A Voice in the Wilderness
January 26th 2020 Luke 3:1-20
• In general, do people like to be told that what they are doing is wrong?
• Wrong according to whom? Who determines right and wrong? Who says one’s ways are the right ways and another’s are bad?
• How do they respond? Good, bad, indifferent, violent?
• People who take a stand for what IS right, that is God’s ways, are often met with negative responses.
• But every now and then, repentant hearts.
• Let’s turn to the Gospel of Luke and read today’s passage in Luke Ch 3 vs 1-20
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
• This passage starts with timing, it gives us the time when these things happened by telling us who’s in power. Luke is writing about the year 29 or 30AD.
• And in that 1st century according to our calendar, people were coming out to hear a guy who dressed in camel’s hair and a leather belt, and who ate locusts and wild honey (see Matt 3).
• They went out from the comforts of their home and went out into the Judean wilderness in the areas around the Jordan River, which flows from the north to the south in Israel, and listened to him berate them about their terrible behaviour.
• He’s a voice crying out in the wilderness, and people come and they respond in humility and in search of forgiveness for their sin. They want to know what they need to do to get right with God.
• Not just a few come, crowds come. Tax collectors, regular folk, soldiers, pharisees and scribes. People from all walks of life, those one might expect to come and those you’d be floored to see in such a crowd.
• And John answers their questions ‘delicately’, by calling them a brood of vipers, ie you children of the devil!
• Who TOLD you to flee God’s anger? And why does that make you think you should do something about it? What are you going to DO to please God?
• And don’t think that just because you’re Jewish that you’re safe because of your heritage…God can raise a family from wherever He wants to
• So, change the way you live…be generous with what you have, don’t cheat people in the way you conduct yourself, treat others equally and be content with your paycheque.
• Just a shortlist really – wherever you are, treat others the way you’d like to be treated and don’t be a complainer.
• All this got John locked up in prison, particularly when he spoke out about the local governor who was having an affair with his brother’s wife – Herod didn’t take kindly to that kind of preaching.
• All sounded good in the year 30AD - many came and were baptized and, we hope, started living lives more in line with God’s ways – but what about today?
• Where is the voice in the wilderness today, who speaks to the crowds?
• Oh, we live in a desolate land, don’t let all the forests and lakes and the economy that keeps on rolling fool us, we are in a desert when it comes to the things of God.
• The Word of the Lord, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is hardly known in this city. I would hedge a guess that if one were to head into any local restaurant, business, school, university or legislature it would be difficult to find someone, anyone, who could tell you about Jesus Christ and what He has done for humanity, much less really care.
• But I would also suggest that if people were TOLD about Jesus and His finished work on the cross that it could have a similar effect in this community as it did 2000 years ago in Judea.
• People aren’t necessarily going to go looking for the truth of Jesus, but if they are faced with it, told about it in person, if they hear that God is changing lives by seeing it evidenced in the lives of Christians right here, right now, then that might just be what brings people who are not-yet-Christians to the point of faith and to take the step of repentance and forgiveness.
• Where this message gets way-laid so often though, is when we don’t speak up. People don’t know the truth because they have not been told the truth.
• People don’t know Jesus because no one has introduced Him to them
• The wilderness will remain an empty desert unless we, the church, start to bring some refreshing water of life out THERE!
• John was one man empowered by the Spirit to preach the good news. We are a group of people charged with the same mission.
• No, we aren’t all evangelists or preachers or teachers, but we can all share our story of how we came to know Jesus as Lord.
• We can all read the Word and become doers of it, not just hearers
• If you were to think of the one place in your daily life where you feel the Gospel could make a difference, where would that be? Could it be that is the wilderness where God is asking you to let your voice be heard?
"Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
