Matthew 3:7-10

DAY 14

8-4-2024

The Fruit of Repentance

Matthew 3:7-10

Please note: There will be NO Adult Sunday School on 

September 1, 2024 and

September 8, 2024

We will resume on September 15, 2024

Pray

Any questions from last week?

Read scripture: Matthew 3:7-10

OVERVIEW of PASSAGE

Why is repentance so important?

We see the two camps again. 

Let’s do a brief overview of who the Pharisees and  the Sadducees were.

Civic, religious and cultural leaders in Israel. They were like opposing parties, like Democrats and Rebuplicans, or like the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, if you like Sports analogies. 

Both the Pharisees and  the Sadducees were members of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the ruling council of Israel, maybe somewhat like the U.S. Senate and the Supreme Court combined. There were two Sanhedrin’s, the greater and the lesser. The NT almost always refers to the Greater Sanhedrin, which met in the Temple in Jerusalem, and controlled it’s functions, which made the Sadducees rich. There were 71 members in the greater Sanhedrin, most of which were Sadducees. The Pharisees, on the other hand controlled the Synagoues, and, as a result, the people. Until the Pharisees and  the Sadducees untied in their stand against Jesus, they were always rivals, and were at odds with each other; competitors at best, and enemies at worst. 

Pharisees: 

See pg 36 in Holman. Pharisees were the “legalistic” Jews. 

Sadducees:

See page 36 in Holman. Sadussees were the “liberalized” Jews

Now let’s go back briefly to p 33 (in PINK in the book) to the “How could the Jews have missed it?” question. Here in ch. 3 v 7, we are beginning to see the answer, which will unfold throughout Matthew, mostly thru Jesus’ confrontation with “JEWS” (this term “Jews” most often refers to the Jewish leadership; the Pharisees, the Sadducees, sometimes referred to as the scribes, and sometimes included teachers of the law. 

The Sadducees “lorded it over” the people via the temple activities and religious ceremonies, while the Pharisees “lorded it over” the people via the Synagoues and rules, laws, rituals and requirements of daily life. 

The Pharisees came up with 613 laws and requirements, many of which are NOT in the Bible, or very wrongly interpreted in order to “control” the people and religious life in Israel. This is why, on p. 36, Holman calls them the “legalists.” Jesus spent much of His public ministry confronting and correcting the Pharisees and their legalism. 

The word “hypocrite” is used 15 times in the NT. In Matthew alone it is used 12 times. And in Matthew 23 alone, it is used 6 times. If you want to understand why Jesus was so angry with the Pharisees, Matthew 23 is a clear summary statement of His righteous indignation.

These two groups, the legalists and the liberalizes (Sadducees), are very much alive and active today in the Protestant Christian Church. Jesus is very, very RELAVANT. 

V. 7.  (NIV 1984) 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

First off, the first word ‘but’ is important in that it contrasts the last couple of verses from last week, which say, “(NIV 1984) 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” 

So, “the people coming out to him – that is, the people who were confessing their sins” in vs 5-6, is being contrasted (by the word “but”) with the Pharisees and Sadducees in v 7.  

Relevant Verses:

Question(s):

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V. 8.  (NIV 1984) 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

1. What do you think this phrase means?  
2. How is repentance different from regret or remorse?
   1. There are two aspects to the meaning of repentance, two sides of the same coin, if you will. And both sides, I think, have a little different type of fruit. In genuine repentance, both aspects of repentance produce good fruit – different fruit – but good. Non-repentance, or, disingenuous repentance, or hypocritical repentance leads only to bad fruit.
      1. The one side is turning away from our sin, an honest, heartfelt brokeness over our sin.
      2. The IVP New Testament Commentary says, “John’s “repentance” refers not to a regular turning from sin after a specific act but to a once-for-all repentance, the kind of turning from an old way of life
      3. Chuck Swindoll in his sermon call Brokeness: The Fruit of Repentance
         1. Refers to David being broken over his sin of adultery with Bathsheba in Ps. 51 and Isaiah 6. 
         2. And In Isaiah 6, Isaiah see the Lord, and hears the angels (Seraphs) declaring the Lord’s Holiness. When Isaiah was confronted with such holiness, he immediately realized what a sinner he was and declared “(ESV) “Woe is me! For I am lost (destroyed, dissolved, ruined, etc.); for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” He was broken right then and there there. His lips were unclean. His lips did not truly reflect his life. His talk did not match his walk. This is exactly what was wrong with the Pharisees, and why Jesus went after then so hard. In Isaiah’s case, he confessed his sin, and what was forgiven. In the Pharisees case,  they did not confess, and were not forgiven. Isaiah went on to become one of the greatest prophets in Israel. He bore incredible fruit for God. Good fruit. The Pharisees, on the other hand, sadly, did not. The Pharisees fruit was bad. And it adversely affected everyone around them..
      4. Understanding the fruit of repentance from this angle, means not only turning away from our sin, but turning away from doing things our own way, turning away from having in control of our own lives, turning away from being the lord of our own lives.
      5. The other side of the coin is a genuine turning toward God, an agreeing with God about the sinfulness of our sin and turning toward Him and His way of living. This side of the coin is the positive results of being forgiven, being cleansed of our sin, of no longer being under condemnation for our sin because it has been paid for by Jesus when we believed in Him as our redeemer and Savior. It means relinquishing Lordship of our lives over to God. The fruit of this side of the coin is the receiving of the Holy Spirit, and experiencing God’s work – not our work – in our lives thru the Holy Spirit. But genuine brokeness must come first. Then we start to experience the Fruit of the Spirit. 
      6. Fruit of Repentance of the first side of the coin comes first, and then, in time results in The Fruit of the Spirit – on the second side of the coin. 
      7. That is the Fruit of the Spirit that John is talking about here in vs 8 is primarily the first side of the coin, but always leads to the second side of the coin.
3. It is a necessary part of conversion, or of being truly saved; being born again.

4. As we learned last week in Pastor Jeremy’s sermon on 1 Cor 13, The Bible tells us we should occasionally check ourselves, just to make sure we walking with the Lord in accordance with HIS ways and not walking in our own ways. If you wonder about all this, if wonder if you have the fruit of repentance that results, over time, in Fruit of the Spirit in your life, ask yourself, some of these questions:
   1. Do I hate sin? (in all it’s many forms)
   2. Do I love righteousness? 
   3. Do I value holiness?
   4. Do I love my neighbor as myself?
   5. Do I speak the truth in love? 
   6. Do I love mercy and grace?
   7. Do I love justice?
   8. Do I pursue righteousness, godliness, holiness, gentleness, faithfulness and love?
   9. Do I long for Jesus second coming and for heaven? 
   10. Who really sits on the throne of my life? 
   11. Who is controlling and directing my life – me or Jesus?
   12. Who or what do I obey? 
   13. Am I surrendered to Christ? 
   14. Do I actively and intentionally follow the Holy Spirit in my life? 
   15. Who do I live to please?
   16. Do love God?

 There are three essentials that define the Christian life found in first 3 or 4 verses of 1John 5. 

They are:

1. Belief
2. Love
3. Obedience

They are so intricately intertwined that one cannot exist without the other. 

If we say we believe, love must follow. If we say we believe, obedience must follow.

Belief in Jesus results in overflowing love, not only for God, but for our brothers & sisters & the lost as well. 

This does not necessarily happen all at once, but it grows. It grows as we practice obedience by studying God’s Word & serving. Love, like fruit, ripens as we obey. And as our love grows, so grows our desire to serve.

How can we say we believe, but not do what he says? See Luk 6:46

Love what God loves.

Treasure what God treasures.

Do what God does..

Relevant verses: l See notes on Luke 3:8 and Acts 26:20 and 2 Cor. 13:5. And 1 John 5:1-5

So, we have been talking a lot lately about Repentance-an often-times unpopular subject; sometimes watered down, and usually just avoided. It is rarely preached on. But absolutely essential to our faith. 

One commentary says, “ In all the Gospels the ministry of Jesus is prefaced by that of John. There is a very good reason, in addition to the obvious historical one (that Jesus came to save us from our sins by intentionally dying on the cross): the central message of Jesus is repentance, and without repentance there is no way in which a person can respond to the good news and become a member of the kingdom of heaven. Repentance is the inescapable beginning.” (Bible Speaks Today)

Another commentary says, “ It (repentance) expressed God’s ‘frequent summons to Israel to “return” to God, to abandon their rebellion and come back to covenant-obedience’. In other words, it is equivalent to conversion, a radical change of heart as well as mind, leading to a changed life.” (Welwyn Commentary) That is true. In fact, there cannot be true salvation without true repentance. 

Q:  Earlier I asked if you hated sin. Now I drill down a bit. And ask you a very personal, potentially challenging question; Do you hate YOUR sin?

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V. 9-10   (NIV 1984) 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax 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.

V. 9.  See book, p. 37

The Jews were, as we all do from time to time, justify themselves. One of the core teachings of the Bible, however, is that we cannot do that. We are not able to do that. 

The Jews claimed to be “righteous” because they are Abraham’s descendants. 

But first John, then later, Jesus both say that the Jews cannot claim to be “righteous” because they are Abraham’s descendants (Abraham’s children by blood). For a great paragraph in this read John 8:34-47. 

We are only considered righteous if we are the Spiritual children of Abraham, adopted son and daughters of God who are saved by Jesus.

V. 10.   The Bible tells us that Jesus – at some time in the future, is coming again, and that He will be bring “JUDGMENT” with Him. The ax in verse 10 here, refers to the judgement to come when Jesus returns. For more on this, read Matt. 7:15-20, and Matt 12:33-37.

These vs., especially Matt 7, help us to understand what is meant by “good fruit” and “bad fruit,” or good trees and bad trees. 

(NIV 1984) To better understand what is meant by fruit here, let’s let scripture help us to interpret scripture. Let;s look at Matt 7:15-20 (below). The last half of verse 16 helps us to understand what are good fruits and bad fruits. It says, “Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? In this whole discussion of good and bad fruit we are not talking about being perfect, or never making a mistake, or never sinning (See 1 John 1:8-10). We are still sinners until Jesus comes and rescues us up out of this world. And He will! No, we are not talking about the differences in the degrees of the quality of the fruit, like good or not so good apples. Or apples that have no worms vs apples that do have worms. No. Whether an Apple has a worm or not, it us still an Apple. And an apple is s good fruit. And an apple tree is a good tree because it produces apples. Even if every apple is not perfect, like not every Christian is perfect. Even if some apples have worms. Each and every apple tree produces varying qualities of apples. Some better than others. But they are still apples. The contrast in this parable is not about some apple tree bearing better apples than other apple trees.  No, we are not talking about differences in degrees of quality between apple trees or Christians. We are talking about differences in “kind,” not degrees of quality. We are talking about different kinds of trees altogether. It says you cannot pick grapes from thorn bushes. Nor can you pick apples, a good fruit, from a thorn bush, a bad tree. Nor can you pick oranges from a thorn bush. Or pears, or peaches. You cannot pick good fruit from a bad tree. In the same way, you cannot expect a Rose bush to produce daisies, or raspberries or lemons. The difference is in kind, not quality. 

Thornbushes and Thistles can produce bad fruit that can harm some people or possibly even kill some people. (Milk thistle can cause an allergic reaction, including a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction (anaphylaxis). (mayoclinic.com) Thistles are among the most disliked plants in the world. (https://prairieecologist.com/2020/02/24/another-example-of-the-value-of-thistles/#:~:text=Thistles are among the most,seeds are nutritious wildlife food.) 

The bottom line logic us that people do not look to thornbushes and thickest for their everyday nourishment needs. People don’t look to them for apples or lemons or peaches or pears or bananas, etc. They do not normally or generally produce good fruit. I have never seen a thorn bush or thistle farm producing food for people. 

John’s point in these two verses is that the Pharisees have not even acknowledged their sin, yet alone sincerely repented of them. They are bad fruit. And they will face judgement and fire if they don’t repent. This is another discussion that John starts and Jesus finishes. 

See John 8:34-47: (NIV) 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

From Teach the Text: (Teach the Text) 3:10 good fruit. “Matthew introduces a theme that characterizes his Gospel: the importance of doing God’s will or, as in the metaphor here, producing good fruit (see 7:16–23; 12:33–37, 48–50; 21:43).“

Relevant Verses: Matt. 7:15-20 (NIV) Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Matt 12:33-37 (NIV) Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Ezekiel 11:19-21 (NIV) 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD. ”

Ezekiel 36:25-29a. (NIV) 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness.

John 8:34-47: (NIV) 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Question(s):  

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Relevant Verses: Question(s):

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Every week close with SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: A QUESTIONS:

4. Do I hate sin? (in all it’s many forms)
5. Do I love righteousness? 
6. Do I value holiness?
7. Do I love my neighbor as myself?
8. Do I speak the truth in love? 
9. Do I love mercy and grace?
10. Do I love justice?
11. Do I pursue righteousness, godliness, holiness, gentleness, faithfulness and love?
12. Do I long for Jesus second coming and for heaven? 
13. Who really sits on the throne of my life? 
14. Who is controlling and directing my life – me or Jesus?
15. Who or what do I obey? 
16. Am I surrendered to Christ? 
17. Do I actively and intentionally follow the Holy Spirit in my life? 
18. Who do I live to please?
19. Do love God?

And, do I hate MY sin?