Video Transcript: Lesson 14 John the Baptist

Hello, welcome back. We're diving once more into this great topic of church and  ministry, revitalization. Let's hop right into it. As I mentioned at the end of the last lecture, in this one, we're going to be talking about John the Baptist. And he is a  man whose life really embodied his message was inseparable who he was and  

from his message. And so we're going to spend some time thinking about John  and what he has to say about repentance because that was his message. He  just preached repentance. He lived repentance, he called others to repentance.  And so, to give us a little background on it, I'm going to be reading Luke 3:3-8.  And this is just a quick summary of John's ministry. John the Baptist went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance, for the  forgiveness of sins, as is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet,  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 road 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? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to  yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, For I tell you that out of these  stones, God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of  the trees in every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and  thrown into the fire. Not the most positive, uplifting man you'll ever run into John  the Baptist, that's for sure. But boy, is he honest. And he is, as Eugene Peter  says, Eugene Peterson translates in the message, thunder in the desert, that is  John He is thunder in a desert and let's pray. Father in heaven, we pray for this  time we have together and Lord we pray that just as John's words spoke  thunder in the lives of those 2000 years ago, words of his words, with thunder in  our own hearts, in our souls in the walls of our churches and ministries, Lord,  Lord, we pray that John's words would come alive and challenge us. Not to bring us down Lord, but to drive us so much closer to you. We pray for your blessing  on this lecture, amen. Okay, so let's talk about John. And then, again, he's going to kind of fill us in a little bit more about repentance. And we'll we'll we'll talk  about John and then we're going to make the transition to okay, then what does  any of this have to do with church revitalization? Okay, so John, he came to  prepare people for Christ's ministry, that he was the forerunner, he was the voice of the one calling in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord make straight paths  for him. So John is, his ministry starts just right before Jesus's and really was to  prepare, that was kind of the big word John was there to prepare the way. Now,  what did he have? Why did he have to prepare? Why couldn't Jesus just come  on the scene and do his ministry? Because the people were not ready for that.  They were not thinking about the coming Messiah they were, they were living  just lives kind of heads down going through day to day, they were in their sin.  And John comes ahead of time to kind of get people are ready to get them 

ready to stir up something within them to help them see like that they had sin  that there was they needed a solution for their sin, they needed to be forgiven.  So John was really just there kind of stirring the pot and getting people kind of  like, spiritually aware of their need and all these kinds of things and kind of like  their spiritual antennas. Were going up and that's what John was doing because Before John showed up, the people were not ready to hear, you know, for Christ  to come, they were not ready to hear. And so John comes in he's, he's preparing them to do that. And so there's a wonderful, really kind of illustration in here. You know, back in old times, there would be someone who would, who would, you  know, or a whole team of people who would go out in front of a king, before  while the king was traveling, and if there were really crooked roads, they would  straighten it out, or, you know, they would, you know, if there was a dip, they  would fill it in, so it's nice and smooth. So the king would just kind of roll in this  carriage or whatever on his horse nice and smooth. And, and that's really kind of what John is doing. He's beginning preparing the way so that when Jesus  comes up, people will have the eyes to see the ears to hear the the heart to  receive his teaching His parables his ministry, okay. So in order to prepare them, in order to get their hearts ready, in order to get their, you know, their eyes and  their ears, ready to see Christ in order to kind of get the, you know, fill in the dips and make the road straight, so that Christ's ministry would be as effective as  possible. John has to do something, and that was to call people to repentance.  That's how they were going to realize their need for the Lord. That's why they  were going to realize their need for the Messiah, all that kind of stuff. So John  has to bring them to a place where they would need to, or be in a place where  they could admit their sin, and have a kind of a desire to turn back to God, and  to be in a position where they could humbly accept the gift of salvation that was  coming in Jesus Christ. So through his preaching, John would bring people's sin to the forefront that really was his task. So you couldn't hide it. You couldn't deny it? You You couldn't rationalize it, like John was just like, a hard hitter. I mean,  can you imagine like, the people come out to be baptized? And he called them a brood of vipers. He's like, you, you're a bunch of snakes. Like, what are you  doing here? I mean, he is just, he calls it. And then later in Luke 3, he goes after  people and they say, Well, what should we do How to repent? And he, you  know, he tells the tax collectors, what they need to do with the crowd, what they  need to do with the Roman soldiers. Uh, you know, what they need to do, and  he's calling them out on on greed and extortion. And, you know, coercing people to do things they shouldn't I mean, he's just he just like, he calls the sin out, right for what it is. Okay. And I think it's probably worth noting, where John does this  call to repentance. He's out in the desert, or the wilderness, as it's called, in the  Old Testament. It's a place of desolation, just think of how Stark and how barren  it is, in a desert manner, if you've ever had a chance to be in a desert, or in the  Middle East, and it's just vast expanses of just nothing. That's where John is, is 

doing this ministry. And it's such a perfect it's such a perfect setting for him to  call people to repentance, because like, you couldn't hide there, there wasn't like anything, and it was so stark and barren. It just kind of like, was a perfect place  to like kind of just be like, exposed and, and revealed and was also interesting.  In the Old Testament, God often meets people in in the wilderness. That was a  place of coming together with God. And so here we are in the desert with John  who's preaching repentance and people are being just exposed, internally,  They're in a barren place but yet, there is God, God is ready to meet them there  in that place. And so John's message is really this, that we have nothing to bring to God. You know, there's no righteousness on our own. There are no  accomplishments that we have upon which we can stand. There's no righteous  acts that are going to impress God. Instead, if we're going to draw near to God,  it's not going to be by telling him all the great things that we did or resting on our  accomplishments. It's going to be by repenting, that turning from our sin, back  towards God, that our righteousness is only going to come by returning back to  the Lord. Now, hopefully you can see that, again, there's some really good  parallels here that we can pull out for church revitalization. If we're going to see  something happen in terms of the kingdom of God showing up, we have to  elevate sin to the forefront, like, kind of what what are we been doing, that's  causing the problems? What's in our hearts, that's causing the problems? Again, if the last lecture we talked about Aiken and how he hid all the stuff in his tent,  like the, they had to like, dig that up and get rid of it. Right, in order to move  forward. That's the same thing John is doing. And now he's trying to get people  to be, you know, move back towards God. He's not just trying to like make  people feel miserable. You know, that's part of the process. But that's not the  end goal. That's just a means to an end. So he's calling out people for their sins. So when we talk about revitalization, or when we're trying to do revitalization,  we're going to have to get to that point at some at some time. I mean, aren't we  like, where we now I don't, I do not recommend you call your congregation a  brood of vipers or a bunch of snakes. I don't think that's going to work as well as you'd like want it to. But the idea is, we have to be honest, and surface these  things we can't play games we have to be, we have to be honest about it. And  just think of the people who would show up to the Jordan River where John is  baptizing. And he's just so direct about their sin, and somebody was kind of like  hemming and hawing. And, and they wanted to get baptized, but they weren't  willing to repent. Like, I mean, John would have, like, grabbed them. And you  know, chucked him, you know, 50 feet in the air. You know, he had no business  to do with anybody like that. It was, he was baptizing people who were really  serious about this. And so we need to kind of have that same approach that we  can't just kind of sweep things under the carpet, we can't deny areas where  we've been disobedient, we have to name it, we have to name our sin, we have  to call it out for what it is and be specific. Just like John goes to the tax collectors

and the soldiers and the crowds. And he goes, this is what you're doing. This is  what you need to stop doing. This is what you need to start doing. So we need  to be really specific, not just God, I'm sorry for the way I've sinned, but like, Lord, we repent, that we have not shared the gospel, the saving news that we have  kept your death and your resurrection a secret, we have minimized, Lord, the  impact of that, or you don't mean just things like that, like we can't, Lord, we've  been unfaithful in our prayer, in our service to the community, in the way we  relate to each other Lord, there's been so much conflict and God like, we have  to name it. You know, we have to say it directly. Now, it's not just about kind of  the naming it. Okay, that's an important part. That's like the confession piece, we have to do something with it. And here's the crux of it, is that we need to see  some kind of change. Because it's one thing to say, Lord, we confess that our  sin is the way that we relate to each other. And we have a lot of conflict. We  have very superficial relationships. We don't care about the community around  us if we're honest. It's one thing to do that, but repentance needs to produce  change. That was very much John's message. As we see, he says, You need to  produce fruit in keeping with repentance. So if you're going to repent, there's  actually going to be a change of direction again, it changes. I'm not doing this  anymore. I'm doing this now. So there's a really good example we see of this in I Thessalonians 1:9. And in this Paul is writing to them and telling them about how he has seen them. Demonstrate repentance, okay, so in verse 9 he says, They  report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned from God  You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his  Son from heaven? Okay, so let me read that again. They tell how you turned  from, you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. So that was  the thing, like, they were worshiping idols, they were serving idols, and it's just  and then you changed. Now you turn and now you, you give your worship and  your devotion to the true and the living God. And now you're waiting for Jesus to  return, which is his way of saying, and now you're living for Christ, you're, you're  living with a sense of an expectancy you're giving now, Jesus Christ, your  devotion, their whole lives have changed. That's the kind of thing that John is  talking about with producing fruit in keeping with repentance. And I think we can  say very fairly, that if there is no fruit, if there is no change, then there's no  repentance. I mean, is that fair, that if there is no change, then there really is no  repentance, because as soon as I do a 180, and I start walking in a different  direction, like, by definition, there has to be some change. And again, this is the  hard part. This is where all the resistance comes in. And there has to be  different, not just different beliefs, but different behaviors. And this is more than  confessing, right? I mean, I really, we can't just feel sorry for what we did. But  then not change. An example that would be Judas, Judas never repented. I  mean, he felt bad about it. But he never, you know, he never repented of it. So  we want to have change to happen. Now, this is the kind of thing that we just 

want to say, Okay, this is all on me, I got to do this, I just got to try harder. So  this is the kind of change that comes about through the surrender, of  surrendering your will, surrendering your ambitions, all that to the work of the  Holy Spirit, it's really about yielding to the work of the Spirit. And then, and then  Cooperating with the Spirit in that. So this is just something to you know, the  spirit will produce the fruit. The ministry will kind of then begin to grow all by  itself, not because of what you're doing. But because what you are allowing the  spirit to do in and through you. And then of course, you cooperate in in with that, that's your your role of obedience. Let me just end here kind of with a final  warning on repentance that John gives, He gives this sense that nobody is safe  from the punishment that is to come. Let me read this again. He says, Do not  begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that  out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham, the ax 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. What John is getting at is these people were  saying like, well, I know you're calling everybody to repentance, but we have  Abraham as our father, we're, you know, we're part of the covenant we are,  we're good, you know, we're under this umbrella of safety. And they were really  relying on their kind of their ethnic upbringing, all the man made human  traditions that they were following. And John just says, like, that counts for  nothing. He was like, If God wants to raise up children of Abraham out of the  stones here on the ground, he could do that, like so he's saying, you know,  repentance really is like the first and foremost thing that your ethnic and  religious heritage is meaningless. If you're living in the state of disobedience.  Okay. Your your religious heritage is meaningless. If you're living in a state of  disobedience to churches, who are in need of revitalization. Listen to this, your  religious heritage is meaningless. If you're living in a state of disobedience. I  don't care how what denomination you're a part of. I don't care how long your  church has been on the corner of you know, First and Main, none of those things matter. You're not safe because you have the right credentials. What John tells  them is that judgment is near and that judgment is determined on. On the  conduct of one's life, how we how we live out our faith, not your religious or  cultural identity. What a word of warning for us today. John's message needs to  be heard by Christians I think, all all over the world, but by churches all together, because I think we, we say like, well, you know, we're doing pretty good. You  know, I go to church, you know, our youth group just went on a mission trip, we  had a bake sale last month. You know, we still have people who show up to  church and we sing the right songs, or the right, whatever, you know, we we've  got a long good tradition here. If you're if you're in decline and disobedience, like what difference does any of that make. So once we begin to just rely on our on  our religious heritage, and making that our identity, we are in big trouble. And  once we have that mindset, we have to know that we're on really, really, really 

thin ice. And in fact, the ice is breaking all around us. And let's not forget to be  stern words about you know, the ax is at the root of the trees, and there's going  to be cut down and thrown in the fire. If nothing else, doesn't just tell us like how  serious God is about revitalization about us repenting, whether it's personally or  corporately, how serious God is about this, and, and he's calling us to be as  serious about it as he is. I mean, that's, that's what John has just a whole  repentance business is about is God is serious about his relationship with us.  And repentance is about us getting as serious, why don't we get a serious as  God is in on anything, but to get to a level of seriousness that at least mirrors in  some way, how God is about this. So So there needs to be at some point in  revitalization. Again, I know I've hammered this point home, but I can't say it  enough. There needs to be like, at some point a broken will like the will of the  congregation, or at least a number of people like it needs to be broken. Not the  spirit of the church, but the will of the church to be where it's at. And to be able  to move to a different place that has to be broken. So we've said this before, and I'm going to keep saying it through all the lectures. The answer is we just need a new program. No, you don't need just a new program. We need a new kind of  worship thing. No, you don't need that. Maybe you do. But that's not first. That's  not your first step. Or we need a new coat of paint and the children's ministry.  Maybe you do, but that's not the problem. The problem is your is a place that  demands repentance. And your will needs to be broken, godly sorrow that leads  to repentance, right? Scripture talks about a godly sorrow leads to repentance,  not just feeling bad about it. But something that leads you to enact change,  whether it's in your thoughts, your behaviors, your attitudes, your values, your  priorities, your mission, your vision, all these things, we need to get on board  with God, okay. And then also, as a person who has probably a place in the  pulpit or a place of authority in the congregation, whether you're a pastor or an  elder, or some kind of ministry leader. In some way, you will need to probably  fulfill the role of Prophet just like John the Baptist, and call people to repentance. Now, you can do that through, you know, class, through devotions. Through a  sermon series, we've done these kinds of things in our church, we just went  through an extended 40 days, season of repentance in our church. And so I  preached about John the Baptist, and we have people in our church write 40  days of devotions, on repentance, and about returning into God's presence, all  these kinds of things like, you can do it. So you don't have to stand up there and tell them they're a brood of vipers. But you can talk about repentance and why  it's the heart of the gospel, and what's the invitation behind it. And the  seriousness if we do not heed these words, again, we go back to the teaching in the letters of Revelation. And Jesus gives us gracious invitation for churches to  return to Him and in a promise of rewards that will be given, but then also  threats of punishment that will come if they don't, and we need to live in that  reality that the Lord does not play games with his bride. So anyway, there's 

some things you can do there and the next lecture I'm going to give you our  story. of how we went through this whole process of leading a congregation  through repentance, okay. And then one last verse here, I want to leave you with our closing text, Psalm 139. And this is just a great text for us to just examine  ourselves. Maybe this is something you can use with, whether it's your your  ministry, leadership team, or with other people in your congregation, just getting  to a place where you can pray this prayer of David saying, Search me, O God,  and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any  offensive way in me and lead me in the way ever lasting. Okay, so that's, that's  the idea is to just say, God, reveal with you do the work of your spirits? Would  you just reveal to me Lord, where I need to change where I need to repent? And then God, would you give me the strength to be able to do that and the wisdom  to see or all the places where you're calling me to do this. And I think if you can  get enough people to kind of be start thinking like that, and embracing this, you  are well on your way to experiencing turnaround, renewal and revitalization in  your church. So let me pray for you one more time. Father, we give you thanks  for these hard words from John and Lord, yet, through his hard and difficult  words. So many came to what would ultimately be a saving faith in your son  Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that to our own repentance, this day, and in the days to come, Lord, not only would we grow in our relationship with you, and our  churches would be restored to health and strength, but Lord, many people  would come to faith, that our repentance might be an example to them. And Lord we do give you thanks that you are a gracious God, who receives us in love,  and that upon our repentance, you do lead us into the way that of everlasting  life. So Lord, bless my dear friends, in the hard work that they have in front of  them, and give them success. Lord, we pray this all in your name, Amen. All  right, we'll see you back for the next lecture where I get to tell you my story of  how this all happened at our church. Until then, God bless you