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Fruits Worthy of Repentance
Sunday, February 1st, 2026
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Luke 3:1–20

Prayer

O Father, we thank You that while evil rulers may try to imprison and behead your messengers, Your message of truth conquers nonetheless. We thank You for the bold preaching of John. We thank You for Christ’s greater baptism, with the Holy Spirit and fire. We thank you for converting us, for setting our hearts ablaze with divine charity. And we ask that our love would increase and bear fruits worthy of repentance. For we ask all of this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

After two long chapters looking at the birth and youth of Christ, Luke now jumps ahead in time to when John and Jesus are grown men. John and Jesus are now around 30 years of age, and it is John’s preaching that will go before Jesus’ preaching. John’s baptism will go before Jesus’ baptism. And so already God is fulfilling what He promised earlier in Luke 1:16-17 when He said to Zacharias (John’s father), And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

• And so how does a person prepare to prepare to meet Jesus? How should you prepare to meet your Creator one day before Whom you shall give an account?
• Well, that is what this passage is all about answering. It is John’s job, his special calling, to prepare people, not only for Jesus’ earthly ministry, but for final judgment. And in that respect, you are not very different from John’s 1st century audience. You too are either wheat or chaff, a dead tree or a living tree, and depending on your state, you are headed in one of two directions: Either for God’s heavenly kingdom in glory, or for the flames of eternal punishment.
• This is the gospel John comes preaching, “repent and believe, or else.” This is the same gospel Jesus comes preaching. He says later in Luke 13:3, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Jesus says in John 8:24, If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. Jesus says in Mark 11:26, But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you.
• And so your salvation is dependent upon repentance, faith, forgiveness, bearing fruits for God. All of those actions are effects of divine grace, but they are effects that you must choose to manifest.
• God does not merely ordain the final destination of His elect; He also ordains all the intermediate steps between. God does not merely predestine us for heaven; He predestines all the means for us to get to there. And those means include your free choice to repent of your sins and to follow Jesus, not just once, but every single day. God is so powerful that He can move us to freely will what He wills.
  • This is the meaning of what Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
  • Jude says likewise in Jude 20-21, But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
• So are you keeping yourself in the love of God? Are you working out what God is working within? Because this is what John charges his hearers to do if they would be ready for Christ and Christ’s judgment.

Outline of the Text

Now our text here divides into three sections:

• In verses 1-6 we have The Prophet’s Mission
• In verses 7-17 we have The Prophet’s Preaching
• In verses 18-20 we have The Prophet’s Imprisonment
  • Who is John? John is a man on a mission, that mission is to preach, and because of his preaching he will end up in prison. That’s the basic flow of the text.

Verses 1-2 – The When & Where of John’s Ministry

1Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

2Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

• Observe the state of Israel when God’s kingdom comes. A Gentile Roman Caesar Tiberius is the most powerful man militarily speaking, and he has governors beneath him called tetrarchs. A tetrarch just means a ruler of 1/4th. And so Israel is divided into four different provinces/jurisdictions, Herod’s sons govern three areas, and the Roman Pontius Pilate governs the fourth.
  • We see also the Jewish high priesthood is divided between two different men, Annas and Caiaphas. We know from Josephus that Annas was basically a mafia Don. He would put out hits on people, he would pay people off. He was like the godfather of a Sadducean crime family. And although Annas had been deposed by the Romans, his son-in-law Caiaphas had been appointed in his stead. Nevertheless, Annas still had so much sway in Jerusalem, that when Jesus is brought for his trial, we are told in John 18:13, they led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. So Caiaphas may be high priest, but Annas is the real power behind him.
• So the world of John the Baptist is a world governed by corrupt and evil men, both in the civil realm and in the religious realm. Luke is giving us the names here of men who will later conspire to kill Jesus. So church and state have become offices/institutions of oppression, injustice, and heresy.
  • The Sadducees were essentially Jewish heretics (they denied the resurrection, they denied the immortality of the soul, Acts 23:8), and compared to the Sadducees, the Pharisees almost look like the good guys.
  • The Pharisees have the distinct honor of being that class of people Jesus most frequently argues with. So Jesus at least thinks the Pharisees are worthy of debate, and indeed a number of prominent Pharisees will convert to Christianity. Nicodemus being one of them, and others later in the book of Acts (Acts 6:7), most importantly The Apostle Paul.
• Now all of this corruption at the top is what Nebuchadnezzar had dreamt about some 600 years earlier. When Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great statue of four kingdoms, he tells him in Daniel 2:43-44, As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
  • So the Romans are the iron kingdom, and the Herodian/Jewish alliance is the clay, and while they rule together, they will never be able to adhere and achieve a unity, and Daniel says this is when the kingdom of Christ shall begin.
  • So Luke gives us these seven different names of priests and kings because Jesus is coming as the final priest-king Melchizedek. The dominion belongs to Jesus both in the church and outside the church, and none can escape His everlasting rule. This is what Daniel prophesies, it is what John comes to prepare people for, and it is what Jesus Himself will come proclaiming, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).

Verses 3-6 – John’s Mission

3And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;

4As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

6And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

• Here Luke quotes from Isaiah 40, and he identifies John as the voice who comes before the Word. Jesus is the eternal Word made flesh (he is the salvation of God), and John is the voice who shall speak of Him.
• We observe also that John is baptizing in the Jordan river, and he is a voice crying out in the wilderness.
• Why the wilderness? The wilderness is where God first formed Israel into a nation. The wilderness is where God tests people, it is a place of purgation, of cleansing, of learning to trust God and forsaking the vices of Egypt. The wilderness is where God makes for Himself a holy people, and enters into a marriage covenant with them. The wilderness is also where the holy prophets take refuge and gather when tyrants are on the throne.
  • So John is a man of the wilderness. And he is showing by his location what Israel most needs, where Israel needs to go. They need to be re-constituted as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. They need to be re-sanctified, re-born, and the way they do this is by repentance unto life. John comes preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. This is what the wilderness is for: purging us of evil.
• It is also significant that John baptizes in the Jordan river. The Jordan river was where Israel crossed and followed Joshua to enter the promised land. The Jordan River is where Elijah crossed and gave a double portion of his spirit to Elisha. The Jordan river was where Elisha told Naaman the Syrian to be baptized and cleansed of his leprosy (2 Kings 5).
  • And so by baptizing in the Jordan, John is coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, and he is saying to Israel that they are unclean like Naaman the Syrian. They are lepers in need of a miraculous cleansing, and only God can heal them.
• We see also that John is a voice that cries out in the wilderness. John does not speak softly, he preaches loudly, he shouts at people. Why?
  • There are three basic reasons we shout at someone.
    • 1. Because they are deaf or hard of hearing.
    • 2. Because they are far away from us.
    • 3. Because we are angry.
  • And all three of these conditions apply in John’s case.
    • Israel is deaf to God’s voice, and so John cries out.
    • Israel is far away from God and so John cries out.
    • Israel is suffering under God’s anger, and so John cries out.
• And what does God do with those loud cries of John? He uses his voice to pave a straight path into people’s hearts, to turn them and prepare them to receive and embrace Christ.
  • John’s preaching is like a bulldozer, an excavator, the concrete trucks and rollers to make Christ’s entrance smooth. The proud must be humbled. The humbled must be encouraged. The perverse must be made pure, the crooked man made straight.
  • John preaches with hard words because our hearts need the pounding. We all need to be softened to receive the Word that is Jesus. Jesus will say the same thing in his parable of the soils. And James 1:21 says likewise, Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness (softness) the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
• John cries out to awaken our deaf hears, to call us nearer to God, and to warn us of the wrath of God, the final judgment. John is the first trumpet blast to warn us of God’s kingdom. Only the righteous may enter, and the righteous enter by faith.
• This brings us to verses 7-17 where we hear The Prophet’s Preaching. How does John begin his sermon to Israel? Well, he begins by insulting them.

Verses 7-9 – A Loving Rebuke

7Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

9And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

• Now one of the first rules of rhetoric, or public speaking, is that in your introduction you want to endear people to what you have to say. And usually insulting your audience is not the best way to do that.
• However here a strong rebuke is a most kind introduction. And that is because John loves these people, he loves this brood of vipers and wants them to be converted from snakes to saints.
  • John wants everyone to know up front, “I know what you are. And I have not come here to tell you stories or to entertain you, I am not here to gain a following for myself or to build some platform, I don’t really care about your esteem or admiration. I am simply here because the way you are living right now will destroy you.”
  • Moreover, John says to them, “You think you can escape the wrath of God just by going through the motions of getting baptized and professing repentance (cause everyone else is doing it). Or maybe you think you are too good for that, you aren’t unclean, because you can trace your lineage back to Abraham. Abraham was holy, so you must be holy to.”
  • John says, “No. None of that.None of that matters unless you personally live differently than you are living right now. There’s a time for talk, but the time for talk is over. The time for action is now. Bear fruits keeping with your baptism, keeping with your profession, otherwise you are a hypocrite or self-deceived.”
• John rebukes them, he shouts at them, because he loves them. These crowds coming out to him are the seed of the serpent, the offspring of Satan, the devil is their daddy, and they are in denial about it. And so John is trying to wake them up to what they really are, to their true serpentine nature, and to that poison within that will kill them. Remember what God says will happen to serpents? They get their head crushed. And John would spare them that, if only they will repent.
  • And so he begins by calling them what they are: A generation of vipers.
• How do those vipers respond to this? Those who hear and fear for their lives ask him, “What shall we do then?” And in verses 10-14, there are three classes of people who ask this question, wanting to be baptized, and receive an answer.
  • Those three classes are the 1) the common people, 2) the tax collectors, and 3) the soldiers.

Verses 10-14 – What shall we do then?

10And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?

11He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.

12Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?

13And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.

14And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

• To the common people John says,He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.
  • This is a call to love your neighbor as yourself, to clothe the naked and feed the starving.
  • And this is not actually a work of mercy, it is actually a work of justice. It is due to man as man, as made in God’s image, to not be naked, and to not starve to death. And if a society is unwilling to feed and clothe those who are destitute, that is a society that has lost touch with its own humanity. It says in Proverbs 12:10, The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
  • Right now, America is a place where food is abundant and clothes are cheap. It might not be healthy, but you will not starve. Our bigger problem is obesity, cancer, heart disease. Even many of the homeless have more than two tunics, some of them have smartphones. But that was not always the case, and it will not always be the case if we persist in our rage against God and His law. We are still living off some of the Christian capital (moral and financial) of the past. But those accounts are dwindling, we could drain that in an instant.
    • For example, it is not just or humane to let drugs and immigrants cross our borders unchecked, or to give people clean needles so they can do their drugs more safely. It is evil to legalize things that turn people into zombies, that deface the very image of God within them. And yet this is what we do.
    • It is a scourge on our nation and our laws, that we tax our citizens to pay for people’s vices, and then people profit off those vices and so now there is a financial incentive to keep those vices going, and to expand them. This is casinos. This is marijuana shops. This is online gambling. This is all kinds of government programs and regulations that actually hurt the poor in the name of helping the poor, that actually oppress people in the name of liberating them.
    • And so to quote Psalm 11:3, If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? John’s answer is the same as the Psalmist: You do what is just in the eyes of God.
      • Psalm 11 goes on to say, The Lord is in his holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, And an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.
      • This is the justice God wants from the repentant: Feed the starving, clothe the naked, and seek what is truly good for the poor in the eyes of God.
• The second class of people are the tax collectors, what should they do? To them John’s answer might be surprising. John does not tell them to quit their job. John does not tell them to stop collecting taxes. Instead he says, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. In other words, keep the law. Collect for Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but don’t use Caesar as pretext for your own greed and envy.
  • Later in Luke’s gospel, the tax collector Zacchaeus will be a shining example of what bearing the fruits of righteousness looks like in this vocation.
  • It says in Luke 19:8-10, Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
  • Zacchaeus was someone ready for Jesus. And so when Jesus says to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house,” Zacchaeus obeys. It says, So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.
  • We could think also of Matthew the tax collector, who becomes a disciple of Jesus, and the author of the first gospel. John’s ministry was not in vain.
• The third and final class of people who ask John, “What shall we do?” are soldiers. If the common people are like the valleys and the hills made level by caring for one another, and the tax collectors are like the crooked made straight, then the soldiers are the rough ways made smooth.
  • How does a rough military man make ready for Jesus? John says,Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages. That phrase “do violence to no man” likely refers to extortion, or taking money by threats and intimidation.
  • John just gives the soldiers the 6th commandment, the 9th commandment, and the 10th commandment. No murder, no bearing false witness, no coveting. This is basic stuff. But we are bad at doing the basics.
  • And so John is calling them back to basics. Use your strength and sword to defend the innocent and punish the wicked (Romans 13). Use your authority and power to seek out the truth, don’t lie and intimidate to get your way. And be content with what you have.
• These are the fruits of righteousness. These qualities and actions reveal whether you are truly alive or dead inside. And lest you think these fruits are optional, John seals his sermon with a warning, a warning that points us to Jesus.

Verses 15-17 – A Warning

 15And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not;

16John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

17Whose fan (winnowing fork) is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner (storehouse); but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

• John is saying in effect, “However great or holy you think I am, I am nothing compared to Jesus. Jesus is the Judge with whom you have to do. If you think water baptism and my preaching is powerful, the one who comes after me is All Powerful, He baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit. I can see your outward actions, but He can see your secret thoughts, He can see into your very soul, and most importantly, He can transform your soul by His grace.”
• This is the hope of John’s gospel: that those who are ready to receive Jesus, receive from Jesus a greater baptism, a baptism by fire and the Holy Ghost.
• And this is how God prepares us for judgment day. He gives His Holy Spirit, so that we can bear the fruit of the Spirit. He tries us and tests us by fire, to remove what is dross, chaff, and evil within us.
  • It says in 1 Peter 4:12-13, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
  • And Paul says likewise in 1 Corinthians 3:12-17, Now if anyone builds on this foundation [that is Christ] with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
• So the baptism of Jesus in fire and the Holy Spirit, makes us into temples. And then our job is to adorn that temple with good works. Works done poorly or half-heartedly are like wood, hay and straw, they will get burned up. But works done from genuine love, justice, mercy, charity, these are the gold, silver, and precious stones that glorify God and make us glorious.
• And this is what John is calling people to do when he says, bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do good works worthy of the God who saved you.
  • Or as Paul says in Ephesians 4:1-3, walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
  • These are the fruits that glorify God, and God rewards those who bear such fruits. And how does God reward John for his ministry?
  • We see in verses 18-20, that John’s preaching was rewarded with imprisonment, and imprisonment that ended in martyrdom. John was rewarded by sealing his testimony to Christ in blood.

Verses 18-20 – The Prophet’s Imprisonment

18And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.

19But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,

20Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.

• John reproved Herod for his adulterous marriage to his half-brother’s wife. And because of that stand for justice, for his defense of marriage, John was rewarded with imprisonment and martyrdom.
  •  We call this a reward because Jesus says in Luke 6:22-23, Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
• So John received and is now enjoying a great reward in heaven. He was faithful unto death, and so received the crown of life.
• And so imitate John’s faithfulness. Heed John’s warning. Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus. Kill the snake within you, and bear fruits worthy of a saint.
• And if you are godly, God might reward you with imprisonment, with false accusations, with hatred, martyrdom, and a name written in heaven’s book. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.