Repentance That Bears Fruit | Luke 3:1–17 | A Call to Genuine Transformation
John the Baptist didn’t soften his message to win a crowd—he called people to radical repentance and transformation. In this Advent sermon on Luke 3:1–17, Pastor Mark Groen shows how John's words still challenge us today. As we prepare for Christ’s coming, we are reminded that God desires hearts that are changed—not just lives that look good on the outside. This message calls us to examine ourselves, turn from sin, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week, we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us.
Most, if not all of us, have had to pick out fruit at some point, whether it was at a roadside stand or at a farmer's market or at a grocery store. We found ourselves trying to determine what the best purchase option is for a piece of fruit. Now some fruit is pretty easy. It's straightforward. You don't buy the really brown bananas unless you're planning to make banana bread. Right? And they're really cheap. You get that option too, you know, where they're in that special basket. You don't walk up to that special basket at the store and think, Hey, I'm gonna eat that. That's just not what you do. You can also eyeball a bag of grapes. You can make a pretty good assessment about the general pleasing nature of those grapes in that bag but you buy it knowing you're probably gonna have one or two you're gonna throw in the trash. Right? When you get fruit selection right, you're very happy. It can even be memorable. I personally remember a peach I bought on the side of the road in Michigan once. It was really that good. It can be memorable.
But I'm guessing, if you've ever bitten into a rotten piece of fruit, that was memorable as well. It gets deeply embedded into your psyche and you're more cautious the next time you pick out that type of fruit. You don't forget something like that any time. And peaches are maybe the perfect example of what I'm talking about here. They actually catch your eye because the color of the skin, you know, that mix of orange and red, it's vibrant. It looks good. But then you pick it up and you handle it. And you quickly get some clues that the appearance is deceiving because you're noticing that it's soft in the wrong places, and you have it in your hand now. And being a little overripe, the smell is maybe too good, maybe too strong. And then you get the ultimate clue that it's a little too perfect. You press on it gently, but your thumb goes into where the rot is. Right? And you find out quickly, even though it seemed to be perfect, it was not fit for consumption.
So as we come to the gospel of Luke this morning, we see John the Baptist call the people that he is preaching to to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And John is calling out the crowds that have come out to hear him, not for their lack of religious activity. That seems to be going pretty well more than likely, but he's calling them out for their lack of true transformation. He is saying that it's not enough to look the part or claim heritage as the offspring of Abraham. He is letting them know that God is inspecting the fruit of their lives and ours.
Not for outward appearance, as we're preparing for Christmas, where we're going to remember and celebrate the first coming of Jesus, what we're doing during Advent is we're desiring to remember that Christ has promised to come again to judge the living and the dead at the end of history. So we come to this familiar passage with that in mind. Now, it may have confused you. Maybe you were taken back by our reading of Luke three prior to Christmas because the most well-known telling of the Christmas story is in Luke one and two. Right? So why are we reading from Luke chapter three before Christmas? Christmas happens in the second chapter of Luke. But here in the second Advent, we're reading it with something else in mind. We receive a reminder that we're to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.
Now John the Baptist was calling his listeners to repentance. He was preparing them for the earthly ministry of Jesus. But we find that the words of John the Baptist ring true for us as well on the other side of the story. As we approach Christmas, we have persistent reminders of the first coming of Jesus to prompt us to remember that there is also a second coming on the horizon. He is going to come, as we confess, to judge the living and the dead. So with that perspective, that framework to guide us, we're gonna line out our three points for today, and then we'll get into the passage. So first, we're gonna focus on that call to repentance. Preparing for Christ is more than polishing up appearances. It's about acknowledging our sinfulness and also acknowledging our need for forgiveness and understanding that this means that we need to turn to Christ. Bearing fruit. Repentance isn't just feeling sorry over our sin. Repentance produces something in us. Finally, as we come and drop into the start of this chapter, we see history.
He is letting us know that this actually happened. And we don't just see this here in Luke chapter three. You know what I'm gonna reference. We hear this every time we read the Christmas story. And if someone is reading the Christmas story, what happens nearly every time, they struggle over saying when Quirinius was governor of Syria. But that's not just Luke trying to fill out an assignment to have enough words to turn into his teacher. He's not just adding these names. He's not adding filler to have the book be longer. No. He is deliberately letting us know that this happened in real time in space history. And in most religions, that doesn't matter. But for the very real problem of sin and death, and the reason that sin and death came into the world, because that's the focus, it's very important that Luke lets us know that this happened. Luke lets us know that this story of Jesus and the people surrounding him are real people. And the message that he gives applies to real people. And the message that he gives is going to solve a very real problem.
And one of the very real people here is an interesting character, John, the son of Zechariah. We know him as John the Baptist. He is out in the wilderness and he is doing something interesting. As we read this, we can easily miss the significance of what is happening. Because we read it and we think John the Baptist is baptizing people. What a shocker! Somebody we call the Baptist is baptizing, right? Only controversy that we might think about with baptism is whether or not you do covenant baptism like we do or believers baptism. That's the only controversy. But when you know what is happening here, you can actually see the radical nature of what John is doing.
So when you take out your Bible and flip through it, you get to the end of the Old Testament, like we did this morning. And there are many of those minor prophet books. They fly by pretty quick because most of them are relatively short. And you get to the end of Malachi four. We read from three today. But you get to Malachi four. And there's then maybe one blank page, right, between the Old Testament and the New Testament. We go right into Matthew and we're pretty excited to do so because here comes Jesus. Well, the next time you come across that blank page, take a second and look at that blank page. There's nothing there, obviously. It's a blank page. But there's nothing to read. There's nothing to hear. It's just silence. I want you to think about that silence. Because for a period of time, there was no prophetic word. And this time, it's known as the intertestamental period. It was roughly four hundred years without any prophetic activity.
The world was set for the coming of Jesus. There was a lot going on in the background. So much happened during this time to set up the world for the rapid advance of the gospel after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. But there wasn't any revelation during this period. So when you see that blank page next time, I want you to remember that blank page. And think of the silence that happened there between the Old and New Testaments. And then something happened. There's this guy out in the wilderness. And John the Baptist is functionally an Old Testament prophet in the New Testament. And he is not only breaking the silence, but I want you to remember when you see that blank page between the testaments, what was practiced by Jews.
Baptism was actually for gentiles who wanted to come in from the outside. They wanted to be a part of the family of God. They were baptized. And so the breaking of the silence is not just a guy out in the wilderness, giving motivational talks with God at the center. He is saying to his Jewish audience, You need to be washed like the unclean gentiles. Do you feel that? Do you feel that tension there? This is scandalous. He is saying to Jews who see themselves as clean, You need to be washed. You're like an unclean gentile. And so in proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, he is saying, You need to turn from your sin to God.
And it's important that we remember that the idea of repentance in the New Testament is primarily a change of mind. You need to acknowledge your sinfulness and you need to turn to him and flee from your sin. And you really get this idea when you think about their view of gentiles, how unclean they were. There isn't much of a greater acknowledgment of the state of sinfulness for a first-century Jew than saying, you need to be washed like an unclean gentile. And like I said before, it was scandalous. But yet, people were coming to hear him. People who were hearing this message were not only hearing it, they were making their way to the water.
And Luke lets us know there was a purpose for this. John is not self-serving. He is ordained by God to fulfill the mission of the gospel. He is preparing the way of the Lord. So the prophet Isaiah said that there would be one who would make straight the paths for the Messiah. So the call to repentance is to be ready for the righteous one to arrive. So the language of Isaiah quoted here provides an image for us to help us understand the purpose of all this. There's to be a wholesale change. Valleys are filled. Mountains are made low. Now, this isn't saying that this one who comes is going to change the topography of first-century Israel. The goal of the one preparing the way of the Lord isn't to make Israel look like a tabletop. It is providing us with an image to understand how much of a wholesale change this is.
Look at that last line there in verse six. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And as we've seen many times, as we've been looking at scripture together, a statement like this is making a very bold declaration. Salvation is not just going to be for one particular family who is descended from the line of Jacob. Salvation is no longer going to be just for the genetic insiders. It is going to be for all the children of Abraham, all who would be called to faith in the Messiah. And so with this amazing change close and at hand, the call then to these people and to us is not just a polishing of appearances. It's not throwing the messes into a box and putting them in the guest room before some people come over. The drastic changes described by the prophet Isaiah are not just for the people who receive salvation but for the lives of God's people as well.
And so John calls them to repentance. And it isn't about superficial fixes or temporary adjustments. It demanded a radical transformation, like a valley being filled or a mountain being made low. But how do we know this repentance is real? By the fruit it bears. And we see this as we move to our second point to see that true repentance bears fruit. And you can't miss the seriousness of what John the Baptist is saying when you read these verses. As I mentioned before, John is proclaiming a scandalous message. But still, the people are coming out to hear him.
And usually, when the crowds come to see you, you like the attention, right? And you tend to soften your message to get the people to stick around. But, clearly, John isn't going to change his message to keep people coming by massaging their consciences. He calls them a brood of vipers, and he asks them, Who warned you to flee the wrath to come? Why such aggressive language? Well, in referring to them as snakes, he is calling out their hypocrisy. They weren't interested in this message. And by asking them, who warned you to flee the wrath to come? He is essentially saying to them, You don't get my message. You don't understand.
So to grasp this, we need to remember who the opposition of the message of Jesus is throughout the Gospels. The opposition to Jesus isn't the average person going out to hear him preaching on a hillside. It isn't the Roman state upset that a Hebrew rabbi is drawing big crowds. The opposition in the Gospels is from the Pharisees, a group of people who legitimately were concerned with the way the people had fallen away from the Jewish faith. They're all over the Gospels. We so easily forget that the Pharisees really did mean well. They really did. The group started with a focus on bringing people back to the law, but for them, it became about man-made laws that they had put in place to help people keep the law instead of about the spirit of the law. The focus became on external appearances.
And so to drive home this point, John talks about fruit. He tells them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. They are like a tree, that fruit tree that looks good, but doesn't produce fruit. Sure, you might admire that tree. You might talk about how green the leaves are and what nice shade this tree provides. But if it doesn't produce fruit, or even if it does produce fruit and it's rotten, what good is it? It's worthless. And the hostile language of John goes right at the deepest level of his audience's identity. He knows their defense against his preaching would be that they are good Jews. Abraham is their father. Sure, we don't keep the law, but we're God's chosen people.
And what Luke quoted from Isaiah about all flesh seeing the salvation of God becomes apparent in the message of John the Baptist when he says that God can raise up children of Abraham from the rocks that surround him. This is a shocking, even offensive message to them. And he shows the urgency of the matter by continuing with this fruit tree metaphor. He says, even now, the axe is laid at the root of the tree. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And you can't miss what he is saying here. You're a tree. You're not bearing fruit. You're gonna be cut down. You're gonna be thrown into the fire. Resting on externals and their genetic lineage is going to get them burned.
And this message is a message of urgency. It isn't that they're going to be given a few more seasons to see if they finally bear some fruit. No. The axe is at the root of the tree. They need to bear fruit in keeping with repentance or they will be cut down. The axe is at the root now. And like I mentioned earlier, the people John is addressing are really the villains of the Gospels. And so it's so easy for us to sit here and look down on them. But you and I need to hear this message. This isn't just a message to the Pharisees in the first century. It's a message to us. As we read this story, we are the ones John is speaking to as well.
In our sin, we are all hypocrites. Everyone has areas in our lives where the external doesn't match the internal. We all have areas in our lives where maybe we are like that overripe peach I talked about as I was starting out. And with that in mind, I want us to take a moment to reflect on our own lives. Are there areas where you focus on outward appearances while neglecting inward transformation, the transformation that God desires? True repentance involves more than surface-level changes. It's a complete turning of the heart toward Christ.
And so ask God to reveal the places where your life is not bearing the fruit of repentance and surrender those areas to Him today. Let the Holy Spirit work in you to cultivate the kind of fruit that brings glory to God and reflects genuine transformation. And an assessment of ourselves like this is hard, even painful. But this is proof of the Holy Spirit at work in you. The power to bear fruit, the power to be transformed doesn't come from you, brothers and sisters. It comes from the power of the word working with the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist then points us forward. He points us forward to the one who brings true transformation, Jesus Christ, the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire, knowing that this is good news for us. Let's move to our final point as we see John pointing us to Jesus. So between verses nine and fifteen, John gave them some practical ways in which they could bear fruit.
Now remember, there was a significant sense of messianic expectation in the first century. They knew the prophecies of the book of Daniel. They knew the prophecies of the seventy weeks of years in that book. They did have the sense of expectation that that prophecy from the book of Daniel was in their time. And so there was a significant messianic expectation going on. People would wonder, Is this the Messiah, on a regular basis? It would have been a question in the mind of Jews rather frequently. But John makes it clear here that he's just the appetizer. The full meal is yet to come.
Essentially, they're asking the right question, but they're missing the truth. It's like when you miss a question on a test by a hair, and you go to the teacher begging for partial credit because you were so close. You were almost there. That's what the crowd was doing. And so, he is the one preparing the way. And the Messiah is far greater and far mightier than he is. And so to drive this home, John tells them he's not even worthy to untie the sandals of Jesus. You see, that was a task so lowly that it was reserved for the household's most menial servant. Even among rabbinic students in the first century, the job of untying the sandals was considered to be beneath them. And John is saying that he doesn't even rank as the person who unties sandals compared to Jesus.
So John is calling people to repent and he's baptizing them with water, but he points to the one coming after him who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John's baptism is an outward washing, symbolizing the repentance that he's calling for. Water can clean the outside, but only Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit can purify them within, can purify the heart. But it also shows us that Jesus is coming to do an important and vital work in his people.
There will be judgment and the wheat will be gathered but the chaff will be burned. And we read that statement and we rightly focus on the judgment, the burning because it's harsh. And we obviously want to avoid the wrath of God and hell. But what I think we often miss here is how we avoid the wrath of God and hell. The Messiah, according to John, is coming to gather his people to himself. He is bringing them into the barn. And it's not just one people group, one genetic lineage. It's a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. A people for his own possession. And by grace through faith, you and I are that wheat.
And he calls us to repentance. And it is a repentance that he works in us through his word and through the Spirit. And when we hear the word and we are convicted of our sin and unbelief, we can know we are convicted of sin. And we know it's because he has worked this in us and he has brought us into his family. And as we hear his message today, we are doing so in the context of expectation. As I mentioned last week, we should use the visual reminders of the Christmas season that we see everywhere. Those visual reminders that let us know that Christmas is coming, reminding us that Jesus came to do this good work.
But we should see those lights, those trees, stories, and be reminded of the promise of his second coming as well. And as we do so, may the word that we have heard, this message from John, and the work of the Holy Spirit in us, may that drive us to repentance. May we desire to bear fruit in keeping with repentance because that is the repentance that's real.
So as we close, I want to bring us back to that image of fruit. When you pick fruit, you don't want something that just looks good on the outside but is rotten within. You want fruit that is vibrant. You want fruit that is healthy and nourishing. And in the same way, God isn't interested in polished appearances or hollow rituals. He desires genuine repentance that produces real transformation in us. So take some time this week to examine the fruit of your own heart and your life. Are you bearing the kind of fruit that reflects true repentance?
If you're convicted, if the Holy Spirit does that good work in you, turn to Christ because the Holy Spirit not only does that good work of convicting, he does the work of transformation. He cleanses you. He cultivates in you a life that glorifies God. So as we prepare our hearts for Christmas, may we strive to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, knowing that it's only by his grace that we are made new. Amen.
Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you for the wonderful gift of your word that we have written down for us, this message from John the Baptist. We pray that we would take that message for those people in the first century and that it would come throughout the ages to us, to our ears, and to our hearts, and that your Holy Spirit would work within us today. That we would know that because Jesus has gathered us to himself, you are working in us. And we pray that we would bear fruit in keeping with repentance that we might be a people who glorifies Your great and holy name. It is in that great and glorious name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.
Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.
Responding to God’s Call to Repentance
In this passage from Luke, we see the urgency of repentance—a call to turn from our sin and align our hearts with God’s will. Just as John the Baptist called the people to prepare the way for the Lord, the story of Jonah shows us how repentance is not just a change of action, but a transformation of the heart.
Want to explore the powerful message of repentance further? Dive deeper into God's mercy and the call to repentance with our Dwell in the Word: Jonah series. Through each episode, you'll learn how Jonah’s story illustrates God’s great mercy, the power of turning from sin, and the incredible grace that God grants to his people.
