Life would be a big lemon if we had nothing to look forward to.

You get tired, so you look forward to bed.
You get hungry, so you look forward to eating.
You’re working on a project, so you look forward to the final masterpiece.
You’re in debt, so you look forward to paying off your bills.
You’re going to school and you look forward to walking down the aisle in that funky gown with the tasseled hat you’ll save forever but never wear again.
And sometimes, all you can really look forward to is just making it through the day.
Some of you look forward to your first real job—that’s not at McDonald’s.

If you’re single, you may look forward to getting married. If you’re married, you look forward to having your first kid. If you have kids you look forward to not having kids.

When people have nothing to look forward to they lose hope, and hopelessness is the most common and convincing motivator for suicide.

The greater the cause that you look forward to, the more satisfying it is.

I want to offer you the most intellectually reasonable and experientially satisfying ideal you could possibly live for: the kingdom of God.

In Matthew 3, from the woods comes this ancient mountain man from the wild, and he’s preaching this really complicated message that probably took a lot of memory work to get it down: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” “Repent! for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

The kingdom of heaven? What is he talking about?

Many people think, “Oh, kingdom of heaven? God’s place up in heaven.”

But a kingdom is much more than a place. It needs a place. But it also needs a king and a people. Put another way, a kingdom needs three things: a prince, a people, and a place.

The prince is Jesus.
The people are those who follow Him.
The place is your heart today, this world tomorrow.

This kingdom does not look like a moss pond...static. It is moving! Christ is invading this broken world to heal the broken-hearted, to feed the hungry, to find the lost, and to bring you and me into perfect oneness with Him, which is the ultimate expression of worship!

He started this when He came down to earth, but He continues to do it through people like you and me. Today God is building His kingdom and Jesus promised that not even the gates of hell will prevail against it.

And you can be a part of this kingdom.

But why would I want to? There’s lots of movements out there—religious or not—who have a prince, a place, and a people.

President Barack Obama.
Walt Disney. My kids love his kingdom.
Frank Caliendo whose kingdom floats on laughter.
Napoleon Bonaparte. His kingdom was the battlefield.
Spiderman. His kingdom started on 1960’s colored paper.
Rush Limbaugh whose kingdom runs on AM radio waves.
Fixed rate mortgage. This kingdom needs help.

I want to give you three reasons that make God’s kingdom worth giving your life for...

Its prince is real.
Its place is peopled.
Its people are repentant.

Reason #1: In God’s kingdom, the Prince is real.

Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey  (Mat 3:4).

Why did people listen to John the Baptist? If the guy put in his application at any seminary or church today, the only call back he’d probably get would be a restraining order. Would you want a pastor who when he smiled, you could spot grasshopper legs sticking from his teeth?

And his clothing. Let’s just say he didn’t get his suit at Banana Republic in Crossroads Mall.

There are two ways to get noticed: do something really good, or do something really stupid. John the Baptist didn’t have to do either. His diet and dress were doing a pretty good job all by themselves. But what we often miss is that people weren’t showing up to watch him like Elephant Man in a freak show.

They knew what that clothing meant. They knew what grasshopper teeth represented.
John’s diet and dress pointed attention not to himself, but to Jesus. Temporary, non-eternal kings live to draw attention to mortals. But God’s kingdom draws attention to the eternal Son of God!

But how did John’s diet and dress point to Jesus? It told people that he grew up in the desert (Luke 1:80). And if he grew up in the desert, they realized that John was born a Nazirite (Luke 1:15). You mean he went to the church of the Nazarenes?

No! A Nazirite was a man or woman who was set apart uniquely for serving the Lord. The word Nazirite means one separated. A Nazirite was not allowed to drink wine, cut his hair, or eat grapes—not even raisins or grape juice. Mr. Welch was out of the question (Num 6:1-21). Sometimes it was for a limited period of time (like Paul, Acts 18:18), and sometimes for life (like Samson, Judges 13:3-6). John the Baptist was a “lifer” Nazirite. So scratch those Sunday school pictures of a nicely shaven John the Baptist with an 80’s hairdo and imagine a wild froey bush!

John’s diet and dress told the people that he was a Nazirite set apart to God. Not only did he draw attention to the coming King by what he ate and what he wore, but by what he preached.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 3:2).  

A kingdom needs a king. And this king was none other than Jesus. John’s role was to prepare the way for the king, just like they did in ancient times when a man ran miles before the king telling people to line up and bow the knee before the King arrived! That’s why Matthew connects a passage written seven centuries earlier by Prophet Isaiah with John the Baptist in verse 3:

For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!” (Mat 3:3).

Matthew is quoting Isaiah 40:3-5 which says,

A voice is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isa 40:3-5)

John was that mountain smoother and hill flattener. He was that valley raiser.

For people to be ready for King Jesus’ arrival, they needed to repent. Sin stood between them and their King and to repent meant to turn away from their sin. Instead of preparing the roads of the ground, John the Baptist prepared the pathways of people’s hearts.

By what John wore, by what he ate, and by what he preached, people knew that John the Baptist was no charlatan. This meant that the prince he announced was real.

The second reason God’s kingdom is worth giving your life for is because...

Reason #2: In God’s kingdom, the place is peopled.

Did you notice the sophisticated, state of the art sanctuary?

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea (Mat 3:1).

Preacher, where do you preach? In the woods.

It’s obvious that John the Baptist was not trying to engineer the kingdom of John the Baptist. He was interested in people. The temptation to become more interested in ministry than individuals can be incredibly alluring. But John’s location tells you he didn’t fall for that. In fact, he preached in the wilderness not to get away from people but because it would draw many people. Would seeing a preacher in the pulpit of a church surprise you? No. But if a preacher stands on a fire hydrant in the middle of a mall parking lot, people are going to notice.

Not only was the location strategic because it was in the wilderness but because most commentators believe it was near a major road where thousands might pass by in a single day (John 1:28: John 3:26) making it a magnet for drawing masses of people. His place was peopled. Put another way, his location was metropolitan.

If we are going to join God in building His kingdom, we have to be people-minded. You cannot reach people until you are around people. You cannot love people from your cabin out in the woods. When Paul tells Christians in 2 Corinthians 6 to separate themselves from the world, he is not talking about geography but lifestyle. Some people butcher the meaning of this passage, uproot their family, and move out to the land of the hill billies with their goats and school books. Who are they thinking of? Themselves. Hermitization into the land of trees and rocks is not only unloving but unbiblical. Trees don’t need repentance. Rocks don’t need Jesus. People do.

Jesus didn’t look down from his cozy Futon in heaven with a margarita in one hand and a TV remote in the other and say, “Hey, you down there! Believe in Me and I’ll save you. But if you don’t, hell is hot.” Oh no. Jesus came down to be ruffed up, beaten up, nailed up, and shut up. But on the third day, He got up!

Aren’t you glad that the eternal Son of God was willing to pitch his tent among us?

Do you do that too? Do you put yourself in places where you know you will encounter sinners like you who need Jesus like you need Him every day?  

God’s Kingdom is worth giving your life for not only because the Prince is real and the place is peopled...

#3: In God's kingdom, the people are repentant.

Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins (Mat 3:5-6).

People of God’s kingdom are repentant. Who does Matthew say was going out to John? Jerusalem! That’s a city. “All Judea” is a bigger area, including several cities. And the “district around the Jordan” is even wider. So three geographical locations grew some legs, stood up, and marched down the Jordan to John the Baptist? When God sees a city, he sees people. He doesn’t see theaters, Hondas, and street lights. He sees souls.

If you were baptized in the Jordan, you would never forget it. The Jordan River was not vacuumed, filtered, sprinkled with chlorine, and disinfected. In most places it was a flowing mud hole. The kind of river your Mom wanted you to swim in.

Why would they let John baptize them in a muddy river? Because their hearts were repentant.

Here in this rugged environment a wild preacher living off of hoppers and honey, steps out from the woods and calls people to get baptized in a muddy river to get ready for the arrival of their King!

Perhaps at this moment you are thinking: I’m ready to cast off anything that hinders the road between me and Jesus. I’m ready to run! I’m ready to start living and dying for Jesus! I’m ready to share the gospel, resist temptation, and worship with God with my life!

As you begin this venture, you will encounter one of two obstacles.

These obstacles come to us in the form of the Pharisee...and the Sadducee.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mat 3:7-10).

Notice John’s outstanding etiquette. He carefully uses the proper form of address “brood of vipers!” English translation? “A bunch of snakes!”

Why snakes? Because snakes are sly. They represent deception.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees looked like they came forward with humble hearts. But it was all a facade.

The Pharisee was the conservative religionist. He trusted in his exclusivism.
The Sadducee was the liberal secularist. He trusted in his his inclusive-ism.

The Pharisee prided himself in his knowledge of God’s Word and keeping tradition.
The Sadducee prided himself in his rejection of the supernatural and courting liberalism.

The Pharisee considered himself spiritual because he embraced higher things like miracles and rising from the dead.
But the Sadducee considered himself intellectual because he rejected anti-scientific things like miracles and the supernatural.  

The Pharisees hated the Romans, the Sadducees were chummy with them.

The term “Pharisee” meant: “We are separate!”
The term “Sadducee” meant: “We are right!”

One was too holy for repentance, the other too smart for it.
Both: wanted John to baptize them. And both would soon reject Jesus and want Him dead.

The Pharisees got so carried away that they interpreted Deuteronomy 6 very literally, and wore a phylactery on their heads, a little box with scripture passages inside. It looked like a Halloween costume party. The Sadducees probably found it entertaining.

The Pharisees found their identity in their morality.
The Sadducees, in their academy.

The Pharisees prided themselves in being religionists.
The Sadducees, in being realists.

The Sadducee would say: “I’m not of the tribe of blind faiths, "I believe cause I believe cause I believe.”
The Pharisee would put a bumper sticker on his car: “God said it. I believe it. And that settles it!”

The Sadducee says, “I follow whatever’s latest on the shelf of evolutionary theory because I’m not a dimwit from the stone ages!”
And the Pharisee yells back, “I follow tradition. For what? Tradition! And why do I do that? Because of tradition!”

Here’s what’s fascinating: John the Baptist has the same message for both: Repent! Before you go through the ceremony of baptism, show me a repentant heart by a changed life.

The Pharisees wanted baptism because it was spiritual and religious. From the outside, it looked like the holy thing to do.
The Sadducees wanted baptism because it’s what everybody was doing. It looked like the open-minded thing to do.

When someone’s moral decisions are controlled by the crowd...he becomes a Nazi if he lives in Germany in the first half of the 20th century...a suicidal bomber if he lives in Afghanistan under the Taliban movement...or a smug conservative wearing the Christian brand if he lives in Rome under the 2nd century rule of Constantine.  

You see, the Pharisee and the Sadducee each had different models of the same problem: One trusted his spiritual morality, the other trusted his liberal intellectuality.

What has really happened? Morality and intellectuality have tried to satisfy what only Jesus can. Only through Jesus Christ can one find ultimate reason and experiential satisfaction, for in Him is the essence of all morality and truth!

Instead of trusting people-snubbing religion (like the Pharisee) or man-fearing liberalism (like the Sadducee), we need a change of heart so that we are trusting and living for Jesus Christ.

You could be the model of moral excellence...and yet be far from the One who makes all morality meaningful. You could be the GQ of IQ, yet live in oblivion to the One who created your intellect.

Instead of trusting people-snubbing religion (the Pharisees) or man-fearing liberalism (the Sadducees), we need a change of heart. True love for Christ starts inside out.

Puppet in Reverse

One day I was at home playing with Audrey my daughter when she was four years old, and I took one of her puppets and turned it inside out. Never do this in front of a little girl. You can cause permanent damage and her parents will hate you forever. You see, when you reverse a puppet, it’s kind of like seeing someone’s organs for the first time. It’s very...ugly.

When Audrey saw it, she got up and ran away. And I’m going, “Honey, what’s the matter...come here,” walking through the house with this monster on my and she’s screaming.

That’s what God wants to do with our sin: show it for what it really is. We don’t want to see the inside. We prefer to keep the puppet normal: maybe add a little eye shadow, paint the toenails, give him a puppet bubble bath. But that doesn’t deal with the problem does it?

We need to be turned inside out. That’s how God works. That’s why Jesus never attacked social evils like slavery, prostitution, and overtaxation. Jesus likes to do things inside out.

How? How do I be rid of my sin and find total forgiveness? If being a relativist isn’t going to help me and if a goody-two-shoed church goer isn’t going to help me, what do I do?

The answer is in verse 7-8. Repent by turning from our sin (verse 8) and “flee from the wrath to come” (verse 7)!

Who do I flee to? To church? Bible study? To social justice? No...flee to Jesus! To escape the wrath of Jesus you must flee to Jesus.

Why should I live for the imaginary?

At this point someone objects: Why should I live for this imaginary kingdom of heaven? I haven’t seen it! I haven’t tasted it! I can see it under a microscope or through a telescope. Why would I live for something I don’t even know to be true?

2 reasons.

1st: the alternative is destructive.

Every world philosophy, every outlook on life that puts self as the end goal for living ends up disappointed and ultimately leads to destruction. If being loyal to myself is the highest ideal than why can’t I pillage the countryside? That is why most religions at least understand this: to live for nothing higher than oneself leaves you empty and ethically raped.

If you find this hard to believe then listen to Ravvi Zacharias in his book, The End of All Reason, which critiques Sam Harris’ latest books against religion and Christianity in particular. Speaking of the atheistic philosophy that dominates Amsterdam, he writes:

Has Harris seen the trafficking of young women funneled into the cesspool of Amsterdam’s relight district? My daughter works in the rescue of women in the sex-trafficking industry. Europe is a nightmare where young women are in the vise-like grip of this horrific trade. I could tell you story after story but let me tell you just one. A woman who works with a Christian group that rescues children from the clutches of sex traffickers told me that in one instance she rescued an eighteen-month-old baby girl from the arms of a man getting his sexual thrills with that child” (73).

2nd: the impossibility of the contrary

The ideal of living for something greater than yourself makes no sense in a world where all reality is only physical. If I believe in a physical-only world and then tell my son to obey the Golden Rule, I have told him to do something that in my worldview does not even exist! If we are only physical matter and if there is no such thing as higher ideals and values, then to bring your girlfriend flowers or to honor a soldier with the Purple Heart...means absolutely nothing. It is to applaud nothing.

Root Transformation

I grew up on a 10 acre plot of land in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. On one side of the creek we planted an orchard of apple trees. We knew as much about horticulture as pirates know about knitting.

And we took the naturalist approach and just let it kind of grow until it resembled the Amazon jungle.

One day, my sister and I were walking through the orchard catching frogs, and we came upon an apple tree with with just a few shriveled apples—you know, the kind you would feed to someone you don’t like? My sister looks at this tree and then looks at another one with big juicy apples and she says, “Why don’t we take those apples off and gwoo them on this twee, and then it will gwo big apples?” That’s what it’s like when we try to earn God’s favor by doing the good religious thing. We try to paste on apples of church attendance, apples of Bible studies, apples of not cussing...when all along what we really need is a root transformation. And only Jesus can do that for you!

Why didn’t John the Baptist preach: Repent, for the next drown the clown beer game is at hand! Repent for the next physicist theory to explain the mysteries of romance is at hand!

Because there is nothing more intellectually reasonable and experientially satisfying than the kingdom of Jesus Christ.