back to index2022-08-28 Calling of John the Baptist
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All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 3, we're going to jump 00:00:17.120 |
And this is going to be a two-part series, and I'm going to finish the second part next 00:00:22.880 |
So read for us Luke chapter 3 verses 1 through 6. 00:00:35.240 |
Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of 00:00:41.120 |
Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was a tetrarch of the reign 00:00:46.220 |
of Eturea and to Trachinus, and Lysania was tetrarch of Abilene. 00:00:55.380 |
In the high priests of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias 00:01:01.840 |
And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance 00:01:07.500 |
As it is written in the book of the word of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying 00:01:11.520 |
in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord. 00:01:14.000 |
Make his path straight, every raven will be filled and every mountain and hill will be 00:01:21.280 |
The crooked will become straight and the rough road smooth and all flesh will see the salvation 00:01:28.080 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come and worship 00:01:37.220 |
We pray that you would guide us and lead us and allow your word that you have ordained 00:01:42.360 |
to speak to us, your word and only your word. 00:01:49.760 |
As we continue our study in the gospel of Luke chapter three, we're in a section where 00:01:55.440 |
John the Baptist and his ministry is being introduced to us. 00:01:58.940 |
And then shortly after Jesus is going to be introduced. 00:02:02.520 |
And then obviously we're going to be spending the rest of our time in the book of Luke focused 00:02:10.400 |
But today as John the Baptist is now being introduced to us after his initial introduction 00:02:18.160 |
in the beginning of his birth, it starts out by introducing some very powerful, famous 00:02:27.200 |
Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Annas, Caiaphas, all of these people would have been very significant 00:02:35.040 |
But the interesting thing is they're not the main point. 00:02:39.280 |
If you would have somebody introduced to you and saying this is somehow connected to, you 00:02:46.600 |
know, the president, the governor, the mayor, right? 00:02:50.560 |
And you would think that some time would pass introducing, well, how are they connected? 00:02:55.840 |
And so the significance and your ears would perk up to hear about like, what does he know? 00:03:02.680 |
The only reason why they're even mentioned is because they're trying to highlight when 00:03:09.440 |
So the whole point of introduction of all of them is John himself. 00:03:15.240 |
He's just an obscure guy out in the wilderness. 00:03:20.440 |
I mean, other than the fact that he was anointed to go ahead of Jesus, outside of that, John's 00:03:27.760 |
He's not well educated, doesn't come from a particular pedigree. 00:03:31.680 |
I mean, he's not famous for any other reason other than the fact that an angel said that 00:03:36.360 |
you're going to go ahead of Jesus and you're going to prepare for the way of the Lord. 00:03:41.600 |
In fact, all of human history, the central figure in all of human history is ultimately 00:03:51.440 |
So whenever we study Caesar, whenever we study the Middle Ages, whenever we study whatever 00:03:56.960 |
it is what we're studying, the real point of every authority, every human history, every 00:04:03.480 |
government is to recognize that God is in the midst of that, in the context of that, 00:04:15.400 |
And that's exactly how John is introduced today. 00:04:18.840 |
All these great people are here, but again, that's just a side point. 00:04:21.960 |
They're not going to come up again until there's some tie to them to what Christ is doing. 00:04:27.580 |
But John the Baptist shows up on the scene, and obviously everything that we're studying 00:04:32.360 |
here is to prepare for the coming of Christ, who's going to come in about six months. 00:04:38.560 |
John the Baptist was a walking indictment to the nation of Israel. 00:04:43.960 |
Everything about him made the leaders of Israel uncomfortable. 00:04:48.680 |
And so we're going to see that this morning, and how his presence shook up the nation of 00:04:57.220 |
He caused such a stir that many people saw John the Baptist, like maybe he must be the 00:05:06.640 |
And again, I think because he was the cousin of Jesus, maybe there was also physical qualities 00:05:13.040 |
And there was some confusion as John ended his ministry and Jesus was beginning his ministry, 00:05:17.360 |
and people were beginning to ask, is that the Messiah? 00:05:24.960 |
Whether it was physical, whether it was preaching about his presence, who he called out, his 00:05:29.720 |
message, everything about him, he did such a good job preparing for the coming of Christ 00:05:40.380 |
Well, John the Baptist was loved by Israel, but he was also very much hated by the nation 00:05:51.240 |
People who believed what he was saying, repentant, was baptized, they knew who he was. 00:05:56.780 |
And they were coming to him from long distance to be baptized by him. 00:06:01.120 |
And then there were who were coming who John the Baptist would call out, and we're going 00:06:05.260 |
to talk about that next week, about his message of repentance. 00:06:09.940 |
And when they were indicted and they refused to repent, they ended up hating him as well. 00:06:14.580 |
We're going to look at this morning, John's calling into ministry, and there's four parts 00:06:20.260 |
The calling of John the Baptist, the timing of John's calling, the place of John's calling, 00:06:28.760 |
Those are the four things that we're going to be looking at. 00:06:30.500 |
I'm going to be covering the first three, and then the fourth one, we're going to spend 00:06:34.220 |
the most time on because most of the text that we're looking at is going to be dealing 00:06:39.820 |
So calling of John, the timing of John's calling, and then the place of John's calling. 00:06:46.820 |
All of these things are significant because every single part of this was an indictment 00:06:54.340 |
If we look at the second part of verse two, he says, after he introduces all these people, 00:07:00.760 |
he says, "The word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness." 00:07:05.700 |
Now to us as modern readers, the word of God came to him, we can just take that as he read 00:07:10.500 |
the word of God, or he read Isaiah, or something must have happened. 00:07:14.480 |
But first century Jew would have known very clearly when Luke says that the word of God 00:07:20.180 |
came to John the Baptist, knew exactly what he was talking about. 00:07:25.020 |
The interesting thing here is the word for word, right? 00:07:38.580 |
And so we know the word lagos because it's often talked about in the Bible and talking 00:07:43.740 |
about when we're talking about the Bible itself, it's lagos. 00:07:46.460 |
When it said, you know, in the beginning was the word, and word was with God, word was 00:07:54.240 |
And I think it's much more nuanced than this, but the easiest way to understand the distinction 00:08:01.360 |
between lagos and rema is lagos is the written word and rema is the spoken word. 00:08:07.500 |
Now that doesn't really do justice, but just for our sake, that's probably the easiest 00:08:13.500 |
Lagos is the written word where God reveals his word. 00:08:16.540 |
And again, it's not exact because sometimes God would give lagos to his prophets to go 00:08:23.220 |
But in here in particular, when it says the word of God came to John, it uses the word 00:08:29.180 |
rema, meaning that God spoke to him, that God specifically called him. 00:08:36.420 |
And the reason why this is significant is because in almost every instance that a specific 00:08:41.740 |
prophet is called by God to represent him and speak to his people, that phrase exists, 00:08:50.340 |
First Samuel 15.10, the word of the Lord came to Samuel. 00:08:54.420 |
Second Samuel 7.4, the word of the Lord came to Nathan. 00:08:57.500 |
First Kings 16.1, the word of the Lord came to Jehu. 00:09:01.660 |
Jeremiah 1 verse 2, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 00:09:05.380 |
Ezekiel 1.3, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. 00:09:08.860 |
To Jonah, to Haggai, to Zechariah, again and again and again. 00:09:12.700 |
So a first century Jew, when they read this, they would have known very specifically that 00:09:17.820 |
Luke is saying he's not just a guy who was speaking for God. 00:09:22.700 |
He wasn't like the priests and the scribes and the Pharisees and the teachers of the 00:09:27.740 |
He was the prophet that they've been waiting for. 00:09:31.420 |
This was the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 40 when he said that there's going to be a 00:09:35.340 |
front runner that's going to go prepare the way of Christ. 00:09:39.380 |
The word of the Lord came to John the Baptist. 00:09:43.900 |
Now you have to remember, the last time that happened was with Malachi 425 years ago. 00:09:50.380 |
So for over 400 years, this phrase was not given to any other human being. 00:10:01.500 |
So everyone who spoke said, "Oh, I'm speaking for God." 00:10:05.260 |
They were just regurgitating things that they heard. 00:10:08.260 |
They were taking things that were already said and just kind of passing it along. 00:10:11.620 |
And in that process, in those 400 years, the word of God was completely perverted. 00:10:18.380 |
Everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes. 00:10:21.300 |
They created a religion that was independent, so independent of God, that when the Son of 00:10:30.100 |
So for 400 years, the nation of Israel has been drifting away from God because God did 00:10:36.100 |
And so when Luke introduces John the Baptist to us, as one who has received his word, he 00:10:44.620 |
was the last prophet, the last prophet that God would send to the nation of Israel from 00:10:51.700 |
See, in Jeremiah 23, 21 to 22, God indicts the nation of Israel and specifically the 00:11:00.820 |
so-called prophets and the leaders of that time. 00:11:04.060 |
And he says this, "I did not send these prophets, but they ran. 00:11:08.540 |
I did not speak to them, but they prophesied. 00:11:12.220 |
But if they had stood in my counsel, then they would have announced my words to my people 00:11:16.500 |
and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds. 00:11:22.380 |
If these were my people, they would have turned from their sins." 00:11:25.980 |
Instead, they were more concerned about the response that they would get from people and 00:11:34.660 |
He said, "If they were my prophets and they were speaking on my behalf," he said, "they 00:11:41.380 |
But because I did not, they went and they ran and they spoke whatever they felt that 00:11:48.740 |
Sad to say, I believe we're in that generation today. 00:11:55.620 |
You speak the word of God and people feel uncomfortable, you're a false prophet. 00:11:59.780 |
If you say something that causes people to think twice and be convicted or feel bad about 00:12:05.660 |
the way that they're living, that can't be from God. 00:12:09.460 |
God is about love and grace and peace and rest. 00:12:14.180 |
He said that when John the Baptist showed up, they were in such poor condition. 00:12:22.980 |
His very presence in the nation of Israel made people feel uncomfortable. 00:12:28.540 |
So his introduction to us begins basically by saying, "Pay attention to John. 00:12:40.060 |
That's the very reason why Apostle Paul, in every letter, he begins by saying, "The servant 00:12:45.100 |
of Christ, the slave of Christ, an apostle of Christ." 00:12:49.660 |
And the reason why he's saying that is, "What I'm writing to you are not just my words." 00:12:55.820 |
Whether it is of encouragement, whether it's about salvation, whether it is a rebuke, this 00:13:03.180 |
So that's why every letter that is written in the epistles in the new covenant isn't 00:13:12.020 |
We'll look at that when we study the second Peter. 00:13:18.660 |
And so John is introduced to us making sure that this was not just any ordinary man. 00:13:26.500 |
This is not somebody who just kind of thought of like, "Hey, you know what? 00:13:37.980 |
Because in the timing, it highlights for us what is going on at that time. 00:13:45.300 |
We see the same thing in Haggai chapter 1 verse 1. 00:13:48.180 |
And in many of the other prophets, where the word of the Lord came to them, they would 00:13:51.420 |
describe for us who was the king, who was the governor, what was happening at that time. 00:13:55.740 |
Haggai 1.1, it says, "The second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, 00:14:00.700 |
the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, the son of Shertiah." 00:14:04.700 |
And then he goes on, "The governor of Judah." 00:14:08.700 |
If you read the Old Testament prophets, you'll see that this is the way that they're introduced. 00:14:12.860 |
Now they're not just trying to put a pin in the historical timeline and saying, "Well, 00:14:17.340 |
this is how they dated things," which is true. 00:14:20.700 |
But by telling us who was the ruler, they're also telling us what they're speaking to, 00:14:25.540 |
the context, the context in which the prophet is speaking. 00:14:32.120 |
What is going on politically that that prophet needed to say these things at that particular 00:14:38.980 |
See, you can have somebody say the right things to the wrong people and be a false prophet. 00:14:49.640 |
You could say the wrong things to the right people and be a false prophet. 00:14:54.260 |
You can say peace, peace to people who are under the judgment of God and you are a false 00:15:00.140 |
You can say judgment is coming from people who are in desperate need of encouragement 00:15:09.300 |
And so when John the Baptist shows up, the part of the reason why all these people are 00:15:14.540 |
in the situation, it kind of gives us a background of what is happening at that time. 00:15:19.840 |
In fact, the New Covenant, in the New Testament, it goes even further than that. 00:15:23.920 |
It says Galatians 4, "For when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, 00:15:32.300 |
So all of the things that he's describing here is describing the fullness of time. 00:15:41.360 |
God didn't wait until all the right things happened in order for him to come. 00:15:49.920 |
All these other things took place because God ordained it and now all that God has done 00:15:55.360 |
has been fulfilled in order for John to show up and for John to show up to prepare for 00:16:01.440 |
So the question we ask is what made this the fullness of time? 00:16:07.360 |
What made this God ordained time in particular? 00:16:12.000 |
Remember, if you study through, again, I think you're doing the Old Testament survey now, 00:16:19.840 |
As you are working your way through the Old Testament, you will see when you get to the 00:16:23.920 |
prophets, repeatedly God says over and over again, the primary penalty for their sin is 00:16:33.040 |
You don't have to yell it out loud, but those of you guys who know. 00:16:36.200 |
What was the primary thing, the consequence of Israel if they did not turn from their 00:16:44.260 |
That they would be under suppression of foreign kingdoms. 00:16:53.880 |
Nations that are pagans who do not know God are going to overpower you. 00:16:57.680 |
That your men and women are going to be carried on and they're going to become servants. 00:17:01.840 |
And every prophet that comes that warns the nation of Israel, if they do not turn from 00:17:06.600 |
their sin, that they would lose their nation. 00:17:10.360 |
See, the highlight of what is happening here is that the penalty of the culmination of 00:17:20.640 |
See, it started with Assyria, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and then now the 00:17:29.040 |
So for over 700 years, because they would continue to rebel against God, foreign nations 00:17:38.800 |
And the prophets kept on telling them, they're dominating over you, not simply because you 00:17:42.720 |
didn't have the right military or the power or because you didn't have the right leaders, 00:17:50.760 |
For 700 years, some of them treated them well, like the Persians. 00:17:56.840 |
Some of them treated them horribly, like the Assyrians. 00:18:01.400 |
The Romans were the ones, the superpowers of this time, and they were under their suppression. 00:18:07.560 |
Tiberius Caesar, the emperor of Rome, he was particularly effective in ruling their vast 00:18:18.960 |
Their problem was that they conquered so much land that they had a difficult time keeping 00:18:27.420 |
So what Romans did was they appeased the nominal Jews by giving them money, by establishing 00:18:37.360 |
And then the Jews who were serious about their faith, that we only have one God, that he 00:18:42.840 |
would make sure that he would keep his foot on their neck so that they do not rebel. 00:18:50.320 |
And much of what we know about the cross came from this, their desire to control rebellion. 00:18:59.940 |
It was only given, and particularly for those who were rebelling against Rome. 00:19:06.820 |
So just by saying Tiberius Caesar, any true Jew would have immediately had a knee-jerk 00:19:16.620 |
They knew where they were at because of this. 00:19:19.020 |
Pontius Pilate, the governor who ruled on behalf of Rome, he was the one who carried 00:19:26.420 |
Tiberius Caesar was a figurehead, but they never saw him. 00:19:32.060 |
Pontius Pilate was the one who carried out justice. 00:19:35.660 |
He was the one who could make the decision whether someone was going to be crucified 00:19:40.520 |
And under Pontius Pilate, we had three supposed rulers of Israel, Herod, Philip, and Lysanias, 00:19:51.700 |
And the reason why they were given certain parts is because Herod the Great, who was 00:19:55.780 |
not even a Jew, was established as the king of Israel by the Romans, Roman Caesar, again, 00:20:04.580 |
the whole purpose to control the nation of Israel. 00:20:08.380 |
So true Jews were, again, just hearing the name Herod, it would stir in them animosity 00:20:14.940 |
because they knew that this is the nation of God and we have somebody who's not even 00:20:23.620 |
But all of these people, as bad as all of that situation politically, the situation 00:20:30.260 |
was, Annas and Caiaphas probably did the most damage. 00:20:36.600 |
Most historians believe that they weren't even Levites. 00:20:40.180 |
None of these people in position was what God said, what God promised to Abraham. 00:20:50.540 |
In fact, you're only really supposed to have one high priest. 00:20:54.060 |
And so the official high priest at this time was Caiaphas, and Caiaphas was the son-in-law 00:21:00.280 |
And the reason why both of them are mentioned is because Annas didn't want to lose control. 00:21:04.580 |
So he established a family member so that he can control what's happening in Israel 00:21:11.420 |
So just by that definition, you can already see that these people were not ruling for 00:21:17.060 |
the purpose of worshiping God or keeping the temple pure. 00:21:21.820 |
So in every position, every one of these people that are mentioned here is a reminder to the 00:21:26.780 |
nation of Israel that they're in this position because of their sin. 00:21:32.740 |
This was a judgment against the nation of Israel. 00:21:36.380 |
And this is the reason why these people are mentioned. 00:21:40.020 |
Again, we're 2,000 years removed, and we may just read that as, oh, these were the 00:21:45.540 |
rulers of that time, and they just happened to be running the temple, and these were the 00:21:51.020 |
But a first-century Jew hearing every one of these names would have stirred in them 00:21:56.100 |
animosity because this is not what they desired. 00:22:03.980 |
So the fullness of time that is talked about in Galatian is in reference to the fullness 00:22:10.900 |
of the weight of their sin upon Israel because the Bible says that God waited in order for 00:22:17.900 |
The law to become utterly sinful so that they would recognize. 00:22:23.980 |
It's not just the beginning of the rebellion. 00:22:26.940 |
It's at the tail end of the rebellion that all that they have done, all the consequences 00:22:33.140 |
of what they have done in rebellion against God has piled up to this point that not only 00:22:38.140 |
the foreign emperor, not just the local governor, but their own kings and their own high priests 00:22:47.540 |
were going against what God said in the Bible. 00:22:53.900 |
In John 1, 1, it says, "He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive 00:23:01.780 |
You know, the nation of Israel talked about the coming of the Messiah probably more than 00:23:07.660 |
They talked about the Messiah more than anything that they talk about. 00:23:12.860 |
My guess is no matter what subject they were on, it would always end with Jesus is coming 00:23:20.500 |
You have political issues, you feel the suppression, oh, the Messiah is coming. 00:23:26.860 |
You don't have money to feed your kids when the Messiah comes. 00:23:31.420 |
All the prophecies of what God is going to restore was fulfilled when the Messiah comes. 00:23:39.020 |
So it was the top topic of every conversation, no matter what kind of Jew you were. 00:23:46.940 |
When the Messiah finally came, they were so far gone. 00:23:52.420 |
They were so deep into their rebellion, they didn't even recognize him. 00:23:58.260 |
Not only did they not recognize him, they ended up rejecting him. 00:24:01.380 |
In Luke chapter 9, 22, saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected 00:24:05.820 |
by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and be raised up on 00:24:11.820 |
Why does Jesus say that he had to be rejected, not just by the nation of Israel, but he says 00:24:15.940 |
by the elders and the leaders, the rulers of Israel? 00:24:22.300 |
Because the rejection of the rulers of Israel, it symbolized the complete rejection. 00:24:28.700 |
It wasn't just some few people who didn't believe. 00:24:31.020 |
It wasn't just a few pockets of people who didn't see it. 00:24:34.700 |
It's like when he's rejected, he was rejected by Israel as a whole. 00:24:42.180 |
The leaders themselves were supposed to lead you to God, he's going to lead you away from 00:24:49.860 |
Israel should have recognized the sign of the time, but they did not, because they were 00:24:55.540 |
consumed with their own life, with their own thoughts, with their own pursuits. 00:24:59.820 |
In the name of God, in the name of God, you sprinkle Jesus over it, give some prayer, 00:25:06.900 |
and the Lord willing, of course God wants me to be happy. 00:25:13.300 |
Of course God wants me to be a good father and a good mother. 00:25:20.460 |
And we look at the scripture superficially and sprinkle some Jesus on it, assuming that 00:25:28.060 |
must be from God, but when Jesus came, they didn't recognize him at all. 00:25:33.340 |
The whole time they were waiting for the Messiah, and they didn't recognize him. 00:25:36.880 |
In Matthew 16, 1-4, the Pharisees, Sadducees came up and testing Jesus, they asked him 00:25:45.020 |
Prove yourself, because they couldn't tell what they were thinking he was going to be 00:25:52.760 |
So if you say what you say you are, and what other people are saying you are, give us a 00:25:58.220 |
And Jesus says to them, when it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky 00:26:04.080 |
And in the morning there will be storm today, for the sky is red and threatening. 00:26:09.280 |
Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of 00:26:16.720 |
How are you so aware of how this world functions? 00:26:19.640 |
It's like, oh, if you buy the house now, it's going to go up, and if you don't buy it now, 00:26:24.160 |
the house price is going to go down, and if you don't jump in and buy this now, the sale 00:26:28.360 |
is coming next week, and you got to do this, and you got to do that, and you know when 00:26:31.800 |
to buy the stocks, you know when to get into this and get into that, but he says when it 00:26:35.480 |
comes to spiritual matters, you are so dense. 00:26:41.080 |
God is standing right in front of you, and you don't recognize him. 00:26:44.840 |
The word of God is right in front of you, and you have no idea what it says. 00:26:50.280 |
This was an indictment against the nation of Israel. 00:26:53.460 |
The fullness of time was all that God was waiting for, to wait until the drowning man 00:27:13.680 |
It's also an indictment against the nation of Israel. 00:27:16.480 |
Wilderness, again, if you study the Bible, you know it is a significant place. 00:27:24.840 |
It was where Moses was, you could say, was trained for the great work that he needed 00:27:30.640 |
God didn't send Moses into the palace of Pharaoh and learn the latest technology and all the 00:27:35.640 |
wisdom and knowledge that comes from going educated in Pharaoh's palace. 00:27:40.200 |
Instead, he sent them out to the desert, to the wilderness, humbling him, emptying himself. 00:27:46.840 |
And when he realized he had nothing, he was ready. 00:27:50.240 |
So we know that wilderness is a place of preparation. 00:27:54.920 |
Where the nation of Israel, for 40 years, they marched around. 00:27:57.800 |
I mean, they're about to conquer greater nations, and all they learn how to do is to march around. 00:28:03.440 |
He said, when I tell you to sit down, you sit down. 00:28:07.240 |
That was their preparation, to not to turn from the Word of God to the left or to the right. 00:28:23.320 |
If I tell you not to touch it, don't touch it. 00:28:30.360 |
Don't stand there and say, well, what does coming out mean? 00:28:44.720 |
When your commanding officer tells you to jump, just jump. 00:28:49.840 |
See the place of his calling to the wilderness where Jesus himself was tested before he came 00:28:54.560 |
It says this is where John the Baptist grew up. 00:29:01.440 |
In fact, in the Qumran community, in the extra biblical history, there's a mention of a 00:29:09.800 |
So most historians believe that it's a reference to John the Baptist. 00:29:13.320 |
So he kind of grew up just like the Qumran community was an obscure community. 00:29:19.000 |
The only reason that we know anything about the Qumran community is because of the Dead 00:29:24.440 |
Outside of that, there's not much we know about them. 00:29:26.920 |
And John the Baptist grew up probably in that community. 00:29:31.880 |
And I think of all the things that we can highlight about what the wilderness was, I 00:29:36.840 |
think the most practical thing that I believe that the reason why this is mentioned is because 00:29:42.400 |
it was outside of the control of the leaders of Israel. 00:29:48.380 |
Because if somebody was going to be prominent in the nation of Israel, there was a system 00:29:56.720 |
And if you wanted to be great politically, you had to work yourself to become a Sadducee. 00:30:02.160 |
If you wanted to be a great teacher, you have to work yourself under their system and learn 00:30:05.560 |
under the Pharisees and do what they tell you to do and grow up under that system so 00:30:09.640 |
that they can place you in the place that they are in and maybe higher than that. 00:30:14.480 |
But instead, John the Baptist, who God has sent to prepare for the Messiah to come, forsook 00:30:26.840 |
This is where poor people, insignificant people, uneducated people, people who have no power, 00:30:32.760 |
people basically dropped out of society, this is where they go. 00:30:36.280 |
And it says it's in the wilderness that he called John the Baptist. 00:30:40.960 |
In fact, remember in Luke chapter 21 through 7, they were asking about who the John the 00:30:50.720 |
They were asking Jesus, "What authority do you have to come into this temple and yell 00:30:56.760 |
at us and clean the temple out and tell people to get out? 00:31:01.160 |
Well, Jesus, knowing what's in their heart, turns the table around and he asks them. 00:31:06.880 |
One of the days while he was teaching in the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, 00:31:10.840 |
the chief priest and the scribes with the elders confronted him and they spoke saying 00:31:15.440 |
to him, "Tell us by what authority you are doing these things. 00:31:18.760 |
So who is the one who gave you this authority?" 00:31:20.760 |
Jesus answered and said to them, "I will also ask you a question and you tell me, was 00:31:25.880 |
the baptism of John from heaven or from men?" 00:31:30.040 |
Jesus already knew that they can't answer this question because these leaders functioned 00:31:40.120 |
So whatever and however they answer this, there's going to be a segment of people who's 00:31:46.240 |
He said, "Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? 00:31:51.200 |
They reasoned among themselves saying, 'If I say from heaven, he will say, 'Why did 00:31:56.980 |
But if we say from men, all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that 00:32:05.920 |
You see the leaders hated John the Baptist as much as Jesus because they would come to 00:32:10.900 |
get baptized by him and he said, "You brood of vipers, who told you to repent without 00:32:16.400 |
If your repentance is genuine, show it by your life. 00:32:23.800 |
And that's exactly what Jesus did when he confronted the nation of Israel. 00:32:27.460 |
He would rebuke the leaders of Israel with the same indictment. 00:32:34.680 |
They hated John the Baptist but they couldn't get rid of him because they knew that it would 00:32:42.740 |
If they followed him, that means they would have to genuinely repent and admit that they 00:32:48.320 |
If they didn't follow him, all the people who loved John the Baptist say, "Ah, these 00:32:55.160 |
So they were probably very thankful that Herod got rid of him. 00:32:58.960 |
But with Jesus, he took what John did and took him at another level. 00:33:06.520 |
So we can kind of see what was going on, the spiritual background of what's going on. 00:33:14.820 |
John the Baptist's very presence indicted the whole nation of Israel. 00:33:21.100 |
And every part of what he says about his calling, that he was, the word of God came to him, 00:33:28.180 |
he was unlike any other prophet, the scribes, the Pharisees, these guys are just kind of 00:33:31.620 |
regurgitating information, saying what they think and add it to the law of God, their 00:33:35.900 |
own traditions, and put that millstone on people's necks. 00:33:42.740 |
And he said, "No, John the Baptist is speaking from God directly. 00:33:48.980 |
These people who are there suppressing their worship, the nation, as a result of their 00:33:59.180 |
And he's going to now speak for God himself." 00:34:03.300 |
And then again, finally, it's the place of his calling itself is an indictment, in particular 00:34:14.380 |
He went outside of the system that they've created. 00:34:17.860 |
He went outside of the schools that they created. 00:34:23.020 |
He went outside of their religious institution. 00:34:28.580 |
In fact, even Jesus, as he was doing his ministry, because his own siblings didn't believe 00:34:33.260 |
him, he said, "If you're doing all of these things, you should go to Jerusalem. 00:34:40.420 |
That's where the authority is, so that more and more people, so you can become a prominent 00:34:45.180 |
Why are you doing over here in obscure Galilee?" 00:34:53.100 |
In James 3, it says, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that 00:35:04.740 |
Do not be so eager to represent God, because men have gone ahead of us with such confidence 00:35:25.420 |
Teachers must first and foremost be fearers of God. 00:35:31.520 |
If you represent God and you are in greater fear of how people will respond because of 00:35:36.940 |
your words, you are no longer representing God. 00:35:45.700 |
You cannot be a man who says, "God says this," and be filled with fear of what this may lead 00:35:54.660 |
You cannot, because from that moment on, your message will be tailored to what people 00:36:07.560 |
When Jesus ended His ministry, He ended His ministry with an indictment against the leaders 00:36:12.720 |
Matthew 23, 13, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut 00:36:17.600 |
off the kingdom of heaven from people, for you do not enter in yourself, and nor do you 00:36:25.860 |
Because of your misrepresentation of God, not only are you not bringing them in, you're 00:36:33.120 |
Not only are you not going in, He said, "Everybody that trusts you will be also led astray." 00:36:41.540 |
Matthew 23, 15, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel 00:36:45.980 |
around on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice 00:36:55.180 |
Working so hard to disciple people, to influence people, and at the end of the day, they're 00:37:04.300 |
And then Matthew 23, 25, it says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for 00:37:07.540 |
you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery 00:37:25.060 |
Your heart is filled with bitterness, anger, pride. 00:37:28.500 |
He said, "You're so concerned about the external, you're almost blind to the internal, 00:37:41.920 |
True worship, you know, is not raising hands and singing songs. 00:37:47.140 |
True worship is what happens here and it leads to singing songs and raising hands. 00:37:51.340 |
But going like this doesn't make it real worship. 00:37:55.540 |
Having great music behind us doesn't make it great worship. 00:37:58.980 |
Having the room packed with people doesn't make it great worship. 00:38:02.720 |
Great worship is something that happens within us because God is sanctifying us. 00:38:09.100 |
The Word of God is rebuking us, revealing the thoughts and intentions of my heart. 00:38:14.780 |
And again, as leaders, and I would say I'm probably the most in danger of this because 00:38:20.740 |
I'm the lead pastor in this church, because it's part of my job to be concerned for your 00:38:27.100 |
souls, that there is a great temptation for me to focus all my attention on what is happening 00:38:34.500 |
with you and not enough on what's happening with me. 00:38:41.180 |
And it's not done deliberately, but my job, if I do it well, humanly speaking, causes 00:38:48.820 |
me to become an expert of who you are and a dunce of what's happening in here. 00:38:56.500 |
Because I go, "Yeah, yeah, I'm preaching the Word of God, so I'm in front of the Word of 00:39:01.900 |
All the time, you know, Monday through Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I'm in front of the Word 00:39:07.100 |
But the temptation for me is when I'm in front of the Word of God, what's in my mind isn't 00:39:15.260 |
When I'm in front of the Word of God, my temptation is what does God have to say to you? 00:39:21.020 |
Every once in a while, something will creep in to convict me, but majority of the time, 00:39:31.220 |
And I admit, I am in the position of greatest temptation for that, but you are not free 00:39:41.780 |
How much of your attention is your frustration with other people? 00:39:59.020 |
See, these leaders didn't become this way overnight. 00:40:03.780 |
The leader became this way as they continued to drift, and pride began to come in, and 00:40:10.240 |
God no longer was speaking to them, and they kept on speaking anyway. 00:40:15.380 |
And not only did it ruin them, but it ruined the nation. 00:40:21.140 |
It was in this that John the Baptist was breaking in. 00:40:25.440 |
And every part of John the Baptist was to call out this sin. 00:40:31.320 |
And that's why the people who are hungry for God loved him. 00:40:35.020 |
People who are trying so hard to hold on to their power hated him. 00:40:40.240 |
So if there's anything for us to learn, again, you know, if you didn't like this message, 00:40:44.000 |
you're going to hate next week's message, right? 00:40:46.680 |
Because all of this is the circumstance surrounding his indictment. 00:40:50.560 |
Well, he's going to open his mouth, and he's going to actually start to say it. 00:40:57.420 |
But for this week, let me conclude with this text in Hebrews chapter 13, 11 to 14. 00:41:02.520 |
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high 00:41:06.460 |
priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. 00:41:11.240 |
Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered 00:41:17.240 |
So let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. 00:41:22.340 |
For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. 00:41:31.500 |
Sometimes being overly concerned about conforming is what leads you to sin. 00:41:39.440 |
Sometimes being overly concerned about fitting in causes you to drift from God. 00:41:47.380 |
And being overly concerned about how people react if I say this and don't do this leads 00:41:52.640 |
us to become blind to the truth of the word of God. 00:41:56.660 |
Just as John the Baptist broke into this darkness of Israel, when you hear the word of God, 00:42:13.100 |
And obviously you wouldn't know that or else you wouldn't be blind to it. 00:42:23.540 |
In what areas have I cleaned the outside but yet inwardly? 00:42:28.100 |
I'm allowing all kinds of sins to come in, all kinds of compromise. 00:42:35.900 |
And as we meditate upon John the Baptist's ministry, and again like I said, if you are 00:42:43.940 |
offended by anything I said today, don't come next week. 00:42:51.220 |
There's actual words to what John the Baptist is going to say. 00:42:58.860 |
But if we're going to see true revival, if we're going to truly worship God, we need 00:43:12.100 |
We need to know what God thinks of our situation. 00:43:19.380 |
And that we would align our lives according to what God desires. 00:43:27.180 |
Not just our church, not just our friends, not just our circumstance, but God. 00:43:40.340 |
Heavenly Father, we praise you, we thank you. 00:44:11.580 |
I pray, Father God, that your word would continue to speak to us, guide us, convict us.