Dec 10th Sermon “The Witness”

(Mark 1: 1-8)

 

Good morning, St Andrew’s.

Today I entitled the sermon “The Witness” because John the Baptist was just that. John was the witness of the one to come, John was the one who helped prepare the way for our Lord Jesus.

During my preparation for this sermon, I quickly recalled an experience early in faith journey. An experience where I was provided an opportunity to witness and help prepare the way of the Lord into the hearts of others. I would like to begin today by sharing this experience.

My friend Dave and I had both come to know the Lord Jesus in a powerful way around the same time. One evening as new believers, we were out for dinner with another friend. During this dinner, an opportunity arose to share with our friend about how had both gone from casual churchgoers to becoming passionate disciples of Jesus Christ.

As we were sharing at our table, a man sitting at a nearby gambling machine overheard our conversation. He jumped at the opportunity to counteract what we were saying, and to ridicule our faith. In that moment we could have easily looked to remove ourselves or to end the conversation, but instead we both had this deep sense that we should look to gently converse with this man. While we were sharing with this man about the hope we had in Christ, we were pleasantly surprised that others in the restaurant were drawn towards us. After a few moments, the waitress asked the man to remove himself from our table so that she instead could sit down in his place. She then began to inquire about Jesus and asked us the reason for our faith. As we continued this conversation, another couple pulled up a couple of chairs and joined our table. Then another couple joined us and to our greatest surprise we were also joined by a woman, who just happened to be the wife of the initial disgruntled man.

What followed was an incredible work of God. Even though we had little head knowledge at this time, the Holy Spirit gave us the words to speak. I have no idea how we answered those tough questions, but I suppose we had the heart knowledge. It was not long into this group conversation that the server was asking us for the name of a good bible believing church, so that she could take her two young boys to church for the first time. Both couples asked us to pray for their marriages and the other lady (the wife of the disgruntled man), asked us for our guidance in helping her commit her life to the Lord. As my friend Dave and I reminisced about this time recently, it was amazing to recall how the Holy Spirit was so present and how we were able to play a part in preparing others. Today, we are both grateful to have had this experience so early on in our faith.

Over the last two thousand years of the church, there are so many witnesses that I would have loved to be present to hear:

  • It would have been incredible to be present with Peter on the day of Pentecost.
  • Or to witness the Apostle Paul witnessing in front of the Governor, as his life hanged in the balance.
  • It would have been amazing to be present when John Knox stood tall against Queen Mary.
  • I would have loved to have been in Hampton Court the day Hugh Latimer preached to Henry VIII. And again, the next week when King Henry asked him to apologize, and he then gave King Henry the same sermon he had preached the week before, only with more passionate energy.

But if we really stop to think about it, there is one who stands out above all the other witnesses in history and that we should want to hear: and that is John the Baptist.

I say this for two reasons. First, Jesus said that “among those born of women none is greater than John” and secondly, John was the primary witness to our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Mark’s gospel, John the Baptist jumps full blown on the front page of the story of Christ with a prophetic introduction taken from our OT reading in Isaiah chapter 40 “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight the desert a highway for our God”.

John the Baptist’s story dominates the first eight verses of the Gospel. He is also mentioned extensively in each of the other three gospels. So, why was John such an effective witness?

Today I want to look at this question because the answer will provide remarkable help to our own desire to witness, and to help prepare the way of the Lord into the hearts of others.

In doing so we will look at: The Character of the Messenger, The Nature of his Message and the Delivery of His Message.

The Character of the Messenger

Verse 6 gives us a visual introduction to his character: “Now John was clothed in camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.” John was certainly not making a fashion statement as his camel’s-hair robe was the kind worn by the poor.

You will hear many say that John was a bit of an eccentric, but I would argue that John was in perfect control of his lifestyle. He knew exactly what he was doing, for he assumed the dress and style of the ancient prophet Elijah (described in 2 Kings 1:8), who in his own ministry called the people to national repentance. John’s dress and lifestyle was to protest the godlessness and self-serving materialism of his day. It amounted to a call to separate oneself from the sinful culture, to repent, and to live a life focused on God.

Even his context, the desert wilderness, was meant to emphasise this, for it was originally to the wilderness that Israel came out of Egypt. The people coming out to John in the wilderness was a subtle acknowledgement of Israel’s history of disobedience and rebellion and a desire to begin again.

The beautiful part was that John’s life and actions bore out what he was. He lived a life of continual repentance and uncompromising devotion to God. He was fearless in his proclamation of the message, just as his ancient prophetic clothing portrayed. John was as fearless as he looked! His character was also, in keeping with his attire, self-forgetting and humble.

John the Baptist saw himself as a joyous friend of the bridegroom and concluded with these immortal words ‘He must increase, so that I can decrease” (John 3:30).

The point here about his character is this: the reason John was such an effective witness is that he embodied his message. In this sense, he was the message! The fact that his words saturated his being and dominated his life – the fact that they were true to his inner most being – gave him immense power.

The same is true for us. Nothing will make our words penetrate more deeply with others than that which is true in us and comes from the heart in total sincerity. If we want to display this character and be more effective in witness, we must humbly ask God to make our lives demonstrations of the truth of our message.

The Nature of the Message

What a gift John gave to his hearers by preaching on sin and judgement! This is truly a neglected gift in our day of health-and-wealth, and prosperity gospel. When men and women are awakened to the facts of judgement and their own sin, they (we) become eager listeners to the good news of the Savior who brings forgiveness. The Lord desires us all to come to repentance as we read in our New Testament reading today, and this does not happen unless we understand our need to repent.

The divine and proper preparation for the gospel of Jesus Christ is preaching about sin. Those who mourn over this sin see their need for grace and for a Savior and are thus in the place to receive and be blessed.

Now, the baptism for the repentance for sin was the first part of John’s message, but the second part spoke of a superior, ultimate baptism. John told them that he drenched them with water that was only external, but One would come who would drench them in the Holy Spirit, which was intrinsically internal. What a beautiful metaphor for the work of the Holy Spirit!

When we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, God permeates every part of us. The gospel meets men and women in their radical need and provides a radical answer. If you do not know Christ, you are still in your sins. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the answer. When He drenches your life with this, you are changed!

John’s message was perfectly balanced: law and gospel. God’s law condemned the people in their sin and called for repentance. However, repentance alone would not save them. There must also be the gospel (God’s grace), and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Why was John’s witness so effective? First, because his character modeled his message. Therefore, what he said had the ring of truth and opened the door for the fullness of the message. Second, his message was complete. It had both law and grace, and God’s grace was and is infinite (and unmatched).

Have you ever tried to share the hope you have in Jesus with someone, without sharing why they need Jesus? If we do not share with others in a way that explains Jesus as THE answer, then he only becomes A answer. John’s witness was effective because it was clear that Jesus was THE answer to all the problems that humanity can not fix or overcome themselves.

The Delivery of His Message

The third component that made John an effective witness was how John delivered the message. John’s witness was made effective by his passion. When he stood before the people in the wasteland, he preached with fire (passion). We can also be sure that, like the prophets of old, he wept. He wept like Jesus for others.

Everything together – his character, his message, and his passion – reached the multitudes.

Verse 5 in the gospel reading says, “And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” Some scholars say as many as 300,000 came out to John the Baptist for baptism!

John’s life, John’s message, and John’s passion made him the greatest witness of history. He had prepared the way for the Lord! God was so clearly pleased with John’s ministry, so he confirmed it, crowning his witness with the greatest of all honors – baptizing the Lord Jesus.

Each of us is to passionately witness to the world. When Jesus is truly the most important part of our lives, how can we not be passionate about sharing Him with others who need him as much as we do. Weep for others, intercede for others, ask God for opportunities to share daily.

When others see how important Jesus is to you, it will open their ears to hear and more importantly, it will help prepare their hearts.

To Conclude - I would have loved to have been with John Knox and Hugh Latimer and the Apostles Peter and Paul, as they witnessed to the truth and grace of our Lord Jesus. But how much more I would have loved to have heard the greatest witness who ever lived!

We are all called to emulate John’s witness:

  • We are to have the character of our lives match the message we preach. To believe it so authentically, and with such sincerity, that others will sense the ring of truth.
  • We are to preach the whole message, both law and grace. We are to preach the radicalness of the gospel (its true nature), that men and women might be drenched in the Holy Spirit through Christ.
  • We are to passionately proclaim it and to exalt Jesus. Remembering each day that “He must increase, and we must decrease”.

When my friend Dave and I looked back at our time at the restaurant, we could recognize the following:

  • By God’s power we were able to walk the talk that day. Our character remained loving and gentle despite the ridicule we faced. We could have avoided the encounter, but instead we responded with love and grace while holding on firmly to the truth we believed. This witness moved others to want to hear more, because we were able to be demonstrations of the message we proclaimed.
  • Through God’s love for us we were motivated to boldly proclaim the whole message of the gospel. We shared about our need for Christ and how our lives had changed after receiving the Holy Spirit. We could have shied away and only talked about the blessings of God, but we also shared about our need for God. This drew others to seek God in prayer and to repent, because they were able to understand that Jesus was THE answer to their deepest struggles. God’s love for us is so deep, how can we not want to help others encounter this life changing love.
  • By God’s sustaining grace, we were able to passionately share about our faith and were able to witness to the saving power in our lives. We were seen as authentic believers who displayed something that others desired. This prompted others to want to respond.

Dave and I were obedient witnesses that day, and therefore God made us effective witnesses. We did not do it our way, God did it his way. God worked in and through us, and incredible things happened that evening.

As we journey through Advent………

A deliberate tension must be built into our practice of the Advent season. Christ has come, and yet not all things have reached completion. While we remember Israel’s waiting and hoping and we give thanks for Christ’s birth, we also anticipate his second coming at the end of time.

During Advent (and in all seasons), may we be witnesses in how Christ’s first coming has changed us, and may we live in ways that display we are indeed anticipating his coming return. May our witness be displayed by our character, by the sharing of the whole message and by being passionate about our first Love.

May we all ask for God’s power, love and sustaining grace to follow John’s example in these ways. AMEN.