Matthew 3 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational we call this a textual community let's rejoice and learn God's Word in an interactive and enjoyable new way let's pray Lord how grateful we are for such a beautiful environment that we have to meet into worship an outdoor amphitheater with a water feature and a baptismal right next to us we can hear the sounds and get a little bit of what it might have been like listening to John the Baptist preached so boldly lord I thank you for how faithfully you have been to us as a church body and we thank you now in our hearts for those individual things and answers to prayer that you have provided throughout this week we come with hungry hearts Lord we need spiritual truth we long to take a bath in the truth to be washed by your word renewed by your word so Lord as we consider some of these great principles in this third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew I pray that we would learn from an example of a man who was uncompromising who loved you and clearly wanted to please you and didn't care what anybody else really thought about him so help us Lord to understand and to apply in Jesus name Amen what do you think of a guy like John the Baptist there's probably a lot of words that would come to your mind may be eccentric would be one of those words because he was considered rather eccentric where he lived where he preached what he ate what he looked like unconventional might be another word that would come to your mind odd would come to some of your minds hippy comes to my mind he is out there in the desert eating bugs but I'll tell you the best word to describe John the Baptist he was great he was a great man in fact jesus said of John the Baptist there's been no one born of a woman who is greater than John the Baptist he's the greatest one the greatest man who had ever lived faithful to the Lord to the end John did not live a long life in fact his ministry was rather short lived I know he wanted to have a longer influence and a longer ministry and yet even though his life was we would say cut short he was still very great I read a Business Review article that said great men have but a few minutes to be great and what makes a person great is their ability to find out what is most important and to focus in on that which is most important it's a good description of John the Baptist he knew what was most important so he pointed to that one Jesus he said behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and he lived his life for him now John the Baptist is untypical he is not your typical character and one of the reasons I'm attracted to John is because he was so out of the ordinary and so untypical he was contra mundum against the floor against the world he didn't follow everybody else's drumbeat but clearly follow the Lord's now it says in verse one of John chapter three in Matthew that's what I meant to say Wednesday night Wednesday night Matthieu Wednesday night John Sunday morning in Matthew chapter 3 verse 1 in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus we know that his mother Mary and John the Baptist father's wife Elizabeth they were cousins first cousins that made John the Baptist and Jesus second cousins I imagine because John was raised down south in the hill country of Judea that Jesus as he was come from Nazareth with his family down toward Jerusalem down to the temple to worship they probably met every time they were down in that area and so John the Baptist and Jesus at least for a few times during the year would connect and be able to watch each other grow up John the Baptist was also a PK no we know a PK as a pastor's kid but in those days a PK was a priest's kid and the priests in the temple there were 24 courses of them and Zacharias the father of John the Baptist was one of those priests which would mean that John the Baptist would be in line in that family to eventually one day join the priesthood and serve in the temple but this was a PK gone rogue he went out to the desert he didn't follow the typical protocol the priests would follow a priests were trained at a very early age by age 20 they would often be engaged in some priestly duties and by age 30 they were fully engaged in the priesthood in their functions Jerusalem in the temple but John the Baptist was different rather than going to Jerusalem he has Jerusalem come to him he goes 2030 miles out of the way in the wilderness of Judea and he was baptizing people there now here's how he happened to be born his father and his mother were quite old and they were childless they trusted in the Lord they waited upon God but one day while Zacharias that's his dad was in the temple in the evening sacrifice the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said Zacharias you and your wife Elizabeth though she is barren you've been ate unable to conceive she's going to have a child and he's going to be great in fact he's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb and here to call him John what's interesting is this priest Zacharias didn't seem to believe Gabriel though honestly if I had an angel appear to me and tell me anything I think I believe it hands down but Zacharias goes how do I know this is true and because he asked the question in doubting Gabriel didn't take too much to that kind of doubt so he struck him dumb unable to speak so Zacharias stunned walked out of the temple that evening after his duties and he couldn't talk and he would just have to use sign language now for months a few months after Mary found out that she was pregnant she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth down south and the Bible says as Mary went into the house and called out her cousin's name Elizabeth that the baby inside jumped she was about five to six months pregnant at that time Elizabeth was with John the Baptist and so she says to Mary as soon as your voice hit my ears the babe leaped for joy in the how is it that the mother of my Lord has come to visit me well by the time John the Baptist was born and they asked Elizabeth what shall we call the baby because we can't ask her husband he can't talk she said you're to call his name John and everybody said John you don't have anybody in your family named John and so they did ask Zacharias who said motion get me a writing tablet and he wrote out in script call him John at that point his mouth was opened he was able to speak and in speak speaking he blessed the Lord and He blessed his son and this is what he said about him this is out of Luke now chapter one Zechariah said to young John the Baptist and you child will be called the prophet of the highest for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins so John the Baptist became the forerunner or another term the ambassador for Jesus Christ fulfilling the prediction in the last book of the Old Testament the book of Malachi where God says behold I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me though John the Baptist appears on the pages of the New Testament did you know that he is considered an Old Testament prophet really he is considered the last Old Testament prophet for this is what Jesus said he said all all the law and the prophets spoke until John all the prophets spoke until John that is John the Baptist that makes John then the last Old Testament prophet fulfilling the last Old Testament book pointing toward the coming Messiah so therefore he is preparing the way of the Lord as we're going to find out is a prophecy out of the Book of Isaiah now we're told in verse 1 that he came preaching in the wilderness of Judaea the wilderness of Judaea is down by the Dead Sea Jerusalem is about 25 24 26 hundred feet above sea level depending on where you are in town the Dead Sea the lowest place in the world it's a limestone rocky desert and it's at 1290 feet below sea level it's very hot it's very barren it's very ugly what's interesting is that rather than John the Baptist going up to Jerusalem where the crowds are he goes way out of the way in this barren desert on the North Shore's of the Dead Sea where the jordan river flows into the Dead Sea and he's out in the middle of nowhere saying to whoever will be there repent he doesn't go to Jerusalem he has all the people in Jerusalem in Judea come to him now if you were to hook John the Baptist up with a public relations expert or a consultant he would say John your ministry is doomed for failure man nobody is going to come and listen to you out here you got camels out here you got lizards going on out here you got horny toads your your ministry won't grow can you imagine John the Baptist saying had an altar call today three heart attacks Alief it's it seems to be a style of God that I noticed in the Bible that rather than following typical protocol or what would seem to be logical that which as theological isn't always logical sometimes it is sometimes it's not Jesus wasn't born in Rome Jesus wasn't born in Jerusalem Jesus was born in Bethlehem the outskirts of Jerusalem lived in Nazareth a scorned town people said can anything good come out of Nazareth and it actually fits with what I've called my life verse out of first Corinthians chapter 1 you see her calling brethren there's not many mighty not many noble not many wise who are called for God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the base things and the detestable things it seems to be God's Way God's principle so he's way in the middle of nowhere in the wilderness but it says Jerusalem came to him it says he said repent verse 2 the kingdom of heaven is at hand for this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight I remember reading years ago some material on how to grow a church and they felt it was important that you locate your ministry facility in a conveniently located place and that you do a demographic study of the community to find out what the AIDS bracket is and what the interests of people who live in that community are and that you tailor your ministry to fit the community being conveniently located with the demographic studies again John the Baptist didn't seem to get the memo and yet as God's representative he saw something tremendous lots of interesting visitors scribes Pharisees priests Sadducees even Jesus Christ now his message is clear I read it to you all shirt again repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand did you know John the Baptist first message repent is exactly the same first message as that of Jesus in the next chapter Jesus will speak and the first words recorded by Matthew out of the lips of Jesus are repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand now the word repent you should know by now means a change a thorough change a complete change a constitutional change a change of heart or a change of mind but it also includes a change of behavior often in the Bible when you see the idea or the word repent it's accompanied with another word believe repent and believe the gospel is one scripture repent and believe those are two sides of the same coin to repent means I turn away from sin to believe means I turn to God it's a complete turning I just don't deny my flesh and turn from sinful evil things but I make the turn complete in turning from those things and then turning to the Lord so that's his message that's his first message to him that's the most important message to Jesus that's the first message repent so if that's the case if that's the first message and that was the most important message that both John and Jesus preached then I wonder why the message of repentance is so lacking in many churches in many ministries in many TV preachers it seems to be all smiles and no calls for repentance why is that well a couple reasons reason number one not everyone is in touch with his or her personal sin nobody seems to want to admit that they're sinners it's quite an honest but a telling admission to say I admit I'm a sinner I need help you see most people when they hear the word sinners they think of people who are really really bad people evil criminals convicted of things that should put him in prison for life those are sinners me I'm much better than that and so comparatively speaking we think the those are really bad people who need repentance but I'm a really good person I must not need repentance and I sure hope God grades on a curve so the ignorance of personal sin is one number two I think that message is shied away from because it's an uncomfortable message and many church leaders think if I preach a message of repentance calling people to turn from their sin and turn to Christ they may not want to come back next week it's an unpalatable message it's not an attractive message to some but John and Jesus the first message to John the most important message repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand oh and by the way Jesus did say and we'll read it in a few chapters blessed are those who mourn or oh how happy are those who are sad over their sin and their mourning over it right before that he said blessed are the poor in spirit that means they recognize their poverty they know their need and they admit their need in the second beatitude by mourning over it oh how happy are those who are sad over their sin they will be comforted it's only when you confess and you turn from sin and turn to Jesus that you find that refreshment and that blessedness that he spoke about well it continues quoting Isaiah chapter 40 in verse 3 for this is he that is John who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight you should probably know that in all four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John all four of them quote Isaiah the Prophet and John the Baptist's as fulfilling what Isaiah the prophet wrote in the fortieth chapter of his prophecy in John's Gospel it says the representatives from Jerusalem came and they asked John the Baptizer some questions they said are you the Christ and he said nope I'm not and they said well are you Elijah because the Bible predicted Elijah to come he goes nope I'm not Elijah either and they said are you that prophet quoting from the prediction in Deuteronomy that God would send another prophet like Moses and he says no three-strikes-you're-out I'm not any of those guys see let me tell you who I am I'm a voice a voice of one crying in the desert get right with God or make the way of the Lord straight I like that he said I'm a voice I like it especially because it's in John's Gospel and John begins by saying in the beginning was the word that's Jesus he's the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Jesus he's the word me says John I'm not the word I'm just a voice for the word to be carried on Jesus doesn't need or God doesn't need any more saviors he's got one that's his son he just needs voices those who will proclaim the word of the Lord and point to the Word of God that is Jesus he doesn't need saviors he doesn't need messiahs he's got one but he does need voices and I hope that our voice your voice and mine will be joined to it the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight now it says verse 4 John himself was clothed get this in camel's hair with the leather belt Bell around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey you know I wonder if John the Baptist came to the average town in America to the average Church in America if most Christians wouldn't run away this guy was wild looking he wore camel's hair now camels were not kosher you couldn't eat them not that I'd ever want to but you could wear their skin you could wear their fur it was considered a shelter from the cold some our authors even say it kept you from the heat and it certainly kept the rain off of you so it was very practical itchy not a fashion statement not hate as my camel stuff look good with my shoes none of that stuff just just practical and he had a leather belt around him now when I read the description of John the Baptist I think of Elijah the Tishbite and perhaps one of the reasons people asked him if he was Elijah is because one of the descriptions of Elijah in 2nd Kings chapter one they said hey there's some prophet here to see you and they said well what does he look like they said he's a hairy man and he's got a leather belt and they said oh that's Elijah the Tishbite bring him on in and so John the Baptist dressed like Elijah he was Elijah like in the way he approached the people that was his clothing his diet is really weird it says that he ate or his food was locusts and wild honey locusts were the one of the few bugs that were considered kosher by Jewish law you could eat them again though you could I don't know why you would want to but I did a little digging and the way locust would be prepared as often they were ground up the bugs were ground up into sort of a paste then flour was added to that paste and they were baked into little cakes like crab cakes only locust cakes was one of the favorite ways that people ate them little little bug cakes at other times they were boiled or stewed or roasted with buttered sauteed with butter now doesn't that sound delicious sauteed locusts and butter Wow the Assyrians found a way to preserve them sort of like locust chips and they could carry them on their journeys and use them in their battles but and they ate them so I don't know it would bug me but they liked it then it says this then Jerusalem then Jerusalem all Judea and all the region around Jordan went out to him he didn't go to them he was just out in the desert the place where the children of Israel crossed into the Promised Land same spot and he was baptizing people it says they were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins and when he saw many of the Pharisees and the scribes coming to his baptism he said to them brood of vipers who has warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come now John baptize people in water let me give you a little background baptism did not begin as a Christian ritual its origin is not in the New Testament it comes as a Jewish ritual first of all if you were a proselyte a non Jew you were a Gentile a guy like me and you wanted to enter into the community of Jewish people you had to go through a certain series of things in order to convert number one you had to be taught Judaism by a scribe number two if you were a male you had to be circumcised no matter what age you were and number three you had to go through a ritual cleansing a baptism by immersion in water once you did all of those things you would eventually be allowed into the community of Judaism that's number one that's Jewish baptism if you were a proselyte number two if you were Jewish there was also a baptismal formula for you if you wanted a worship in the temple you would find a ritual bath a baptismal not unlike what we have here in the courtyard hewn out of stone water was placed in it the water had to be moving even if it was moving slowly so it had to have an inlet and an outlet and the Jews always called moving water living water because it is moving you'd have to immerse yourself in the living water and then come out so if you wanted to go to the temple right at the bottom of the steps of the temple you that are going with us in May you'll see them you would dunk under the water in the mikveh come up dry yourself up get up on the steps walk into the temple or if you defiled yourself by touching a dead person or another object that causes defilement you also would have to go into a mikvah be immersed be ritually cleansed and then you were allowed to worship or if there was a sore on your body or a buddy a bloody flow but a bloody flux it was called then you when you were healed had to be immersed in the mikveh and you were allowed to worship with the rest of the community so there were two ways it was used in Judaism if you were a Gentile wanting to proselytize or convert into Judaism number one number two if you were Jewish and you were defiled and you wanted to worship in the temple you would be baptized what makes this odd is John the Baptist is immersing not Gentiles to become Jews he's not saying immerse yourself like you would be to be ritually cleansed he himself was baptizing Jews who needed to repent of their sins he was baptizing those the baptism of John was a baptism for the remission of sin it was a lifestyle change that he was calling on and you will read that he says it doesn't matter your background it doesn't matter your relatives it doesn't matter who you descended from your heart needs to be right with God and when your heart is right with God by repentance and faith then comes the ritual of baptism to demonstrate that that's what John's baptism was all about here in the Gospel of Matthew but verse 7 when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism stop right there you got to know who these guys are because we're gonna come up throughout the Gospels in in the book of Acts it seems that these guys were a delegation that the Sanhedrin the ruling elder counsel of the Jews in Jerusalem had sat down to the place where John was to check him out to listen to him find out what's up with this guy I'm hearing a lot of rumors the high priest must have said so a delegation came and there's two parties two religious parties that are mentioned first of all the Pharisees let me tell you a little bit about the Pharisees a lot you already know the Pharisees were a small group there were only 6,000 Pharisees at the time of Christ in Judaism we believe the word Pharisee comes from the Hebrew word para shame which means separated ones they believe that they were separated unlike the rest of the Jews that they were the favored ones the holy ones because they attended to every little fine point of the law they were very structured they were very legalistic and in the Gospels they have a confrontation with Jesus the relationship between Christ and the Pharisees is extremely adversarial in the Gospels for example Jesus will see the Pharisees and he will say you guys are a bunch of whitewashed Sepulcher you look good on the outside you're full of death and destruction on the inside now that doesn't win a lot of friends that kind of talk on another occasion he said you're a bunch of hypocrites woe unto you scribes and hypocrites Matthew 23 denunciation after denunciation that's the first group they were principally the enemies of Christ in the Gospels the Sadducees are also mentioned and they're going to be the principal enemies of the early church in the book of Acts and here's why the Sadducees unlike the Pharisees were more liberal in their thinking they denied anything supernatural while the Pharisees believed in all things supernatural creation angels demons spirits resurrection from the dead the Sadducees denied angels spirits and the resurrection from the dead so what did the disciples in the book of Acts preach Jesus has risen from the dead so they made enemies out of the Sadducees so it's sad you see the way they were treated by by these groups okay the Pharisees there were only six thousand Pharisees there were even fewer of the Sadducees but though they were fewer they were in charge the high priest was a sad you see they had the money they had the wealth of the nation though they were very liberal and they try to integrate with Romans and make friends with everybody they controlled what was going on in the temple the Pharisees and the Sadducees hated each other they did not get along they were opposed to each other they were never buddies except in one case in one case only they both shared a mutual hatred of Jesus and they wanted to get rid of him and that's the time they came together and you see it toward the end when Jesus is crucified so this group comes to John the Baptist out in the wilderness John the Baptist is not friendly toward this group that comes out he calls them brood of vipers brood means offspring you sons of slimy snakes would be a better translation brood of vipers now a Viper was considered very shrew but very dangerous oh you guys look so slick and so religious but you are so dangerous you are sons or a brood or offspring of vipers and then he says who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not think to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our Father for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones what does he mean by that well he might be meaning stones as being outsiders Gentiles know these strict Jewish legalists and rationalist Pharisees and Sadducees didn't care too much for Gentiles never included them in worship they were only allowed in one particular sanction part of the temple and no closer but when John the Baptist says God is able to raise out of these stones children to Abraham he could have in his mind what the prophets foretold that the Gentiles would hear and the Gentiles would believe and though you are descendants of Abraham and you wouldn't regard these stones and you wouldn't regard Gentiles any more than these rocks God is able to raise up from these outsiders these stones children to Abraham and even now he says in verse 10 even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he was coming after me is mightier than I whose sandal I am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire one thing we always notice about John the Baptist he points to his cousin Jesus all the time he always points to him he's the one you're asking about Who I am I'm just a voice he's the word I'm just the messenger he's the message in John's Gospel he says behold look check it out the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so John the Baptist get this get this though a cousin of Jesus thought that Jesus was the answer to man's need to have their sins forgiven and was the savior of the world and believed his cousin was indeed God in human flesh now to me that adds to his testimony and the weight and authenticity of his testimony how many of you would say of your cousin my cousin is God my cousin takes away the sin of the world no you know your cousin you've hung out with your cousins you've fought with your cousins John the Baptist believed that his cousin his second cousin Jesus was the one in fact the way he describes himself puts himself so low he is so self abasement ooh take off his sandal now in a Jewish household the job of the most menial slave was to take the sandals off the feet of the one who owned the home if you came home from work your servant would take off your sandals wash her feet and hold onto your sandals until you asked for them again you can walk barefoot around the house but if he said to his slave skip I want those sandals I'd run over and give it to him John says I'm not even worthy to be my cousin's most menial slave that's who I am in comparison to who he is maybe that's why Jesus called him the greatest one who ever lived he understood who he was in light of who Jesus is he says I'm not even worthy to untie his sandal I indeed baptize you with water said John unto repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandal I am not worthy to carry notice this he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire there's something I want to explain to you and then put it all together he keeps talking about fire here and he says the winnowing fan verse 12 his winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn but he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire that's a picture of judgment so here's John out in the wilderness preaching to the people and he preaches three kinds of baptism not one not two but three the first kind of baptism a baptism in water a baptism unto repentance come in the water you know what this is about you're Jewish but this is to signify that your life is changed that you are repenting of your sins it's for the remission and the taking away of sin that's number one baptism the second type of baptism that John mentions is the baptism of the holy spirit that Jesus will give he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit first of all now anyone who comes to Christ is immediately instantly baptized or immersed by the Holy Spirit into the company of other believers or the church we are baptized we are immersed we are part of one another he baptizes us immediately instantly once and for all into the body the company of saints the body of Christ and subsequent to that there is a empowering of the Holy Spirit commissioned by Jesus to give us the power to be witnesses unto him in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth so there's the baptism in water there's the baptism with the holy spirit by Jesus for believers number three there's the baptism by fire he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire now that's the baptism that unbelievers will eventually get when they will be totally immersed in the fiery judgment of God and the analogy that John the Baptist uses is one they would all understand a farmer who would be winnowing his grain and this is how it was done John describes a winnowing fan a winnowing fan is about three to four feet long it was about three maybe four prongs like a little bit of a rake and the farmer would scoop typically in the evening time because the Mediterranean wind blows from the west to the east inland and so it's a perfect kind of velocity to do winnowing so the farmer would take the whole grain chaff and the wheat toss it up with the winnowing fork into the air the breezes would take the inedible parts the chaff the light flaky stuff on the outside and blow it away it would be gathered and be burned only the real kernel of the wheat would fall to the ground because it's weightier it's heavier the wind won't affected as much so we toss it up we would come down chaff would blow away they would go over and collect it in a pile and burn it with fire so this is the future judgment the fiery judgment that all unbelievers will eventually be immersed in so three baptisms John mentions then it says this then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him and John tried to prevent him saying I need to be baptized by you are you coming to me but jesus answered and said to him permit it to be so for now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness when he saw Jesus coming his cousin coming the one he believed to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world the one he knew was the answer come from God the one predicted just like he was predicted he knew all the stories when he saw Jesus coming he was puzzled like wait a minute what are you doing here this is for guilty people this is for sinful people this is for people who have enough integrity to stop what they're doing listen to the message and repent of their sins this isn't for you you're the sinless one Jesus says let it happen man let it let it go permit it to be so for now to fulfill all righteousness what did he mean Jesus had come to identify with sinners to identify with you and I the writer of Hebrews says we don't have a high priest a representative who was unable to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but he was in all points tempted like we are yet without sin man here's somebody who can relate to you because he felt what you feel he knows what it is to be a human what it is to face trials and temptations and heartache to have a heart breaking with those kind of issues he knows that he feels it he was at all points tempted like we are so Jesus came first of all to say and to make the statement the only way these unrighteous people are going to be made righteous is by me coming into this world and identifying with them and I want to identify with them though I am sinless and you baptize sinners I am coming to fulfill all righteousness in other words that baptism I believe was a prefigurement of his own death burial and resurrection just like today romans chapter 6 says when we get baptized we are speaking of that same death burial and resurrection and were identifying backwards with jesus paul said you go into the water that's like a dead man being buried in the ground you come up out the water that's like a resurrection has happened walk in newness of life Paul said so here this prefigure Jesus being identified with us and prefiguring his own death and his resurrection what he had been baptized we're almost done two more verses when he had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased when Jesus was baptized the entire Godhead showed up God the Father spoke God the Son Jesus was being baptized and God the Son was represented by a dove all three were manifest and God the Father spoke and said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased now remember that saying because God's gonna say it again in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus is transfigured on a high mountain with Moses and Elijah and a few of the disciples are watching this and Peter will butt in and say something and God will say this is my beloved son listen to him so all three show up at the baptism of Jesus the Godhead the Trinity is spoken of now some people don't believe in the Trinity Christian believers all believe in the Trinity but some folks don't believe in the Trinity and their reasoning is they say well the Trinity the word Trinity isn't really in the Bible okay well the word Bible isn't in the Bible the word millennium isn't in the Bible but the term thousand years is and the thousand years is a millennium it's just another word for it's a synonym for it the word rapture isn't in the Bible the doctrine of the rapture is in the Bible the word Trinity may not be in the Bible but the doctrine of the Trinity is all over the Bible that's why I say Christian all Christian believers believe in the Trinity it's all over the Word of God you can't escape it from Genesis chapter 1 in the beginning God Elohim created the heavens and the earth Elohim is a plural verb with a singular meaning a few verses later Genesis 1 verse 26 then God said let us make man in our image so in the image of God he made man plural singular and meaning or Isaiah chapter 6 when the Lord said whom shall we send and who will go for us that's God speaking who is he talking to he's not talking to angels he's talking to himself the members of the Trinity separate three separate persons one eternal God coequal Co eternal so all three show up at this inaugurating event at the beginning of the Ministry of Jesus and God says this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased in your life in your salvation all three members of the Trinity took part God the Father sent his son into this world to die on the cross Jesus God's Son sent the Holy Spirit who would convict the world of sin righteousness and judgment once we come to Christ led by the spirit then the Spirit comes to live inside of us and the son Jesus said would live inside of us and he said my father will also live inside so all three members of the Trinity as they were present here were also present with your salvation that's chapter 3 a very short chapter and when we end chapter three the heavens are opened as we make it to chapter four hell is opened Satan comes to tempt Jesus to thwart the very reason for which he came so remember that for next time even as heaven is opened there is a response in the kingdom of darkness and Hell will be open and Satan will come on the scene and you'll see the interaction between the holy sinless son of God and this malevolent being the devil as I pray I'm going to ask the communion board to get ready and get the elements we're going to take communion the best way we do it outside or with these little peel top portable communion gizmos so everything you need is in that little packet and you just hold on to it while we worship and then we're gonna have you peel the very top one off first and take the bread out and we'll pray for the bread which represents the broken body of Christ we'll peel then the bottom layer and get down to the juice and we'll drink the fruit of the vine as being remembrance of the blood that Jesus shed for us that covenant of his blood and we'll worship the Lord and so doing now before you actually get the elements a word of caution if tonight you are not a believer and I don't know that all of you are I assume you are you've come to church but not everyone who comes to church is a Christian not everyone who goes to McDonald's is a hamburger so I'm glad you've come to church but I'm not sure you've come to Christ so here's the deal if you are not a believer in Christ if you haven't personalized it if there has not been repentance unto the remission of sins where you have turned from and turn to then let those elements pass youand and I don't take them don't partake with us and here's why the Bible says if you take them you are actually preaching a message of damnation to your own soul you're proclaiming that you don't know them you're sort of rubbing it in God's face so this is for believers to take not unbelievers that's option number one I have a better option number two option number two if you're not a believer tonight if you haven't personally accepted Christ that you do so right now that you give Jesus the the the key to the door of your heart that you open it up that you let him come inside and occupy the throne and then you take communion because you'll be one of his children sons or daughters let's pray together father we thank you for time of worship we thank you for the lessons that we've learned in this short chapter of Matthew we thank you for the life of a man named John the Baptist the greatest one the greatest man jesus said born of woman great because he wanted to please you he didn't really care what people thought of him or his message he lived a singular life his life was filled with conviction and he lived that conviction out in his daily life and he was great because he always pointed not to himself he didn't say I'm some great one I'm the son of Zacharias the priest I'm the one filled with the Holy Spirit from my mother's womb he just said I'm a road worker I'm the guy who makes straight the ways of the Lord and clears the path and points to Jesus what a great one that is and I pray that we like John would point men and women to Jesus Lord have you pointed us to Jesus tonight and father I pray that as you have that those who don't know you personally yet but their heart even at this very moment is aching to know you they sense you have brought them here for this purpose I pray Lord that their hearts will be open to you and they will right now accept receive the Savior into their lives as you're seated in this courtyard on this beautiful evening tonight this perfect weather in September for some of you new life is going to start right here right now and if you have not received Christ if you're not walking in obedience with Christ I want you to pray this right where you're seated right where you are say Lord Jesus I believe in you I believe you died on the cross for me shed your blood to pay for my sin I believe that you rose from the dead for me and you conquered death and I place my trust in you I lay my life upon your work on the cross I turn from my sin and in faith I turn to you as my savior and as my lord [Music] in Jesus name Amen [Music] if you prayed that prayer your seconds old in the Lord you have every much is right to take the communion elements as any of us who've been walking with the Lord for years you're a child of God you're cleansed you're forgiven communion boards going to pass out these elements as we worship and then we'll all take them together let us pray before we partake of the bread Heavenly Father were so grateful that we've been gifted with so much and it's all because you gave your life for us Lord and father as we hold this bread in our hands and in just a few moments our teeth are gonna pierce this piece of bread may even the sound of it remind us of how you gave your body of ransom for us father in a day and age where so much is focused upon our bodies and how we can bless them and overindulge with them you chose the opposite for our sakes freely giving up everything that we might have reconciliation with you and so father we honor you Lord Jesus we acknowledge your gift to us of yourself as we obey you in sharing in this meal as a remembrance of all that you relinquished for our benefit and so we take this to honor your word to honor you and to remember that we have life because you gave your life for us let us take together and now Lord as we consider the grape juice that represents your blood we consider that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins we consider that it is your blood that washes us clean our sin was like scarlet but now we are as white as snow because your blood that you shed on that cross covers us and now when we stand before you Father you don't see our sin anymore your sacrifice the sacrifice of your son is accounted to us as righteousness and we are holy and we've been justified it's just as if we never sinned thank you for your blood thank you for shedding it for us let's take the juice together you

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 10,608

Rating: 4.8954248 out of 5

Keywords: John the Baptist, Gabriel, Zacharias, Repent, repentance, prophecy, Baptism, John's baptism, Pharisees, Saducees, Baptism of Jesus, Godhead, Trinity, Bible, Salvation

Id: uptztmJvpas

Length: 58min 24sec (3504 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2018