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Jesus Expects and Empowers the Fruit of Repentance

December 15, 2024 Speaker: The Rev. Mike McDonald Series: Advent 2024

Topic: Advent Passage: Luke 3:7–20

John the Baptist saw large numbers of people coming to him in the wilderness. His message was “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” It came with predictions of judgment and this was called “good news” according to verse 18. How is judgment “good news?” It is kind to have both a warning of things to come and a way through them. In light of the Christ’s coming, he expects people to change their attitudes and behaviors to be more conformed to God’s character. In the first 6 verses of this chapter, we learned (last week) that “God calls sinners to repentance for forgiveness,” but then what?

Jesus expects and empowers the fruit of repentance.

God loves everyone right where they are, but loves us too much to leave us there. He wants us to become like Jesus. This means turning vices into virtues, ie: habitual sin into habitual goodness. John the Baptist gave highly practical examples, such as giving food to those without food or giving extra clothes to those who are lacking. (Luke 3:10-14). Being spiritually formed begins with the obvious things, even the little things.  

John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Holy Spirit is our power source for spiritual formation, to do good works. The fruit of the Spirit is listed in Galatians 5 along with an explicit list of sins. Every “work” we do will be tested by fire (see 1 Cor. 3:12-13).

Taking It Home: Get your view of “justification” sorted before considering your works.  Do this by reading Articles XI & XII in the Prayer Book, p. 776. Then, make an honest list of your habits. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you turn vices into virtues.