4th October 2026 : Matthew ch 3 v 1 - 12

Matthew ch 3 v 1 - 12

Good time for a Sunday club to go out. So you should have plenty of time there in the back. In the meantime, Margaret will do the reading from scripture for us.

It's a reading from Matthew chapter 3, 1 to 12.

In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptised by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not think to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Praise the Lord. Let's have a pray, shall we, and just invite the blessing.

Lord, we want to bless you for the word. We want to bless you for the Holy Spirit who caused and inspired it and now speaks it to us. Lord, speak it again in a way that only you can, Lord, in Jesus' precious name, to each person in a precious way. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Amen.

So reading from Matthew, you might think, what's that going to do with the harvest? And the answer is everything actually. But we'll come to that.

Let's paint some broad strokes, the background first of all. We read from Leviticus 23 at the first, didn't we? And I just read part of it. But actually there's a list of feasts that the Lord goes through in detail for the children of God and things that they had to do and festivals that they had to keep or rather feasts. The feast of the Passover, integral with that was the feast of unleavened bread. And that was the springtime harvest, the barley harvest. And when they brought the first sheaves, the first fruits that they picked from the fields, they would wave them before the Lord, before they did anything else with them, before it ended up on the table. And that was called the wave offering.

And if you carry that forward into what we call the New Testament, actually the Bible is just one book. The New and the Old Testament are framed like that for easy reading really, like the chapters and the verses, but it's one book. And you'll find the harvest is a theme. It's one of those themes in the Bible that really joins everything together, all right, when you look at it. But if you move forward into the New Testament, you'll see that Jesus Christ himself is the wave offering. He is the first fruits. He is the fulfilment of what the priest was doing back there. And there's plenty of scripture to authenticate that, some we can think of, Acts chapter 26, verse 23, when one of those times when Paul was giving his testimony again, and he proclaimed Jesus as the first fruits that have risen from the dead. Then you, in 1 Corinthians 15, 20, he's the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. And Colossians chapter 1, 18, the first fruits, the firstborn from among the dead so that he might have the supremacy in all things. And then 1 Peter, no, yeah, 1 Peter 1, verse 21, again, the first fruits. And then again in Revelation chapter 1, verse 5, all the way through, he is the beginning and the end and the first fruits of those that rise from the dead.

So Jesus is literally called and referred to as the first fruits. That wave offering that was seen, way back all those years ago, how could they have known that it would be fulfilled in such a way? And so are all of the feasts. But the next feast that they had to take notice of was called the Feast of Weeks. We call it the Feast of Pentecost, that's the literal name. And that was 49 days plus one day after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And that was the summer harvest, the grain harvest. And again, there'd be a wave offering. Surprise, surprise. You know, actually, for that it included two loaves of bread as well and a lamb. But that harvest happened on the 50th day. Pentecost literally means the 50th day. And after the wave offering and the blessing, they could then enter into the joy and the enjoyment of what that blessing is. Just like on the day of Pentecost. All right.

When the tongues of fire came on the first church, everything was dedicated with fire. If you read Leviticus 23, you'll see every one of those feasts comes to the point of fire at some stage in it. And when the tongues of fire came on the first church, they entered into the joy of thy salvation. They entered into the blessing of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And what was given in there in picture form and in types and figures in the Old Testament was fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And then the third festival actually didn't involve a feast or a harvest, was the Feast of Trumpets. So you get to the silver trumpets and they're blown and there is an offering, but not a wave offering. And then the last of the harvest, there's three harvests in the year, and the last of them is the autumn harvest or the late or the final ingathering it's called, or the fruit harvest, and that's called the Feast of Tabernacles.

What's a tabernacle? It's a dwelling, isn't it? It's a place that you enter in and live there, even if it's only a temporary dwelling. And that's what the Jews did for many years and still do some of them. They call it the Feast of Booths, don't they? Okay, the Feast of Tabernacles. So there's three. The first one is integral with the Passover, that's the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the second one is the Feast of Weeks. And the third one is the Feast of Tabernacles. Every one of those harvests, all three of them involve the wave offering. First before anything, they had to give thanks and acknowledge that it was given God.

And you know, as well as tying up a spiritual significance to the harvest, which we'll do more of gradually, there is also quite practical and ethical outcome to it as well. Because when they gleaned from the fields, the harvest fields, for those who remember the book of Ruth, Anne Simpson came the other week, didn't she, talked from the book of Ruth? And she actually mentioned Ruth going into the field of Boaz and gleaning from the margins. And that was done because she had nothing, to put it bluntly. She and her mother-in-law were hard up and possibly starving. And Boaz was a righteous man and he said to his harvesters, leave enough for people to come and pick up so that they can all have enough. But none had too much, none had too little. That was the whole thing put together by God. And so the gleanings were for poor people or people who had nothing and anybody else who couldn't get enough.

There was other means of supply, but nobody starved. And that was God's way of reaching to them, God's provision. So there you've got quite a lot going on there already in the Old Testament, in these feasts and in the Thanksgiving.

Let's turn our attention to Matthew 3. I promised that we would. And we're looking there and we'll see that there was a prophecy by John the Baptist. He was a prophet. Look at these verses and everything he said there is a prophecy about Jesus who was in the midst and about to start his earthly ministry. But he also talked about fruits and harvests. Did you get it? In verse 4, we see what John the Baptist actually, what his diet was. He reaped food from the field, like the rest of them, but he lived in a wilderness. There's still food there, it was locusts and wild honey.

Now I'm never eaten this stuff all right, so I'm not particular to it, but I would imagine that locusts are full of protein. I met some Australian people some time ago and I said, you lot. I said, you eat some funny things, don't you? They're called widgery grubs and they live among the roots of trees and they're like a big maggot. And they throw them into the wok or the frying pan, you know, and then they eat them. And I said, well, sooner you than me, but apparently they're full of protein, they're protein rich and they're a delicacy in restaurants. Maybe locusts are a bit like that. They still eat locusts out there, would you believe, in the Near East and in North Africa. Wilderness dwellers, they eat locusts.

The honey wasn't like it could get in the shops. That's probably a blend by some major manufacturer poured into a jar at high temperature, you know. If you want real honey, you have to go to where they do that. I think there's a place out on Astley Moss if you're interested. But it'll cost you a lot more money than the stuff you buy in the shops. But that's what John ate, and he ate the fruit of the field. He ate what God, he lived on what God provided.

And then moving down, you get into verse 8 and what did he say to the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees? He said, let me see your fruit. You've got a relationship with God. You say that he's done a work in your life and in your heart. Let me see the fruit. Let me see the fruit of repentance. And he wasn't talking about pears and apples, was he? Or pumpkins. He was talking about a work that God has done in the heart. That's a harvest. It's called a harvest of righteousness. Let me see the fruit, he said. And that's something that needs saying, isn't it?

In a lot of cases to a lot of folks, let me see what God has done in you. All right? Let me see your righteousness because that speaks and Jesus said, by the fruits, you'll know them. When they presented the wave offering, it was the best. It was the first sheaf, the first fruits. And when the priests saw the fruits and when everybody else saw it, that was a good sign of what was to come. It was a signal to the quality of the harvest. They saw the fruit. Can you see it? I hope you're putting this together with me.

And then you get down into verse 10 and he's, another reference to the trees. You know, elsewhere in the scripture you'll see a bad tree can only bear bad fruit, can't bear good fruit. It must be changed, mustn't it? Something must happen. It must be born again to bear good fruit. You don't pick figs from thorn bushes. You don't drink spring water from a salt spring. Something must happen first. And in verse 10, John said to these folks, he didn't spare anybody, did he, in his prophecy and his preaching? He is a bit more brutal than I am. But he said, the axe is laid at the root of the tree. Which trees is the axe laid at the root of? The trees that don't produce any fruit. They know God, they're empty, they're barren, there's nothing spiritual happening with them. And he said, well, there's an axe ready to cut those down.

And what happens to them afterwards? They're thrown in a fire. I don't think the meaning could have been lost on them, but they certainly didn't respond, not immediately, not at the time. And then he goes into this great talk on baptism. I'm going to baptise you in water, but you brood of vipers, who told you to come here, you know, produce fruit in keeping with repentance before you go into my baptism. And that was his preaching. But he started to talk about the baptism in water and the baptism in the Spirit. And then he quickly moved on to who was going to do that. And that is Jesus in verse 11.

But he also said something else. Now verse 12 again, we're back to grain and harvesting and stuff like that and a threshing floor. Take a look at it in verse 12. It says, his winnowing fork is in his hand. Now in those days when they harvested, what they'd do is get the stuff at the threshing floor, and this is the most I know, no expert on farming or horticulture, right? Or even gardening come to that! But they used to get this big fan-shaped fork. Have you ever seen one of those things, they aerate the grass with your lawn or rake the soil with it? It's like a fan shape with prongs on it. Something like that.

And they'd rake up the harvest and toss it into the air like that. Need quite a few fit people to do that job. You need more harvesters. But you know what? They toss it up into the air and the wind would blow away the chaff. And something that had weight, the fruit of the harvest would fall back to the ground and be kept. And that's what it meant. He's come with a winnowing fork in his hand. What's he going to do with it? He's going to separate the wheat from the chaff. He's going to separate reality from fiction. He's going to separate a spurious experience from those who are born again of the Holy Spirit. The wheat from the chaff.

And he talked about a threshing floor. where he was going to gather his wheat, his wheat, not just any old stuff, his wheat would be gathered into his barn. And that is the final ingathering, isn't it? It's like the autumn harvest. First the silver trumpets, feast of trumpets. You read it in Revelation, don't you? The trumpet will sound. We sang it, didn't we? And the Lord will come and he will thresh his floor thoroughly. And the wheat will be gathered into the barn and the chaff will be blown away and dedicated to the fire. And that is the last harvest. It's the fulfilment of all that you see and is pictured for us in the Old Testament days, every feast they had. is a reference to the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's all fulfilled in his name.

So what does it mean to us? Don't take anything for granted. Always remember to give thanks. That's the first thing. And I've shared with you already, I went through a period of forgetfulness, I must have had amnesia, but then started to pray again. Thank you, Lord, for a nice tea. It's childish, isn't it? But it's serious. and we don't forget.

And the next thing we need to remember, all this harvesting work. Hard work, innit? Don't you think so? I don't think it's easy harvesting. Do you know, I'll share this with you once I was in the army cadets and this bloke came to the barracks and he was a farmer. And he said, I'd like some volunteers today. When you've finished on parade here, if you want to come down to the farm and help me with the harvest and baling and stuff like that, get it into the barn and I'll give you some money. You know, didn't say how much. He was cute. So anyway, we ended up in the back of this lorry and we went down to his farm and some of us were storing it in the barn when the wagons came back with the bales. And he didn't give us any gloves. And the bales were tied up with twine, that string with bits sticking out. A few of those. And then when it was your turn to go out on the wagon into the field, you were lifting them up onto the wagon. It was hard work. And at the end of the day, he wasn't going to pay us. He cleared off somewhere. We had to find him. A big gang of us went down to his house. And finally, we got some money. And then we said, are you going to give us a lift back home in a wagon? He said, oh, no, I didn't say I'd give you a lift back. You'll have to make your own way. So we walked it all the way back. And it got about 11:30 at night and we were tired.

I'll tell you what, harvesting or in-gathering, it is hard work. Joking apart, that's just a little story. But you know what? The Lord wants more harvesters in the harvest field. To do that work and to do some ingathering and to give thanks for everything that comes in and pray over it as though it was a wave offering. Say this is precious stuff. I want to thank you, Lord, for all that you're doing in that harvest. You see, when John the Baptist said of Jesus, his winnowing fork is in his hand, it means the harvest had already begun. He started it way back then and he's still working in it now. He's looking for volunteers and you're not going to get a lift in a wagon. He's looking for people who are available to be someone who wants to be involved. And you know what? Most of us would say, well, I can't do that kind of work, you know. But actually, in some way or other, you can. You might not do the hardest bits, you might not do the bits you think, I don't want to, but there'll be something, some way, in which you can be involved in the harvest, even if it's praying for someone you know.

Did I say even? That's precious. You know, when you get in touch with somebody who shows an interest in the gospel, however vague, however short, it's like a clue, isn't it? It's like a clue in a game and you think, ahhh I'm going to pray for you. I've done that a few times with people. Years ago, people I met at work and I don't know where they are now. But after months of prayer, there'd be a bit more interest. And then there'd be some questions. And then somebody said, have you got a Bible that can have? You know? And yeah. And stuff like that. One or two of them got saved. I don't know where they are now. But I know where they're going. And that's harvesting.

We don't get any credit for it. We don't get any reward that I can speak of. They don't come to our church. Not necessarily. We're not empire builders. We're harvesters. Do you want to be involved in that big project? You know, one last scripture I'll share with you. It's right at the beginning of Bible, Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2. The Lord spoke in the darkness. When the earth was formless and void, a vacuumous nothing. And then there was light, and then there was life, and then there was seed time, and then there was harvest. And that's the way it's been ever since.

You know, 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 7 says, by the same word, the world is now preserved for another harvest because God has spoken of another day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Rejoice. Be glad in it. You're a harvester. Let's pray.

Lord, we just cover that role of being harvesters. We can't foresee how that will happen in whatever small way. Lord, but we know that you value our prayers and we know people who are precious to us and we want to make them precious to you. Help us in the harvesting. We know it's hard. We know there are disappointments. We know that Lord, Lord, we're looking into a scene that we cannot see yet. Open our eyes to see it and open our ears to hear it. Good things that we might be the priests of all believers who are waving those first fruits before you now until the final ingathering comes, Lord, in Jesus' name, equip all these folks in the room. Lord, I ask in Jesus' name with more and enriched faith and all the gifts of the Spirit that they will need to bring in the harvest. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Amen.