Scripture: John 3:22-36
Listen Link: https://www.lcepc.org/sermons
You may be wondering why we’re singing Christmas carols today. But if you’ve been following along in the daily readings in the Chronological Bible to read the whole Bible in one year, you know that we just started the gospels last week. So, it is appropriate to celebrate Christmas because we just read the birth stories and the Advent stories. Part of the Advent of Jesus is the forerunner who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. So, for our message today, I’d like you to employ your sanctified imaginations and let me pretend to be speaking as John the Baptist. Especially because I was not able to find a camel hair shirt or wide leather belt. Ok. Here we go.
Hello, my name is John. John, the Baptist, sorry, not John the Presbyterian. But I’m not just a Baptist either. There are a lot of Baptists around today, but I’m not one of them. I’m also not just the first of all the Baptists in the Baptist churches you know about today. I’m John the Baptist because I actually baptized a lot of people. My name is John. But after a while, people started calling me John the Baptist because as I preached that the people should repent of their sins and turn back to God, I also gave them a way to show that they meant it, by being baptized in the waters of the Jordan River. This was a public display, and a lot of people were watching, so anybody that came to be baptized could not just be fooling around. Anybody could say to them, “Hey, why are you behaving like this? I saw you get baptized by John. Didn’t that mean anything to you?”
For some years before I started preaching repentance, the Jews had already been using water baptism in ritual cleansing ceremonies of Gentile proselytes. So, I was doing this for a lot of people who had no access to the temple, like those Roman soldiers who wanted to get right with God. I did it for others who could not afford the price of the sacrifices required by the priests at the temple. Those people needed some way to show God and their neighbors and loved ones that they really were sorry for the things they had done and wanted to change.
Besides, it wasn’t just the Gentiles who needed cleansing. I preached to the fact that everybody needed to get baptized. Even the Pharisees should have been baptized to show repentance for their sins and get ready to believe in the coming Messiah. But most of them did not. They didn’t like me calling them a brood of vipers. They preferred to trust in their personal efforts to look good and be righteous through their temple worship. I think they did worship their temple more than God.
Anyway, that’s how I got the name. But I didn’t come here today to talk about me. It’s really all about Jesus. I want to share with you my personal testimony about my relationship with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lord and Savior of the World. When I speak of my personal relationship with Jesus it’s kind of funny to me because he’s my cousin! Well, second cousin really, my mom Elizabeth was related to Mary, Jesus’ mom.
But we didn’t hang out much. My folks lived in the hill country of Judea. Jesus’ folks moved around, from Nazareth in Galilee, to Bethlehem for a couple of years, then to Egypt for a little while before going back to Nazareth, after King Herod died. Jesus really grew up in Nazareth of Galilee, while I grew up in Judea some 90 miles away, and since we didn’t have cars back then, well you get the idea.
But at least we heard about each other because our moms both have great birth stories about us. They say I knew that Jesus is our Messiah before I was even born! Yep, Mom said to Mary, “When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.” That was me. So, of course, as I was growing up we often recounted that story. And they must have told Jesus about me, too.
My dad, Zachariah, was a priest. He even got a turn to serve the Lord in the holy of holies. And on that privileged day, that was when the angel Gabriel told him that I would be born. He was speechless! Who wouldn’t be? I mean, mom and dad had no other children and they thought they were too old to ever have any. So, I guess I was the ultimate surprise baby! Not counting Jesus of course. Well, being the son of a priest, I guess they expected me to grow up to be that too. But I didn’t.
I can’t exactly explain why, but I guess I just didn’t fit in with the other priests. Maybe I wasn’t disciplined enough to be a Pharisee. Or maybe I just didn’t feel worthy. If I put on all the fancy prayer clothes and walked around with the phylacteries tied to my head and hands, I felt like a hypocritical phony, like I was just pretending to be good, when all the while I remained painfully aware of the dark thoughts in my head and heart. Besides, I saw their hypocrisy up close as I grew up among them. There were times when they didn’t think the little boy was listening or watching. But I was, and I saw behind their masks.
So, I ended up living out in the wilderness. I prayed all the time and studied God’s Word, so I would know it by heart. I wanted to be authentic and honest and humble. Then one day, God gave me a message. He said Messiah is coming and I want you to help the people be ready for him. They will need to humble themselves as you have and ask for forgiveness of their sins.
You are to baptize them in the Jordan River. You will do this out in the wilderness to remind the people that they wandered in the wilderness until I led them across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. In this way, they will understand that through repentance, and the cleansing of baptism, they are starting over with me and will be ready to receive their king.
So, I started preaching about the coming Messiah. I told the people they should repent of sin and be baptized, washed clean, a clean break from sin. I also instructed them how their lives would change if they did this.
When the crowds came to me for baptism, I said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” Not the way to win friends and influence people. But my mission was to shake them out of their assumptions of comfort and self-righteousness. So, I went on to say, “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. Even 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.”
God stirred their hearts to respond! And the crowds asked, “What should we do?” So, I told them, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”
Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and they asked me, “Teacher, what should we do?” So, I told them, “Stop enriching yourselves by collecting more taxes than the government requires.”
Soldiers came too! That didn’t look good because they had the power to arrest me. But even they sincerely asked, “What should we do?” So, I told them, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”
Now, everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether or not it might be me! So, I told them, “I baptize you with water; but 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. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” I used many such warnings as I announced the Good News to the people.
One day, Jesus came. He wanted to be baptized. But I tried to talk him out of it. I knew that he was better than me, cleaner, so he should baptize me! That’s what I told him. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”
But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So, I baptized him. And then it happened. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and I saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
Then I knew. It all fell into place, the miracle birth, his impeccable life that no one could find any fault, and now the sign God told me to watch for! Jesus is the Messiah we had been waiting for! The Messiah! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Our Savior and Lord!
And the next thing you know, Jesus started calling followers and there grew a new group of people who were baptizing folks to become disciples of Jesus. But there was a problem. Some of my disciples were talking with others about the competition between my followers and Jesus’ followers. As far as I was concerned, there was no competition! But it didn’t look that way to others.
My own disciples were upset about it. So, I set out to correct their views. That’s why I told them he must increase, and I must decrease. It gave me great joy to see people going over to Jesus. I had already told them that they should. I even encouraged my own followers to go over to Jesus. I suppose to some of them that sounded like it would sound to you today if your pastor told you that the Baptist church was doing a better ministry and you should all go worship there! But they had to get over the shock and learn to worship Jesus!
He’s the Messiah! I’m just someone talking about him. He’s the bride groom! The star of the show. I’m just an attendant and really not even worthy to be included in the wedding party. I don’t need any honor or even to be remembered. All the focus needs to be in Jesus. He’s my Savior too! He doesn’t need me. I need him. I need his grace and forgiveness, just like anyone else.
I don’t ever want you to forget that it is not our talent, it is not our skill, it is not our intelligence, and it is not our charisma that brings spiritual blessing and growth. It is the Lord Himself who “brings success.” It is the Holy Spirit who is at work in the hearts and minds of men and women. We are only His tools.
As I said back then, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.” I had to remain faithful to my own calling and not go beyond what God had given me to do. I was never going to be the messiah. So, I didn’t even want to be. I was called to be a voice in the wilderness, and nowadays, that’s really the best thing any of Jesus’ followers can do, announce his presence, tell of his life death and resurrection and how that blesses all of us, explain how to receive forgiveness through repentance and faith in Jesus. That’s a great ministry that anyone can do! And all of his followers are expected to.
Be content to submit to God and to be faithful in ministry. You get to talk about the most wonderful person who ever walked among us! He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. Jesus testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Amen.
Listen Link: https://www.lcepc.org/sermons
You may be wondering why we’re singing Christmas carols today. But if you’ve been following along in the daily readings in the Chronological Bible to read the whole Bible in one year, you know that we just started the gospels last week. So, it is appropriate to celebrate Christmas because we just read the birth stories and the Advent stories. Part of the Advent of Jesus is the forerunner who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. So, for our message today, I’d like you to employ your sanctified imaginations and let me pretend to be speaking as John the Baptist. Especially because I was not able to find a camel hair shirt or wide leather belt. Ok. Here we go.
Hello, my name is John. John, the Baptist, sorry, not John the Presbyterian. But I’m not just a Baptist either. There are a lot of Baptists around today, but I’m not one of them. I’m also not just the first of all the Baptists in the Baptist churches you know about today. I’m John the Baptist because I actually baptized a lot of people. My name is John. But after a while, people started calling me John the Baptist because as I preached that the people should repent of their sins and turn back to God, I also gave them a way to show that they meant it, by being baptized in the waters of the Jordan River. This was a public display, and a lot of people were watching, so anybody that came to be baptized could not just be fooling around. Anybody could say to them, “Hey, why are you behaving like this? I saw you get baptized by John. Didn’t that mean anything to you?”
For some years before I started preaching repentance, the Jews had already been using water baptism in ritual cleansing ceremonies of Gentile proselytes. So, I was doing this for a lot of people who had no access to the temple, like those Roman soldiers who wanted to get right with God. I did it for others who could not afford the price of the sacrifices required by the priests at the temple. Those people needed some way to show God and their neighbors and loved ones that they really were sorry for the things they had done and wanted to change.
Besides, it wasn’t just the Gentiles who needed cleansing. I preached to the fact that everybody needed to get baptized. Even the Pharisees should have been baptized to show repentance for their sins and get ready to believe in the coming Messiah. But most of them did not. They didn’t like me calling them a brood of vipers. They preferred to trust in their personal efforts to look good and be righteous through their temple worship. I think they did worship their temple more than God.
Anyway, that’s how I got the name. But I didn’t come here today to talk about me. It’s really all about Jesus. I want to share with you my personal testimony about my relationship with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lord and Savior of the World. When I speak of my personal relationship with Jesus it’s kind of funny to me because he’s my cousin! Well, second cousin really, my mom Elizabeth was related to Mary, Jesus’ mom.
But we didn’t hang out much. My folks lived in the hill country of Judea. Jesus’ folks moved around, from Nazareth in Galilee, to Bethlehem for a couple of years, then to Egypt for a little while before going back to Nazareth, after King Herod died. Jesus really grew up in Nazareth of Galilee, while I grew up in Judea some 90 miles away, and since we didn’t have cars back then, well you get the idea.
But at least we heard about each other because our moms both have great birth stories about us. They say I knew that Jesus is our Messiah before I was even born! Yep, Mom said to Mary, “When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.” That was me. So, of course, as I was growing up we often recounted that story. And they must have told Jesus about me, too.
My dad, Zachariah, was a priest. He even got a turn to serve the Lord in the holy of holies. And on that privileged day, that was when the angel Gabriel told him that I would be born. He was speechless! Who wouldn’t be? I mean, mom and dad had no other children and they thought they were too old to ever have any. So, I guess I was the ultimate surprise baby! Not counting Jesus of course. Well, being the son of a priest, I guess they expected me to grow up to be that too. But I didn’t.
I can’t exactly explain why, but I guess I just didn’t fit in with the other priests. Maybe I wasn’t disciplined enough to be a Pharisee. Or maybe I just didn’t feel worthy. If I put on all the fancy prayer clothes and walked around with the phylacteries tied to my head and hands, I felt like a hypocritical phony, like I was just pretending to be good, when all the while I remained painfully aware of the dark thoughts in my head and heart. Besides, I saw their hypocrisy up close as I grew up among them. There were times when they didn’t think the little boy was listening or watching. But I was, and I saw behind their masks.
So, I ended up living out in the wilderness. I prayed all the time and studied God’s Word, so I would know it by heart. I wanted to be authentic and honest and humble. Then one day, God gave me a message. He said Messiah is coming and I want you to help the people be ready for him. They will need to humble themselves as you have and ask for forgiveness of their sins.
You are to baptize them in the Jordan River. You will do this out in the wilderness to remind the people that they wandered in the wilderness until I led them across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. In this way, they will understand that through repentance, and the cleansing of baptism, they are starting over with me and will be ready to receive their king.
So, I started preaching about the coming Messiah. I told the people they should repent of sin and be baptized, washed clean, a clean break from sin. I also instructed them how their lives would change if they did this.
When the crowds came to me for baptism, I said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” Not the way to win friends and influence people. But my mission was to shake them out of their assumptions of comfort and self-righteousness. So, I went on to say, “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. Even 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.”
God stirred their hearts to respond! And the crowds asked, “What should we do?” So, I told them, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”
Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and they asked me, “Teacher, what should we do?” So, I told them, “Stop enriching yourselves by collecting more taxes than the government requires.”
Soldiers came too! That didn’t look good because they had the power to arrest me. But even they sincerely asked, “What should we do?” So, I told them, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”
Now, everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether or not it might be me! So, I told them, “I baptize you with water; but 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. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” I used many such warnings as I announced the Good News to the people.
One day, Jesus came. He wanted to be baptized. But I tried to talk him out of it. I knew that he was better than me, cleaner, so he should baptize me! That’s what I told him. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”
But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So, I baptized him. And then it happened. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and I saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
Then I knew. It all fell into place, the miracle birth, his impeccable life that no one could find any fault, and now the sign God told me to watch for! Jesus is the Messiah we had been waiting for! The Messiah! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Our Savior and Lord!
And the next thing you know, Jesus started calling followers and there grew a new group of people who were baptizing folks to become disciples of Jesus. But there was a problem. Some of my disciples were talking with others about the competition between my followers and Jesus’ followers. As far as I was concerned, there was no competition! But it didn’t look that way to others.
My own disciples were upset about it. So, I set out to correct their views. That’s why I told them he must increase, and I must decrease. It gave me great joy to see people going over to Jesus. I had already told them that they should. I even encouraged my own followers to go over to Jesus. I suppose to some of them that sounded like it would sound to you today if your pastor told you that the Baptist church was doing a better ministry and you should all go worship there! But they had to get over the shock and learn to worship Jesus!
He’s the Messiah! I’m just someone talking about him. He’s the bride groom! The star of the show. I’m just an attendant and really not even worthy to be included in the wedding party. I don’t need any honor or even to be remembered. All the focus needs to be in Jesus. He’s my Savior too! He doesn’t need me. I need him. I need his grace and forgiveness, just like anyone else.
I don’t ever want you to forget that it is not our talent, it is not our skill, it is not our intelligence, and it is not our charisma that brings spiritual blessing and growth. It is the Lord Himself who “brings success.” It is the Holy Spirit who is at work in the hearts and minds of men and women. We are only His tools.
As I said back then, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.” I had to remain faithful to my own calling and not go beyond what God had given me to do. I was never going to be the messiah. So, I didn’t even want to be. I was called to be a voice in the wilderness, and nowadays, that’s really the best thing any of Jesus’ followers can do, announce his presence, tell of his life death and resurrection and how that blesses all of us, explain how to receive forgiveness through repentance and faith in Jesus. That’s a great ministry that anyone can do! And all of his followers are expected to.
Be content to submit to God and to be faithful in ministry. You get to talk about the most wonderful person who ever walked among us! He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. Jesus testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Amen.
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