Matthew 3:1-17

Sunday message · The Book of Matthew series

Gary Cartagena  ·  Matthew 3:1-17

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Message Summary

Continuing the series on the Gospel of Matthew, Gary Cartagena turns to Matthew 3:1–17. John the Baptist is preaching repentance in the wilderness and preparing the way for the Messiah when Jesus comes to be baptized. From this scene Gary draws a pattern for recognizing when God is moving in our lives.

John was all in, having forsaken possessions to preach repentance and baptize, yet even he questioned God’s plan, protesting that he needed to be baptized by Jesus. Jesus answered with patient correction. Correction, Gary notes, can come as plain truth, as when Jesus later met John’s doubts in Matthew 11 by pointing to his works, or as gentle coercion, sometimes without explanation, as here: “Allow it for now.” John humbled himself and took the step, and God confirmed it unmistakably: the heavens opened, the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice said, “This is my Son. I take great delight in him.”

Gary and his wife saw the same pattern when a Christian school asked them to host an exchange student. They hesitated: another family was already living with them, they felt they were already on mission, and they had practical worries. A conversation with the principal eased those worries, which Gary now recognizes as gentle coercion. After prayer they said yes, and things moved quickly. Then came confirmation. The student’s room was still a loud fluorescent green, and when they offered to repaint it any color he liked, he asked to keep it, because it was the exact color of his bedroom back home. Today he is a permanent part of their family.

The pattern does not start with us, Gary says; God’s plan is already in motion, and he invites us along. Being all in does not require knowing the whole plan: “God doesn’t always prepare us for the ministry. He uses that ministry to prepare us.” We stay open to correction, often through others on the same journey, and we act, because faith without works is dead (James 2), and in his experience confirmation comes only after action. Sometimes God also grants a great reveal, a glimpse of how long he has been connecting the dots. Gary sums up a longer story in which a prompting he nearly ignored led, through years of answered prayer, to an unexpected way for his family to be near their aging parents. God always has a plan, he says, and it is up to us to step into it.

Gary closes with a new opportunity for Clarity, which has been generously offered the use of ministry space. He sees needs for men’s, teen and women’s ministries, and possibly one for young families, where people can grow as disciples and new visitors can plug in. He plans to work toward launching a men’s group there, hopes for a teen ministry that could be a landing place for teens without a church home, and asks women to help shape a women’s ministry and experienced parents to support young families. He invites the church family to step into it together.