Sermon manuscript on Matt. 3:1-17

Matthew 3:1-17

A New Exodus calls for a New Progeny- Proper

Introduction

A gift turned master

Santa Claus came through our chimneys and dumped presents for the family. It has now been a month of experimenting with and actually using our gifts. The question that needs to be asked is; how are we doing so far with the gifts? Do we still think they were the best gifts received in 2010? Are the gifts delivering the satisfaction they promised or that was promised by those who sold them to us? If the truth is told, only a few of us are actually satisfied with the gifts (that is, those of us who received something).

Most of us have come to realize that there are sacrifices to be made in keeping and appreciating the gifts. The sacrifice might be watering the plant, replacing the batteries of the toy or simple repairs and cost charges related to owning these gifts. It is therefore strange that a gift immediately turns into a burden in such a short time. We discover that the gift (if it were alive) has to eat, pup, wee and be taken for walks. Those who run animal businesses statistically confess that there are more domestic animals returned in the month of February and March as compared to any other time of the year.

How about if the gift does not only become a burden but rather starts taking over our lives and everything we own. Instead of only taking your property, the gift proceeds to claim your very life. It is like planting a creeper to enjoy its flowers in the garden without knowing its growth potential. Having watered the plant, you leave your home and garden for only two days. When you return, you discover that the plant has completely taken over the garden and the yard wall.   Upon your return the creeper is in the process of covering your roof. This kind of gift has not only become a burden but rather master over your life.

Last week, we were asked the question on what we thought of Jesus. The question probed us to realize Jesus for who he truly is. It is with the same mind-set that we approach Matthew 3:1-17. Matthew skips from a twelve-year old Jesus to his adulthood, a 25 years quantum leap. He wants to bring this point home that Jesus; the cute manger baby is a creeper. He is not a gift to be left in the manger but a master and judge. Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Jewish king. But, most importantly Jesus demands our lives without restraint. It is by demanding our- everything that Jesus can become a gift that has come to rescue us from our slavery. Matthew 3 is therefore a narrative about a new exodus for you and I. Let us therefore spend time looking at how Jesus grows from a mere gift to a deliverer.

The Preparing Messenger – John (proposing the New Exodus) (1-6)

John describes himself as the lowest servant carrying out preparatory work for God. According to ancient customs, such preparations were done for kings. A messenger usually announced the arrival of a king. The announcement gave opportunity to the subject city and its rulers to prepare. It prevented harsh judgment from coming upon the leaders and their masses. By making himself Jesus’ servant, John wanted his hearers to know that Jesus was the king – Messiah. If Jesus was the Messiah, then the promised Exodus had arrived.

Isaiah 40-66 comforted the exiles in Babylon with a New Exodus. The impact of the Exodus would be worldwide rather than limited to Israel. The overall perspective of Isaiah 40-66 involved the Spirit endowed Messiah.  The Messiah is described as a suffering-favoured-servant of God (Isaiah 52-53). The Canaan of Isaiah 40-66 is a new heaven and new earth. John was therefore announcing that Israel’s Messianic hope and age had arrived. This was not a small event, hence John’s harsh rebuke of those who approached his message with indifference and hypocrisy.

John was first and foremost a predicted forerunner of the New Exodus Isaiah 40:3. Matthew’s narrative is therefore of types and antitypes (typology and its fulfilment). John is the fulfilment of the promised forerunner (Elijah) of the new Exodus. His attire and diet gave him an Elijah-Prophetic identity (2 Kin. 1:8). Jesus confessed that John was the promised Elijah (Matt. 11:10), citing Malachi 3:1. Once John is identified as the New Elijah, we can then begin to appreciate that Jesus is the New Moses promised by God in Deuteronomy 18. Let us therefore spent time expanding on these thoughts.

If John is undoubtedly the antitype of Elijah in Matthew 3:1- 17 we can understand his personality and message by studying his type. Elijah was raised as a prophet in Israel to fight God’s war against idolatry and covenant breaking. His climatic statement in 1 kings 18: 20-22 was, ‘who are you going to believe Baal or Yahweh?’ Choose today and no longer be of divided minds.’ Elijah’s ministry was therefore divisive and demarcate (ive) in the same light as John’s predicted judgment. John and Elijah introduced two camps ‘the Yahwists and the Baalists.’ The Yahwists followed Yahweh by doing what he required and the same was true for the other camp. Hence John rebuked those who claimed Abraham (ic) descent without showing the signs of the camp. These are the same camps that welcomed the entering king-Messiah.

The role of the wilderness in Israel’s redemptive history pointed to the Messiah and the Exodus. The Qumran Community was situated in the desert, proving that the Jews identified the desert with the Messiah and his coming redemption. John is therefore described as coming from the dessert. If the topography did not sufficiently hint at an Exodus, the message of John brought the point home.

Progeny- Proper as New Exodus Community (7-10)

Immanent judgment

John taught that Judgment was coming swiftly. The nature of this judgment was to qualify and disqualify the New Exodus community. The first Exodus was very inclusive and accommodative. Egyptians and other people groups (the mixed multitude/rabble Ex. 12:37-38; Nu. 11:4) clove to the Israelite nation and came out of Egypt with them. But this New Exodus was to begin by identifying those who qualified.

Those who were disqualified were,

The brood of vipers, a reference to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees resulting in an evil identity. Identifying a Jew as a brood/seed of a snake was an upfront to his Abraham (ic) descent. John imagines in his speech a natural argument that might have ensued. The Jew would have said to John, ‘who are you calling a child of viper?’ ‘We are Jews, children of Abraham, is that too hard for you to see?’ And John’s come back response would be, ‘only those who show a lifestyle that is in keeping with their descent are true children of Abraham.’ Abraham was a man of faith, who trusted God for everything and therefore became justified. He did not depend on his works of righteousness or circumcision but trusted God to justify him. Children of faith are therefore true children of Abraham and qualify for the New Exodus.

Those who qualified

God, according to John’s metaphoric expression, was able to raise children for Abraham from ‘these rocks.’ In other words, God is upholding his promises to Abraham of seed, land and universal blessing. But the seed is about to be redefined. Peter builds on this metaphor by calling the church, living stones of God’s house, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, holy nation and a people belonging to God 1 Peter 2:4-5; 9-10. Strange enough this description compares the church the nation of Israel. The church is therefore the true New Exodus Community defined by faith.

Transition: An Exodus demands for a Moses

The Predicted Messiah- Jesus Christ (11-12)

John’s description of Jesus leaves no doubt to the fact that he was the king bringing judgment. This Christmas baby has become a king and judge. The owned has become the owner. The gift has become the giver and master. John further describes the kind of judgment Jesus is going to bring as:

Thorough and terminative- the Axe at the roots of the unfruitful tree

Divisive and demarcative- Winnowing fork, wheat and chaff

Those who trusted God by repenting were spared but those who refused to repent and start bearing fruits of repentance were not going to be spared.

The New Exodus Moses receives God’s approval (13 -17)

Speculation abounds as to why Jesus was baptized. The question that creates the dilemma is on John’s baptism as that of repenting from sin. It is argued that if Jesus was sinless, then why did he seek John’s baptism. A number of voices argue for identification. In this argument, Jesus was baptized because he wanted to identify with the sinners (ESV commentary notes). Additionally, thoughts on inauguration of his ministry, or authentication of John’s ministry abound. It is interesting to note that these ideas are constructed for a ritual whose origins are disputed. Who taught John about this kind of baptism since it has no precedence in the Old Testament? Though others have suggested that John got his baptism from the cleansing ritual or the Qumran community practice, there is virtually no agreement on the matter.

However, for our purposes we will suggest an ancient Near Eastern background to baptism. According to the ancient Near Eastern context water represented judgment. The mystery surrounding the deep seas and waters allowed the ancients to speculate. They speculated that the gods or mysterious creatures lived in the deep waters. When human beings survived storms or drowning, it was considered as divine intervention. Of major input, was an understanding that Ea (the sea god of wisdom) and his many faced attendants lived in the waters. Ea commonly pictured seated on a judgment throne was known as a god of wisdom. Other gods like Ninurta and Marduk are shown as subservient. This god was given prominence with powerful deities like the sun- god. Ea as judge had the final say to matters that were beyond human council and wisdom. Cases, which could not be resolved by human leaders such as suspicion, murder, were referred to Ea. This kind of approach to justice was called judgment by ‘water ordeal.’ Various forms of water rituals were performed including the possibility of swimming across deep waters in order to prove one’s innocence.

God, using this ancient cultural context, commanded the Israelites to solve unsolved murders through ‘water ordeal.’  According to Deuteronomy 21:1- 9 the elders of the city nearest to a mysterious murder, were to wash their hands over the heifer. This heifer was brought to the valley with running water and its neck broken in order for God to accept the atonement. By washing their hands the elders acknowledged their innocence but also surrendered the matter into the hands of God. In a similar manner, if a husband suspected his wife of unfaithfulness, the priest would take her through some water ritual to prove her innocence (Nu. 5:1-22). It is my understanding that John’s baptism was a way of people acknowledging their guilt and then asking God to forgive. They acknowledged that their faith rested in the divine hands of God.

Someone has teased this narrative imaginatively. We are invited to imagine ourselves as those who were also taking part in the baptism. Each one of us gets in the water, gets baptized by John and then gets out of water without any witnessing voice from heaven. Then Jesus comes along, gets baptized and then heaven itself opens up. In addition to heaven opening up, God speaks approval and pleasure upon Jesus. What kind of thoughts would we have about Jesus and about ourselves? Clearly, Jesus is identified as the only Israelite in whom God is well pleased.  But what about the rest of the Israelites, we may ask? Wasn’t Israel also called God’s son? What has shifted the focus from community to an individual? It is because Jesus went through the judging ‘water ordeal’ and God from heaven declared him to be righteous as much as Abraham was declared righteous. The Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a Dove because in addition to anointing him as king- Messiah, it is a picture of peace after judgment. The dove form (like) image connects our narrative to the flood of Noah. After judgment it is a sign of grace and favour to those who have been saved from judgment.

Jesus is the approved Son of God. He is the New Israel for a New Exodus. This theme of the Exodus in carried on in chapter 4 as Jesus goes through all the trials of Israel and comes out victorious. He was forty days and forty nights in the wilderness representing the 40 years of Israel’s wilderness experience. The test was on faith (food/bread), fame and fortune/idolatry. Jesus relived the first Exodus and came out victorious to initiate the New Exodus. The Moses of the New Exodus has overcome and recruits Abraham’s children of faith to a new community. However, as in the first Exodus the trials of the New Exodus are the same, faith (Deut. 8:2), fame without suffering and fortune/idolatry. However, the new community is of those who will overcome by listening to the beatitudes (the law re-emphasized) (Mat. 5). It is herein that we fully understand what James meant by ‘rejoice’ when you face trials of various kinds (1:2- 4). It is because we are in an Exodus that we should expect them.

Application

Repentance

For those who are outside the Exodus Community

Matthew 3 is a calling to anyone who has not made a decision to follow Christ. The calling is person- specific because it involves individual choice to repent or not. We need to prepare ourselves for the soon coming King- Messiah. Such preparation begins with accepting the Lord, Jesus Christ as our lord and Savoir of our lives. Accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and savoir is true Baptism because all judgment fell on him. Through Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit speaks peace from God to those who have already been saved from the flood of judgment. Please take this time to consider the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and savoir.

Repentance for those inside the Exodus Community

Matthew 3 reminds us that none of us is beyond repenting. We are all sinners and need to constantly find ourselves on our knees imploring God for mercy and grace. Repentance is a rich church concept, which needs to be revived for the church to wait in faithfulness and purity. Repentance might be the only thing that separates us from those who are not waiting. May I therefore encourage us to bring our sins before God and let his rushing waters wash us clean.

But Matthew 3 is not about failing and getting revived again through our own efforts. Rather Matthew 3 speaks of our Moses as one who has overcome the desert and beckons us to follow his example.

Our Moses has overcome

Jesus overcame the trials of the first Exodus in 40 days and 40 nights. Above and beyond overcoming the first Exodus, he overcame sin and death for us. He did not fail but conquered the mountain of Moses’ failing through his death. God, unlike the first Moses revealed himself to us after the resurrection as a sign of victory and an example to follow. Our destiny is not in the struggles of the Exodus desert but rather beyond the desert.

Trials are still the same and should be expected

However, because we are still in the Exodus, trials and temptations are part of our Christian existence. This year is going to be a year of trials. We will be tested through fame/flesh, wealth/idolatry and in faith. This is our allotment of being in the Exodus. But just as a cloud led the first community in the desert in the day and a pillar of fire in the night, we are not alone. The comforter, who is the Holy Spirit is here with us to remind us that our king- Messiah in on his way. Let us therefore wait as those with hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sermon on Matthew 3:1-17

Sermon on Matthew 3

Herein is an audio link to this sermon:

http://www.harmonyhillchurch.org/podcasts.html

Jorum

The last time I saw him

May 8th Gordon Conwell Seminary Graduation 2010

God’s grace has been shown once again to be abundant and unlimited for the mugari’s. We have graduated with the class of 2010 with MA in the Old Testament and MA in the NT. We deeply appreciate those who have allowed themselves to be used by God to help us through. It is indeed God’s hand in our lives that has allowed others to help but also for us to receive.

God Bless

Jorum

Bulawayo Presbyterian church (Independent) Social ministries

The Mugaris in Cape Cod

The Mugaris took a break from Jorum’s busy study schedule to enjoy a brief holiday in Cape Cod

Finnish voluntary Doctors

A big thank-you to the Finnish doctors who are in Zimbabwe helping the Cholera patients. I am truly grateful that the world takes it’s time to assist the most wonderful people of Zimbabwe my people. I also pray for all Zimbabweans who are truly heros of survival in the midst of all hardships. Though the dark days have been many the LORD is still shining his light for us. We are a nation that is truly treasured by God and our help will only come from him. He is the author and foundation of our faith.r

Social Services ministry

Due to the prevalence of draughts, the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has left millions of orphans in Zimbabwe, the constant search for Peace and Justice in our nation and the need for Christian Leadership I have been involved in a number of Social Service ministries in Zimbabwe which include:

The City Presbyterian Church (Independent) in Bulawayo’s Social services ministry. Under the Presbyterian Church Social Ministry which I helped initiate with Piet Tevelde who is the overall person for all social ministries of the Church we helped orphaned children through paying for their school fees, provided food and clothing. The ministry took it has its responsibility to give food hand outs to the elderly living in retirement homes. These retired members of the community of Bulawayo and Church can no longer afford to buy food, pay rent and let alone clothes through their retiment funds. At a current 100, 000% inflational rate the economy of the country has basically crashed. I have included a number of newsletter links for those who would like to get first hand information on our initiative.

Social Services ministry of City Presbyterian Church in Bulawyo

social-services-and-missions-newsletter2

The City Presbyterian Church planted 2 (two) Churches in Bulawayo one in what is called the Western suburbs of the City and the next in the Rural Area of Matobo which is 70 Kilometres out of the city. Under the Rural Area Church plant the church started a preschool for the orphans, a community garden for the women of Natisa Community and an extra lessons program for High school going students under the orphans’ scholarship fund. The specific ministry for preschoolers in called Sethule whose proposal I have included below:

sethule-presentation-edit-2

Sethule is directly an initiaitive of the Church under the supervision of Thabbeth Cotton who is the founder of the same. Thabbeth has worker tirelessly sourcing for funding for the preschool. The school needs funding for books, food for the preschoolers and the salaries of the 5 teachers under its employee. In the same Natisa Presbyterian Church in Matopo we support a number of students through our Social Services scholarship Fund. Below are pictures of myself, Pastor Ndumiso of the same congregation and the studenst themselves:

The students under our scholarship fund, Jorum(myself) in dark classes and Pastor Ndumiso.

I hereby appeal for your willingness to partner with us in these great ministries under our church of City Presyterian Church. May the lord lead you to help me and my family as we serve God in Social Services ministry of the Church of Zimbabwe. I also invite to partner with me in Leadership Development and Social Engagement in Zimbabwe as we do so through teaching at the Theological College of Zimbabwe and by engagin leaders and pastors through public dialogues. I trust that the Lord will not only lead you to give generously of your finances but to also give of yourself through considering Leadership Transforamtion developemnt and Social Engagement in Zimbabwe. Please do the my contact details both for more information and how to contribute financially

God Bless

Jorum

 

Finances

The Mugari’s are currently studying at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Jorum received a scholarship which pays for his tuition needs. After the tuitional costs are taken care of the Mugaris have financial needs to meet the following living expenses costs: Medical insurance, rent, food, books, groceries, gasoline, Roseanne’s study fees, electricity and car repairs. Herein is a listing of the expenditure:

Medical Insurance for 2 Adults and 2 kids      6, 458 per year

Rent per month 950

Groceries for a family of 4 per month 300

Electricity Bill per month 50

Books per semester 200

Gasoline per month 100

Roseanne’s tuition 2,500 per year

This are the financial figures that we have been working with for the last 7 months.

Approximate expenses per month are: 1,600

According to Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary expenditure per is at: 36,186 

Please help the Mugaris complete their training at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary for the next 2 years and six month remaining.

Please make your contributions for our upkeep and ministry through the following:

Giving: Please leave comment to get banking details and account number

God Bless

Jorum

Meet the Mugaris