Pastor Timothy J Spaude Text: Luke 3:7-18 “THE GIFT OF JOY”

ADVENT 3

December 15-17, 2018

Pastor Timothy J Spaude

Text: Luke 3:7-18

“THE GIFT OF JOY”

1.     There is no joy in fake repentance.

2.     The joy of Jesus is in true repentance.

Luke 3:7-18 “John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹ The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." ¹⁰ "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. ¹¹ John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." ¹² Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" ¹³ "Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them.  ¹⁴ Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay."¹⁵ The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. ¹⁶ John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." ¹⁸ And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.”

          So what emotion do you normally connect with repentance? I’m going to guess that most, if not all of us will choose sorrow. In fact many times people think that’s all repentance is, being sorry for your sins. But repentance is a whole lot more than being sorry for sins. In fact John the Baptist is going to help us understand that ultimately repentance brings with it the gift of joy. As we continue to look at the gifts Jesus brings this Advent season today we focus on the gift of joy that comes with repentance.

          With true repentance, that is. As we find out in Luke’s Gospel there has always been this idea of fake repentance spooking around. Today’s text is a continuation of last week’s. If you recall in that part of Luke 3 we heard that John the Baptist was doing the work he was chosen for, preparing people’s hearts for Jesus. He did that be preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Today we listen in on one of his sermons. He begins, “You brood of vipers!” Now I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is never going to make a top ten list of sermon greetings. In fact I know that at our seminary the professors remind you it is a privilege to speak to the children of God so you address them that way. You’ve heard, “Dear fellow redeemed, brothers and sisters through faith in Christ Jesus, Sons and daughters of the King, dear Christian friends.” Have we ever started out “You brood of vipers” or “dear back stabbing and two faced liars and cheats, dear stingy greedy selfish spoiled brats?”

          Something was going on here. Let’s find out what. “John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹ The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." Jesus also called the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. They were the ones who were teaching that outward keeping of God’s laws was good enough and that a blood connection to Abraham made things right with God. Or to put it another way they taught repentance as saying sorry, not being sorry, and it seems the crowds had listened to them and were thinking the same thing. They had no intention of trying to change their sinful ways. They were offspring of Abraham. They said what they were required to say. That should be good enough. That’s fake repentance. It does not give joy. It gets you called what you are: vipers, mini devils.

          This idea of fake repentance hasn’t gone away. In times of weakness and temptation Satan whispers in our ears, “It’s OK. Give in. You’ll be forgiven anyway.” And so we repent with the intent to keep on sinning. Or in talks with someone who has devalued word and sacrament and worship. “I’m good with God. I pray all the time.” Or “I’m good. I was confirmed.” Or “I’m still WELS.” Hear a warning about fake repentance. The ax is at the root of the tree. God can raise WELSers and people who pray once in a while from the stones if he wants. This fake repentance is like drinking saltwater. Sure it’s wet but it will leave you still thirsty and ultimately leads to eternal death. This fake repentance is like the sassy mouthed child, the lazy worker, the cheating spouse saying, “Yes, I’m very sorry. I’ll stop in a year or so.” John’s word point out a spiritual truth we can’t ignore. You can’t have it both ways. Just like you can’t eat only junk food and stay healthy and you can’t not practice and still be good at piano, you can’t pursue the temporary joy of sin and have the lasting joy of salvation.

          That only comes with true repentance. These people coming out to John had received the gift of Baptism. They had been pointed to Jesus. “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. ¹⁶ John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." ¹⁸ And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.” John pointed them to Jesus, the Savior. Yes he would destroy the chaff but the wheat he was going to gather. These people now realized they were the wheat. They were forgiven by Jesus. They now knew that real repentance isn’t just sorrow over sin, it’s joy in Jesus. Relief, happiness and gratitude in sins forgiven. And that inner change, that repentance joy on the inside, it just wants to show on the outside.

Notice the change. No longer did they want fake repentance as a part of their lives and so they ask, "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. ¹¹ John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." ¹² Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" ¹³ "Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them.  ¹⁴ Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay." Kind of reminds me of Zacchaeus. Do your remember how when he realized Jesus loved him, had forgiven him and accepted him, he on his own, offered to pay back 4 times what he had stolen and to give half of his possessions to the poor. Here the regular people wanted to know how to show they joy of repentance. Soldiers and tax collectors too. None were given monumental tasks or a prayer to repeat over and over again. Do your job. Be faithful in your responsibilities. Help those in need. Realize that God desires fair tax collectors and soldiers who protect. Every aspect of their life would change as they lived each task with the joy of living for Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, you have that too. Jesus brings you the gift of joy. In that joy of Jesus you can get rid of sins instead of keeping them around. Just like you would not take a knife that was used to kill a loved one and use it to carve your Christmas ham but would instead get rid of it, never want to see it again, so also hat same attitude toward the sins in our lives that caused the death of Jesus, our loved on. We strive with all the strength Christ provides to fight our selfishness with money, our temptation toward lust or drug or alcohol abuse. Maybe we have some things in our house or bank accounts we need to get rid of. We look instead to see the face of Jesus on every one we meet each day so that for Jesus we are nice, kind and compassionate. We see our daily jobs in a different light. Each role a way we can serve Jesus with joy. He desires simply to see faithfulness in our daily callings, each one lived for Him. By calling us to repentance teaching us repentance and by His sacrifice motivating our repentance Jesus has given us the gift of joy to be enjoyed and displayed every day..

So you weren’t wrong if at the beginning of my message you associated sorrow with repentance. You just weren’t totally right. While sorrow over sin starts it off in true repentance joy over Jesus’ forgiveness, love and acceptance finishes it. Marvel again, brothers and sisters that God gave His Son Jesus because how much He values you. Instead of letting us live and die as the vipers we would be, instead of cutting down unfruitful trees like you and me and throwing us in the fire, God cut down Jesus, and let Him go the cross where He endured the fires of Hell so you will never have to. Relief, thankfulness, joy. A gift to you from Jesus. Amen.