This is the first adult interaction recorded in Jesus ministry and it’s a highly significant encounter

John the Baptist – who was he?

• a roving preacher and a relative of Jesus
• There were many roving preachers of the time; some were religious zealots whose aim was to undermine Roman rule (destabilise the government)
• others were way-out fanatics whose motives varied from a deranged power complex to a subverting desire for personal fame
• It all sounds rather familiar!

There was a spiritual and religious supermarket around in their day that mirrors our own in 2016

• the ideologies may be different
• their philosophies may be almost unrecognisable by modern standards
• but you had a choice – and a wide choice – of who to give your heart to.

Bob Dylan wrote a highly influential song ‘You’ve gotta serve somebody’ (although whether he will serve the Nobel Committee who have just awarded him the Nobel prize for literature, remains to be seen!)

It was into this context of an ideological supermarket that Jesus began his ministry

So here’s the question: With so with so many competing ideologies What kind of ministry would Jesus himself identify with?

What kind of church or group would he join?

If you move away from the district and find yourself having to seek out another fellowship you light find these criteria a useful guide

• When we use the word ‘ministry’ here we are talking about the ministry of the whole church, not only its preachers and leaders
• I believe that if the facets of John’s ministry in the first century characterise us in the twenty-first then God will pour blessing on us!

Jesus identified with …

daring ministry v7

E.g. Taking a service in a care home. Helmut, German student.

• Visited a residential home for Senior Citizens to take a service and he was doing the talk
• “You know vot? – You vill to die before me” (!) – I cringed when I heard that! – but I need not have done
• He had touched the very issue that most of the people in that room had high on the agenda of their private thoughts
•  – how will I die and when? how much pain will I have to endure before my body finally gives up and says “I’ve had enough of this life?” – will anyone care if  I leave this world? – and what will happen in the next?
• It became clear from the conversations that followed that his daring words coupled with his winsome character combined to minister very deeply to some of those people
• God – got  his message through because of Helmut’s courage

My friends, Jesus will bless your ministry – consistently – if you touch on the real issues which people face.

If you communicate God’s word – ever – then never opt for safety!

Want to see this in the scriptures?

 7  John said to the crowds coming out to be baptised by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you [lot] to flee from the coming wrath?

There’s how to win friends and influence people!

John had learned the lesson that cosy sermons breed spineless, complacent Christians!

• Here’s a man who is not afraid to put his head on the block and go for the jugular (if that’s not too much of a mixed metaphor!)
• He is not going to opt for the ‘safe’ sermon

That’s the ministry Jesus opted to join.

Matthew records John saying something similar, but he tells us that John addressed these remarks to the Pharisees and Saducees – religious pundits of the day. Luke doesn’t tell us this

As a result of this, and other omissions of small detail, I am happy to take the view that what Luke is describing here is not the specific content of one particular message that John preached, but a summary of his overall teaching and ministry

This makes it all the more significant

• because what we have here are the major themes of John’s ministry
• Here we have the values that John the Baptist stood for – and that Jesus himself identified with

Jesus identified with a daring ministry

Jesus also identified with

a penetrating ministry (v8)

It penetrated to the core of their being

let give you some instances

do produce fruit!

 8  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

“you’ve repented? Very well, then show it in your lifestyle!”

• Repentance is a smokescreen without actions! Without a change in what we do it’s no more than squirming remorse

The book of James hammers home the message: Faith without works is dead!

I was in the Ukraine some years ago (at Pastor Sergei’s church) and I met a man I had encountered on a previous trip.

• When I first met Ivan he was a drunkard and a waster. His family was in turmoil because of his drink, but his daughter had found Christ in the church where I was ministering

• In Ukraine when you become a Christian you repent – really repent  come to the front of the church and confess your sins into the PA system so everyone can here
• I had the privilege of ministering at the service when Ivan did this – it’s scary! He confessed He’d been a poor father, that he’d been lazy and he’d drunk too much
• On my last trip I met him again. This time he knew I was coming and sought me out.
• What he wanted me to see was his car
• 35 year-old muskevich – a rust bucket!

BUT it was the first car he had ever bought with his own money!

he’d got his life together! – Stopped drinking started earning and saving and here was the result

a rust bucket it may be to you – but to him it was a McLaren,  a Ferrari and Rolls all rolled into one! He was a pleased as punch!

That is fruit in keeping with repentance!

My friends becoming a Christian made little of no difference to your lifestyle – may I suggest you need to examine the depth of your conversion!

don’t rely on your pedigree!

 8b  And do not begin to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

Yesterday’s experience of God is no guarantee of the purity, or the reality or the joy of my walk with him today!

Isaiah  43:18  “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

God is telling his people to forget something

• What former things did he have in mind? their sins, their failures? No!
• they were to forget / disregard their heritage!

Your connections with great people of the past is no guarantee of walking with God today.

• We’ve had terrific successes (1s, alpha,  … and I praise God for them!
• but they are no guarantee!

 19  See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

urgent ministry (v9)

he urged people to beware complacency!

 9  The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Sometimes, when we tell people what God says about them and to them, (that life is complete only when we love him with all our hearts and bring our lives into conformity with Jesus)

we give the impression that ‘any time will do’

‘you can choose your moment’

A time will come when God can no longer wait

… for a turning away from sins in an individual

… for the abandoning of any cosy complacency of a church

There will come a time when God can no longer ignore

any secret backbiting and sin in His people

There will come a time when God can no longer ignore

the resulting spiritual fruitlessness

And God says:

“Enough is enough – the axe is already swinging through the air”

return to me today!

fall in love with me again now!

because it will only take one blow

… once the axe has struck there will be

no more life,

no more sap,

no more cultivation

I will pour out my Spirit elsewhere!”

My dear friends, don’t mess with God!

I know he is gracious and kind and he lets us take our spiritual journey at our own speed – he doesn’t barge into your life

But if you’ve been thinking about coming to Christ, or being baptised  or taking some other step of faith with him then don’t put it off

because there does come a day when the whisper of God stops

I remember a girl who was a student friend of mine.

• She had a friend who was spiritually seeking and had been thinking about becoming a Christian for some long time, but never taken the step of actually doing it.
• One day my friend got quite frustrated with her about this “Sit down in that chair” she said “and become a Christian!”
• … and she did just that
• and he life was changed from that moment on!

Have I got to say to anyone here today “sit in that chair and become a Christian!” because God has been working in your life for a long time and there won’t be a better time than today!

You’ve seen and heard all the evidence you’re going to see and hear and now the Lord’s word for you today is “don’t put it off any longer”

What kind of church did Jesus join?

Jesus identifies with a ministry which had some urgency in it!

Jesus identified with …

practical ministry v10-14

 10  “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

Too many Bible studies and sermons lack a ‘so what’ clause >>>

Another example – day of Pentecost >>>

• they had seen (tongues of fire)
• they had heard (Peter’s sermon) >>>
• result “What shall we do?”
• answered “Repent and be baptised!” – and God will fill you too with the Holy Spirit

And incidentally – don’t misidentify the groups of people to whom Peter was speaking on the day of Pentecost.

• They were not the secularised, unbelieving non-Jews – it was addressed to the people who had come to Jerusalem to worship God at the feast of Pentecost.
• these were the card-carrying, bible believing, Sabbath keeping people of his day!
• People who had travelled for miles to be at this spiritual celebration

It was addressed God’s people!

They were the ones asking “What shall we do?!”

They were the ones who needed the deluge of God’s spirit!

My friends when we ask that question

we open the floodgates for God to work! >>>

be generous with your possessions

 11  John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Selfishness was as much a problem then as it is today!

If you have a surplus of something and you discover someone in need  – give it away!

you can’t wear two coats!

be honest in your dealings

 12  Tax collectors also came to be baptised. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

 13  “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

True story:

A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote “this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag.”

While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller window.

So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo.

After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller.

She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he was not the brightest light in the harbour, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America.

Looking somewhat defeated, the man said “OK” and left.

The Wells Fargo teller then called the police who arrested the man a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.

Tax collectors could make a fair bit on the side

c.f. Zaccheus – put right his business dealings

“Today has salvation (word implies healing, wholeness) come to this house”

Why? because Zaccheus was dealing with the real issue at last!”

Is there a real issue that needs dealing with?

be content with your income

 14  Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely- be content with your pay.”

Soldiers were known for their extortion. They had the muscle and the weapons and could easily issue threats which piled on the pressure

They were using violence and extortion to get money

A change of heart attitude is needed – be content with what you have!

Jesus identified with …

prophetic ministry v15-17

obviously anointed by God

 15. The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.

This indicates how influential John’s ministry was.

The whole Jewish nation were expecting God to do something big

• especially to send a liberator – a ‘messiah!
• John’s ministry was so powerful and so influential that some people though he just might be the messiah!

But John’s gift of prophecy allowed him to get a strong hunch about what God was about to do

John puts it like this (v16)

“You allow me have influence with you.

you listen to my word and take it to heart

you come in droves to listen to my preaching

I have power – and only because you give it to me

but listen! …

There is One coming who is far greater than me

not just a little greater – but an order of magnitude greater!

if you think God has invested my ministry with spiritual influence – you just wait!

When God’s man arrives, his spiritual authority is not just going to be in a different league – it’s going to be on a different planet! You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

When he comes – I’m not even going to be worthy to untie his shoelaces!

I baptise you with water. But he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!

Can I say something about prophecy today

• the church is enriched when we communicate what we honestly believe God is saying!

… it feels like a hunch that I know what the Lord would say if he were here in person

And Jesus identified with a man who exercised this kind of prophetic ministry.

Jesus identified with …

extensive ministry v18

 18  And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

“With many other words …”

If this is a summary then there’s a lot that’s been left out

Don’t misunderstand ‘balanced’

Sometime the description ‘balanced’ is used to indicate a ministry that comfortable, safe and avoids threatening my cosy presuppositions too often or too deeply

There is a particular balance that Luke had in mind when he described John’s ministry

the ministry that Jesus was happy to be part of

 18 John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

He exhorted …

He wasn’t afraid to say ‘here’s where we’re in error’

• but coupled with that was ‘here’s how to put it right

how to be right with God!

And it was good news

and what happened? God turned up in the form of his son.

>>> Jesus Baptism

At that moment

• Father – spoke from heaven “This is my beloved son”
• Son – baptised for repentance – even though he didn’t need to – he identified with us – so we should identify with him
• Spirit – came down – in the form of a dove.

what about now >>>

Jesus identified with …

relevant ministry v19-20

19  But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done,

20  Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

There may be times when as Christians it is right for us to enter the political arena to wield as much influence as God gives us

e.g. the abortion debate

self-effacing ministry

What happened?

Jesus identified with him

John paved the way for Jesus  v4-6 & v21-23

My hearts prayer of 2016 – to pave the way for Jesus >>>

recap 5 facets

daring, practical, prophetic, balanced and relevant

That’s the kind of ministry God uses – the kind of Church where it’s obvious God is there!