JUST CALL ME JOHN!
Luke 3:6 "And all people will see God's salvation"
Lately I've come to realize that I'm a bit "strung out". The signs of that, are that I seem unable to cope with things going wrong.... and things DO go wrong. So what has this got to do with this weeks readings?
Malachai 3:2-3 " But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,"
As we travel through this Advent season, preparing for Christmas, we not only remember and celebrate the coming of the Lord as the baby Jesus, but we recall that He will come again. We remind ourselves that we have a faith that is alive and happening, something with a promise for the future and not just a past story which serves as a moral guide.
Most of us don't spend too much time thinking about this future aspect of Christ's coming and just a few actually really look forward to it, which always amuses me, because of the verses of scripture, such as this one from Malachai, which are very clear that there is a refining process. I tend to think a refiners fire will be anything but comfortable!
So here I am, complaining about every little thing that goes wrong. How would I ever stand up to the refiners fire? I can tell you now exactly how..... I'll grumble and complain like crazy, just like now, not realizing that the hand of God is behind it all.
Phillipians 1:3-6 "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
We are all a work in progress. One of the aspects that I love about scripture prophecy is that they have an application for the Messianic period (the time of Jesus on earth year 0-33 AD approx.) aswell as for end times and as well as for the contemporary situation.
We are being refined as we speak (read / write). There are people and situations in our lives that are preparing us for the coming of Jesus. We could call them "John". It was the role of John the Baptist to be the messenger of God to prepare the way for the Lord, but in our lives there is another with the role that John had. We can sometimes be like the Pharisees and not see. Some would say that they refused to see that John was that great prophet, but in reality it was way more complicated than that.
The Pharisees were the religious people who knew the scriptures. They knew them so well and were very comfortable with how they opperated in their own tradition, but when someone was a little different.... well it just didn't seem like it was God talking. These people knew the law of God, the Torah, and they saw themselves as the authority on how to have your sins forgiven and live a godly life. The law required sacrifices for sin to make atonement. I have no doubt they thought the baptism of John was superflous and unnecessary... and undermining their ministry.
I would imagine the ministry of John irritated the pharisees. Do you know of anyone or thing that irritates you? Perhaps there is a message in the irratation that will actually help prepare you for the coming of the Lord???
The Pharisees were the "keepers" of the law. Who was John?
John was the son of a Priest. He was born under miraculous circumstances and he was a prophet. In fact John's very name was prophetic and stands in vast contrast to the role of the Pharisees. When John was named, the people were surprised that he wasn't named after his father, but his father was told what to name him - THEREFORE, his very name was part of the message of God that John would herald. John means "God is gracious".
Luke 3:2-3 "during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
The Pharisees had prescribed sacrifices for sin atonement, but John came preaching that the people needed to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sin. Can you understand why the Pharisees were suspicious of John?
The baptism of John was a call to "change your mind". The Greek word for repent means to "change your mind". This means that those who heard John's message were convinced that they were sinners and needed to be "washed" clean. Although this wasn't something usually done by the Jews for forgiveness of sins, ritual washing was something cultural, and required for certain circumstances and understood as a sign of the covenant with God.
As Christians, our denominational disagreements over the aspects of baptism show that our understanding is limited.
To understand the message that John proclaimed we need to look at the prophecy of his father:
Luke 1:76-79 "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
We know that John was a prophet who prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus. There is something to be said about this also. How many of us perform some ministry simply as preparation for someone else to build on?
John began the message of the forgiveness of sins because of the tender mercy of God. Although John is usually portrayed as a confrontational kind of person, his message was about the grace and love of God.
The grace of God would come like the rising sun shining on those living in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. The valley of the shadow of death is the reality of our condition under the law. These people knew the commandments and knew that they sinned. Having God's law revealed to them, had meant that they were aware of the many ways in which they failed to keep the law. Sadly, like many Christians today, although the love of God had also been revealed to them, the people lived with the knowlege that they were separated from God by sin.
St Paul writes about the Law: Romans 7:10 "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death."
Sadly, as I said, there are many Christians who have not grasped the Good News of God's salvation. They've heard it, but haven't fully understood it.
Most of us live with the understanding that if you are good enough, you make the grade and if you are not - you fail, you lose. We transfer this to our relationship with God. EVEN, when we know that Christ died for our sins, and we accept his salvation, we then go back to trying to earn his favour. This is what it actually means to fall from GRACE!
Galations 5:4 "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.
NOW, here is the GOOD NEWS, and the message of the Gospel this week: "John" - God is gracious. Grace meaning, undeserved favour.
Oh... but there is more fantastic news: The refiner's fire is already at work in our lives. The Holy Spirit is "a" coming of Jesus and almost unconsciously the Holy Spirit is refining us through our everyday circumstances.... even when we grumble about it.
The Holy Spirit is a "John" in our lives. It is a message of God's grace. When the refiner refines, he does it! The object being refined does nothing but does become purified in the refiners hand.
Undeserved favour means we have God's attention as if we were His only child. To begin this process we acknowledged that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and unable to help ourselves - We accepted the salvation of Jesus Christ. To continue the process we continue to acknowledge that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and unable to help ourselves. As soon as we think we can help God out by keeping the law by ourselves we fall from Grace and straight into heresy and walk again in the valley of the shadow of death... maybe into death itself.
In our lives we have the Holy Spirit preparing us, but we are called to also prepare the way for others. Not by telling them to keep God's law, because that would mean we are just a new version of the Pharisees. We prepare the way for Christ's second coming for others by being "John" - declaring that God is gracious and full of tender mercy. Yes this does mean that people need to change their mind about their need for God - they need to realize that we all are sinners, but there is very Good News; God is gracious.
I want to leave you with one more thought. I would like you to imagine that these are the prophetic words said to you:
Luke 1:76-79 "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
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