Second Sunday of Advent
Second Sunday of Advent
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt December 7th, 2025
Second Sunday of Advent
Text: Matthew 3:1–12
Today we begin week two of the season of Advent. Our tradition teaches us that this is to be a time of waiting in anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ to usher in his eternal kingdom here on earth. Ultimately, as Christians that is our greatest hope, or it should be.
The first two weeks we remember the promise of Jesus Christ’s second coming. We are encouraged to remember that Jesus will come again, and the first evidence is the fact that God was faithful in sending the Messiah the first time as He promised.
The fact is that God who has eternally ruled and reigned over the universe was willing to send His beloved Son to take on flesh and dwell among us should be seen as quite extraordinary. For me it has always been hard to imagine that the Son of God in his incarnation remains the divine Son of God while also remaining a human being eternally. This is for our benefit that He came to identify with us in a way that no one could have predicted or fathomed. The creator of all things became a part of those who were created by coming into the world in the same way as you and I, through the womb of our mothers. This kind of sacrificial love being lavished upon those who have sinned against God is extraordinary. I never grow weary of considering that truth.
As we continue into this season we must realize that there’s a goal in mind and with it a question we should ask ourselves. The goal during Advent is not to learn more facts to store away in our minds but that we might know God more intimately. It was God who reached out to those who embrace Him by faith in His beloved Son. We should focus our hearts on God as He continues to help us see His love and mercy through the events that we remind ourselves of during Advent. I believe we should ask ourselves these questions, “How important is this truth to me? How does it change the way I live and think?”
The people of Israel waited for generations for the promised Messiah to arrive. Their poetry, their songs and stories, and their religious worship focused the awaited savior who would come to them to set them free from captivity and would lead them to fulfill all that God had promised about raising up His people to accomplish the purpose for which they had been chosen.
Israel longed for the Messiah, and John the Baptist, who came before Jesus, promised that the Kingdom of God was at hand. He proclaimed that the Messiah was coming therefore they should repent of their sins in preparation. In our Gospel reading this morning from Matthew 3: 5–6 we read,
Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
It’s interesting that the people were coming in droves repenting of their sins. Gentiles who converted to Judaism were not only circumcised but also baptized as a symbol of their death to their old Gentile ways and their cleansing from spiritual uncleanness. The fact that John demanded that Jews be baptized meant that spiritually the Jews were as unclean as pagans. They weren’t merely to be cleansed of their sins but there was to be a return to the ways of God revealed to them through the law and the prophets.
Advent is a season in the Church’s life intended to renew the experience of waiting and longing for the Messiah. Though Christ has already come into the world, the Church invites us to renew our desire for the Lord to deepen in our lives and renew our desire for Christ’s triumphant second coming into the world.
Advent is the time in which we prepare for Christmas, the memorial of Jesus Christ being born into the world. We’re invited to enter more frequently into silence, into prayer and reflection, into Scripture, and into the sacramental life of the Church to prepare for celebrating Christmas.
The church in these last days is in a similar situation to Israel at the end of the Old Testament. They were in exile under Roman rule, waiting for God to move on their behalf, to restore them and send the promised Messiah.
As I thought about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry I wondered how much time the average Jew in Israel spent thinking about the coming of the Messiah. I wondered how many poured over the writings of the prophets in order to understand the type of Messiah that was promised as opposed to the type they were looking for if they were indeed still looking for that. I doubt that it even entered the mind of the vast majority of those in Israel. Indifference follows quickly after a focus on God has waned. Let’s turn to our Gospel reading from Matthew 3:1–12. We’ll begin with Matthew 3:1–3,
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’
It’s very important that we not miss the fact that John the Baptist was holding church in the wilderness of Judea. As we’ve seen before from Ezekiel 10:1–22 the glory of God had long ago departed the temple in Jerusalem. The Jews had apparently been so blinded by their idolatry that they really hadn’t noticed. Ezekiel’s vision saw the Lord leaving the temple due to the people breaking his laws and even adding the worship of other gods and pagan practices into temple worship.
Ezekiel saw the Lord leaving the very place where the people came to meet with him. This opened up Jerusalem to being invaded by their enemies, both spiritual and physical. The hearts of the people were so corrupt that they never even noticed that the Spirit of the Lord was gone. The Apostle Paul told the men of Athens in Acts 17:24–25,
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
I’m guessing that most of the Jews in Jerusalem gathered to hear the law of God read and to make sacrifices for sins committed but still felt empty and longed for something to happen to make their lives have meaning. They blamed Rome for their misery. Word must have gotten around that there was a prophet out in the wilderness and so crowds began to go out there to see what was happening. When they got out there they heard a preacher telling them that they needed to repent of their sins. The exciting part is that apparently they were willingly responding to the command to repent and be baptized for their sins.
What was the reason given for repentance? Because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. I suspect that Isaiah 40:3 was a well-known reading from scripture,
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
The idea of repentance is sometimes seen as what we do before we come to God, but I think it more accurate to see it as what it looks like to come to him. Repentance is the realization that are we separated from God because of our sins and God’s is inviting us to turn away from our disobedience and follow Jesus Christ who is the only way to God. The response is to turn away from our old ways and follow Jesus. Repentance is a definite action in response to an invitation.
In Hosea chapter 2:14–16 the Lord speaks through the prophet about the day when God will lead his people into the wilderness again establishing a renewed relationship with him. The Jewish people in John’s day would probably see the wilderness as the appropriate place for prophets and messiahs and if repentance was called for because the Kingdom of Heaven was near, so be it.
In their history the wilderness was a natural place for fugitives from a hostile society including prophets like Elijah (1 Kings 17:2–6; 2 Kings 6:1–2). In the wilderness John was free to speak to large crowds and to have public baptisms without censure by the religious leaders.
Around the world today many Christians are persecuted and can’t publicly meet to worship for fear of being arrested or killed. Oddly enough it seems that in those places the church is growing quickly.
Could it be that God honors their perseverance by moving in power through the Holy Spirit?
Could it be that the Holy Spirit is revealing the love of God and the power of his word so thoroughly that following Jesus is considered worth the risk?
In ancient Israel true prophets could function within society under godly governments but in evil times it was mainly corrupt prophets who remained in royal courts because God’s true messengers were forced into exile (1 Kings 17:3; 18:13). Most Jewish people in the first century practiced their religion seriously; but the religious establishment could not accommodate a prophet like John whose lifestyle dramatically challenged the status quo. A prophet with a message and values like John’s might not feel very welcome in many contemporary Western churches either.
Let’s read Matthew 3: 4–6,
Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
John’s lifestyle doesn’t appeal to most and I think that most wouldn’t accept an invitation for dinner from him. John’s lifestyle declares that he lived fully for the will of God, not valuing possessions, comfort, or status. I confess that I don’t feel a sense of longing to live like John did, but I have to wonder what he would think about my lifestyle. I love to preach about the kingdom of God, but I have yet to ask God to let me live like John.
May we have the courage to trust God as John did, to stake everything on the kingdom and to relinquish our own popularity, when necessary, by summoning others to stake everything on the kingdom as well.
Let’s read Matthew 3:7–10,
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruitin keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Even Jewish traditions of John’s day believed that everyone, even those who were considered true “children of Abraham” had reason for repentance. John was suggesting that if they were to have true repentance it would be reminiscent of the type that was required of Gentiles who in converting to Judaism must leave their old way of life and embrace the God of the Jews and an entirely new way of living.
True repentance was to be seen as costly, and the Jews needed to see that they could not merely depend on their heritage as the true children of Abraham and keepers of the law of Moses.
In other words, John was treating Jewish people as if they were Gentiles, calling them to turn to God on the same terms they believed God demanded of Gentiles. When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded.
Listen to the paraphrase from The Message,
“Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and flourishing? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.”
Employing the image of a tree’s fruit, both John and Jesus demand that our lives match our profession. Salvation must begin with a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, not merely being part of a religious or ethnic group. No one can take their spiritual status for granted simply because they are Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, evangelical, Jewish or anything else.
There’s an old saying that God has no grandchildren; the godliness of our upbringing cannot save us if we are not personally committed to Jesus Christ. I’ve had people tell me about going forward to pray the sinners prayer at a summer camp, or an Emmaus walk or some similar religious experience. Some believe that they are saved because they were baptized or had church membership.
John’s message constituted a decisive challenge to false doctrines of his day that cost people their salvation; John’s successors in our day must be prepared to issue the same sort of unpopular challenges.
Finally, lets read Matthew 3:11–12,
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
In Matthew’s account John the Baptist understood that the call upon his life was as the forerunner of the Messiah. He would prepare the people as to how they should respond to the coming Messiah. Even John didn’t fully understand what kind of Messiah Jesus would be. Remember later on in Matthew when John the Baptist was in prison under a death penalty. Listen to Matthew 11:2–6,
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
The truth is that not even John the Baptist would have thought for one minute that Jesus the Messiah would be crucified on a Roman cross. He didn’t need to know that, it wasn’t a part of his purpose in coming. He emphasized that the kingdom is coming.
In Matthew’s summary of their preaching, both John and Jesus announce the same message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (3:2; 4:17). Matthew intends us to see John’s and Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom as models for our preaching as well (10:7); the Lord is not looking the other way in a world of injustice but is coming to set matters straight. Therefore those who believe his warnings had better get their lives in order, too.
Most Jewish people in Palestine expected a time of impending judgment against the wicked and deliverance for the righteous. But most expected judgment on other peoples and on only the most wicked in Israel; Jewish people, after all, had certain privileges. Oppressed by surrounding nations, Israel had good reason to long for deliverance, but many people within the nation, including its political leaders, needed to look first to themselves.
The prophet Amos sounded a clear warning to his generation, to Jesus’ generation and to ours, when we prove more quick to judge others than ourselves:
“Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD,” for it will be a day of reckoning” (Amos 5:18).
Sometimes skeptics appeal to evil in the world to deny God’s existence; instead they should be applauding his mercy in giving them time to repent, because when God decisively abolishes evil, he will have to abolish them. That John directs his harshest preaching toward religious people, the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 3:7), this should also arouse some introspection on our part. Our culture prefers a comfortable message of God’s blessing on whatever we choose to do with our lives; God reminds us that his Word and not our culture remains the final arbiter of our destiny.
Finally, John warns of the coming judge, who is incomparably powerful. Judgment is coming, but the coming judge John announces is superhuman in rank (Matthew 3:11–12),
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Only God could pour out the gift of the Spirit, and no mere mortal would baptize in fire. John’s baptism looked forward to Spirit baptism. After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, true baptism occurs as a work of the Holy Spirit. Christian baptism lays claim on behalf of the one baptized to the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Cleansing with fire describes God’s ultimate baptism, contrasted with the symbol of cleansing with water. The fire of the Spirit renovates the people of God and consumes the wicked as chaff.
In closing I hope that we see more clearly that we shouldn’t look forward to the return of Jesus simply because we want to live with him for eternity. We should want him to come to make all things new, and all wrongs dealt with. We should long for it because we long for those who are persecuted for the faith to be
wrapped in the loving arms of our Savior.
In the meantime, God would have us live in recognition that the kingdom of God is here, but the best is yet to come.
Let’s pray.
©2025 The Rev. Michael J. Moffitt
