JOHN068 - Stop Doing That Dumb Thing, Start Doing This Not Dumb Thing

John 1:29-34

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Music by Jeff Foote

Transcript

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Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast, and today we are going to do our last day of looking at the accounts of John the Baptist baptizing people. There's at least some reference to this in each of the four Gospels. We started by looking at the one in John 1. John is the, you know, it's the actual book we're actually working on this season. But John is an interesting animal as a gospel because it kind of assumes that the reader is aware of a little bit of the story that the Matthew, Mark, and Luke material has been circulating for a while. So John pinch zooms in on certain details that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't so much. And at other times, John just sort of quickly glosses over things that Matthew, Mark, and Luke have already covered really well. So we looked at Matthew, then we looked at Mark, and today we're looking at the account in Luke, which is interesting because it gives us a closer look at one detail that still remains a question for us, at least in the order that we've attacked all of this, and that is what exactly did John want people to do? We have a special gubernatorial election coming up in South Dakota here in a couple weeks or something. We had uh a governor for a long time, and she got roped into playing some roles in the current administration. And, you know, that uh I'm not sure that went the best for her, that that was the most shrewd. It might have been better to just stay in South Dakota. But whatever the case, we've been we've been on the hunt for a new governor here for a while. We've had a guy who's been filling in. I don't know, maybe he's fine. I don't really hear anything about him. He's not in the news or anything. And so now the signs are all going up, and we got, I don't know, eight people or something like that running for the Republican nomination. And like one guy, I think, is running unopposed for the Democrat nomination. This is the kind of state where whoever wins the Republican nomination is gonna be governor. Like, you know, in Massachusetts, generally whoever wins the Democrat primary, then they're gonna be the governor of Massachusetts. So the primary is a pretty big deal. So when I know that's the case, I defy my normal independent stance and I'll go register as a Republican so I can weigh in on this, right? So I want to know like who's gonna be my governor? This effectively is the election. Well, what do these people think? So Camilla and I start going through all of their different positions, right? And it's a lot of platitudes, it's a lot of generalities, and they're mostly good, like you know, believe in America and hard work and integrity and family and you know, stuff that I I think everybody likes. But it's frustrating as we went through all these websites because there just wasn't enough specifics. And eventually we got to one dude who it's like, oh wow, cool. You have a whole section on policy and a whole bunch of details about how you would do it, how you would come at it, how you would pay for it. And you whether I agreed with all of it or not really isn't the point. The point is I just appreciated that it made sense there to, you know, give a few more of the specifics. Well, there's a time to just say, hey, here's the gist of my values and what I'm going for. But sometimes there's also a time to be a little more specific. And we get that in Luke. Matthew, Mark, and John all tell us that John was preaching a baptism of repentance, that he was calling people to repentance, but they don't really say what that looked like. And you got to figure that people who were coming out to the desert and making this long trip were like, all right, I know there's some stuff wrong with me. I know I need to make a change. Other people are doing it too. This is a great time to do it. I mean, maybe you could go so far to say it's like God was stirring their souls and their hearts toward change. That's a pretty cool thing. So people get out here and they talk with this wild man who's dressed all weird, and you got to figure that one of the questions they want to ask is, what do I need to change? Maybe some people asked it defensively, and you know, because they still had their guard up, but there are probably also some people who asked it very sincerely. People who were like, Yeah, but specifically, what's the policy here? What do I need to change? And in Luke, we we actually get a look at some of that, and I think it's really instructive. The word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the desert. This is pretty cool in Luke 3, by the way, because the word of the Lord hasn't really shown up for hundreds of years. I mean, this means there's a real authentic prophet here in John. It says John went into all the country around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Okay, so all four gospel authors are very consistent that this is the baptism that he was preaching, like we talked about yesterday. The baptism of Jesus is a different thing that represents the new covenant and a new age and all of this. But apparently John is all over the place. He's maybe up and down the Jordan. Maybe he did baptize some people at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. Maybe he usually baptized down at Bethany beyond the Jordan. I don't know. Interesting. It goes on. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, and by now you're like, ah, I know exactly what this quote is going to be. Well, here it is. A voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth, and all mankind will see God's salvation. John said to the crowds, coming out to be baptized by him, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Whoa. Well, Luke, Luke doesn't specify. He just he treats it not as though John is being nice to everybody else, but just calling out the religious leaders. Luke is content to be like, he said this, and he just said it kind of toward everybody. John said to the crowds, coming out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming wrath. Just as a side note, like if you go and talk to a YouTube consultant or somebody who tries to get churches or individuals get clicks, they do not recommend this as a technique to get more people to subscribe to your thing. Generally, you want to be nice to people. It's only someone who, I guess, really, really thinks this who would be willing to say something so off-putting. Thanks for coming out to my baptism party. You brood of vipers, produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, this is repeated in Matthew, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Man, I just want to chase that down into a hundred different points where that pays off from the Old Testament and pays off later in the words and works of Jesus. But we covered it in Matthew, we're going to cover it in John. I'm moving forward. Verse 10. What should we do then? The crowd asked. Ah, there it is. Yeah, but what's the policy? What does in this case repentance actually look like? Well, John answered. And the one who has food should do the same. Tax collectors also came to be baptized. Our teacher, they asked, What should we do? Don't collect any more than you're required to, he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, What should we do? He replied, Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely. Be content with your pay. So this is very interesting. The most devotedly Jewish of the crowd members, the ones who John called out in the same way that it's recorded in Matthew chapter three, the ones who were maybe counting on their ethnicity or lineage to be right with God, they want to know what they should do. And John says, share, be kind, be loving, love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, he points them back to the same heart and point and spirit of the law that the religious leaders had been missing. Jesus does exactly the same thing. Then the next group that comes out, I mean, this maybe this included Levi, that is Matthew, or some of Matthew's friends. And they're like, well, what about us? Because we certainly don't look to Abraham as our father. We betrayed our own people to collect taxes as Roman stooges. We work for the occupiers. So yeah, don't worry about us. We're our faith isn't in uh our ethnicity. We kind of burned that bridge. What should we do? Well, don't collect any more money than you're required to. You know who that would have made happy? All the people who were being overtaxed and exploited by their brethren, these tax collectors, who sold out because they had insider knowledge of who had how much money and property, and they worked for the Romans to make sure the Romans could extract the most possible money for them. And then they just gave themselves a 15, 18, 22, or 25% tip. Except these tax collectors didn't flip around the iPad and say, It's can I just ask you a couple of questions? They just push 25% for themselves all the time. So John's like, here's what you do. This is what repentance looks like for you. Then apparently there were, I assume that these are Roman soldiers. This would be the tiny contingent of Gentiles, maybe who were there. And maybe they were just sent out there to supervise the thing. Maybe they're just asking out of curiosity. Maybe who knows? What about us? Like, are we even a part of this thing? Yeah, don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely and be content with your pay. Dang. The point would seem to be no matter who you are, repentance is in order. We don't do a lot of application on this podcast where I'm like, and now I'm gonna be your internet pastor because I don't know you, and that's what church is for, and my life isn't tidy enough all the time for me to feel great about just broadcasting to the whole internet how what everybody else ought to worry about. I I got my own stuff to worry about. But this is a place where I think it it's very applicable for you, me, whoever you are. I mean, are you a soldier, are you a tax collector, you work for the government, are you somebody who was raised around Christian faith, or you a complete outsider to it? Like no matter who you are, this little pinch zoom in that we get here in Luke that we don't get in the other gospels would seem to be a reminder that, yeah, I think we all got stuff that we need to repent of. What does repent mean? Well, you were walking one direction, stop, turn around and go the other direction. Uh okay, so let's take a second. Subject your life to that scrutiny right now. Is there stuff in your life right now where every time you do it, think it, spend money on it, move in that direction? You're like, I gotta fix this one of these days. Not today. I'm gonna take more steps in the wrong direction today, but I I know this needs to get fixed. And it just makes you feel guilty and stupid and out of control of your own life and gross. I'm guessing you have stuff like that. I have stuff like that. Things come to mind. Okay, well, at some point you apply the brakes and you're like, okay, repent, what would repentance look like for me? Okay, well, whatever that thing is that just came to mind, it would mean like saying to God, I'm I'm done with that and I'm gonna move in this other direction. And maybe you even have to build some systems to make that happen. I'm sure these things were not easy for the people on screen here in Luke 3 to do to get right. But, you know, maybe people went out in the desert and they were looking for something very esoteric and academic. Like, what is the really complicated thing that I need to believe in? Could you solve this complicated theological thing? And so they ask the question, you know, what are we supposed to do? And they get something incredibly simple. Stop doing the obvious destructive thing you're doing, repent, and do the good thing in its place. Huh. Quit doing the selfish thing you're doing, do the selfless thing, quit doing the exploitative thing you're doing, and do the thing that shows care to people in need. Huh. Okay. Look, this is not the whole of the message of salvation. Remember, John's baptism and his preaching were baptism and preaching of repentance, but also they're on the money. I'm feeling it. Okay, well, what happens next here? The people were waiting expectantly and they were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. We know from the Gospel of John that he says, No, I am not. John answered them all, I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Bang! We get a little bit more quote from John there as well, where he's like invoking a whole bunch of Old Testament imagery from like Jeremiah and Malachi and stuff about this image of separating the wheat from the chaff. And Jesus pays off a lot of those themes in his teachings later on. So this is fiery stuff from John the Baptist, and then we get a little aside about how John the Baptist later would be arrested, and then it rounds out saying, When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too, and as he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased. Voila! What we have just done should give you and me a better, in-the-hip pocket, up-to-date sense of who John the Baptist was, where he came from, what he said and did, what the baptism scenes looked like, when they happened, how they relate to Jesus, and what stuff maybe you and I might even need to take to heart on a more personal level from what John the Baptist had to say as directed by God all those years ago. So high five. Our John the Baptist side quest, I think, has been very effective. And now we'll move forward with the story in John 1 next time around. For realsies. All right, that's plenty for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.