you want to say it in one word, the
message was, "Repent, repent.

" And then he goes on to say, "You need to produce fruit in keeping with that
repentance. You need to not rely on the past, what you used to do in the past,
but you need to look to him who is coming. " So let's start by looking at this
simple challenge in verse 2.

Repent. That word is a challenging word and it is a beautiful word. It's a word
to challenge our heart because it's all about change.

It's also a beautiful word because it's all about the change that God can bring
into our lives. In the battle for words, sometimes Satan is winning the battle
over this word "repent. " And he does battle for making words mean what he wants
them to mean rather than what they really mean.

So sometimes when people hear the word "repent," they hear anger. They hear
judgment. They get this picture of this wild-eyed, long-haired man on a street
corner holding up a sign written in red with these red letters and the blood's
like dripping down off the letters saying, "Repent or die.

" It's all about anger. It's all about hate. But that's not what repentance is.

Repentance is all about God's love. I've always loved Acts 3:19 which says,
"Repent therefore in return in order that times of refreshing may come from the
presence of the Lord. " That's what repentance is about.

God wanting to refresh our lives as we turn to him. To repent just means to
change the way you think. To change the way that you think about something to
the way that God thinks about that thing.

And the truth of the matter is John came to prepare the way. Change always
starts with the way that you think. If I try to act differently without changing
the way that I think, I'm just rearranging my schedule.

I'm not refocusing my life. We try to refocus our lives sometimes by just adding
more stuff to our lives, but then we just get more tired. What we need is what
the Bible calls repentance, what the Bible calls a change of heart.

For lasting change to happen in my life, your life, you need to change the focus
of your heart. And Jesus is going to tell us how to do it all throughout his
ministry. And John is setting this up here.

John talks here and Jesus often taught about a broad reality that leads to this
change of heart. And at first this teaching that he gives after he says,
"Repent," the next phrase, it may sound too theological to have anything to do
with your everyday life or everyday relationships. What John says here in
chapter 2, Jesus is going to say the exact same thing.

In chapter 3, Jesus is going to say the exact same thing in chapter 4, verse 17.
He shows us here that if I'm going to have my heart changed, I've got to
understand that God's kingdom is one of the keys to a change of heart. Repent
because the kingdom of heaven is near.

That's what John says here, that's what Jesus is going to teach in the next
chapter. In Matthew 6, 33, he'll give you everything you need from day to day,
Jesus taught. If you live for him and make the kingdom of God your primary
concern.

So there's something about God's kingdom that has to do with repentance in my
life. Now what does that mean, God's kingdom? Suppose you're sitting on a bus
holding a book that has the words "Kingdom of God" in the title and the person
sitting across from you sees the book and says, "The kingdom of God?

I mean, I don't want to be rude, but I've always wanted to know what the kingdom
of God is. " What would you say? The answer, at least one you'd be able to share
before the bus comes to the next stop and the man and woman gets off, is God's
kingdom is where God is recognized as king.

In order for it to be a part of God's kingdom, God has to be recognized as king.
In the prayer that Jesus taught us, we're going to see in a few chapters, he
said to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done. " God's kingdom is where
God's will is done.

So how does this fit into my life, your life? Repent because the kingdom of
heaven is near. Is this just a threat?

You'd better repent or God's going to get you. That's not what this is all
about. Repent because God's kingdom is going to be what it's all about in the
end anyway.

So why not get on board now with what eternity is going to be about? The truth
of the matter is in any situation, any conversation, any decision, when you
think about this thing of God's kingdom, someone is wearing the crown. Someone
is king.

It could be you trying desperately to get your way or it could be the other
person in the situation, another person trying to get their way. The truth is,
when it's two people, we're both desperately trying to gain control and the only
path to a change of heart is to take off the fake and paltry crown that you
fashioned for yourself. Your heart changes whenever, wherever you recognize that
God is the only rightful wearer of the crown.

That's what it takes to repent. He's the only king. I found it helpful in my
life sometimes to visualize myself taking the crown off and praying, "God,
you're the only one wearing a crown in this conversation.

You're the only one wearing a crown in this situation. " There's something about
recognizing God's kingship and not ours that has the power to break a pattern
characterized by selfishness, to begin a new pattern in your life that is
characterized by love, by service. And so John tells us, "Repent, change of
heart.

And when you see a change of heart, when your heart changes, then your actions
change. " Listen to verses 7 to 12, "But when he," John, "saw many of the
Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them, 'You
brute of hypers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in
keeping with repentance.

And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father. ' I
tell you that out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham. The
axe is already at the root of the trees.

And every tree that does not produce fruit, good fruit, will be cut down and
thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will
come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit in fire. His winnowing fork is in his
hand. He will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and
burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

" So here we are back to God's kingdom. I can live my own life. I can live my
own way, but it's going to all be burned up in the end.

But God's kingdom, it's going to last for eternity. So repent. Start thinking
differently.

Start thinking differently. Don't just think about yourself anymore. Don't just
think about this world anymore.

Think about eternity. Change your heart and mind. And when you do that, it
produces fruit in your life.

Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Repentance is not deeds. It's not the
fruit.

It's not what you do. Deeds are the proof of the repentance in your life. It's
what happens inevitably when you genuinely repent.

So John says to the Pharisees and Sadducees, "I can see you haven't repented
because you haven't changed any actions. " And then he says a couple of
important things to them. He says, "You've got to stop putting your hope in the
past, and you've got to start putting your hope in the one who is coming.

If I want to really change in my life, I can't keep hanging on to some pattern
from the past. I've got to start hanging on for dear life to the one who has
come and is coming to Jesus Christ. That's where the hope is.

That's where the life is. That's where the kingdom is. " Let's take a moment to
pray together.

And as we pray, you may need to pray a very simple one-word prayer. Repent.
Lord, I repent.

I change from thinking about it the way I was thinking about it, and I want to
get online with thinking about it the way that you think about it. It's not my
kingdom. It's your kingdom.

It's not my plan. It's your plan. It's not my eternity.

It's not my promise. It's your promise. Help me to see and think differently
today.

I want to think the way that you think. I want to live the way that you've made
me to live. I ask for this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at the life-changing pictures that
we see in the baptism of Jesus.