John The Baptist Again, But What A Man, What A Devotion.

This sermon was delivered to Holy Trinity in Ayr,

Ayrshire, Scotland on the 17th December 2017

(a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8,19-28

Psalm 19:14: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen.

Introduction

Over a week ago, I was in a shop last week in Ayr, where a woman in the queue in front of me turned to her friend and said in a loud voice, “I’ll be glad when this is all over”. … What? Christmas? … I like Christmas … it’s the going back to work in January that I don’t like.

And we all have our Christmas wishes, I wished not to get another John the Baptist sermon and yet here we are, John the Baptist. … And I don’t say this lightly, because John is a very complex character … and if you think about it, there is not really that much written about him in the bible … and we all know his story … and there seems to be an inordinate amount of Sundays dedicated to John in our lectionary.

This makes it very difficult to give you something new … and my first reaction was to rehash an old John the Baptist sermon from the past, but I don’t like doing that as I feel all sermons are topical to the moment, so I gave in and thought I would look at John again from a fresh perspective, and see if there is something I have missed … and I am glad I did, because there was.

To make a start, I need you to share to this story with you to a make certain point. … Many years ago, my wife and I found ourselves at Irvine maternity hospital, awaiting the birth of my son. It wasn’t straight forward and he was delivered under caesarean section. … There were also minor complications with my son, and both were retained in hospital for a while. … And I remember travelling home that day, not knowing what to think. … I did know however I had to inform both our families of the birth. … I was the one charged with communicating that news. Can you relate to that … a situation where you, and only you, are charged with delivering news?

Snakes in the desert

If you can’t, there is a good story in the book of numbers where the Israelites were in the desert, making their way to the promised land, grumbling and complaining all the ways, and God got so fed up listening to them, that he decided to punish them by sending a great number of poisonous snakes into their camp, snakes which then began to bite the people who then died from their poison. … Numbers 21 verse 6 “And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died”.

And when Moses saw the people dying, he was very upset about this … and he cried out to God reveal a cure,, which he did. … He said in Numbers 21:8 “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live”.

Imagine Moses at this moment as he was standing there looking out over 2 million people who were dying all around him … then realising that he alone knew the cure for their sickness … he alone had the responsibility of communicating this cure … and he must tell the people good news of what God had said.

Introduction of John

Now I want you to consider verses 4 of John Chapter 1, “In him (Jesus), was life; and (Jesus) was the light of men. … And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not”. … This verse is describing a world that was engulfed in the darkness of wickedness and sin … a darkness where few were seeking the lord … rather they were seeking and following their own selfish desires.

And it was into this dark world that God sent Jesus … Jesus the light of the world, “not to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” … but before Jesus, there came John the Baptist to prepare the way for him, and that he did.

John’s calling

John the Baptist was the only man prepared and commissioned to be his voice … heralding the greatest of news to his fellow man, that the “kingdom of heaven is at hand”. … This was the message the people needed and wanted to hear … however they were told by John to repent first … and turn away from their darkness and come into the light … that way, they could understand that their spiritual separation from God was due to their love affair with themselves, and their sin.