John the
Baptist was a great man. He is called
“the Baptist,” because his ministry was characterized by a call for people to
be baptized. Luke 3:3 says, “Then John
went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that
people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and
turned to God to be forgiven.”[i] This baptism is how we distinguish him from
other men named John, such as John the
Apostle.
John the
Baptist did not write any Scripture. The
gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John and
Revelation were all written by the Apostle John. John the Apostle started out as a political
zealot and ended up as the Apostle of Love.
John the Baptist was a wild man.
By “wild man,” I mean that he lived in the wild. He wore clothes made for rough country and
ate what food he could find in wild places.
John the
Baptist apparently isolated himself for a time.
There is no suggestion of the length of time he lived in the
wilderness. However, in Luke 3:2 we
learn, “At this time a message from God came to John, son of Zechariah, who was
living in the wilderness.” Receiving
this message from God may have been part of the fruit of his isolation. The Scriptures do not say this, but I imagine
part of John’s living in the wilderness was his personal seeking after God.
We also see
in these early verses of Luke 3 that John lived in a politically charged
time. We see names that are famous even
in our day. Tiberius, Pilate, Herod,
Annas and Caiaphas are names famous in the story of Jesus.
John was
born as the forerunner of Jesus. This is
what Luke 3:4 is referring to when it quotes Isaiah saying, “He is a voice
shouting in the wilderness.” This is the Advent Season and we are looking
forward to the birth of Jesus. The
Advent is a time of preparing and anticipation.
It is a time for us to reflect and worship. As we look at John as a forerunner, we are
looking at this preparing aspect of his ministry. However, historically the events we are
looking at today actually took place almost 30 years after Jesus was born. Historically, John and Jesus were born close
in time with each other.
I began by
saying, “John the Baptist was a great man.”
Jesus, Himself, said of John, “I tell you, of all who have ever lived,
none is greater than John.” (Luke
7:28) Luke 1:17 and other passages say
that John would be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah who would prepare
people for the coming of the Messiah.
Elijah was a great Old Testament prophet, and John represented the last
of the Old Testament prophets. However,
John the Baptist did not perform any recorded miracles. Elijah did.
Elisha did. Moses and Jesus
did. But, John did not.
John came
with a very simple message. He came
preaching, “. . . people should be baptized to show that they had repented of
their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.”
(Luke 3:3) John said more. His head was chopped off because he told the
king that he had no business marrying his brother’s wife. He said more, but his message was one simple
idea. “People should be baptized to show
that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.”
John’s job
as a forerunner was to announce the Good News.
He does this saying, “someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so
much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of
his sandals.” (Luke 3:16)
John’s
message was simple, and his announcement was equally simple and direct. He did not perform miracles. Without miracles or a flashy show, this wild
man with a simple message and simple announcement drew large crowds.
In our day
of marketing, media and flashing lights it is hard to imagine something so
simple drawing huge crowds. However, I
think people today hunger for something simple and direct. A man who has isolated himself from the
corruption and glamour of the world and in a simple straightforward way tells
the truth is appealing. The Gospel is
powerful. Before marketing, before
preaching, before speaking, we need to take the time to get alone with God and
hear from Him. Even Jesus, the Son of
God, rose a great while before dawn to be alone with the Father. John the Baptist spent time alone in the
wilderness, and left the wilderness after hearing from God.
We are
busy. We are busy, but not busier than
Jesus was. We make time for what is
important to us. I have worked with men
who worked 60 and 70 hours a week, who made time to watch their favorite
football team. 60 or 70 hours a week may
be a light week for you, but I would still ask, “Are you too busy to seek the
Lord?”
All of us
are drawn to the simple, straightforward truth of the Gospel. Crowds flocked to John the Baptist just to
hear that the Savior was soon to appear.
But, the reception they received was less than inviting. While we are drawn to the Gospel, we can be
driven away by the truth about ourselves.
Verses 7, 8
and 9 of Luke 3 are harsh, very harsh.
It says:
7When the
crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? 8Prove
by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for
we are descendants of Abraham.’ That
means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these
very stones. 9Even now the ax
of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good
fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”
What a
greeting! “You brood of snakes.” John was harsh.
These
people were Jewish. From the day they
were born, they celebrated the Jewish Holidays.
They learned about the 10 plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea at
Passover. They learned about the 40
years in the wilderness and manna during the festival of Sukkot. They knew the 10 commandments from the time
they were children. They knew God’s
promise to Abraham, and were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. John assaults their confidence when he says, “Don’t
just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing.”
We all put
our confidence in something. Many say,
“I am a good person. I have not done
anything wrong.” By wrong, they mean
criminal. We all like to consider
ourselves good people. But, our standard
of good is based on our own ideas and not God’s. Others count on the fact that they were
baptized, or some other religious practice.
The people
John the Baptist was talking to were the most religious people possible. If anyone could be right with God by religious
practice, surely they could have been.
However, all their religious practice proved is that one cannot be right
with God by religious practice.
Galatians 3:11 says, “So it is clear that no one can be made right with
God by trying to keep the law.”
Writing in
1948, well know author and preacher A. W. Tozer, writing in his introduction to
the book The Pursuit of God said:
The truth of Wesley’s words is
established before our eyes: “Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is at best, a very slender
part of religion. Though right tempers
cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without
right tempers. There may be a right
opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this.”
Thanks to our splendid Bible
societies and to other effective agencies for the dissemination of the Word,
there are today many millions of people who hold “right opinions,” probably
more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when
true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb.
To great sections of the church the art of worship has been lost
entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the
“program.” This word has been borrowed
from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which
now passes for worship among us.
The point is,
all need a Savior. There is no exception. You and I, no matter how spiritual we may
think we are, are entirely dependent on Jesus Christ for salvation. That is why the coming of the Savior is such
good news.
John came
with a simple message that drew hearts to hear more. However, the nature of the message confronted
all men with their sins. The conclusion
of the message was the need for change.
Change does
not save us. John says, “Prove by the
way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” (Luke 3:8)
Salvation is found in turning to God.
Repentance is changing one’s mind.
I once thought I did not need a Savior.
I now see that I need a Savior. I
have changed my mind. I once thought I
was good enough. I now see that my
righteousness is as filthy rags before God.
I have changed my mind.
John tells
the multitude that baptism means nothing if the evidence of change is not there.
2
Corinthians 5:17 says, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become
a new person. The old life is gone; a
new life has begun!”
We are
talking about this kind of change.
James says it like this:
You say you have faith, for you
believe that there is one God. Good for
you! Even the demons believe this, and
they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is
useless? (James 2:19-20)
In John’s
day as in ours, if we have truly repented and turned to God, our lives will
show it. Do we change in order to be
saved? No, rather, change is the
evidence that we have repented and turned to God to be saved.
John came
to prepare the way for the Lord’s arrival.
We still need his message today.
[i]
Unless otherwise noted Scripture
quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House
Foundation. Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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