“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!”
Matthew 3:1-12
12/9/07
Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans
Day... Each of these national holidays are days of remembrance,
days which have been set aside by our government, so that we
Americans might take the time to remember and reflect on what we have
been saved from through the self-sacrificial service of those who gave
their lives to ensure our freedom. But why mention these holidays
during the season of Advent? What do they have to do with the
text before us today? The fact of the matter is that John the
Baptist’s call to repent is a call to remember. It was a
call to the Jewish people of John’s day to remember how God had
saved them from their bondage to slavery in Egypt, how He had declared
Himself to be their God and given them His testament, and how He had
brought them into the land of Israel. John’s call to us
Christians today is a call to remember what we have been saved from
through the self-sacrificial service of Jesus Christ delivered to us
through our Baptism. We are reminded how God saved us through
Baptism from our slavery to sin, death, the devil, and God’s
wrath, how God declared Himself to be our God, how He gave us His
testament in Christ, how He has brought us into His kingdom of grace,
and how He will bring us into His kingdom of glory.
John reminded God’s people of these things, so
that they would confess their sins, repent of them, look again to God
for mercy, and live as His redeemed people, because He was coming, and
by living in such repentance and faith they would escape God’s
wrath. Instead, they would be the wheat which the Lord would
gather into His barn rather than the chaff which He would burn with
unquenchable fire.
John was a living memorial to God’s people of
how God had saved them from His wrath, not only by what he proclaimed,
but also by what he wore, where he stood, and what he did. John
wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his
waist. If the people knew their Scriptures, they would have been
reminded of what the prophet Elijah wore. He was also described
as wearing a garment of hair and a leather belt. So, what was the
significance of this? God had sent the prophets to His people in
the O.T. to remind them that God had saved them and that they were His
people. The call of God through the prophets back then was for
the people to repent of their sins, to turn from them and their false
gods back to God their Savior, to trust in His mercy and forgiveness,
and then to live according to His Word as His redeemed people;
otherwise, they would fall under God’s wrath. Through the
ministry of John God was again calling His people to remember and
repent, only this time it was in preparation for His coming to them in
the flesh. The King of the universe was about to be revealed, and
He was coming to judge His people. And if His people were honest
with themselves and listened to what this King’s words of law
said about them, they would realize that they were wicked in their
hearts, had rebelled against Him, and deserved His wrath. But the
good news is that this King doesn’t want the wicked to
perish. He came to save the wicked by giving His life on the
cross as the sacrifice for their sins. John’s call to
repent, then, was a call to God’s people to confess their sins,
to look to their Savior for mercy and forgiveness, and to then live as
God’s redeemed people. John’s words also apply to us,
believers in Christ, God’s people today. We, too, are
wicked in our hearts and constantly rebel against God, forgetting how
He has saved us, falling to our lusts, serving our false gods, and
living for ourselves. God calls us to remembrance and repentance,
so that we might not live in our sins and die because of them, but to
confess them and die to them, trusting in God’s mercy for
Christ’s sake, then living as His redeemed people, so that we
might escape the wrath to come.
Where John preached this message of repentance also
reminded God’s people of how God had saved them. John
preached to the people of Israel out in the desert by the Jordan
River. Now, what’s the significance of this? This is
the place where the people of Israel first entered into the land that
God had promised to give them. It was through the Jordan River on
dry ground that God had brought His people into the promised
land. John was baptizing there to remind the people of where they
had come from. He was reminding them that they had come from a
desert into a land flowing with milk and honey, and this by God’s
mercy, because they were His people, He was their God, and He loved
them. But God had not only saved them from the physical desert,
but also from the desert of their dead spiritual condition. He
gave them to drink not only from water that flowed from a rock, but
also from the living water of His Word, and He gave them to eat not
only from the manna that He sent from heaven, but from the true Bread
of Heaven, Jesus Christ, again by way of His Word. And just
before they entered into the land, God told them to be sure to remember
Him and how He had saved them, once they had settled in the land.
He said through Moses, “Take care lest you forget the LORD your
God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes,
which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and
have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks
multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have
is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD
your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt...”
But what did the people do? Once they settled
into the land and things were going well for them, they forgot God and
went after idols. They forgot whose they were and where they had
come from. The same thing can happen to us when things are going
well for us. So, John called the people back out to the place
where they entered into the land in the beginning, to remind them that
they were God’s people, that they had been delivered from the
wilderness, and that all that they had was by God’s grace.
It was to move them to repent of the fact that they have lived as if
God did not matter and as if they mattered most, to repent of the idols
that they had set up in their hearts which they feared, loved, and
trusted above God, and to repent of their lack of love towards their
neighbors. And John means to move us to do the same - to remember
where we have come from - the desert of sin and death - and to return
to the God who saved us in Christ, confessing our sins, trusting in His
forgiveness, and producing the fruit of repentance - faith towards God
and fervent love towards one another.
John’s call to repent was a call to be
baptized. John’s baptism also reminded God’s people
how He had saved them. In the O.T. they had been baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the Red Sea. God called them His people
and He called Himself their God. He then gave them the Law at Mt.
Sinai, to show them how to live as His people. But again, they
forgot their Baptism. They forgot that they had been set apart as
a holy people to God. Now John was not only calling them to
remember their Baptism into Moses, but to receive a new Baptism in the
very River which their ancestors had crossed over on dry ground.
This Baptism of John was a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins. As the people repented of their sins and confessed them,
they received John’s Baptism, the means at that time through
which the Lord was washing away their sins. Later, after having
atoned for our sins on the cross, Jesus would institute yet another
Baptism, one in which He would stamp His people with His Name, give
them His Spirit and a new birth, and wash away their sins. This
is the Baptism you and I have received. And so, John’s call
to us to repent is a call to remember our Baptism, the Baptism in the
Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Just
as the people of Israel in John’s day went out to those waters
through which they entered into the promised land and confessed their
sins, so we go back to those waters through which God brought us out of
our slavery to sin, death, and the devil into His kingdom of grace.
Repentance and Baptism go together. As Luther
remarks in the Catechism, Baptism “indicates that the Old Adam in
us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with
all sins and evil lusts; and, again, a new man should daily come forth
and arise, who will live before God in righteousness and purity
forever.” To repent is to remember your Baptism, to
remember that through that washing God delivered you from sin and its
consequences - the wrath of God and eternal death, so that you might
confess your sins, die to them, and live before God as His child,
clothed with Christ, in righteousness and purity forever. Your
Jordan River is the waters of your Baptism. And so, John’s
call to you today is to return to your Baptism, confessing your sins
and receiving the Lord’s forgiveness, because the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.
What is this kingdom of heaven, and what does it
mean that it is at hand? God’s kingdom is His reign which
has broken into history by way of His judgment and salvation in
Christ. God is the King of His creation; He rightfully rules over
all things and all things are subject to Him. But we rebelled
against Him and the devil usurped His reign. Now in Christ,
however, God begins to take back His reign by atoning for our sins, by
conquering the devil and all who are with him, and by making all things
new, culminating in a new heavens and a new earth. In
John’s day the kingdom of heaven was at hand, because Jesus, the
King of the universe, was on the scene, walking this earth in human
flesh, setting up His reign by forgiving people their sins, healing
them of their infirmities, raising them from the dead, casting out
demons, and finally sacrificing His life for us on the cross, only to
rise again from the dead on the third day.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand today as Jesus
comes to you through His Word and His Sacraments to bring you back to
repentance, reminding you of your Baptism, reminding you of whose you
are and from what He has saved you, so that you might remain under His
rule in His kingdom of grace where He delivers His gift of salvation to
you. He does this, because these are the last days.
God’s judgment is coming, and His wrath is about to fall on all
those who reject their Savior. “His winnowing fork is in
His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat
into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable
fire.” And so, God continues to lead you to repentance and
faith in Christ, so that you might be protected from His wrath when
Jesus comes again to judge the world. Now is the time of
salvation. Now if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts,
but repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Your King comes
to you today with the salvation He won for you through His suffering
and death. Remember your Baptism and receive anew the gifts of
forgiveness, life, and salvation that He has granted you.
And so, the season of Advent is our Memorial Day
celebration, if you will. It is a season for remembering what we
have been saved from through the self-sacrificial service of Jesus
Christ delivered to us through our Baptism. We are reminded how
God saved us through Baptism from our slavery to sin, death, the devil,
and God’s wrath, how He declared Himself to be our God and gave
us His testament inaugurated by the blood of Christ, how He has brought
us into His kingdom of grace, and how He will bring us into His kingdom
of glory. And through such remembering and recounting God will
bring us to repentance and cause His kingdom to come among us, so that
by His grace we continue to believe His holy Word and lead godly lives,
here in time and hereafter in eternity. Amen.