Remember we are told in Luke 3:23 that Jesus begin His ministry
when He was about thirty years of age. This means that John the Baptist, who
was born six months before the birth of Jesus, would have also been about thirty
years old. Matthew’s Gospel tells us in Matthew 3; “In those days John the
Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea!” And what a preacher he
was! He didn’t come explaining, he came preaching! He didn’t come tickling people’s
ears trying to make them feel better about themselves.
When you think about the background of John the Baptist, you
will remember that he was the son of a priest, which means he would have grown
up around Jerusalem and the temple. He saw and observed all the ceremonies, rituals
and sacrifices being performed by the priest and the religious establishment. And
what he saw was a dead religion full of corruption as the priests took advantage
of the people buying sacrificial animals and other worship items when they
arrived at the temple, by getting kickbacks from the sellers they allow to sell
their ware there. He saw the hypocrisy of the priest and the religious leaders,
and he was turned off to it. And as soon as he was old enough, he fled to the
wilderness.
We are told that John most likely joined the Essenes who were
down by the Dead Sea living in a small, very exclusive commune of hermit like
men dedicated to making copies of the Old Testament Scriptures. You can imagine
how John would have poured over the prophesies of Isaiah as the Spirit of God
began to reveal to him that he was that voice that was “to cry in the wilderness
and prepare the way of the Lord”. No doubt, as a boy he had been told by
his father Zacharias and his mother Elizabeth about the miraculous birth of his
cousin Jesus six months after he was born. And now he puts it all together and
hears the call of God to go down by the Jordan River and preach!
Please get this picture as John begins to preach and the
word begins to spread across the land and up to Jerusalem about this prophet
wearing animal skins, eating locus and wild honey, preaching and baptizing lots
of people. He was a sight to see and had a message that was changing lives.
Even when people came out of curiosity, they came under conviction of their
sins and entered the river to be baptized! And as more and more people came “the
multitudes” began to show up, and with them came the religious leaders of
Jerusalem trying to figure him out.
When the religious leaders show up, John first addresses
them in his message and calls them “a brood of vipers”. Now for sure
this group did not come to hear about their sins and their hypocrisy. They didn’t
think they had anything to repent of. They thought their religion was enough to
save them. Even Jesus would later say, “I didn’t come to call the righteous,
but the sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17).
John was not afraid to call these religious leaders out
first and expose them for their hypocrisy! I am convinced even today that the
problem is not in the pew of our churches but in the pulpit. A pulpit full of preachers
who are tickling people’s ears, scratching people’s backs, trying to explain
the Bible so the people can feel like because they know the Bible they will
also be in good standing with God.
But my friend, you can know the Bible from cover to cover
and yet not be right with God. You can say that you have faith in all the right
things found in the Bible, but James makes it clear in James 2:17-20; “Thus
also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. ....
This is John’s message! True faith will “bear fruits
worthy of repentance”. John tells these religious people that just because they
are Jews and have been born into the right family will not matter in the day of
judgment. One day, “they will be cut down like a tree and be cast into the
fire”.
Today are you sure you are saved? Are the fruits of righteousness
evident in your life?
God bless!
