John the Baptist: The Story
of New Beginnings
Dr. Larry Thorson
April 18, 2010
Luke 3:1-20
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Last week we recited
together the great words from Psalm 118 “This is the day that the Lord has
made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Regardless of how bad your day feels like it is going, God has made a
way for all our troubles and tribulations to one day be overcome through what
Jesus did for us on that day when he rose from the dead. It is in that fact and that day, the Psalmist
says, that we can willfully rejoice in, regardless of how we feel. We need to turn a bad day around by willfully
smiling about our future and declaring that this is the day that the Lord has
made. We can and we will rejoice and be glad in this day that the Lord has
given us.
Everyday when Jesus woke up, as a Jewish young man
of his day would do, he probably recited and then lived by the words of
Scripture “I will love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and
strength and my neighbor as myself.” As
we learned before Easter, that’s what is known as the Jesus Creed, the creed
that shaped his life and his decision making.
I believe that we all have simple daily creeds that we live by that shape our actions each day.
Former Illinois senator, the late Everett Dirksen
used to say “I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of
which is to be flexible at all times.” Abraham
Lincoln used to say he lived by his “...desire so to conduct the affairs of
this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of
power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one
friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me.” Francis of Assisi
lived by the prayer “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there
is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is
doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and
where there is sadness, joy.”[1]
Throughout the New Testament we meet all kinds of
real life people, some of them just like us who chose to live the Jesus Creed
as their creed for life. I want us to
listen to their stories in light of what we now know about the Jesus Creed and
see how it impacted their life and those around them.
The first person we're going to examine
is John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin. Dr.
Luke gives us a little background to the man in Luke 3: 1 In the fifteenth
year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and
Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2
during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John
son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into
all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book
of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
"A voice of one calling in the
wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley
shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the
rough ways smooth. 6 And all people will see God's
salvation.' "
Ok, that's what was predicted of John the
Baptist in the Old Testament but what was his message? 7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You
brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not
begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you
that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every
tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the
fire."
I’d say John never read the book How to Win
Friends and Influence People because that was definitely not a very upbeat
message to a group of people who had at least come out to hear him. To think he was the son of a priest and he
himself had been a priest. His father
would never have preached like that. But
of course that’s the difference between a priest and a prophet and John had
definitely become a prophet. As Scot
McKnight says in his book The Jesus Creed “priests wiped sins from the
people; prophets wiped sins in their faces.”[2] Prophets tended to be a little blunt.
But even more significant is what John
was doing and where he was doing it. He
stood on the shore of the Jordan River and then would wade out into the water
where he'd baptize people who were willing to come to him repenting of their
sins. Don't miss the significance of
the location. Every Jew living in that
day would have known what the Jordan River stood for. That river is what originally separated them
from what I call a rental life to a home owner’s life in the land of
promise. For them the spot where John
stood baptizing was sort of their spiritual Ellis Island. It was the place historically where the
people of God got a new beginning after waiting so many years. When they wanted to remind their children of
where it all started, this was the place they came.
It was no coincidence that John would
stand there at that very historic spot of new beginnings and offer the people a
chance for another fresh start. By the
time John came along Israel as a people had lost much of their faith in
God. That drifting away from God had
cost them their political freedom as it always does. Don’t miss the significance of that.
As a people they badly needed to turn back to God
and start all over. But we can't get a
new start if we keep going in the same direction we were going in. Albert Einstein once observed “The
significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we
were at when we created them.” That’s a
quote Martha and I have taped to our bathroom mirror as a daily reminder that
if we truly want to change our lives we can’t stay at the same level or else
we’ll get the same results. Usually to
move to a new level means we need to ask for help like from a coach or a
therapist. That is if we’re serious
about changing something in our lives.
Einstein also said “Any intelligent fool can make
things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of
courage to move in the opposite direction.”
Moving in the opposite direction is what repentance means. At this historical spot on the Jordan River,
John warned the people to change the direction of their life. A lot of them thought that meant just getting
wet with the waters of baptism. A number
of times people have said to me “I want to get baptized” and my response is
always ‘why?’. If you won't come to
church on a regular basis and you don't have a desire to spend time with God
and you really don't want to have anything changed in your life, why do you
want to get baptized?
I prefer the question the people asked
John in verse 10 "What should we
do then?" John's answer?
11 John answered, "Anyone
who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has
food should do the same." 12 Even tax collectors
came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we
do?"
13 "Don't collect any more than
you are required to," he told them.
14 Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should
we do?" He replied, "Don't
extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay."
Clearly it would be a lot easier for
people to just be baptized than to repent and allow God to truly change their
behaviors. It's quick. It's clean.
It's public and most of all you can go on with your life just as it was
before. And John could rack up the
statistics on the number of people he had baptized. This was coming at a time when his cousin
Jesus, who could have been perceived as his rival, was starting to talk about
ramping up his campaign. Couldn’t you
just hear John: “We baptized 294 people today.”
“That was a one day record.”
“We’re the fastest growing church in the whole country.” You can just imagine Fox News going out there
and doing a piece on the evangelist with the fastest growing following in the
country. Newsweek would put him on their
cover. He’s a movement.
But instead this is where we see John
applying the Jesus Creed even before Jesus.
The Jesus Creed says “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul,
mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” Loving the Lord was John’s obedience in going
out to the river to baptize. That’s what
God called him to do. Loving his
neighbors was warning them about their need to change even when it might cost
him popularity.
I want you to notice that he didn’t say to the tax
collectors specifically to share a shirt with someone. He specifically tells them to be honest. The same was true with the soldiers. He didn’t say quit the military and become a
pacifist. He told them to be honest.
That’s what John was being with them, honest about their relationship with God.
Notice that repentance for John didn’t start with
urging them to be in church more or reading their Bible more. If you’re going to love God it involves being
honest with ourselves and with those we encounter.
I like the story of Donald Douglas,
founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company when his company was competing with
Boeing to sell Eastern Airlines its first big jets. War hero Eddie
Rickenbacker, the head of Eastern Airlines, reportedly told Donald Douglas that
the specifications and claims made by Douglas's company for the DC-8 were close
to Boeing's on everything except noise suppression. Rickenbacker then gave
Douglas one last chance to out-promise Boeing on this feature.
After
consulting with his engineers, Douglas reported that he didn't feel he could
make that promise. Rickenbacker replied, "I know you can't, I just wanted
to see if you were still honest." [3]The Jesus
Creed starts with loving God. In order
to love God means we have to be honest.
In his book Integrity, Ted
Engstrom told this story: "For Coach Cleveland Stroud and the Bulldogs of
Rockdale County High School in Conyers, Georgia, it was their championship
season: 21 wins and 5 losses on the way to the Georgia boys' basketball
tournament, a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the state finals. But now
the new glass trophy case outside the high school gymnasium is bare. The Georgia High School Association deprived
Rockdale County of the championship after school officials said that a player
who was scholastically ineligible had played 45 seconds in the first of the
school's five postseason games. 'We didn't know he was ineligible at the time;
we didn't know it until a few weeks ago,' Mr. Stroud said. 'Some people have
said we should have just kept quiet about it, that it was just 45 seconds and
the player wasn't an impact player. But you've got to do what's honest and
right and what the rules say. I told my team that people forget the scores of
basketball games; they don't ever forget what you're made of.'" [4]
Mark Twain said “If you tell the truth
you don't have to remember anything. He also said truth is the most
valuable thing we have, so I try to conserve it.
The story of John the Baptist is a story
of starting over. That's what repentance
means. We need to be honest with who we
are. You can fool me all you want and
I'll probably be fooled. But God knows our heart. God isn't requiring us to be perfect, but we
can be honest. After you start your day
declaring this to be the day that the Lord has made and that you will rejoice
in it, say “Today I will be honest with God, myself and others I encounter.” Recite that throughout the day and your
actions will soon follow your words.
The Jesus Creed:
'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the
Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this:
'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Mark
12:29-31
Small Group
Ice Breaker Questions
1. If you knew you
couldn't fail, what job would you do?
2. Describe a time when you had to “start over”
on something you were doing.
Recite the Jesus Creed as a Group – found on page 6
Discussion Questions
1.
What was significant about John
the Baptist baptizing at the Jordan River?
2.
Why did some of the people come
to John to be baptized?
3.
Why does it seem that John was
discouraging people from being baptized?
4.
Read Luke 19:1-10. What kind of “start over” experience did
Zacchaeus have. What words, place,
challenge, and evidence is there of his beginning again?
5.
Jesus takes on the role of a
prophet in John 8:31-38. How are his
words prophetic? How are they risky? How
are they received? What is the promise
held out for those who will listen?
6.
Read John 4:7-43 (or tell the
story) How did the woman in the story
receive the truth Jesus gave her? What
evidence is there that the woman was changed?
7. How do you go about bringing change in your own life?