In the history of salvation although God uses churches and bodies of people to achieve his purposes, there is nothing quite like a godly individual, filled with the Spirit of God, consumed with the purposes of God, and willing to sacrificially follow where God leads and directs. Such a man was John the Baptist. We have seen that God had a special purpose for this man. After 400 years of silence from God where there was no prophecy, no vision, no oracle from the Lord there came a man out of the desert with a message – “prepare the way for the Lord”. Luke is very precise about the date of John’s public ministry (AD 28). John had spent a lot of time in the wilderness. We know he lived on a  diet of locusts and honey; he was dressed in a coat of camel hair with a leather belt, his hair and beard long and unkempt, his appearance gaunt and weather beaten. He reminded people of the OT prophets – could he be the Elijah of whom Malachi spoke 400 years ago? He was a wild man, an untamed man,  a man not used to the niceties of domestic religion, but he was God’s man.

We have seen that God wanted a preparer for Jesus, the people had a certain expectancy of a messiah, a deliverer, a saviour, but that expectation needed to be given a shape and the people needed to be told what the messiah would look like and what he would expect of them. In those days of spiritual confusion and spiritual apathy John would point people back to God.

John had a mission of turning and levelling. He preached a baptism of repentance (v.3) which we will come back to; he preached a message of preparation, prepare yourselves for the coming of one who was great. Luke (in v.4-6) saw John the Baptist’s ministry as the fulfilment of Isaiah 40:3-5. He was a leveller and a turner on the highway of God. He had a mission of preparation which involved levelling the obstacles and turning people on to the right road. The work of preparation is always important, often it is hidden work, but the work of preparation can make all the difference to a job being done well or badly. Preparing a good meal or a good cake takes time, preparing a piece of furniture for painting takes time, and preparing the hearts of people takes time and skill. It needed a truly great person to prepare the highway for the coming of Jesus. The religious obstacles were so great, the institutionalism, the legalism, the materialism so prevalent that God sent a bulldozer, he sent a John to level the hills of hypocrisy, to move the mountains of pride, to clear away the undergrowth of confusion and clearly point the way to Jesus.

Have you ever watched the work of preparing a motorway – a lot of earth is moved and roads are realigned. The straighter the road the better and faster it is, the flatter the road the smoother the ride. Spiritually speaking whenever Jesus comes into a heart the Spirit has to do some work of preparation similar to what John does here – perspectives need to be changed, a lot of the rubbish of false understanding  needs to be cleared away, hearts need to be cleared of sinful attitudes and people need to see Jesus for who he is. This is the work John did, he was God’s bulldozer. I am convinced that God does not move into hearts that have not been prepared by prayer, by circumstances that have brought people to their knees, by a searching and longing that has built up within them. When God does a great work in someone the way has been prepared. Obstacles are removed and people start to turn back to God. Just as in the parable of the prodigal son the son turned around, so people spiritually turn around. They are in the far country, they are lost and they turn around to God again and start heading back home.

Maybe there are such in this building today – you are living far from God but God is doing a work of preparation in your heart and has been for some time. You are unsettled, you are looking for something and you don’t know what. There is a longing in your heart and a sense of dissatisfaction in your life. Maybe God is starting to remove the obstacles and he is turning you around. John had a ministry of turning people around, he preached repentance, he preached change, he preached the word of God to that generation and he told them what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear – he was a blast from the past. He was like an Isaiah, a Jeremiah, an Elijah lifted out of 500 years ago and speaking to today. This is what preaching does for God’s word is outside of time, it transcends time and yet it speaks into time for that time. Zechariah and Elizabeth wanted a child, they not only got a son but they got a prophet and a preacher.

Can I say a word about preaching before we look at the detail of what John preached.  Preaching has had  bad press recently. We are in a more visual age, a less authoritarian age, an age of shorter attention spans. It is said people learn in different ways – by hearing, discussing, watching, discovering and doing. Preaching only really involves listening or hearing so people say it is limited in its effectiveness. Even then we are told we remember so little of we just hear. In terms of communication we are told that a person’s body language communicates more than we say with our lips.  Further with the influence of the TV we distrust oratory and rhetoric and loud voices. Preaching does not look good on TV so people wonder is preaching no longer needed? Let’s just discuss and debate. The age of the monologue is over.

Well of course there should be a place for discussing a bible passage or debating a sermon, there is a place for drama and story telling – much of what Jesus said was dramatic story telling. But there is something unique about a sermon and it is God’s appointed and God’s anointed way of communicating truth today. God wants us to take His word and apply it to today. Jim Packer defines preaching in this way – “it is the event of God himself bringing to an audience a bible based, Christ related, life impacting message of instruction and direction through the words of a person.”

Preaching is used by God to change hearts. Preaching someone has said is teaching + application. Teaching alone is more of a lecture than a sermon. Preaching affirms. Preaching challenges, preaching exhorts. Good preaching is theological (it is bible based), it is prophetic (it speaks to today), it is applicatory (it ought to move us to action).

Preaching is two way – it is not just a monologue, but it should really engage the listener and they should be involved in it.  A good preach is two way and the preacher sees the people being engaged. Preaching is unique for the Holy Spirit uses it and blesses it and changes attitudes and minds through it. But for there to be good preaching the preacher himself needs to be under the Word and in the Word. In v. 2 it says the word of God came to John. If the word does not come to us and take hold of us it will not take hold of our people so for those of us who are preachers or would be preachers we need to spend the time in the word and prayer and be moved by the word if we are to be used by God.

Preaching is a major way in which God speaks today as he did through Bible times – Isaiah was a preacher, Jeremiah was a preacher, Elijah was a preacher, Paul was a preacher, Peter was a preacher and John the Baptist was a preacher.

So what did he preach? There were three elements or themes to John’s preaching, indeed to all gospel preaching, and we see them in this passage.

1.John preached repentance. If preaching is about change then all preaching must include a measure of repentance. None of us are perfect, all of us are sinners and fall short of God’s standard. Someone once said the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement and that is certainly true of us spiritually and morally.

Despite the fact that the people had waited for 400 years for God to speak, despite their longing for a messiah they had still work to do in their souls, they were arrogant, proud and legalistic. John does not mince his words here. Few preachers would call their congregations a brood of vipers (although sometimes they might feel like doing it if they have had a bad week). It is not how you win friends and influence people and yet John spoke with such power and conviction that they were drawn to him. V.7 says crowds came to him and in v.10, 12, 14 we have different groups of people coming in a spirit of repentance and earnest enquiry asking “what must we do, how can we show repentance”? He spoke boldly and called for urgent action and the people responded.

Gospel preaching has an element not only of the good news but also of the bad news in it. The bad news is that we are bad - all of us. People obviously don’t like to hear that about themselves. People like to be affirmed and yet for the gospel to be the gospel before it is good news for us it is bad news to us. We are sinful, we are proud and self centred and God is not the centre of our lives and does not get the worship he deserves. This needs to be addressed. People need to hear this even if they do not want to hear it.

Some of John’s listeners were relying on their traditions and their religion rather than on a true right relationship with God. They were saying are we not the children of Abraham, (seev.8) are we not true Israelites, are we not children of the covenant. John says maybe you are in name but where is the reality? Where is the distinctive living that is drawing people to the living God? Where is the good fruit (v.9), where is the evidence of a close walk with God and a faith that is producing good works.

In our terms someone could be saying are we not good Presbyterian people with a Christian heritage going back to St Patrick. Are we not in Ballymena, the buckle on the bible belt of N Ireland? Well maybe so but is there fruit in keeping with that. Is our influence in this town in keeping with that, is the light of all these Christians making a difference in this town, in this community?  To whom much has been given much is expected. With all the feeding and all the preaching has it shown forth in good work and witness and ministry.  What are you doing with all the preaching you are hearing? Is it making a difference? Repentance was for the tax collectors and soldiers, but it was also for the priest and the teachers of the law and the religious people – if anything maybe they had more to repent of. Preaching calls for change, for repentance.

2. Preaching involves application. As I have said preaching must be applicatory. It is not just about passing on information or facts. It needs to touch the heart and then it touches the hands and feet. Here is where we see the two way nature of preaching. The people were touched and moved by the message. They asked questions of themselves and of John – what does this mean for me, what must I do to show that I am taking this message seriously?

As we come Sunday by Sunday do we come to have our ears tickled and to criticise the message or the messenger or do we come with a spirit of hearing God’s word and what he might be saying to my situation today and to be challenged. The essence of the Christian message is change – ironically the essence of the christian church is seen as no change, be as conservative as possible and as non radical as possible. Don’t rock the boat. This was not the message of John and it was not the message of Jesus. They turned their worlds upside down. The most dangerous place to be should be in church hearing the message of God. As someone said the role of the preacher is sometimes to comfort the disturbed but it is also to disturb the comfortable. When the word of God takes hold of the preacher and when it then takes hold of the people no-one is sleeping – they are on edge they are asking questions, they are hungering for more of God and for what He can do through them where they live and work.

Is that where you are today. Are you asking questions of yourself and of God. God what would you have me do? God would you have me give something away? God would you me open my home? God would you have me train for missionary service? God would you have me take on a new ministry? God would you have me be more of a witness at work? What questions is God putting in your heart today? Is there movement, is there change, is their good works going to follow faith?  Erwin McManus says “God created you so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life”.

Notice that this was a baptism of repentance. John got people into a situation where they identified with his message publically and they were baptised. It showed they were serious in other words. They took a public stand and the bottom line for us is that we need to take a public stand and say this is important to me and I don’t mind who knows it.

Notice also that preaching costs – it cost John his freedom as Herod imprisoned him, and ultimately it would cost him his life. We all like people to like us, but preachers need to be faithful to the Word that may sometimes mean people stop liking us for the truth that we speak. Even speaking truth in love can cause people to dislike us. Preaching bears a cost. John was not a people pleaser.

3. He pointed to Jesus. (v.15-17)

We will cover more on this in a couple of weeks, but it was important that the people knew John was pointing beyond himself to Jesus. This is something all of us as preachers must do. We must point beyond ourselves and also beyond the good works. It is good to do good works but unfortunately they in themselves do not save us. John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Good works do not forgive us, it is trusting in Jesus that saves us and leads to forgiveness. If we could be forgiven and be drawn into a right relationship with God through our good works then it was unnecessary for Jesus to come. John would have been enough and John’s baptism would have been enough but it was not. There was more needed. A repentant attitude and a life of good is helpful but we still need to come to the only one who can bring us into a right relationship with God and deal with all our sin and all the mess we make with our lives.

Jesus’ ministry would be more powerful and effective than John’s. John baptised with water but Jesus would baptise those who come to him with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His baptism will be like a new start, a fresh beginning and it will purify and purge like fire does.  Jesus ministry (v.17) will be one of judgement in that all of us will be judged according to what we do with Jesus. He is holding the winnowing fork. The picture is of the wheat and chaff being thrown up in the air. The wind blows away the chaff leaving the grain. The chaff is gathered and burned in the fire.  Our lives will be grain or chaff depending on what we do with Jesus Christ. He is the creator, he is the sustainer, he is the saviour, and he is the judge and determiner of where we spend our eternity. The significance of our lives is determined by how we relate to Jesus the one even John (up to this point the greatest among those born of women) even John said was not worthy to untie his sandals – the most menial of tasks. This was the task of a slave and John said he was not even worthy to do this so great was Jesus. He is the awesome one and the gospel, the good news of salvation centres upon him. Do you know him, have you received him?

Will we repent, will we apply this message to our lives today? Will we open our lives to Jesus? This is the message that John preached. It is the message I too have just preached and may we respond to it for the glory of God and for our eternal good.

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