The Rattlesnake Revival
Introduction: The Religion of Credentials
We live in an age that is drowning in credentials. Men trust in their degrees, their resumes, their political affiliations, and their social standing. And when it comes to religion, this temptation is just as potent, if not more so. Men trust that they are right with God because they were born in the right country, or into the right family. They trust in their infant baptism, their church membership, their denominational pedigree. They believe their salvation is a matter of heritage, a birthright secured by their ancestors. They have their papers in order, and they assume that this will be quite satisfactory to God.
Into this comfortable, self-assured world of religious externalism, John the Baptist arrives like a sandstorm. He is not a polite chaplain offering therapeutic platitudes. He is a prophet of God, and his words are not meant to soothe but to sever. He comes to demolish every false foundation, to strip away every credential, and to leave men standing naked before the holy God with nothing to commend them but the mercy of God Himself. He is the great diagnostician who tells the patient that the disease is fatal before introducing the Great Physician.
The arrival of the Pharisees and Sadducees at the Jordan River was a collision of two worlds. On the one hand, you had the religious establishment, the respectable, the credentialed, the men who thought they had God figured out and tucked away in their theological systems. On the other, you had the wild man from the desert, clothed in camel's hair, whose only authority came from the God who sent him. What happens next is not a polite theological discussion. It is a necessary and holy confrontation, a reality check that is just as necessary for the church in our day as it was for the leaders of Israel then.
The Text
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his 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. And 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."
(Matthew 3:7-10 LSB)
A Theological Diagnosis (v. 7)
We begin with John's startling greeting:
"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?'" (Matthew 3:7)
First, notice who is coming. The Pharisees and Sadducees. These were the two dominant parties in Jewish religious life. The Pharisees were the conservative separatists, meticulous in their observance of the law and the traditions. The Sadducees were the liberal elitists, the establishment politicians who controlled the Temple and denied the resurrection. They were theological opponents on many points, but they were united in their self-righteousness and their opposition to the true work of God. Their presence here is not a sign of revival, but of infiltration.
John's response is not a welcome. It is a diagnosis. "You brood of vipers." This is not gratuitous name-calling. It is precise theological language. A brood is an offspring, a family. A viper is a venomous snake. John is looking at these religious leaders and tracing their family lineage. And where does he trace it? Right back to the serpent in the garden. Jesus will later say the same thing to them directly: "You are of your father the devil" (John 8:44). John is telling them that for all their religious activity, their spiritual DNA is satanic. Their religion is a venom that poisons, not a balm that heals.
His question is drenched in irony: "who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Imagine a brush fire sweeping across a dry field. As the flames advance, you see all the creatures of the field, the rabbits, the mice, and the snakes, all fleeing from the heat. John sees these religious leaders coming to the water, and he recognizes the same instinct. They are not running to God in repentance. They are simply running from the fire of judgment. They have felt the temperature rising, they have heard the rumors of a coming Messiah, and they want a fire insurance policy. They want to get dipped in the water as a religious precaution, an inoculation against the coming wrath, without any genuine change of heart.
The Demand for Evidence (v. 8)
John does not turn them away, but he does lay down the non-negotiable terms of true repentance.
"Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;" (Matthew 3:8 LSB)
The word for repentance is metanoia. It means a change of mind, a fundamental shift in your thinking, your worldview, and your allegiances. It is a turning from sin and self to God. But John insists that this internal change must produce external evidence. It must "bear fruit."
Repentance is not a secret transaction in the quiet of your heart. It is not simply feeling sorry for your sins. True repentance has a texture. It can be seen, and touched, and tasted. It is a changed life. The man who was a cheat becomes honest. The man who was harsh becomes gentle. The man who was greedy becomes generous. The fruit is the proof of the root. If there is no fruit, it is because the root is dead. This is a direct assault on any form of religion that is content with mere profession. God is not interested in your words if they are not backed up by your works. Faith without works is not just a weak faith; it is a dead faith, the kind of faith the demons have.
The Folly of Presumption (v. 9)
Next, John anticipates and dismantles their primary excuse, the credential they valued above all others.
"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." (Matthew 3:9 LSB)
This was their ace in the hole. "We are the children of Abraham." They believed that their ethnic descent guaranteed their salvation. They were members of the covenant people by birth, and they presumed upon this relationship. This is the original sin of covenantal presumption, and it is alive and well today. People think they are Christians because they were born into a Christian family, or because they live in a "Christian" nation. They trust in their bloodline, not in the blood of Christ.
John's reply is a stunning declaration of God's sovereign freedom. He likely gestures to the rocks and stones scattered along the banks of the Jordan and says that God can create children for Abraham out of these. This does two things. First, it tells them that their physical lineage is worthless apart from faith. God is not obligated to them because of their genetics. Second, it opens the door for the gospel to go to the Gentiles. The true children of Abraham are not his physical descendants, but those who share his faith (Galatians 3:7). God is about to build His family not on the basis of race, but on the basis of grace, calling sons from every tribe and tongue and nation, turning hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
The Imminence of Judgment (v. 10)
Finally, John delivers the urgent warning. The time for games is over.
"And 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." (Matthew 3:10 LSB)
The imagery is stark and terrifying. The judgment is not a distant possibility; it is imminent. The axe is "already laid at the root." The divine lumberjack is not interested in pruning a few dead branches. He is examining the very foundation of the tree. The entire system of national Israel, which had become fruitless, is about to be judged.
And the standard of judgment is utterly simple: fruit. "Every tree that does not bear good fruit." Notice, he does not say "every tree that bears bad fruit." The absence of good fruit is enough to condemn it. The tree that simply takes up space, that draws nutrients from the soil and gives nothing back, is useless. It is a cumberer of the ground. God is not looking for neutrality. He is looking for fruitfulness.
The consequence is final and irreversible: it is "cut down and thrown into the fire." This is the fire of hell, the unquenchable fire of God's holy wrath against sin. There are only two categories of people in the world: the fruitful and the firewood. There is no middle ground. You are either being cultivated for the harvest or you are being seasoned for the fire.
Conclusion: Flee to the Fruitful Tree
John's message is a necessary preparation for the gospel. He is a demolition man, clearing away all the flimsy shelters of self-righteousness so that sinners might flee to the only true refuge. You cannot come to Christ to be saved until you know that you are condemned. You cannot value the Physician until you have accepted the diagnosis.
The axe of God's judgment is real, and it is laid at the root of every human life. We are all fruitless trees by nature, deserving only to be cut down and thrown into the fire. But the good news is that God, in His mercy, has provided a way of escape. There was one tree that stood up in our place. There was one fruitful man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the axe of God's wrath fell on Him at the cross. He was "cut down" from the land of the living so that we who were dead wood could be grafted into Him.
He is the true vine, and we are the branches. Apart from Him, we can do nothing but wither and be gathered for the fire. But if we are united to Him by faith, His life flows into us, and we begin to bear fruit, fruit in keeping with repentance. The call of John the Baptist echoes down to us today. Stop trusting in your credentials. Acknowledge your fruitlessness. See the axe at the root. And flee from the wrath to come by fleeing to the one who bore that wrath for you, the Lord Jesus Christ.