TROUBLE ME
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Opening Prayer
‘Waken my heart, O Lord my God. Trouble me with my unholiness and slowness to obey, Trouble me with my sins.’1
Read MATTHEW 3:1—12
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Matthew
Matthew 3
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea
2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'”
4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
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.
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?
8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
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.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Reflect
In what ways might presumptions about your standing with God stand in the way of your growth in Christ?
On the last page of the Old Testament, Malachi promises that God will send the prophet Elijah before the Lord comes.1 Turn the page, and four hundred years later, John the Baptist breaks onto the scene, looking like Elijah. As the last of the prophets, he forges the link between the hopes of the Old Testament and the promise of the New.2
Why does Jesus need John to prepare the way? Because the nation needs to be troubled by a prophet. Just as Elijah was accused of being the ‘troubler of Israel,’3 John’s ministry crashes into the conscience of the nation with searing words: bad news about the need for repentance and good news about the nearness of the kingdom of heaven. First, the trouble. People need to recognize their sin and, unusual for Jewish believers, they are baptized. Spiritual troubling provokes repentance, calling for nothing less than life transformation. John’s message becomes so much harsher when the Pharisees and Sadducees also appear. There is no mention that they want to be baptized. Did they come with the same critical spirit they later showed in their testing of Jesus? How withering is John’s attack on their pride about their birthright and their failure to produce fruit for God?
Yet, John knows that he is only the preparer. He offers a half-way baptism. Though people confess their sins, they receive no power to live differently. Only Jesus will offer full baptism with the Holy Spirit (v. 11). Yet John’s bad-news challenge necessarily prepares the way. Few of us like to be challenged about our pride and complacency. However, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, we too need to be challenged in our souls about our lack of fruit.
Apply
As a new year begins, let’s dare to ask God to awaken our hearts.
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, please break into my thoughts and habits. Where there is sin, lead me to repentance and give me greater vision to bear fruit for God’s kingdom.
1 Mal 4:5 2 Matt 11:1—19 3 1 Kings 18:17.
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