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The Third Sunday in Advent, 12/16/2018
“What Then Should We Do?”
Sermon on Luke 3:7-18, by Paul C. Sizemore
As we look at the words of our Gospel lesson this morning, we can readily see, once again, that John the Baptist was doing everything he could to get people ready for the coming of God’s kingdom into our world.
Therefore, John the Baptist was calling upon all his gathered guests to repent of their sins, even as he was offering to share with them his “Baptism of Repentance for the Forgiveness of Sins!”
Nevertheless, I imagine, that those people who heard John’s preaching down there on the banks of the Jordan River had no clue, really, that the Baptist’s words would be fulfilled, so soon! Nor do we know ourselves, know really, how soon it might take place among us that our Crucified, Risen and Ascended Lord could show up among us in his Parousia as the Lord of lords and the King of kings!
In the meantime, in our Gospel lesson this morning, John the Baptist is instructing us to be people who practice a ministry of sharing. We are to be a people of honesty and integrity, but we are also to be a people who others, hopefully, might also come to see, by the grace of God, e as numbered among this world’s very best, topnotch workers!
In verse 10, the people responded to John's message with a very important question: “What then should we do?”
Come to think of it, this is not only a question that was most pertinent to John’s day but one that we would do well to be asking ourselves!
“What then should we do?” How do we make sure that our lives are like the wheat that the coming Savior would store into his barns, rather than allowing ourselves to become like the chaff that would be burned up with an unquenchable fire?
John gives us some very practical answers to these questions and, in doing so, John certainly doesn’t mince any words! He begins to answer these questions immediately in verse 11. He doesn't get into some type of ethical debate nor try to drag his listeners into some type of theological debate either, by spending most of his allotted time on some very small and minor detail of the Mosaic Law!
- FIRST OF ALL, JOHN TELLS US TO BECOME PEOPLE DEVOTED TO SHARING.
John says one of the ways that we show that we have repented is that we become a “sharing” people. That is, we are to share some of what we have with others in need.
Speaking to the people in his first century world, John says: “If you have two tunics, share one of them with the person who does even have one! And if you have some extra food, then why not share some of that with hungry people located so strategically, around you?
Certainly, the LORD God Almighty does want us to share with others in need! And isn’t this the kind of ethical directive that John the Baptist is giving us here? Some would say that John’s command here is rather simple! But is it really all that simple? Especially when we remember that the art of sharing is not something that we human beings do naturally!
Especially when sharing means giving something that we own, away from ourselves to others!
If you have ever worked around small children, you know what I mean. It doesn't take us very long in life to be able to say the word - "MINE" and it takes us even less time to grab something in our hands and not want to let go of it. Sharing, is something that we best learn as children, as teens and as adults.
Sharing is not always easy, when you really take time to stop and think about it.
- SECONDLY, JOHN THE BAPTIST IS ENCOURING US TO BECOME PEOPLE WHO LIVE OUT LIVES IN THIS WORLD WITH INTEGRITY AND HONESTY.
When Luke wanted to talk about integrity and honesty it may seem a little strange to us that he wrote about tax collectors. Tax collectors and sinners were pretty much all considered to be birds of the same feather, who flocked together! Tax collectors and sinners were people who often found themselves in the same boat!
Reputationally, they were known for their lack of honesty and integrity. Both types of people were no doubt, most always seen as liars, cheats and crooks.
But then again, who could better display their repentance and holiness than a “reformed” tax collector?
The Apostle Matthew became an excellent example of a tax collector that had come to practice both integrity and honesty.
Tax collecting, at the time of John the Baptist, was complex to say the least. The tax was collected for the government many times by a person who had submitted the best bid for the job. He would then hire out additional people to go and collect the taxes from the local citizens. With the addition of middlemen, came the potential for extra surcharges to be passed on to Rome’s citizens as well.
But please notice than in John the Baptist’s speaking to these men, he did not say to them: “Quit your job or get another kind of job! He does not tell these tax collectors to get out of their rather shady business altogether!” Instead, what he does tell them, is to become the kind of people whose personal ethics would become reflective of those people earnestly desiring to live in the kingdom of God.
John is wanting us, too, to live justly and uprightly. John is wanting us to slow down and treat people as people. He wants us to make a living, but to do so in such a way that we don't simply treat other people as means to an end or just a way to make a greater personal financial profit for ourselves as we seek to gain more influence in our world!
John wants us to be people who are dedicated to making a living but to do so with a spirit of righteousness and holiness. John wants us to be upright and righteous people who by our behavior show that our lives have become transformed by God's Holy Spirit.
III. THIRDLY, JOHN THE BAPTIST TELLS US TO BECOME OUTSTANDING WORKERS.
Serving in the military at that time was not a job very many people wanted. The pay was lousy and for the most part the military was hated by the local population. More often, than not, if you saw a soldier, you could assume that he had been drafted into the military.
The soldiers that John was talking to were more than likely temple police from King Herod's own troops.
Roman soldiers tried their best to stay away from Jewish religious figures and Jewish crowds. At any given moment a crowd could be incited to attack them or to throw things at them, which in turn could turn into something very ugly and distasteful fast!
Therefore, encouraging soldiers to get caught up in any time of civilian pursuits was greatly frowned upon and discouraged!
What John was dealing with here was people who were working for others, whether they wanted to do so or not! Many of them may have been people who did not like their jobs or their employers. John is dealing with people who worked very long hours and who barely received enough of a salary to live on.
According to recent Gallup Research Study, in our American society today, somewhere around two out of every three employees, of 67% of them and not connected to their jobs in an emotionally healthy way! Therefore, when it comes to their expenditure of their human efforts to do the best work they can at their jobs, this just isn’t happening. Many employees today, as much as they need their jobs, unfortunately resent their jobs! And acting out of that resentment, they gripe daily to co-workers and they drag down their office or factory morale as a result.
They become disgruntled and they have a negative vibe around them about the work place.
I think we all have known those people and if we are honest there are times when we have probably been these very people at times too!
Have you ever had a conversation with your coworkers about you’re your job is unfair? Have you ever come to believe that your salary is lousy and that your boss is the worst person on the planet? How many people today spend endless amounts of time thinking about how wonderful their lives could become if they could just win the lottery, so that they could tell the people that they work for what they could then do with their jobs?
As John the Baptist addresses these very situations, his Spirit-driven advice is quite clear: “Don't despise your position at work, or at any other place!” And if you have some clout due to your seniority at work, don't use that reality to bully other people around. Even if you have a door with your name on it, don’t falsely imagine that this gives you the right to constantly misuse them to do your bidding!
The people who were listening John the Baptist’s sermons down there on the banks of the Jordan River were totally unaware that within a very short timeframe that the Promised Messiah would arrive on the scene.
This is the “Christ,” the “Anointed One,” who had come into our world, as he told John the Baptist, on the day of his very own baptism: “To fulfill all righteousness for us” (Matthew 3:15)!
What then should we do? By the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work, we should all confess our sins, trusting in God’s own promise that he will then forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness; knowing full well that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7). Amen