Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
December 1, 1985
Preparing the Way for God
Malachi 4:5-6; Luke 1:13-17
Are you prepared for Christmas? Is all your shopping done, and all your decorations put up? You have no excuse for not being prepared because the Big Wheel store in Coshocton has had Christmas material on display since before Halloween. The wrapping paper, tree lights and toys have been available for weeks already. No one can say Christmas has crept up on them unexpectedly.
It should sound a little crass, but you could say that the birth of John the Baptist was the first Christmas promotional scheme. God had planned it out at least four hundred years previously. Through the last prophet in the Old Testament, Malachi, God prophesized that Elijah, the prophet who had been taken up in a whirlwind, would return. This new Elijah would bring people back together and prepare them for the coming of God. According to Jesus, John the Baptist is the fulfillment of this prophecy. He came to prepare people for Jesus' ministry. John also represents the kind of disciple Jesus wants us to be.
John the Baptist was a unique character and had a special mission to carry out. But I think every Christian has a similar mission. Before others are going to be saved they must be prepared. God usually doesn't blind people with a beam of light - he prefers to win them over through the love and witnessing of other Christians.
There are several points of contact between the average Christian and John the Baptist; I am going to discuss four of them. The first similarity is that his birth brought joy and gladness. Now I suppose every baby is supposed to be welcomed as a bundle of joy. If you are lacking in enthusiasm, your neighbor will look down on you, even if your little bundle looks like it was hatched in a toxic waste dump. We are happy to have babies because they represent our hope for the future.
John the Baptist represented a special kind of hope. His birth began what can be called the age of salvation. Before his time people could have a relationship with God by becoming Jews. This required careful obedience of over six hundred laws and the continual offering of animal sacrifices to cover our sins. John was born under this system, but he knew it would soon be obsolete. In John 1:29, John the Baptist said about Jesus,
"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."
When a person becomes a Christian, their sin is taken away. It is not just coated over and belittled. God removes it because his son died on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice.
How important is it to you, to be pure and sinless before God? Many people couldn't care less. The Bible says that only a few are really seeking God. When John the Baptist was born, spiritually perceptive people knew that salvation was just around the corner and they rejoiced in it.
The birth of the average Christian also brings joy and gladness. At least your spiritual birth does. The one who rejoices the most is not your grandma or brothers and sisters or others in the church. The one who rejoices the most at your spiritual birth is God. Turn in your Bible to Luke 15. Jesus is giving a simple parable to illustrate this profound truth. Starting in verse 4 he says,
"What man of you, having one hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth...."
A second point of contact is that John was totally dedicated to God. Luke 1:15 says,
"For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink."
As I mentioned in a previous sermon, the Bible does not condemn all drinking. But it does say that those who live without it are better able to serve God. The best example is the group of people in the Old Testament called the Recabites. They gave up alcohol, dedicated themselves to serving God and ended up being the only ones who remained loyal to God.
Our society is addicted to booze, narcotics and stimulants. The only way many people can feel good is to get a chemical high. They begin by using it socially. Then after a while they need it just to get through the day. In the end they can end up enslaved to it, needing an increasing amount of booze or drugs to grab on to a diminishing thrill.
I'm fairly sheltered, but I'm not stupid. I know that lots of people use drugs and alcohol. Normal people. Perhaps you? But if you want to prepare others to accept Christ you have to make decisions about your lifestyle. You can get your thrills from chemicals or you can receive fulfillment by going the extra mile for God. Paul says in Ephesians 5:18 -
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."
The second point flows right into the third. People who want to be used by God must be filled with the Spirit. According to Luke 1:15, John the Baptist experienced this. This was an unusual detail to people in John's day, because it was widely believed the Holy Spirit ceased to function after the prophet Malachi died. Our passage in the first chapter of Luke is saying that after these "dry years" the power of God would once again be unleashed among God's people.
With the rise of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement, there is a lot of confusion about the Holy Spirit. The confusion is about when the Spirit comes to a Christian and what happens when it does come. Many Charismatics argue that the Spirit comes after you are saved, perhaps years later. And when it does come, you will speak in tongues, or roll down the aisle or something to that effect.
I disagree, because the Bible teaches otherwise. The Bible clearly says that a person cannot be saved without possessing the Spirit. Turn to Romans 8:9. It reads:
"But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his (that is, he can't be a Christian)."
Because of this, the Spirit must come to a person at the moment of conversion. You may not feel it, but you can accept it on the promise of God's word that the Spirit is within you. However, possessing the Spirit is not quite the same thing as being filled with it. When Charismatics argue that dead Christians need to be revitalized by the Spirit and experience it in a fresh way, they are essentially correct. When the book of Acts mentions that a Christian becomes filled with the Spirit, great things happen. Revivals break out and large numbers of people are converted. Being filled with the Spirit is something that can occur over and over. John the Baptist experienced it on a continual basis. He belonged to God and he was empowered by God. But too many Christians have never experienced being filled with the Spirit. They know what it is to accept Christ and have their sins forgiven, but nothing ever comes of it. They drag themselves to church and maybe dig up a few coins for the collection plate- the bare essentials of religion. No effort, no commitment, no power. Many things can drain the Spirit from us - bitterness and resentment, unconfessed sin and just plain laziness.
To be filled with the Spirit is quite different. If you are filled with the Spirit you will be involved in church activities, but it is far more than this. A Spirit filled Christian has a different attitude. They seek God's will for their lives and have a hunger to discover the secrets of spirituality. This also involves obedience to the commands and instructions in the Bible. You don't have to be perfect but you have to be willing to turn every area of your life over to God. John did this and he prepared thousands of people for the coming of Jesus.
{The final point of contact between John the Baptist and us is his mission. Luke 1:17 says,
"And he shall 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."
This mission has two aspects. On one hand, he brings about reconciliation between people. On the other he reconciles them to God. You can't have the one without the other. If your faith is purely private and inward, it doesn't exist to begin with. It has to affect the way you live with other people. Reconciling people to God is our greatest task:
"Turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just."
One of the worst barriers in any society is the barrier between generations. Parents bring up their children with good intentions, but so often divisions set it. Spirit-filled Christians should be able to heal divisions in their own families. It may involve swallowing your pride. But focusing on the unity that we can have in Jesus was the message that John the Baptist had, and one that we can emulate.
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Typed on April 13, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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