Today we begin a new series looking at the life of John the Baptist who was described by Jesus in these terms in Matthew 11:11 “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist”. So this is someone that we need to get to know if Jesus is speaking so highly of them. Later in the series we will look at what Jesus meant by that.

But one thing that we can say about John at this stage is that his greatness was seen in relation to his proximity to Jesus. His greatness was connected to how he related to Jesus of Nazareth and in that fact he is similar to us. If I can put it this way – our greatness as human beings will depend on how we relate to Jesus Christ. Many millions of people have lived in history but in the final count the most important legacy we can leave, and the most significant thing we can do will relate to what we did with Jesus Christ. Like John the Baptist will our lives point to Jesus or, unlike John, will our lives point away from Jesus.

Today I want to speak on the theme of preparation. John was the great preparer – he prepared the way for Jesus. But let me ask this question first of all – why was John the Baptist needed? We know about John the Baptist, we know about Jesus coming but have we ever stopped to ask the question why did God raise up a John in the first place. Why did he not just send Jesus. John’s ministry was very short. Like Jesus it appears that his public ministry began at age thirty. We know that Jesus’ life was short – he was born to die – his death on the cross had immense significance. But John’s life was cut short. His ministry was curtailed and he was imprisoned and then beheaded. Why did God deem it necessary to send John before Jesus?

Part of the answer must be that the people required preparation.

A History lesson

We can perhaps understand this when we review the state of the nation and all that it had come through. 1250 BC the Israelites arrived in Canaan and they lived at the time of the Judges. The Philistines proved too much of a threat and Israel asked for a king. God reluctantly gave them a king – Saul. After Saul they had David and after David, Solomon. After this things went downhill big time with the nation split into two with rival kings of Israel (the North) and Judah in the South. This lasted down to 722 BC when Israel fell to the Assyrians and then 587 BC when Judah fell to the Babylonians. In 550 BC the Persians took over and under King Cyrus went easier on the Israelites and in 538 BC they were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple and walls. Time of Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai. Then around 450 BC we have the last prophet Zechariah and Malachi and with the close of Malachi we have a period of 400 years where God did not speak through any prophet. Complete silence from God. This was hard for a people who were used to God speaking to them, albeit sometimes harsh words of judgement. But from 450 BC  - nothing.

In those 400 years we found the Greeks taking charge of Europe and then a division between the Ptolemes and the Seleucids who controlled Palestine. Then there was a Maccabbean revolt in 179 BC as they tried to break free from their overlords and there was a measure of independence and then the Romans arrived in 63 BC. So Israel had been knocked from pillar to post and has been oppressed under many empires and regimes. All of this you must understand God said would happen as a result of the people’s unfaithfulness, their following of other gods and their lack of living a distinctive lifestyle.

In the midst of it all there were prophecies that a better day was coming, God would not forsake his people, a messiah would arise. The people lived in this longing and hope and during the Romans this longing for a saviour reached fever pitch, but for many people the messiah they expected was going to be a political as well as a spiritual saviour and he would be a new Elijah as prophesied in Malachi 4:5 and 3:1.

So the people were oppressed and depressed. They lacked good spiritual leadership, if anything the Pharisees were too legalistic and they were oppressing the people with rule upon rule. There was a spiritual wilderness, there was confusion, there was materialism, there was a lack of true godliness. And so not only out of this spiritual wilderness but out of a physical wilderness a voice of one crying, it was the voice of the Lord in fulfilment of Isaiah 40:3 “A voice of one calling in the desert prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God…” In those days when a king was about to make a journey the roads would be straightened and repaired, an important person was coming. That is the idea here. The important person this time would be the Son of the King, the Son of God and John was the preparer.

So why did God send a preparer, because the people were oppressed, there was a longing and a hope there but John would give that longing some shape. The people were spiritually confused and needed guidance as to what it would mean to receive a messiah, their hearts needed to be prepared and they needed to be repentant. You see when God moves powerfully it tends to be after a period of preparation of people’s hearts. That preparation may come through preaching, it may come through some tragedy, it may come through some loss, it may come through the removal of all the former certainties so that people have nowhere else to turn except to God.

John came to turn people from their pride to God, from their possessions to God, from their depression to God, from their spiritual legalism to God. Our age is not dissimilar is it? We are a civilisation that is confused and without spiritual bearings. We have grown proud and arrogant and when disaster strikes how many actually truly turn to God. We live in a fallen world and many disasters strike, almost it seems without reason, the question is will it drive us in repentance to God or deeper into a belief in our own inherent goodness and our own power to fix things.

This was the state of Israel. What about us? What we have here in a nation we can perhaps see in us as individuals. Are we in a place where there has been no word from the Lord. The circumstances of life are oppressive and we are continually placing our hope in other gods rather than the true God and taking refuge in making life more and more comfortable for ourselves? Are any of us in that place where we sense that we are in a spiritual wilderness and we need more of God in our lives, more reality. Is God speaking to you, is God stirring you. Is God pointing out to you an emptiness, a hunger that can only be filled by him. He is doing a work of preparation in your heart.

If that is the case then rejoice in that for a seeking after spiritual satisfaction is a good search and God will respond to the longing and sincere heart. For 400 years there was no word from the Lord but “when the time had fully come “ it says in Gal 4:4 then God sent his Son. But first there was a work of preparation and God does not make mistakes, his timing is perfect and he was setting the wheels in motion. As von Logau once said “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all”. God looks after the smallest details and in the birth of John we see the wheels of God starting to turn, we see the God of the detail who is sovereign.  And so it was that a priest called Zechariah came to be on duty at the Temple.

This was interesting in itself. This was the high point of any priest’s career and a priest would only be able to sprinkle the incense once in his lifetime. But not every priest would get this privilege. There were 18,000 priests divided into 24 divisions of 750. When it was the time for a division to serve a lot was cast to see which priest would sprinkle the incense. Each division was only on two weeks in the year so the chances of being the priest chosen were very slim. It was time for the division of Abijah, out of that division were 750 guys hoping for this moment. Out of that 750 people Zechariah was chosen – this was his moment.

Zechariah was an ordinary priest married to Elizabeth but there was a great sadness in their life – they had no children. Children were a sign of God’s blessing yet they had none. Many times in the Bible we read about those who did not have children and the grief that it caused. But things were about to change. Much here parallels the story of Christ’s conception. We have an angel appearing to Zechariah as with Mary. So Zechariah’s big moment was going to get even bigger. He would get more than he bargained for. He did not expect an angel – who does – but not only did he get an angel, he got Gabriel. There are only two angels mentioned in the Bible and he got one of them – big moment. The angel tells him his prayer was answered. What prayer. A prayer for a messiah, a prayer for a child? Maybe both.  But he does blow it a bit in that he questions the angel (v.18) - how can I be sure of this? Maybe we would say the same in our stupidity but a) if an angel appears and b) it is Gabriel and c) he gives you a promise, I would tend to believe it whatever age I or the wife was!

But for his stupidity and lack of faith he is not able to speak. Here is the irony in all of this – for 400 years God does not speak to any human being. That 400 year silence is broken, Zechariah does not believe it and he struck dumb so he is unable to tell that God has spoken to him. Big irony! He will however speak again in a few months when he says that the child shall be called John, not Zechariah or any other family name which would be the normal practice. And the most imp. Thing about this child is in v.17 “He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord”

What does this mean. I think it means that some of the stuff that happens when people are drifting away from God will be healed. Relationships will be restored, generational differences where there are schisms and divisions will be healed. Fathers will take up their spiritual responsibilities as leaders; people will seek righteousness and will look out for others and not be self obsessed. Is this not what we need in our divided, conflicted, self centred times? In the newspapers last week it was reported that this generation is called the “Me generation” for it is so selfish. Since the year 2000 especially, people have become self obsessed and selfish.  This is our age and we need someone or something with the spirit of Elijah to direct the hearts and minds back to God.

Is that not something that we the church are called to do and be? Are we people who are living close enough to God for people to see the difference and yes even to be viewed as a little weird as John was. Are we prepared to sacrifice some things for the sake of the gospel. Are we prepared to be serious enough about the gospel to be the levellers and the movers to make a way for the people to see Jesus. Are we more of an obstruction to people seeing Jesus or are we moving the obstructions, are we clearing the way or are we in the way? What that looks like and what that means we will tease out in the next weeks.

But as we close know this that God speaks to prepared hearts, and when he speaks we listen as if we have never heard that voice before.

So are we part of the preparation process for people hearing the word. Is God speaking to us, is our heart prepared to hear from the Lord as never before. Are we serious about our relationship with the one we say means more to us than life itself? Time will tell. But may we be open to what God may be saying to us and through us for this our generation for we have the good news which is the best hope for this generation. The Spirit filled John from birth – the Spirit fills us from new birth and he is willing to use ordinary people from ordinary parents for his glory. Are we willing? Are we open? Are we prepared or are we apathetic, indifferent and not just tasting but swallowing wholesale the spirit of the age. Yes we have to live in the culture, we have to be in the world, but we are called to be different in our attitudes and in our priorities just as John was and in this he was able to point people to Jesus as what they needed more than anything. May something of the spirit of John be in our hearts at this time.

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