Preschool
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him (Psalm 91:15).
A Way in the Wilderness
Memory Verses
Primary
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble (Psalm 91:15).
Junior
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him (Psalm 91:15).
Background Scripture: Matthew 3
Lesson Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12
Introduction
How would we react if someone like John the Baptist showed up in our neighborhood today? Someone who cared little about the conventional form of religion and was more concerned with genuine truth than with hurting people’s feelings? Would we turn our backs and discount the message, deciding it was unreasonable?
This is not merely a what-if question. There is Someone today who is doing just that. He is the Holy Spirit. Are we hearing Him and paying attention to what He says?
Traveling life’s highway is like trying to navigate roads that are totally unknown and unfamiliar. Everywhere we look there are signs and billboards, each displaying different directions. There are persuasive guides offering to lead us to our destination, but each one tells of a different place where safety is to be found. How will we know which one to follow?
The ancient signposts are still standing, but they are almost hidden in this confusion. The Holy Spirit will guide us to find these signposts, one by one. The first one is repentance.
Key Verse
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose (Isa. 35:1).
Lesson Scripture
Matthew 3:1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Studying the Lesson
Jesus began his ministry when he was thirty years old, the acceptable age to begin a public ministry. John was six months older than Jesus. If he began his ministry at the same age, he apparently made a great impact on the people of Judea in a very brief time.
John did not proclaim his message in the courts of the temple or in the streets and towns of Judea. People had to go into the wilderness to hear him. He did not ask those who came to hear him for gifts to supply his food and clothing. He did not wear nice clothes or live comfortably, and we could infer from the Scripture that he dripped honey over roasted locusts, subsisting on what was found in nature.
The Jewish people expected the Messiah, a great deliverer, to soon appear and free them from the domination of Rome and restore the glory of the kingdom of David and Solomon. The prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah and restoration of his kingdom, but first Elijah was to come and prepare the way. John may have reminded them of the prophecy, for indeed it was being fulfilled. They came to hear him with the expectation that the restored kingdom was near at hand.
John began by assuring them that the kingdom was certainly about to be revealed. What he said next was aimed directly at their trust in their Abrahamic heritage. It was Jewish practice to require converts to Judaism to repent and be baptized, but John, speaking to descendants of Abraham, told them that their natural heritage did not qualify them for the kingdom of heaven. They too would need to repent and be baptized. Repentance, he said, must not be a mere formality like saying fine sounding words but must produce a visible change in the way life is lived.
The final three verses of the lesson text tell of two coming events. One was the coming of the Messiah, who would baptize the truly repentant with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The second was the coming judgment, which would separate people as wheat from chaff. The chaff would be burned in unquenchable, or eternal, fire.
Practical Truths for Today
Why is this world called a wilderness? It is because we as Christians are living in enemy territory, ruled by the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Evil powers, often as angels of light, lie in wait to capture the careless Christian by offering to help us on the road to heaven.
The world seeks to redefine sin for the twenty-first century. The personal corruption of each one’s heart is not in focus; rather, it is the collective corruption at the heart of our society. Public figures of all kinds—teachers, preachers, politicians, and entertainers—are calling to transform society by secular humanism, thus eliminating racism, gender inequality, poverty, hatred, and violence. On the other hand, disrespect for authority, doomsayer warnings, and talk of dark conspiracies lead to anger and conflict. Many people are pitted against one another, making living in peace difficult.
Among the many who call themselves Christians, conviction and confession of sin remain strangely absent. God’s salvation is promised on the basis of believing in Jesus Christ without mentioning the need for repentance and forsaking sin. This leaves people with burdens for which they have no name nor remedy. This is one manner of worldly thinking the apostle Paul warns about in Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” In 1 John 2:15-16, as the apostle warns against falling in love with the world, he uses kosmos, a Greek word that means the physical world including its tangible things. But here in Romans, the Greek word aion is used, referring not to the things of the world but to the thinking of the world, the spirit of the age in which we live. He is warning us not to let our thinking be shaped to fit the pattern of thinking that is prevalent in the world around us.
It is only by repentance that our thinking can be transformed and renewed. A basic condition for repentance is recognizing that our problems are caused by sin within us, not by something outside of us.
At Pentecost, Peter’s message mirrored that of John the Baptist. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). The difference was that Peter could now speak of the Holy Ghost in the present tense, not as One who was yet to come.
Since Pentecost, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the essential evidence of conversion. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). This was not true before Pentecost, when the Spirit was given to only a few. Pentecost displayed the actuality and fulfillment of Christ’s words: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8).
The Holy Spirit offers all of mankind a way in the wilderness of this world. That way will not be found by the wisdom of this world but by confession of sin, repentance, and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the seal of our salvation. This should be followed by water baptism to unite us with the church of God.
Questions
- God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30). How should this affect our attitude toward people who do not profess the same faith as we do?
- What does being “Abraham’s children” mean? How are we to discern between our family heritage and our spiritual heritage?
- Is a lost feeling enough to lead to repentance, or is an awareness of sin also necessary?
- Is recalling the specific sins one has committed and repenting of each one individually needful for a genuine repentance experience?
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).