John the Forerunner!

Discipleship Questions for Sunday

December 9, 2007

Scripture Readings:

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm: 72

Second Reading: Romans 15:4-13

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

Isaiah 11:1-10
¹There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. ²The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. ³His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; ⁴But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. ⁵Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist. ⁶" The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. ⁷The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. ⁹They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. ¹⁰" And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious." -- NKJV

Psa. 72

Romans 15:4-13
⁴For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. ⁵Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, ⁶that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁷Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. ⁸Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, ⁹and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: " For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, And sing to Your name." ¹⁰And again he says: " Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!" ¹¹And again: " Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!" ¹²And again, Isaiah says: " There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope." ¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. -- NKJV

Matthew 3:1-12 
¹In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ²and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" ³For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: " The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ' Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.'" ⁴Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him ⁶and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, ⁹and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ¹⁰And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹²His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." -- NKJV

Discipleship Questions:

1. John the Baptist otherwise known as John the Forerunner. The best way to approach this contemplation is for me to read the Gospel reading talking to us about John and then share some of my observations. Now as we do this I want to ask you to compare and contrast your life as it is today with John’s life.

Not to intimidate us but perhaps to encourage us to greater effort to be like John – preparing the way for the coming of Jesus Christ!

Let’s begin by some historical background info on John . . . The main theme of his preaching was the near approach of the messianic age and the need for adequate spiritual preparation to be ready for it. His mission was to prepare the people for the advent of the Messiah. The baptism by water that he administered signified a break with and cleansing from sin. His baptism prepared for a new condition; the Jews baptized only Gentiles, but he called on Jews themselves to be baptized; and his baptism was a baptism of water only in preparation for the messianic baptism of the Spirit anticipated by the prophets. He was a revolutionary! Many scholars believe that he was part of the Essene sect who were seeking a return to “true” Judaism, not simply in political opposition to the ruling authorities. When Jesus had himself baptized by John (Mark 1:9–11), the act itself was a confession by Jesus that he had accepted John’s message as orthodox in the Jewish sense. How does your life compare with his? Please discuss.

2. Please read the Gospel reading: Try to imagine the scene as best you can. Matt. 3:1 ¶ In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the Desert of Judea – He came from the desert! Matt. 3:2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Matt. 3:3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” This sounds like a rather strange fellow at first glance! He seems to have only 2 messages – Repent, Prepare! Reading on: Matt. 3:4 ¶ John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. Have you ever ridden a camel – the hair is very very coarse! Let’s put it this way is the quintessential opposite of “cashmere.” Reading on: Matt. 3:5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. The emphasis here is that very very large numbers of people went out into the desert to see and hear him!! And what did they do when they heard his message of Repent and Prepare the way for the coming of the Lord? Reading on: Matt. 3:6 They came and ended up . . . Confessing their sins, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. All of this was designed to get them ready for the coming of the Lord! Incidentally what have you and I done in our lives to clean them up for the Lord? Let’s keep reading . . . Matt. 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Matt. 3:8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Now this is a most interesting exhortation – this is grist for a sermon in and of itself – John is exhorting the hypocritical religious leaders to be what they say they are – to be truly sorry for their sins and to live changed lives consistent with their sorrow. If there is one phrase that has the capacity to cause most of us to cringe it’s this one when truly understood and taken to heart! How many of us express deep sorrow for our confounding sins and then keep on committing them! If John is right our fruitlessness – our spiritual impotency - is consistent with our lack of true repentance. In other words, if you keep on doing something you know is bad you need to work on coming to true repentance. This is a penitent season – what one thing in your life do you and I need to really ask God to bring us to deep and true and final repentance Let’s keep reading - Matt. 3:9 And don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

Matt. 3:10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Ah! Don’t make excuses! Stop with the excuses! Know them for what they are – damnable excuses! This is “THE” season for stopping with the excuses! OK – let’s finish our reading and then make some observations about this wonderful man. Matt. 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Ah! Clearly John knew who Jesus was.

3. Ok now let’s reflect on what we’re just learned about John and see if we can come up with a good image of him. My first thought is that we may not want someone like him as our pastor. He doesn’t sound too pastoral to me! Probably not very politically correct! Look at him – he’s dressed in camel hair and he probably doesn’t spend a whole lot of time in front of a mirror. My guess is that he didn’t look very healthy – living on wild honey and locusts – not what you’d call a very balanced diet! He called a spade a spade and owed no one anything! He was a zealot – He knew what he was to do and he was doing it! His message was very simple – repent and prepare – for He’s a comin’! Now think about it – He was so compelling that a large portion of Jerusalem came out to see and hear him! He could command a very very large audience and then cause them to walk into water and be baptized by him.’ What sort of voice must he have had? He wasn’t a wimp – baptizing thousands and thousands of people in a day – day after day after day! So what is God calling out of us this morning? Repent and Prepare! And stop making excuses! Lose the weight! Stop smoking! Stop the angry outbursts! Get out of dept! Do the study to get the grade! Repent and Prepare! May I encourage each and every one of us to identify one thing we need to be rid of and invite the Lord right now to sweep over us with a spirit of deep and profound sorrow – mortification. A sorry we’re not going to run from and a mortification that we’re not going to ignore. Ask the Lord to hold us in this state of utter mortification until we are ready to bear fruit in keeping with this profound sorrow and repentance. Then we can say truly we are ready for His coming! Let’s pray!