Get Ready

Today on Summit Life, an urgent reminder from Pastor J.D.

Greer. Jesus said for us to live ready that there's always an apocalyptic kind of edge to the gospel because there are two things that could happen at any moment that none of us know. One is that Jesus could return. He says he's going to come like a thief in the night. The thing about thieves coming in the night is they don't tell you, they don't make appointments. They don't show up. They don't send a courtesy call. They just come when you're not expecting it.

The other thing that could happen with you not knowing is death. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. When you were a kid, or let's face it, a college student, did you ever get a really big homework assignment, but instead of chipping away at it over the semester, you kept putting it off and then frantically tried to finish it the night before it was due? Can you say all-nighter?

I think most of us did something along those lines at least once. Thankfully with a homework assignment, the worst that can happen is that you get a bad grade. But today Pastor J.D. talks about something that you might be putting off that has much higher stakes.

Wondering what that assignment might be? Time to buckle up for our teaching today and a message he titled, Get Ready. So are you ready?

Let's go. If you got a Bible, I'd invite you to take it out and open it to Matthew chapter three. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. Today in Matthew three, we're going to jump into the story of a rather strange figure who was sent by God ahead of Jesus in order to prepare everybody for the coming of Jesus.

This guy was sent to prepare the way. He captured the attention of the entire nation of Israel in part because he was so odd. I just got back, most of you know, from being overseas with my family where everyone regarded me and my family to be a little odd. Little things that we in our country take for granted, they find weird. Like wanting ice in our drinks.

It doesn't seem weird to me, but it seemed weird to them. Even when I ate at McDonald's and I'm typically not a McDonald's regular, but you'd be surprised how good those golden arches of capitalism look after you've been overseas for a while. Even there at McDonald's, when I ordered a Diet Coke, they gave it to me with one cube of ice in it. And so I asked the guy at the counter very politely, could I have some more ice? He looked at me with a very strange look on his face. And so I said it more slowly and loudly because that's always the way that people understand things. And then he disappeared the back, I guess, to go talk to the manager.

And a few minutes later, he emerges with tongs and one more cube of ice. Like he's holding a national treasure. When you're from a different culture, you seem strange. John the Baptist in Matthew chapter three is going to seem strange, but for different reasons. He's not strange for cultural reasons as if he's from a different country. He's a Jew that's sent to Jews, but his ministry and his lifestyle are so odd that it gets everybody's attention.

And that is by design. God designed that because he wanted to show Israel what they needed to do in order to receive Jesus. You see, maybe you've asked that very question. How exactly do you receive Jesus? You're like, I've heard Christians talk about that, but what does that mean? Does it mean that you come to church a lot? Is there a certain level of morality that you obtain?

If so, how much is enough? How much of those things do you have to do in order to qualify as a Christian? Or maybe you thought this, I would like to know God. I'm interested in that, but I'm just not interested in getting involved in organized religion. I mean, maybe you're thinking that you're looking at me and you're like, Hey man, no offense to you, but I just don't trust organized religion, but I am interested in knowing God.

Or maybe you say, I'm interested in God, but I just don't see what the big deal is about Jesus. John is going to point you, John is Jesus's cousin by the way. John the Baptist is going to point you toward the answer to all of those questions. Matthew chapter three, verse one. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and his message was pretty simple. Repent, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord and make his past straight. Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Those details are included because that's what made John seem so odd. Now the wild honey doesn't sound too bad, but the locusts. Just out of curiosity, how many of you at all of our campuses, how many of you have had locusts before eating them? Raise your hand.

That's a good number in this audience. I actually have had them once on a mission trip to a rural part of China. If you dip them in caramel sauce or like John, I think that's what the wild honey was about is you dipped them in there to cover up the taste. The worst part by far is when their legs get stuck in your teeth.

It takes flossing to a new level. Let's just say that. But these things are not strange to Jews because they were gross. It may seem gross to us, but they weren't gross to Jews. They were strange because they revealed that John was not part of the aristocracy. You see, most religious leaders back then were part of the aristocracy. They all lived in Jerusalem. They had degrees. They wore nice clothes.

They drove nice chariots and they were fairly wealthy. But obviously John wasn't. But there was something about John that was really odd to them. And that is that he reminded them of someone that they'd heard about but never met.

That was somebody in their history who had the reputation of having the same kind of persona as this, this grizzly Adams kind of persona. And that was a prophet named Elijah. And so as they listened to John, they thought he sounds like Elijah.

We've always heard sounded. And see, there was these prophecies in the Old Testament, several of them that said that before the Messiah came that Elijah would precede him. You see one there in Matthew, Isaiah says the voice of one crying in the wilderness. That's about Elijah. In Malachi 4-5, the prophet says Elijah is going to come before the Messiah comes.

And so they thought maybe this is him. Maybe this is Elijah reincarnate. He dresses like Elijah. He talks like Elijah. He preaches like Elijah. He smells like Elijah.

This has to be him. And so he got their attention. Verse 5, then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins. All right, let's spend a few minutes talking about John's message. First, I want you to note the simplicity of John's message. You can summarize it really in one word, repent.

All repent really means is turn away from your sin. That was basically his whole sermon. And after a while, you'd be like, okay, John got point number one. Why don't you move on to point number two? And John would say, I don't really have a point number two.

All I really have is point one. And you would say, well, John, I came, I'm wanting to learn a little something. I'm here to learn. And John would say, then you better get serious about repenting because the problem is not that you need to know something new. The problem is you're not doing what you already know. The problem for most of us is not that we don't know enough. The problem for most of us is that we're not obedient to the things that we do know. You see, evidently, most of the people listening to John did not need to be told what to repent of. That's why there's no list in here. They already knew what they needed to repent of.

The vast majority of people today do not need to be told. They already know what area of your life right now is not under the full authority of God. Are you obeying Him? Is He first in your finances? Is He first in your heart? Is He first in your relationships?

Is He first with your time? Are you obeying Him in the area of sexuality? Is there anything that He has forsaken that you have not forbidden? Is there any area of your life He doesn't have lordship over?

Any habit that you have you know is not pleasing to Him? If so, you don't need to come here and take notes. You need to repent. Now, here's what you learn from John. God's got nothing else to say to you until you do. And you're like, well, I'm ready to move on to point two. He's like, you don't need a point two.

You need a point one. Do you understand how wicked it is to know that God wants you to do something and then to choose the opposite? Need I remind you that the entire human race was plunged into darkness and death, not because of some morally depraved act, but because they knew that God wanted them not to eat of a forbidden tree and they did it anyway. What was so bad about that one act? Now, they didn't like stomp on puppies on the way to the tree or skewer angels with javelin. No. All they did was eat of a fruit that God told them not to.

Why was it so bad? Numbers 25. You got a story that's really disturbing to be quite honest. Yeah, God's just given the law to Israel. One of the laws says not to work on the Sabbath. Well, there's a guy in Israel who knows that's the law, but he needs some things for the house. So he goes out and he gathers up a bunch of sticks in defiance of the law. Now, it's a morally innocuous act, right? He's not hurting anybody.

He's gathering sticks. Israel brings them up before God says, God, what should we do? And God says, stone him.

Stone him for gathering sticks on the Sabbath. What was so evil? Sin does not get its wickedness.

Listen to this. Sin does not get its wickedness by the depravity of the act. Sin derives its wickedness from the one whose authority you throw off when you commit it. Do you understand how wicked it is to know that God wants something and to deliberately go the other direction? Do you realize what that is? 1 Samuel 15, to rebel, to know what God wants and do to the opposite is like the sin of witchcraft, which means if there is an area of your life that you know is not pleasing to God, and you're like, I just don't feel like dealing with that, God says, you might as well be worshiping Satan because that's how I see those things.

The problem is not that we need to learn a bunch of new things. The problem in every age is that we just need to repent and come to Jesus in the areas that we know are not under his control. Second, note the tone of John's message. The simplicity was repent. The tone was what we call apocalyptic. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Apocalyptic just means it concerns the end of the world. Now, usually when you talk that way, that makes people think you're crazy. You see a guy with a bumper sticker or a t-shirt that says the end is near. You don't usually think, no, that's a guy I really would like to know.

I want him to influence my family, babysit my children. That's not what you think. But it made people listen to John because they believed him. And there's nothing that will get somebody's attention like actually believing the end is near. Right?

Right. I mean, they always say that there's two ways you can get people back in church. One is to do a series on the end times. The other is to do a series on sex. It's always made me wonder if I could come up with a series on what kinds of sex we will have in the end times, if we can make attendance go through the roof. But the thing is, I don't really know when the end is going to be here. And I can't tell you as if it's going to be next week. But what I do know, what I do know is that Jesus said for us to live ready, that there's always an apocalyptic kind of edge to the gospel, because there are two things that could happen at any moment that none of us know. I am very aware that this very day, one of two things might happen to you that would essentially mean the end was near.

One is that Jesus could return. He says he's going to come like a thief in the night. The thing about thieves coming in the night is they don't tell you, they don't make appointments. They don't show up.

They don't send a courtesy call. They just come when you're not expecting it. And Jesus said, ultimately, when I come, that's what it's going to be like. You're going to find a generation of sleeping and I'm going to show up and they're not going to be ready. That could happen before I end the sermon.

The other thing that could happen with you not knowing is death. A few years ago, I was speaking at a student event on the weekend, not our student event, but another one. And there was a kid there that sat on the first row.

He sat literally right there, took copious notes the whole time I talked. I was talking about the assurance of salvation. You could know that you were going to go to heaven.

Great kid, athletic, that afternoon got into an accident and died. And what it's always made me realize is I stand in front of 10,000 people on a weekend. There's a real good chance that for somebody, this is the last chance you're going to have to hear and understand who Jesus is and actually respond. And when you begin to grasp that, it suddenly makes the message like John's take on a greater urgency. I wish that I could carry the authority that John carried in making you realize that you are playing with things that you really can't play with because you just don't know that it really could be over this weekend for you. And what it means to start to live with wisdom is to think about that day, that last day, and start to live today the way that you'll know you want to live when you get there.

That's why Moses prayed Psalm 90 verse 12, Lord teach us to think about death so that we might know how to live. I mean, even if death doesn't take you by surprise, even if it doesn't come in the form of an accident, have you noticed as you get older, how much faster life seems to go? I mean, I'm like, there was some college students at my house the other night and one of them said, man, this last year just flew by.

And I'm like, you ain't got no idea. I mean, it's like every year I'm like, are the years literally getting shorter or something happened to the rotation of the earth? How does this happen this fast? Right? You feel that? I looked in the mirror the other day and I'm like, I'm 43 years old.

How did this happen? And it just seems like you suddenly arrive at a place where you look back and life is in the rear view mirror. You ever heard that phrase? Only one life to live will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And so you begin to live today in light of what you know was coming.

And that is the end. And it got people's attention. And they thought about their lives in the present from a glimpse in the future. The tone was apocalyptic.

Number three, notice the response. Baptism. Baptism was not completely unknown in those days. A lot of people think John invented the baptism, like John was the first guy to, oh, I got an idea.

But it's not true. Baptism was actually pretty common in Jewish life, but it was always used in one of two ways. The first way, it was a part of the conversion process, listen, when a Gentile became a Jew. So when a Gentile, non-Jew wanted to become a Jew, they did three things. First one was circumcision, which had to reduce the male convert potential pool pretty dramatically if you ask me.

In fact, I was thinking about this. You know how we do spontaneous baptisms here? What's a spontaneous circumcision? We got all that you'll need, bandages, Vicodin.

I mean, somebody drive you home. I mean, I don't know how to do that. But they did circumcision. Number two, you memorize some sections out of the Torah. And then number three is you got baptized, showing that you were leaving your Gentile life and entering into this new life as a Jew. Well, the second kind of baptism was baptisms that Jews put themselves through as a ritual purification when they want to offer a sacrifice.

John's baptism is clearly not either of those. It's directed at Jews, not Gentiles. So it's not about Gentiles becoming Jews, but it's also more than just a ritual cleansing. He calls it a baptism of repentance. He is talking as if Jews need to be converted and need to repent the way Gentiles do.

And that was completely unheard of to them. Verse seven, when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, all the religious people started to come because that's what religious people do. They find out what cool religious things are happening in the religious world.

So they go do those religious things so they can add them to their religious resume. So he looks out there and there's all these Sadducees and Pharisees. And John says to them, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the rap to come.

It's not up on his secret church nomenclature. Verse eight, bear fruit therefore in keeping with repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, we got Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. In other words, stop hiding behind religion. And quit telling yourself, I'm a Jew, I'm a church elder.

I give it the church. I'm going to be okay. I've gone through this ritual because I'm not talking, he says, about something that needs to change in your behavior. I'm talking about something that needs to change at your very roots. Listen to this. I know exactly where I'm at.

I'm in the south. Religion is the cover-up for true repentance, always. Religion is always the great substitute for true repentance.

It is religion that keeps most people, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, from dealing with repentance. One of the most revolutionary stories that Jesus told involves two sons. Very few people understand this story as illustrated by what we call it. We call it the story of the prodigal son, singular. But there's actually two sons in there. The first son is the prodigal who runs away.

That's the one we know about. But there's a second son in Jesus' story. And Jesus makes sure to point out that this son, while he stayed home and didn't run away in rebellion, this son stayed outside the house. That's Jesus' way of showing that even though he's around the home, he's not in fellowship with the father. And this son is furious at the grace that the father shows the returning prodigal, which Jesus says shows that he doesn't understand that he also is a recipient of grace. This second son thinks that he deserves the father's possessions and his blindness to his own desperate need for grace makes him proud and bitter and judgmental and shows that he's every bit as separated from the father as the son who went out and lived with prostitutes. There are two ways to be separated from God.

Hear this. One is by defying the laws of God like a rebel. That's the first prodigal. But the second is in thinking you're good enough to earn the father's approval and never dealing with the core issues of your heart and failing to recognize the grace that you need to be accepted by God.

Religion keeps a lot of people from ever dealing with the root problem in their heart, which is that they love themselves more than they love God. I've described it before like this. You got a guy who keeps a mistress one day a week, only on Saturday. Now, you know, you're like, well, man, your wife is upset with you. You're not a very good husband. And he says, you know what?

You're right. So I'm going to really be a better husband on Sunday through Friday. He's not dealing with his mistress.

He's just going to bring her flowers and take her to dinner on Sunday through Friday. And you're like, bro, the problem is not that you're not a good enough husband and you're not busy enough Sunday through Friday. The problem is you have a heart that is divided and you're faithful to two things.

Basically, Jesus says, the religious people, your problem is not that you're not religiously busy. If you don't need another ritual, you need something that's going to go down to the core of who you are because you think you're good enough to earn God's favor. You think he owes you. And you think that just another ritual and somehow you're going to prove your place before God, stop doing your damnable good works and actually repent and cling to God's grace. Cause it's the only hope that you have. It's why John is so harsh with him.

Listen in the South, you've got to hear this. Religion is going to delude more people out of repentance and send them to hell than rebellion ever will. Because it keeps you from understanding your need for grace and keeps you from dealing with the core of your heart. So now verse 11, John begins to show you the significance of his baptism. Now that he's prepared the way, now he's going to show you the significance of his baptism. Verse 11, I baptize you with water for repentance, but there's some almighty coming after me that's mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John says that his baptism, in other words, is symbolic of something, a greater baptism. The real baptism happens not in water like John is baptizing with.

The real baptism, he says, is going to happen in the Holy Spirit. And that makes, listen to this, that makes the place of John's baptism really significant. You see the Jordan River, two ways it describes it, the Jordan River on the edge of the wilderness. The Jordan River was the boundary between the wilderness and Israel. The Jordan River was the place where Joshua, after the children of Israel had wandered in sin for 40 years in the wilderness, the Jordan River was the place they crossed over to go into the promised land.

It was the place where they, figuratively speaking, left the wilderness of sin to live in the faith and obedience of the promised land of Israel. And so what John says is the real baptism is when you leave the wilderness of sin for the promised land of faith and obedience. And the only way that you can do that is not through a baptism like this.

The only way you can do that is through the fire of the Holy Spirit, which is why you need a Messiah who can give you the Holy Spirit, not somebody that can just take you through a religious ritual. So verse 13, enter Jesus. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John and then in order to be baptized by him. And John recognizes him.

I mean, they're cousins after all. And John's like, whoa, you can't do that. Jesus, this is a baptism watch of repentance. In order to have a baptism of repentance, you've got to have something to repent of.

And Jesus was perfect. How would Jesus undergo with integrity a baptism of repentance if he had nothing to repent of? So what does Jesus answer? Look down at verse 15. Jesus answered him, let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

What? Jesus has righteousness that needs to be fulfilled? I thought Jesus was righteous. Did Jesus, when he left heaven, did he like, was his righteousness, did he need to top it off?

Maybe he'd lost a little bit and need to add it back up. No, he was always fully righteous. He was never anything less than 100% righteous.

What does he mean? I needed to fulfill righteousness. So John consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were open to him. And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Did you see it? There's the whole gospel right there.

What's happening? Jesus doesn't need to repent. Jesus doesn't need to fulfill his righteousness. Yet he's being baptized in repentance and he's being baptized to fulfill righteousness, even though he doesn't need to repent and he doesn't need to become any more righteous.

Why is he doing those things? Because he is beginning, listen to this, his ministry of substitution. You see, Jesus is going to live the life that we are supposed to live and then die the death that we are condemned to die. It is true that Jesus did not need to repent, but we did. So Jesus does it perfectly in our place so that he can continue to live in our place so that when he dies, he's actually going to bear the condemnation that we bore.

He's going to live the life we're supposed to live and then die the death work and then to die. The gospel is always front and center here on Summit Life. Our message today was titled Get Ready.

To learn more about how Jesus suffered in your place and how you can be made right with God, be sure to visit jdgrier.com. Well, if you're a regular listener, you know that in addition to the daily messages, we also pick out different resources each month to go along with our study. A lot of these are workbooks or Bible studies, but this time we came up with something pretty unique. It's a set of books of the Bible cards.

We hope you'll call today to get your set. But interestingly, there's a lot more resources available to you as a listener that are available on our website, right, J.D.? Yeah, and even some new resources. You can now sign up for our brand new daily devotional that'll get delivered right to your inbox every day. Something short that I've written that goes along with whatever teaching you're hearing on Summit Life.

You know I'm a big fan, Molly, of layering teaching, like hearing it in stereo so that you're hearing the message, you're reading it a little bit of it in your quiet time. This daily devotional will go a long way in helping saturate your mind in these truths so they transform you. We've got the Summit Life blog where we deal with different topics that are related usually to messages that I've preached.

Every month we've got a free download available on the website. Sometimes it's a study guide or a set of devotionals in an e-book format. We've also got transcripts for every single message. That may be people's favorite thing is word for word. What I'm saying here on our show Summit Life, you can find it word for word in our transcript. Sometimes you'll see footnotes that'll tell you where some of the original sources are. We've got video messages, of course, the Ask Me Anything podcast, all these resources, Molly, they're all completely 100% free.

Just check them out at jdgrier.com and I think some of them will be a help to you. When you give a gift of $25 or more, you're helping more people learn and grow through these gospel-centered programs. So when someone writes in to thank us for this program, their thanks really belongs to you. Ask for the set of the Books of the Bible Cards when you give today by calling 866-335-5220.

Or you can also request the cards when you sign up to be a gospel partner online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovich and I'm so glad that you joined us today. Be sure to listen again Thursday when we continue our series called The Whole Story on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.