Luke 3.7-14 The Fruit of Repentance
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter three. Today we are going to look at verses 7-14 and that’s on page 858 in the pew Bibles.
Last week we looked a little bit at the remarkable character John the Baptist and his one point sermon: repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Today we are going to drill down a little bit on the practical nature of that one point sermon and examine what it means to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
So, let’s look at our text and then dive in.
7 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? 8 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. 9 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.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And 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?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 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.”
Let’s pray.
So here we see in our text John preaching his message of repentance to an audience that is made up of two types of people.
In verses 7-9 he is preaching to the religious people which we examined last week, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders from Jerusalem that came to find out what this guy in the camel outfit was talking about out here in the wilderness.
Today I’d like to look at the second type of people who came out to hear John preach, first we saw the religious people, counting on their outward religion to keep them safe from God’s wrath, and now, we see the repentant people, the people who were genuinely interested in doing what was really necessary to avoid God’s wrath, anxious inquirers after salvation.
There is a third category of the members of John’s audience which is the morbidly curious in Herod but we will talk about him later. Today we’ll look at the repentant and John’s message to them.
Have you ever heard the expression, “easy believism?” I don’t know who coined the phrase but easy believism is the idea that following Jesus has no cost, that all one has to do is believe that Jesus is real, that he died on the cross for our sins, and change absolutely nothing about their lives.
This was not the message that John preached. This is not the message that Jesus preached either.
In fact, Jesus said, as recorded in all three synoptic Gospels, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Easy believism denies the idea of repentance, the idea that we should actually turn away from our sinful ways and follow the Lord. It’s especially prevalent today that following Jesus is merely a spiritual thing and has no real relevance to our moral codes or behaviors.
Anyone who subscribes to this kind of thinking is ignorant of the Scriptures and is ignorant of repentance. This kind of thinking is idolatry, making a god in an image that is more suitable to us and less offensive than the reality of the God of the Bible and His Son Jesus.
John’s message and John’s lifestyle was that of biblical morality, he was calling people to holy living in preparation for Jesus.
To the religious he said don’t count on your heritage, your connection to Abraham, your empty religious rituals, instead bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
John Calvin wrote, “Repentance is an inward renewal of the man, which manifests itself in the outward life, as a tree produces its fruit.”
And the reality of what that might look like was the question of the second type of people who came to listen to John preach, the repentant. Luke records this group asking three times, “what should we do?” And though on the surface the answer to each question looks different, if you peel it back a little, you’ll see that his answer is the same to each one. Look at verse 10…
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And 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?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 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.”
To the repentant his message was simple: sacrifice your selfishness. This is what denying yourself and taking up your cross daily looks like.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in the Law was in Matthew 22:37-39 His response was simple:
37 …“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
That second commandment, what James calls the royal law, love your neighbor as yourself is the fruit of repentance.
John says when the crowd asked, “What then shall we do?” “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”
James 2:15-16 says, and I think I read this last week, “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 need for the body, what good is that?”
The Golden Rule used to be posted in every classroom in America, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” You know who said that? Jesus! If only we would all live by that rule!
That’s exactly what John was saying, don’t be selfish with your stuff, instead, love your neighbor, if you have an extra coat and they don’t have one, if you have extra food and they are lacking, love them by sharing with them. Don’t be selfish against your neighbor, love them instead.
The tax collectors and soldiers were faced with a similar conviction, we want to bear fruits in keeping with repentance, “what do we do?”
Every occupation is faced with its own set of temptations for those who would follow Jesus.
For the tax collectors it was inflating the tax rates. The government tells the tax collectors to collect five percent, but the tax collectors tell the people that they have to pay six percent and pocket the difference.
Everybody knew that they did it but they were powerless to do anything about it. The Romans didn’t care if the tax collectors cheated their own people just as long as Rome got their share.
John’s message to the tax collectors: Don’t cheat your neighbors, love them instead. Zacceus, the wee little man that climbed up in the Sycamore tree was a great example of a tax collector that repented when he met the Lord Jesus and gave back to everyone he cheated. Don’t cheat your neighbors, love them instead.
The soldiers, whether they were Roman soldiers or Jewish soldiers we don’t know, but these were men in positions of power and authority over the people who used their position, and fear, and threats of violence, and false accusations to extort money from their neighbors.
When they asked John what they should do he told them, stop extorting and blackmailing people, be content with your wages. Don’t squeeze your neighbors, love them instead.
What shall we do? Exercise generosity instead of selfishness, honesty instead of cheating, and contentment instead of extortion.
John Calvin wrote, “Let the necessity of our brethren affect us powerfully, and let the bounty of God, which is in our hands, stimulate us to acts of kindness and generosity.”
John called the people to repentance, to a change of mind, which is evidenced in a change of behavior. The change of our ways is the evidence of the change of our minds.
As Alistair Begg said, “Be different! So different that people say, ‘something happened to this chap!’ I’d rather see a gospel than hear one any day!”
So what’s our takeaway?
Be different. Don’t live a life marked by selfishness, and pride, and bad language, and drunkenness, and dishonesty, turn away from your selfish ways and live a life marked by love, love for the Lord and for our neighbors.
Let us truly do unto others as we would have them do unto us, let us deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus.
That’s exactly the example He left for us, he denied Himself and took up His cross, our cross, and died in our place. Not so we could spend the rest of our days in selfishness and pride, but so that we could truly be different through faith in Him and with the help of the Holy Spirit.
To Him be glory in the church both now and forevermore.
Amen.
