AMCHRISTMAS04 John the Baptist Part 1
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1 “Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
2 “But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.
3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.
4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
Will be pleasant to the Lord,
As in the days of old,
As in former years.
5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
8 So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
19 And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. 20 But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
21 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. 22 But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.
23 So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. 24 Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
57 Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. 58 When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
59 So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. 60 His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” 62 So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. 65 Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66 And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.
80 So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.
1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
Well, here we go again! Christmas is coming! Or as the coco cola advert puts it ‘holidays are coming, holidays are coming’ with Father Christmas dressed in his red costume and white flowing beard. Nativity stories will abound here and there though many schools are starting to withdraw from any sense of there being any kind of religion attached to Christmas and would rather celebrate a festival of lights instead, which, without realising it, it is a religious festival anyway of the Hindus and Sikhs.
Preparations are already on the way; some people have bought presents and wrapped them already, the house decorations including tinsel, lights and a tree. Preparations are afoot everywhere and today, being the 1st, Irena will be looking to get the tree up as indeed it is already up here.
But before we get to Christmas there is a certain man who needed to come before the main event. And this was a preparation well in advance by thousands of years for there are many prophecies but between the Old Testament and New Testament passage I read today is about 400 years. We call them the silent years. They were not too silent, in the sense it was a time of war, winning and losing, mainly losing to the Romans. But it was silent in a different sense, for Malachi was the last prophet to speak before what we read in Luke of the announcement of a certain person’s birth who was none other than John the Baptist followed by the announcement of Jesus, the Saviour. Indeed, it is not the first 400 years without a word being spoken for there was Joseph until Aaron and Moses who are types of John and Jesus.
Malachi who we heard at the beginning lived in a particular time where corruption had once again come to the holy place. The hearts of the people had turned. The priests became lax and immoral. The ceremonies of the temple were no longer God-pleasing. The number of the faithful were dwindling once again. We could actually be talking about the Church right here in the West if it wasn’t about the Jewish Nation.
Everyone thought that it didn’t matter whether you were good or evil for God will not dish out any justice anyway for they were of the Jews and saved anyway. Then the prophet Malachi speaks out against these sins, and preaches: The Saviour is coming. "The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple," he prophesies (Mal. 3:1). These words ought to be words of hope but, instead, they are of impending doom. Those who call evil good and good evil will find no place to hide when the Lord does come and Malachi asks, in verse 2, the rhetorical questions: Who can endure the day of His coming? Who will stand? If the righteous are scarcely saved what of the ungodly, Paul asks in another place. Who can endure the day? Answer: No-one. Those who think that they will delight in God’s coming have another thing coming. The silence of those years was deafening. The Words of God in Malachi were the last to be heard. Then nothing.
Wintertime requires a bit of planning when it is not as mild as this. If I am taking the dog out for his walk I put on my coat, put on my wellies if I am going on the field, put on my baseball cap, and put up the hood on my coat so that I am cosy and warm. Some people go out to their cars to warm them up before they set off for work or Church. Though, I don’t recommend that unless you can stop people from nicking it. Some will put on their long johns, gloves and extra layers of clothes to cope with the cold. Then you might need some de-icer for the windscreen. Hopefully you have serviced your car engines to cope by having antifreeze in the radiator. You never know, we might even need snow chains for the tyres. You certainly cannot get out the door so quick so you have to get ready earlier. And one day to the next you do not know what it will bring – maybe another named storm! What does all this require? Preparation, right?
Malachi has just said that when the Day of the Lord happens this will not be a good day. And a sign that it is on the way will be the turning up of a man called, “the preparer”, whom we know to be John, who was a miracle baby, born to very old parents, making people wonder about him. From the outset the expectancy of people has been raised. John’s arrival though was not only a sign of the Lord coming but also a sign that judgment is not long behind. What we can read into this is that John not only came to prepare the way for Jesus’ first coming but was also unwittingly a sign of His second coming too.
The passage we read was not the only passage which alludes to John in Malachi. We find him also in:
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
These are the very last words of God before the silence. These words actually end the Old Testament. The silence was only broken with the fulfilment of the prophecy of Malachi.
John was sent as one to prepare the way for the Lord’s first coming or first advent. He came as one to announce peace to everyone and was sent with an olive leaf in his mouth. Well, not exactly. John came to show the way to Jesus. He was the Announcer. The Messenger. The Town Crier, if you will, though more like the Desert Crier. John’s coming signified that judgment was coming but his message was the same as Jesus: Repent for the Kingdom is at hand. This was the only way to avoid judgment. It has been the same message throughout all ages in both Old and New Testament. What does it mean to repent? It is to change one’s mind and to change the course of one’s life.
This time of year celebrates Jesus’ birth in His first coming but the babe in the manger is also the judge of all the earth. The first advent signals that the second is on its way. It is going to be a day of dark gloom, fear and awesomeness. John’s message is very clear: Repent and believe the Gospel! This is the only way we and anyone can survive the coming day, a day that is surely coming.
I know there were the doubters that there would be a Messiah first time Jesus came but there was an expectancy in the air. There are also doubters and mockers who exist today about the 2nd Coming but among true Christians there is an expectancy in the air. I’m sure that just as people were not right in the details of Jesus’ first advent we are not accurate about everything concerning the 2nd. It might not be right now but it is going to happen. It is going to come suddenly. Some will be prepared and some will have prepared others.
The point is that John is a sign in Malachi of a judgment that is coming that only a few will be saved. The majority will be simply taken away in the ensuing fire into an eternal judgment. But God does not want this.
There may have been a silence for 400 years but God does not forget His promises. 400 years is nothing to God. He picked up right where He left off. God always fulfils His Word. We can be unfaithful, forgetful and negligent but God is none of these things. God’s timing is perfect. John came at just the right time before Jesus. But something else about God is that He shows mercy before judgment, God does not want people to die without trust in Him. John came to turn the hearts of those who would hear him; as Malachi said:
He will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers.
John came to prepare the way in people’s hearts for Jesus. He came calling for repentance and faith – not in himself or in his baptism, but in Jesus. All this to bring people to Jesus and to avoid the judgment of His Second Coming.
In the same way we are preparing the way for Jesus’ return. Calling for repentance. We are a sign to this generation of the judgment that is coming and people are either coming to Christ or running like mad from Him into the world, but eternity and judgement will encroach at a time they do not expect.
The end result of John the Baptist’ preaching was that those who receive the message would be as it says in:
74 since we have been rescued
from the hand of our enemies,
to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness
in his presence all our days.
The result of those who have come to Christ is not so that we can then just live our lives the way we want or to continue in the way of the world but we have been delivered from the hand of our enemy the devil. We are to serve God without fear for He accepts us as we are. We are to walk in the holiness and righteousness He has made us to be. In this way we are light to the world. In this way we are preparing the way of the Lord. In preparing ourselves we are also called to prepare others.
What are we preparing people for? Are we preparing them to simply be friends with us? Are we preparing them to come along to church? Are we preparing them for a powerful and life-changing meeting with Jesus? Preparing takes planning so how are we going to do our part? Are we ready to share the good news of Jesus in our lives? Are we willing to tell God’s story of hope and redemption through Jesus Christ? Are we going to take the opportunities that come at this time of year to prepare people not just for Christmas but for the Day of His return?
How are we preparing the way of the Lord?
Benediction
Benediction
4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
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