Matthew 3: Repentance, Conversion and New Birth

Introduction

"Are you really saved? If you die today, are you sure you will be with Jesus Christ?" Luciano Branco, who came from the church in Toulon, asks this question at the heart of his message on Matthew 3:1-12, on the day the Church celebrates a baptism.

For him, this passage gives clues for recognizing a true Christian, a true believer. The Bible often speaks of people who call themselves Christians and saved, but are not. We cannot always discern the hearts of others, he admits, but one question remains: "can you discern what is in your own heart?"

Through the preaching of John the Baptist, he describes three realities of salvation: repentance, conversion and new birth. The first two are the step a person takes. The third is the work of the Spirit of God.

Outline of the message

1. There are Christians and there are Christians

This week, a 90-year-old sister from the church could not get rid of some Jehovah's Witnesses. The preacher called them. After an hour of discussion, the person on the other end told him: "But we are still brothers." His answer: as soon as Jesus is not recognized as the one and only way to be saved, you do not enter the kingdom of God. Not because you are worse than anyone else, but because there is one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5).
Abroad, he asked the pastor of a church of about 300 people how many they really were. The answer: "maybe a hundred." He was speaking in terms of "transformed souls." Some seemed to be children of God and, years later, questioned even the existence of God.
In heaven, we will be surprised. The criminal on the cross insulted Jesus (Matthew 27:44), then said to him: "Remember me." And Jesus promised him that very day he would be with him (Luke 23:42-43). Some will be there when we did not expect them, and others will not be there when we thought we would see them.
He tells how he watched a film about the rapture with his wife, where everyone is taken except the pastor. His wife turned to him: "So what?" Behind the smile, the question remains serious: the first reality of true salvation is to start at the beginning, and the beginning is repentance.

2. Starting at the beginning: the spiritual check-up

The preacher confesses that he fell into this trap: announcing a gospel along the lines of "God is love, he will take care of you, your hairs are numbered, all things work together for good for those who love God." We like these promises. "Is that the Gospel?"
John the Baptist begins with the diagnosis, the spiritual check-up: "You are a wretched sinner who, because of your sin alone, cannot stand before the glory of God." Hence his call: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" (verse 2).
If it was near in John the Baptist's time, it is all the more so today. For some, it may be near in the coming days, because no one can add a cubit to the length of his life (Matthew 6:27).
John is the voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord (Isaiah 40:3). Before planting tomatoes, you prepare the ground. The farmer on his tractor does not sow yet: he turns the soil over and breaks it up.
The parable of the sower (Matthew 13) shows four reactions to the Word. The indifferent one: "go on talking, I'm listening." The one who says yes on principle, an intellectual yes, with a hard heart. The one who says "yes, gladly," but always has a legitimate excuse, like the man who wanted to bury his father first (Matthew 8:21-22). And the good soil, where the seed bears fruit, but where the thorns of life can come and choke it.

3. Repentance or regret: Peter and Judas

Between repentance and regret, the difference is sometimes thin. Judas wanted to bring back the money he had received, and it was refused. His sin weighed on him so heavily that he went and hanged himself (Matthew 27:3-5). Yet the Bible calls him the son of destruction (John 17:12).
Peter also denied Jesus, three times, as Jesus had foretold. Until that moment when his eyes met the Lord's. Then he wept (Luke 22:61-62). One would become a disciple serving God, the other went as far as hanging himself.
"Judas was ashamed of what he had done in front of people. Peter was ashamed of what he had done in front of Jesus. That is the difference." In the book of Acts, Peter is no longer the same man: he preaches the Gospel.
The woman who came to Jesus' feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee did not care about other people's looks (Luke 7:36-50). Being ashamed of your sin because you are afraid of what others will think, "that is not repentance, that is regret, fear, the shame of seeing my image tarnished."
Repentance "frees itself completely" from what family, spouse and friends think. Only one concern remains: "I come to bend my knee before you, to weep over my sin, Lord."

4. Fruits worthy of repentance

The people of Jerusalem, all Judea and the region around the Jordan went out to John (verse 5). No one forced them. This was not evangelism that seduces, like the candy bought one day at a camp in a housing estate to attract children. John preaches, and his preaching has an effect.
We hear people say: "I think he is a child of God, he comes to church regularly, he reads his Bible, he takes part in the offerings, he talks about Jesus." For the preacher, "that means absolutely nothing." Repent.
Fruits worthy of repentance are a visible reality. Zacchaeus declares that if he has wronged anyone, he is ready to pay it back (Luke 19:8). "That is fruit worthy of repentance."
Everyone has their own tendencies. The preacher says that alcohol, cigarettes and drugs were never a temptation for him, even before his conversion. It would be easy to congratulate himself for not drinking, but there were other issues. Everyone has their own Achilles' heel.
Jesus says that people of ill repute will enter the kingdom of God ahead of the religious (Matthew 21:31). But the one who has understood his sin, who comes to church, who calls himself a Christian and stays in his sin, hears "a sound that rings loud and wrong, and it is not me saying it."

5. "Offspring of vipers": religion without repentance

Pharisees and Sadducees come to John's baptism as if performing one more rite: "We have to get baptized, so let's get baptized." Enough to ease the conscience. John does not give them a very friendly welcome: "You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (verse 7).
It is obvious that they are not living true repentance. You can come to worship every Sunday, be on time, suggest your favorite hymn, pray with sophisticated phrases, and not be a child of God. They have a form of godliness but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5).
Jesus was rarely harsh, except with the Pharisees, whom he calls hypocrites (Matthew 23). The Greek word, the preacher explains, means actor.
Some are such good actors that their voice turns honeyed on Sunday: "Oh brother, God bless you." And children see their father put on a different face on Sunday morning, while at home, "he makes life miserable."

6. Conversion: a U-turn, no pedigree

The second step of salvation is conversion, "a U-turn in your life." The book of Acts says: "Repent therefore, and turn again" (Acts 3:19). The two are closely linked, but you can have every outward sign that looks like repentance without living conversion.
In some baptism testimonies, you hear: "I felt a warmth in my heart, then peace." The preacher regrets that the person was not better guided: salvation is repentance and conversion.
There is no pedigree. "My parents were in the church, my great-grandparents too" counts for nothing. "Don't think to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'" (verse 9). Each person answers for their faith personally.
"Even now the axe lies at the root of the trees" (verse 10). From the start the blow is fatal, and the tree cannot grow properly. Hence the importance of announcing a right gospel, so that from the start things get set in motion correctly. One simple question: "Today, if you die, where will you go?"
Sunday school children know the all-purpose answer: "Jesus," the "Joker card." The preacher fears that this produces "Pharisees in the making" who give the right answer without having grasped the point.
At a pastors' gathering in Toulon, the pastors reviewed Bible exhibitions, handing out New Testaments, conferences and door-to-door visits. The conclusion: we do not produce salvation, we can only sow, and we must pray.
Conversion means that Jesus Christ now reigns: over your Netflix series, over your wallet, over your hobbies. "I was passionate about this and that, but Christ first."

7. New birth: the Spirit and fire

John's baptism is a baptism of repentance: a visible gesture to say "I am a sinner." The baptism celebrated that very afternoon includes repentance, but it also expresses another reality, the baptism of the Spirit.
"He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and with fire" (verse 11). There is the step you take, repentance, the step you take, conversion, and what God does: his Spirit comes into you, makes you his temple and a new creation. The Bible calls it new birth or regeneration.
For the preacher, the fire here refers rather to something other than the Holy Spirit: verse 12 explains it. Christ will gather his wheat into the barn and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. When Jesus returns, there will be a sorting: "You can fool your pastor, you can fool the people of a church, you can fool whoever you want, but not Christ."
The parables of Matthew 25 speak of this sorting: the sheep and the goats, the ten virgins. They are all waiting for Christ, they all have lamps, they all fall asleep. The difference does not hinge on much. "What good is it to please the people of a church, if before God you are not recognized as a genuine child of God?"
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The preacher does not claim to be perfect: when he plays soccer, he plays to win, and his nature resurfaces. But an indelible desire lives in him: to be satisfied with nothing other than pleasing God. This is sanctification. The one who grieves the Holy Spirit is me, by my attitude (Ephesians 4:30).
This Spirit makes it possible to lift your head in the day of distress, despite suffering, illness, injustice. Suffering is not easy for a child of God, but there is a life after this life.
His closing image: repentance is like the conception of a child, conversion like the pregnancy, new birth like the birth. Someone who says they are born again without any talk of repentance or a changed life is like a newborn who had known neither conception nor pregnancy.
One last point: if the Spirit of God does not act first, a person has no capacity to live full repentance, because no one seeks God (Romans 3:10-12). Hence the call to pray for our loved ones: "Lord, touch the heart, incline this person's heart to repentance."

Key takeaways

The Gospel starts at the beginning: the honest recognition that we are sinners before the glory of God.
Repentance is not regret. Regret fears for its image, while repentance weeps over its sin before Jesus, whatever others may think.
Conversion is a U-turn: Christ first, in every area of life. No family heritage can replace it.
New birth is the work of the Spirit of God. You can fool people, but you will not fool Christ.
Salvation is a miracle: we must announce a right gospel and pray that God touches hearts.

Personal application

If you died today, where would you go, and what does your answer rest on?
When you are ashamed of your sin, is it first because of how others see you or because of Jesus?
What concrete fruit of repentance does God expect from you, like Zacchaeus?
Is there an area (your screens, your money, your leisure) where Christ does not yet come first?
Which loved one will you pray for this week, that God would incline their heart to repentance?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between repentance and regret?

Luciano Branco compares Judas and Peter. Both denied or betrayed Jesus, and both felt regret. But Judas was ashamed of what he had done in front of people, while Peter was ashamed of what he had done in front of Jesus. Regret fears for its image. Repentance no longer cares about the looks of others: it bends the knee before God and weeps over its sin.

What is the difference between repentance, conversion and new birth?

Repentance means recognizing that you are a sinner, weeping over your sin and bearing fruit. Conversion is a U-turn: from now on Jesus Christ reigns over the whole of life. New birth is the work of God: his Spirit comes to dwell in us. The preacher compares them to the conception, the pregnancy and the birth of a child.

What does "he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and with fire" mean in Matthew 3?

For Luciano Branco, the text itself explains the fire in verse 12: Christ will gather his wheat into the barn and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. He sees judgment in it. When Jesus returns, there will be a sorting: you can fool your pastor or a church, but not Christ. What will make the difference is the presence or absence of the Spirit of God.