John the Baptizer - Winner

Preached 29 July 2013 @ Christ Church in the Summer series on Winners - a '10 minute' sermon

Reading Luke 3:7-20

Introduction

We have already heard a little about John's life. I hope you have some idea of what he did, you may even have some idea of what he was like.

I'm going to look over what we've heard so far to try to see why John was a winner – at first glance you may not think he was.

Jesus certainly had a high opinion of John, because he said to the crowd (Luke 7:28) “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

What was it about John, that so impressed Jesus?

John's appearance

Perhaps it was John's appearance. He wore a fetching camel hair coat.

  You can pick one up on e-bay for USD 35, if you hurry. (I've no idea what the shipping charges would be.) We don't usually picture John as smartly dressed though. 

The point is that he was trying to identify with the people he was preaching to – the poor and underprivileged of Galilee.

John's diet

John's diet doesn't sound too impressive either. He ate locusts [06] and wild honey [07]. We must assume that those were not the ONLY things he ate or he wouldn't have lived very long. He had chosen to live in the desert, where food is scarce, and as he was poor he had to eat what was available. Bear Grills will tell you that locusts are a good source of protein, and honey is a good source of sugar, but you have to get past the bees first.

John's mission

It was John's mission that really impressed Jesus. When he was asked who he was he said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:23) John knew what God had called him to do, so he chose to live in the desert and call people to repentance and baptism.

John knew of his mission even before he was born. (Luke 1:41) [08] and in life he was not going to give up on it. He had come to prepare the way for Jesus. That started in the desert where he invited people to come for baptism to mark their intention to change their ways.

Nothing, but nothing was going to deflect John from his task. He is even prepared to insult those who have come out to see him. “You brood of Vipers”, [09] sounds pretty horrible to us, but to his followers it meant that they were sinners who opposed God. It said they are on the side of the serpent, the devil, the original cause of sin. Not a very nice thing to have to say.

He also gives them an escape clause “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” They had found their way to John, and the chance to repent and be baptised. To change their mind – that's what the word repent here means – and begin to behave the way God intended. He then provides them with some very practical advise on how to behave.

“The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Tax collectors also came to be baptised. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely —be content with your pay.”

Well, insulting you audience is fairly minor, but John was so concerned about the way people lived their lives he told Herod that his marriage to Herodias was immoral [10]– he was not allowed to marry his niece, especially as she had been his brothers wife.

That got John imprisoned, and upset Herodias to such an extent that she engineered his execution.

So we can see that John was very clear, to the point of bluntness about how God wanted people to live their lives, and would stop at nothing to be sure they knew it.

John's Primary Mission

[11] That was not his primary purpose though. As we have already heard his main purpose was to introduce people to Jesus.

[DVD – Chris Froome]

It is a very difficult thing to do to give up winning a race to allow someone else to win instead.

Cycling is a strange sport. Its a team sport with an individual winner.

Probably any one of the sky cycling team could have been the winner of the Tour de France, but the team had settled on Bradley Wiggins. In the clip we saw Chris Froome sticking to the plan – and as a result not have a chance of winning.

For John to make straight paths for the Lord, his own disciples would have to leave him and follow Jesus. [12] When John and his disciples met Jesus, John said “(John 1:36) Look, the Lamb of God!”, as a result two of his disciples began to follow Jesus instead of John. When questioned about what was happening he said (John 3:30) “He must become greater; I must become less.”

What can we learn from John?

Most of us will not know our mission, our ministry, or anything else from birth. We have to find our way to God, just like those two disciples. It's a great help to us if people will point us directly to Jesus. So, if that helps us, that is how we can help others.

In pointing others to Jesus we are doing exactly what the Lord wants us to do. How we do it will be different for each of us, and for each person we meet.

We will also need the other major qualities that Jesus admired in John:

• his straight talking, straight forward approach
• his ability to stick with the task through thick and thin and not to worry about the consequences.
• his acknowledgement that Christ must increase and he must decrease.

John the baptist is a winner in God's eyes, and we can learn a lost from his approach to his mission.

Rejoice and be glad, for you are being persecuted - Matthew 5v10

Sermon from 13 May 2012 17:45 @ Christ Church (Come Together)

Matthew 5v10

Introduction

What Jesus? What did you say? Did I hear you right? “Blessed are those who are persecuted ...” … really. How does that work then?

I don't suppose that interactive preaching was that common in Jesus' time, so I doubt if they asked questions – but I'm sure they thought them. It was probably the looks, perhaps even the murmurs that resulted in the next two verses. Just to underline, expand and enforce the point.

It is not popular teaching, and we still react to it in the same way. Right! Who'd like to receive a blessing? [mime a punch]

None of you – thought so!

So what is Jesus getting at, and how can persecution be a blessing?

Causes of Persecution

Before I try to answer that it would be a good idea to understand what counts as persecution, where it comes from and to understand something of its causes.

If we look back over the beatitudes we will see a progression – a series of changes that have taken place in our lives as we have moved away from the world and closer to God.

• First we recognize our poor spirit, that may lead us to conversion, or a greater commitment.
• Then we mourn our past failures and wasted life, this leads us to meekness – an openness to lean from the Holy Spirit and accept the ways of God.
• We will then begin to have a greater desire for righteousness. A desire for righteousness will change how we respond to events and people.

This is usually the point at which we 'get noticed'. Now we can no longer turn a blind eye to the immoral practices in our society. We try to do the right thing, and that will include not covering up for others. We have become a threat because we are no longer willing to compromise our standards.

I was once asked at work whether I wanted to be right or to win. My answer was 'Both' – why would it be anything else? But that is the wrong answer. The winning answer is 'win'. They were really asking “do you do what's best for everyone, so they can have an easy life and get on with their job, or do you insist on doing everything the right way?”. Yes, I can see what they mean, but I still want both.

Let's take a hypothetical example. My team has certain targets, which are worded slightly vaguely. If we meet them we are guaranteed a bonus at the end of the year. We are close, but not quite there. The team leader looks at the wording and spends a little effort re-interpreting the meaning – so that it now looks as though we have made the target. If I then make it clear to more senior management that we haven't made it, none of us are winners, and I especially am a loser (in the eyes of the team). I may be persecuted as a result, but the loss of the bonus cannot be considered part of the persecution – we shouldn't have been eligible for it in the first place.

Look at it another way. There is a war on. The forces of God and Satan are fighting over humanity. The war is almost won – Jesus has beaten Satan and now its only a matter of time until the mopping up operations are completed and time comes to an end. There is of course still much to do and recruits are still needed. When I gave my life to Jesus, I switched sides:
– from the loosing side to the winning side
– from the wrong side to the right side.
See I CAN have both!

Seriously though, the changes in your life mean you are easily seen as a traitor – and we all know how traitors are treated.

Persecuted, but not blessed

That gives a flavour of the causes, but before we can claim we are being persecuted, we must be sure that it is for Righteousness.

Righteousness simply means doing the right things (God's things) in the right way (God's way).

Things like sickness, redundancy, or being the random victim of crime are just the result of living in a fallen world and are not persecution at all.

If you're being obnoxious, arrogant, jumping on people and forcing them to listen to your testimony and are persecuted as a result, you are simply getting what you deserve, that will not get a blessing.

Some people may deliberately put themselves into a position where they know they will get persecuted. This is usually because they have failed to take Jesus advice about not throwing pearls to pigs. If you do Jesus says “they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6).

Levels of Persecution

But there Will be persecution.

Lk 21:12 “But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.”

Persecution can be trivial or serious.

Perhaps you have noticed that some of your colleagues are a little less friendly once they've found out that you're a Christian, perhaps you're excluded from the inner group.

There is one person at work, who is sympathetic privately, but cannot resist the occasional jibe at my faith I public. It's not serious – water off a duck's back to me – but it is an example of what we may all be facing.

Christian organisations can also find that more is asked of them when they are trying to get funding, or update their building.

I was struck by Riding lights – Monsieur de Corbatans amazing Opymlic feat – which told the history of the birth of the modern Olympics was refused funding as part of the cultural Olympics. Some of the things they read out that did receive funding did not seem remotely connected to the Olympics as far as I could tell.

Sometimes persecution can be more serious. Earlier this month we heard reports of a Canadian student sent home from school for wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “life is wasted without Jesus”. He was suspended for 5 days. William Swinimer said “Some people say you're not supposed to have religion in school. Well, every other religion is in that school and they constantly put Christianity down.” He has since been allowed back to school and to wear the T-shirt. It's been a big deal in Canada, but is just an example of the trivial level of persecution Christians face for standing up for their faith.

Heb 12:4 reminds us that “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Many of our forebearers have, and have ended up as martyrs. In many places in the world today Christians are regularly arrested and put to death for their faith. In the latest edition of the Barnabus Persecution Update we read that “Kuwait’s Islamist-dominated parliament has passed a bill that would make insulting key Islamic figures and the Quran punishable by death.”

and

Christians in Northern Nigeria are refusing to let the threat of attack keep them away from Sunday services as security is stepped up after a spate of deadly bombings.

Going to church on a Sunday has become a highly dangerous activity for Nigerian Christians, who are being targeted by suspected Boko Haram militants. The Islamist group in March declared “war” on Christians, and since then a number of church attacks have left dozens dead.

History teaches us that persecutions are usually local and come in phases. Our church history records three great persecutions in the Roman Empire. Persecution was not at high levels all the time, and we have no information on what was happening to Christians in India and other places out side the Empire.

Blessings

We are on the right path – we are growing as Christians

Jesus clearly expected his disciples to suffer persecution, when he said in

Jn 15:20 “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

So if we are the victims of persecution it proves that we are doing something right – the things that Jesus expects of us.

If we don't give up at the first sign of opposition it means that we are growing in the Christian life and are well rooted in the good soil.

Rejoice & be glad

Rejoice & be glad, we are in good company – the prophets of the Old Testament were almost all persecuted.

It's for our good

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We cannot see all of reality, only a small part. So we have to trust God when he says that ALL things work together for our good.

Reward (we can't see the full story)

The reward, may have noticed is the same as the Poor in Spirit. Belonging in the Kingdom of Heaven means having a close relationship with Christ. How better to have a close relationship than having shared the same experiences.

Prize is worth it (store up in heaven …)

So the prize we are hoping to attain is worth the pain we experience now -

Mt 6:20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Its a great witness – also Paul

I read Luke 21:12 earlier. There Jesus promises there WILL be persecution. Verse 13 says “This will result in your being witnesses to them.” So our persecution does the work we are here to do.

How should we respond?

When Paul was in prison in Rome he wrote this to the Philipians:

Phil 1:12-30