Do you see Barney? Matthew 3:1-12 Sermon Blog...If a Messiah, then a Messenger

 


If I just painted it purple.  This boulder sets between the church and our living quarters.  I should have had Stephanie stand in front of it to give perspective of how big it is and it is relatively small compared to others in these parts.  

"If a Messiah Matthew, then where is the Messenger" might have been the response of Matthew's Jewish audience to his claim to give the official record of Jesus as the actual Christ, the Anointed One of God.  Matthew introduces us to John the Baptist, not as Luke does as a baby but as a 30 year old man coming out of the wilderness.  He is dressed like Elijah is described in the Old Testament.  Some of God's last words to the Israelites through the prophet Malachi was that a Messenger was going to come before the Messiah and he would be in the spirit of Elijah.  So Matthew starts here.

An apology for the video from this Sunday.  It seems the stream didn't start until just 8 minutes from the end.  I do a recap so hopefully you can get the gist of the message.

John the Baptist emphasizes strongly that the Lord of the harvest is coming.  Matthew 3:12 (LSB and bold, italic, and underline are mine for emphasis of the point) says,

"His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

There are a lot of "He's" in that verse.  

Matthew has been helping us with a picture of Jesus as the Messiah.  

He name is Jesus, the God who saves; He will be called Emmanuel, the God who is with us; He will be called by the prophets a Nazarene, One who is despised; and now He is described by John the Baptist as the Lord of the harvest.  

The God who saves is with us and despised but is the Lord of the harvest that is coming therefore, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," (Matthew 3:2, LSB) as John the Baptist proclaimed.  This is also the message of the church today.  John the Baptist was making people aware of Jesus' first coming and we are to be making people aware of His second coming.

May we see many be gathered up as His wheat and brought into the barn.  This is my prayer.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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