December 6-8, 2025 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 3:1-12 (EHV) “A TALE OF TWO…”

 

ADVENT 2

December 6-8, 2025

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 3:1-12 (EHV)

 

“A TALE OF TWO…”

1.     Sinners.

2.     Servants.

 

Chances are that if you hear the name Charles Dickens this time of year your mind automatically jumps to his book made into musical and movie, “A Christmas Carol.” It probably does not think of another one of his famous books, “A Tale of Two Cities.” And that’s OK because neither of the those books has anything to do with what we need to talk about today other than his book title provides a framework for what we heard in the Gospel lesson from Matthew and what we need to focus on in our Advent worship. It is a tale, a true tale, of two types of sinners and two kinds of servants.

The Church Year season of Advent is designed to help Christians examine themselves to see that they are living their lives prepared for Jesus to Advent. Last week Pastor Langebartels reminded us that Advent comes from the Latin word Advenit meaning “He comes” or “He is coming!” Jesus is. Open your Bibles to the last chapter of the last book, Revelation, and you will see that as the final thought God leaves you with. Jesus is coming soon and what better way to prepare for Him to come the second time as King than to look at how God prepared people for Jesus to come the first time as Savior. And who better to teach us how to be ready than the one God Himself picked to prepare people the first time, John the Baptist. You heard about him in the Gospel lesson.

This was his message: “In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 2“Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!” And this is who heard it: “Then Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him. 6They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Therefore produce fruit in keeping with repentance! 9Do not think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10Already the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

There we see it, a tale, a true tale, of two types of sinners who came out to see John. There were sincerely sorrowful sinners and spiritually smug sinners. What were the sincerely sorrowful sinners like? They heard John’s message to repent and knew he was talking to them. Repenting is a peculiar to the Bible term these days. Literally translated it means to have a complete change of mind about sin and what to do with it. Practically speaking it means taking ownership of your sins without minimizing or excusing, feeling shame and remorse over sin, realizing only Jesus fixes sin through forgiveness and the striving to turn away from future sinning. That’s what the sincerely sorrowful sinners did. They confessed, owned their sin and received John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins. In another Gospel account they asked John what they should do to show their repentance.

How about the spiritually smug? What were they like? John’s words exposed their hearts. They were coming for baptism but they didn’t think they needed forgiveness. They figured they were saved by who they were, offspring of Abraham. John revealed they were really offsping of a viper. A viper is a snake. With these words John revealed that the Pharisees and Sadducees were the offspring of Satan identified in Genesis 3 as those who would be hostile to the offspring of Eve, Jesus. Their repentance was fake, looked good on the outside but rotten on the inside. “We do our duty. We are good with God and God is lucky to have us sticking up for him.” Spiritually smug.

A tale of two sinners, the sincerely sorrowful or the spiritually smug. Which one are you? Now remember this is self-examination time, not think of somebody else time. People like me, who have had the blessing of growing up knowing the grace and goodness of God are at risk. We can become spiritually smug. Here’s the sign, look good on the outside, rotten on the inside. A professional church goer. Show up to do our duty but the rest of the week act like God does not exist. No word time. No prayer time. No thinking of God time. Sing God’s praises in worship, curse like a sailor and tear others down the rest of the week. Confess to being a poor miserable sinner in church but gritch and complain about any injustice we have to face like we deserve good and not punishment from God. And the sins that really bother us are other people’s sins. Not our own. “God I thank Thee that I am not like other people…” The Lord knows. The axe is at the roots. The fire is stoked.

How much better to be the sincerely sorrowful sinner! No prodding needed. The sincerely sorrowful already know. Might put up a bold face in front of others but already know God already knows. Baptism and worship and Communion are never for show. Needed and comforting Good News from God. “You are mine. I have forgiven you. Let’s work on getting you better.” Acts of contrition don’t need to be prescribed. They flow freely from heart that is desperate to show, “I’m thankful, Lord Jesus.” The Gospel lesson presents us with a tale of two sinners. Only one is ready for the Advent of Jesus. Which one am I?

But look again and we also see a tale of two servants. John the Baptist was one of the servants. What was he like? “Yes, this is he of whom this was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.” 4John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” John didn’t care much about fitting in with his society. His different clothing, different diet and different place to live made it clear he was one of God’s prophets. He took the attention people gave Him and redirected it where it belonged, on Jesus! “I baptize you with water for repentance. But the one who comes after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Jesus is the second servant. He is the one who did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom to pay for the sins of the world. Jesus served perfectly. He obeyed perfectly. He suffered for sin perfectly. He is the Servant.

Now, obviously as we try to see ourselves in God’s word, none of us can be Jesus, the Servant. We can however be like John the Baptist, a servant of the Servant. What jumps out at me about John is how he knew his place and he knew his purpose. John did not try to be more than he was. He did not make everything going on around him about him. It was about Jesus. John was the Forerunner, the preparer of the way. He was not the Way. He knew it and lived it. He knew his place. And he knew his purpose. Point to Jesus. Connect people to Jesus. Uphold Jesus.

You and I can serve this way too. Do you want to show thanks to the Savior who came the first time to win your forgiveness? Know your place. Know your purpose. When we know our place and stop acting or talking like everything is all about us, making ourselves the center of attention, the victim of any injustice, the innocent party in any fractured relationship, people will actually start to listen to us. Then with eyes and ears open we will find opportunities to redirect attention placed on us to put it on Jesus. Inquires about our health, a chance to say, I trust Jesus. Moral question. What do you believe about…? A chance to acknowledge we are a nation of sinners who need Jesus. Servants of the Servant. That’s what John teaches us to be. And as we, like him, keep our eyes on Jesus, not only will we be ready for Jesus to come for us, we’ll help others do the same. Happy Advent! Amen.