Walk to Easter: Luke 3, John the Baptist's Spiritual Farming Instructions

Luke 3:8 "Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham"

How do you remain fruitful in your spiritual life? For a farmer, in order to make his fields fruitful, it takes work in the form of plowing, sowing, and harvesting a field. Likewise, in our spiritual lives, it takes work to produce fruit as well. However, that work doesn't come in the form of tending a field, but rather, tending a heart. And as John the Baptist is going to show us this morning, we do this by means of repentance.

As we looked at a few devotionals ago, John the Baptist was the great forerunner and introducer of Jesus whose purpose was to "prepare the way of the Lord." In Luke 3, we get to see John the Baptist in action. He begins by preaching a "baptist of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 3:3), as Luke tells us. that baptism of repentance, however, is extremely convicting to the hearts of the audience hearing it originally, and extremely convicting to us as well.

John's preaching a baptism of repentance went a little something like this:

"Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Luke 3:8-9).

This sermon sounds exactly like what you want to hear on a Sunday morning, is it not? Repent of your sins, or God will chop you down like a useless tree. Yup, that sounds exactly what I go to church to hear. But let us notice this this morning: although this is the message we often don't want to hear, it's the message that we need to hear for our own salvation.

What John is telling us in these verses is true: if we don't bear fruit in keeping with repentance, God will cut us down and throw us into hell forever. Why? Because a true Christian will be one who bears fruit as he keeps with repentance. This is the pattern of the kingdom of God, and if you're not repenting of your sin daily and producing righteous fruit, you are not following the pattern of the kingdom of God, and are walking your way towards eternal separation from God. Is this a harsh message? Yes. But it is also the message we need to hear if we ever desire to be saved from the eternal wrath of God.

So, I ask you this morning: are you bearing fruit in keeping with repentance? In other words, are you continually repenting (that is, confessing and turning away from) of your sin that you might bear fruit for God? If not, John the Baptist's message here is that God will cut you down and throw you into the fire. So I encourage you this morning, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. It not only is the way of the kingdom, but it is the way to your prosperity, peace, and everlasting joy. Amen!