Well, we’re gradually adjusting to Ryan being away at college. It’s actually been more difficult than I’d imagined, after all, I’d been watching all of you send your children off to school for years and you survived!– but it is indeed different with your own! He made it a bit easier on us last Sunday evening, when he showed up at home with six of his new classmates - 5 girls and 1 guy! Apparently one of the girls invited the others to her house for dinner, and it turned out she lived right here in Milestone! All of them were delightful, even the little cutie with the blue hair! Their visit helped Monty and me immensely – we feel more PREPARED to handle our empty nest knowing he’s doing well and has support around him.

PREPARATION is our topic today, as we look at John the Baptist and his ministry. Some of you may remember back in the early 1970’s when a rock musical called “Godspell” burst on the scene. With its afros, folk/rock, tie-died shirts and bellbottoms, “Godspell” presented some of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings in such a way that people outside the church could appreciate and understand them, learn from them and maybe even take them to heart. And the teenagers and those young-at-heart really liked the beat! The musical opened with verse 4 of our Scripture passage, which is a quote from Isaiah 40 – “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for Him”. The “John the Baptist” character burst on the stage singing these words and was soon joined by a crowd and there was singing and dancing in the streets as John began to proclaim the good news that the Messiah is coming.

John was setting the stage, nursing the ground for his cousin, Jesus. He was the son of a priest, Zechariah, and his wife, Elizabeth, was Jesus’ mother Mary’s cousin. (You’ll recall her story from Luke 1.) John was also a little bit of an oddball. Mark 1:6ff tells us: “John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and honey.” He hung out in the wilderness and never pulled his punches. His message was not a popular one: repent. Repent – which literally means “turn around” - not just feel sorry for your wrongdoing, not just apologize for your wrongdoing, but TURN AROUND - CHANGE so you don’t do it again. And this change should be a HEART change, a LIFE change.

With this profound change, John preached a “baptism of repentance”. Seeking forgiveness for what you’ve done AND determining to begin again to live life as a changed person. And according to John, demonstrating this change through an outer cleaning – a baptism - as well as an inner one was essential to show to everyone the change within you.

The NIV commentary tells us “The rite of baptism is unprecedented. Judaism knew of repeated baptisms for temporary cleansing, but this was a call to prepare for the arrival of salvation, a one-time baptism in honor of the arrival of the new age of salvation through Jesus Christ.” (NIV Luke)

John was speaking to fellow Jews who felt they had an “in” with God simply because they were Jewish – they were God’s chosen people. William Barclay states: “(The Jews) held that God would judge other nations with one standard but the Jews with another. They, in fact, held that a person was safe from judgment simply because he was a Jew. A son of Abraham was exempt from judgment. But John told them that racial privilege meant nothing; that life, not lineage, was God’s standard of judgment.” (p33) And that they needed to be cleansed of their old life, their old way of looking at things so that they could begin their new life with a clean slate.

And this new life “. . . demanded that people share with one another. It was a social gospel which laid it out quite clearly that God will never absolve the person who is content to have too much while others have too little. It ordered a person, not to leave his or her job to serve the Lord, but to serve the Lord THROUGH doing that job. If you’re a tax-collector, then be a good tax-collector and (if you clean houses, then do it to the best of your ability, because you’re serving the Lord.) It was a person’s duty to serve God where God had placed them. . . . It was John the Baptist’s conviction that nowhere can a person serve God better than in his or her day’s work. What you do is more important than what you are.

Everything John did pointed to the coming of Jesus. He was quite sure he himself was only the forerunner. The King was still to come and with him would come judgment. (He used the illustration of the winnowing fork which) . . . was a great flat wooden shovel; with it the grain is tossed into the air; the heavy grain fell to the ground and the chaff (the useless part) was blown away. And just as the chaff was separated from the grain so the King would separate good and bad.”(Barclay, p. 34) The UseFUL from the useLESS.

“The King would separate the good and the bad.” So John painted a picture of judgement, but it was a judgement a person could meet with confidence if he or she had been faithful to their work responsibilities and to their neighbor.

And John pointed to the coming of Jesus – he was quite sure that he himself was only the forerunner, the front man, for Jesus. When asked if he, John, was the Christ, the Messiah, John said, “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house – make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false, He’ll put out with the trash.” (Luke 3:16, 17, The Message)

All John’s work and efforts set the stage for Jesus – pointed to Jesus – as the Messiah sent from God to save His people. And John had the privilege of baptizing Jesus, the Messiah sent from God. Jesus was baptized to show His obedience to and love for His Father, God - His baptism was the start of His formal ministry to the people. And God acknowledged and affirmed Jesus’ Sonship and ministry, as verse 22 says, “You are my Son, whom I love; with You, I an well pleased.” Or, as The Message states: “You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”

This message John the Baptist delivered in his day is a message for us as well – “Prepare the way of the Lord” – “Get Ready for Jesus” How do we do that?

Well, we PREP – we P- R- E- P! First of all, we Pray!

I Thessalonians 5:17 encourages us to “pray continually”, in other words, to make prayer a priority – a necessary part of our lives. It should be an integral part of the ins and outs of our daily lives – if we choose to serve Jesus, it’s vital that we communicate with Him! And we do that through prayer.

While prayer is based on us talking to God, our second letter – R for Read – is about God responding back to us. One way we learn about God and what He wants from us is by reading the Bible, the story of God and His relationship with His children. It’s all there, we just have to make the effort read it, take it to heart and apply it to our lives.

Our third letter, “E”, is for “engage and encourage others”. We’re called to share our faith with others through our words and actions, to engage people in conversation about their life and our life and how God’s working in them. Encourage them if they’re struggling with something. In other words, walk with them through the ups and downs of life, just like Jesus does with us.

And finally, “P - Produce Good Fruit” – work hard to become the person God created each one of us to be. Galatians 5:22 talks about the kind of fruit we should cultivate in our lives: “ . . . the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.” God created each one of us for a very special reason – as we allow Him to develop these fruits, these characteristics in our lives, He gives us specific tasks and responsibilities to fulfill. PAY ATTENTION to Him, listen to Him, and He WILL let you know what He wants you to do and give you what you need to do it.

Jesus’ willingness to be baptized showed His understanding of the importance of PREP – praying in all things, reading and studying the Bible, engaging and encouraging others and producing good fruit –as He prepared Himself through His baptism for His ministry to the world.

Shouldn’t we follow His lead and do as He did? And isn’t His story of love, acceptance and forgiveness worth telling through the way we live out our lives?

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, help us to prepare ourselves well for Your service, so that we can indeed be shining lights of Your love, acceptance and forgiveness. Amen. (HYMN- 525 – Come We That Love the Lord)

 

Benediction: May the abiding presence of God be with you, the redeeming grace of Jesus flow through you, and the sustaining joy of the Holy Spirit be in you. Amen.