*A few weeks ago I read that scientists were going to add another second to the clock on New Year’s Eve. They called it a leap second, something that happens every few years because of the gradual slowdown in the earth’s rotation. That leap second gave each of us a whole extra second to reflect on 2005 before it was over! Wow! What did you think about in that second?! Now, here we are, January 2006, and most of us are looking ahead. We’re wondering what kind of year we’re going to have, and maybe some of us have even made some New Year’s resolutions to help us have the best year possible.
This morning, as we begin our 4-week sermon series called “Living Life To The Fullest”, we realize that one of the ways we often try to make our lives fuller and better is to make resolutions. The problem is, the average life span of a new year’s resolution is about 3 weeks! By then we’re either off our diet or bored with our exercise program, or we’re sucked back into believing something we resolved never to believe again: that maybe, just maybe, this is the year the Vikings will go all the way! After all, they do have a new coach! What’s stopping us now?
Over the next four weeks we’re going to keep coming back to one foundational truth: The key to a full life does not depend on our resolutions, our plans, or our dreams. A full life depends on following the resolutions that God made for us in His Word, and that Word points us to Jesus. That’s the key thought for this sermon series. Now here’s the key verse for these 4 weeks. Jesus said in John 10:10: “I came that they might have life, and have it to the full.” The more our thoughts, actions, and words focus on Jesus, the fuller, the better our lives will be. This morning in our Gospel reading we’re going to meet the one man who, more than any human being in history, lived life to the fullest. We know this because Jesus called this man the greatest man who ever lived. He said in Luke 7:28, “Among those born of women, there is no one greater than John the Baptist.” No one was more focused on Christ and devoted to Him - that’s what Jesus meant.
But if you’re looking for happiness and fulfillment in 2006, who wants to pick John as a role model? After all, John ate grasshoppers. He had one outfit - a hairy robe. He lived in the desert, he was sent to prison, and his eventually his head was cut off. That’s not really the kind of life I want! But the truth is, there is nothing more fulfilling, nothing more joyful, than following Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences. Jesus said, “I came that their joy may be complete.” There’s joy in following Jesus, even if we do wear a hairy robe and eat insects!
Over the next few minutes we’re going to look at what made John’s life so great in the eyes of Jesus, and we’re going to apply those principles to our lives. Because those are the things that will make us great, and are going to fulfill us. Our Gospel begins by saying, “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Why did John come preaching in the desert? Well, the first couple of verses of Mark tell us that the Old Testament prophesied that He would. A messenger would come to tell people to prepare the way for the Messiah. That was John. But that still doesn’t tell us why John decided to do it. We have to turn to the book of Luke to find that out. Luke 3:2 says, “…during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John in the desert.”
God spoke to John and John obeyed. God told John to go, and he went. The first mark of a great Christian is that when God speaks, we listen. Remember that TV commercial years ago? "When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen!" When God speaks to us, when He tells us in His Word what His will is for each of us, we listen. It may not always be what we want to do. Did John want to eat grasshoppers? I heard they’re not too bad with a little salt and pepper! Did he want to wear a scratchy, hairy robe? Did he want to live out in the desert? Did he want to get in trouble for telling people what they didn’t want to hear? Did he want to go to prison and be martyred? No! But His love for Christ was more powerful than any human desire. You and I start to become truly great Christians, and fulfilled people, when our love for Christ and His Word starts to influence us more than our own human desires. That’s a mark of greatness in God’s eyes, and that’s the path to fulfillment in life.
*I remember years ago the pastor of a local congregation got a call to be pastor of another church. As he prayed and struggled with the call he realized how much he loved his congregation, and how happy and successful he was there. But he prayed, “Lord, help me to follow Your leading, not mine.” In the end, he decided to take the call and leave the church he loved. When he told his congregation about it, he said, “I love you, but I love Jesus more. That’s why I’m leaving.” What about us? Who do we love more in our lives? John loved Jesus, and when he heard the Word, when he got the call, He obeyed. That’s greatness, and that’s the path to a fulfilling life.
John obeyed by going to the desert, and He obeyed by telling the people something they didn’t want to hear: Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. John followed Jesus, and now he was asking others to follow the Lord and to be fulfilled in their lives. As we look at John’s message, we realize that it’s just the opposite of how the world operates.
Most of our New Year’s resolutions are aimed at making us better at something. Better eaters, better exercisers, better drivers...But when we look at God’s plan for our lives through the preaching of John the Baptist, we don’t see "better." John says "repent." Repent means to change your mind. It means to be a different person in the way we think and act. It means a complete turnaround. Living life to the fullest doesn’t mean trying to be a better person and keeping our resolutions; it means we become different people. Instead of following our sinful nature, we turn from our sins because the Bible says our sins condemn us. We need to know that. They condemn us because God’s Word doesn’t tell us to be good people. It tells us to perfect. Jesus said, “Be perfect, as My heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
As much as we try to improve our lives, we’ll never be perfect enough to please God and receive His blessings. We can’t go that route spiritually, because it’s a dead end. We have to realize that sin has wrecked our lives and separated us from God. *A few days ago a bus company started offering tours of New Orleans, taking people to all the places that were wrecked by hurricane Katrina. Only $35 apiece! And they’ll give a whole $3 to the relief effort! Wow! The article said the tours are sold out. People are streaming into New Orleans to get a first-hand look at the devastation. When John started baptizing in the desert, the Bible says that crowds streamed out to see Him: “the whole countryside” showed up, maybe not knowing what to except. What John did was to show them their own devastation by teaching them that they were sinners who needed to repent and trust in the Messiah. They needed to turn from their pride and turn to Jesus.
John didn’t teach improvement. He taught repentance as the way to full a life. He taught that to have a full life we need to empty ourselves. We need to get rid of our sin, and the only way to do that is through faith in the Messiah. Jesus came to take the guilt and punishment of our sins by dying on the cross. All who believe in Jesus have their sins taken away. Micah 7:19 says it so well, “God will throw our sins into the depth of the sea.” That’s what the baptism of Jesus was all about. When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, He didn’t need to be baptized, because He wasn’t a sinner. But He insisted that John baptize him for two reasons. First, He was baptized to show that He was the perfect Son of God. The Bible says that when Jesus came out of the water the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and the Father spoke and said, “This is My beloved Son!”
Jesus was the Son of God, filled with the Holy Spirit just like the Old Testament prophesied in Isaiah chapter 42: “Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him and He will bring justice to the nations.” The baptism of Jesus also showed WHY the perfect Son of God came to earth. He came to take our sins on His own body. He represented sinful man; He became sin for us. In His baptism He was saying, “I have come to take your place, to die for you.”
A great person in God’s eyes is someone who knows that they have a new life in Christ, someone who accepts God’s sacrifice for their sins, someone who doesn’t carry the guilt and shame of their past into the present. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). With Jesus in our heart, we’re not condemned. We’re forgiven! We have eternal life. We don’t have to worry about our death -we know it’s a door to heaven.
*A few days ago we heard the tragic news that 12 West Virginia coal miners died in an explosion, and another one was barely clinging to life. Then we heard about the anger of the family members who were told at first that 12 had survived, when they really hadn’t. Then we heard about the notes that some of the miners had left behind. Knowing that most likely they were going to die soon, they found whatever paper they could and wrote a final farewell to their loved ones. 51-year-old Martin Toler scribbled some wobbly words on the back of an insurance application, probably just before he died. He wrote, “Tell all I’ll see them on the other side. It wasn’t bad. I just went to sleep. I love you.” Simple and powerful words, because they’re the truth. That is the truth for every person who is new in Christ. Heaven is real, and it’s our destiny in Christ. When Jesus was baptized, HEAVEN was torn open! When Stephen was being martyred because of his faith, he said, “I see HEAVN open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
Jesus said to the thief on the cross, a brand new believer who was hanging next to Him, He said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise, (in HEAVEN).” A new person in Christ knows that death, the other side, isn’t purgatory, it’s not being reincarnated into another human body or an animal; it’s not floating around the spirit world like a ghost; it’s being with Jesus Christ in HEAVEN. That’s life to the absolute fullest, and it’s waiting for each person who repents and becomes new through faith in Jesus.
That was the message of the greatest human who ever lived, John the Baptist. Even though he led a sparse life and died a criminal’s death, He lived life to the full because Jesus was His first love, His passion, His Lord. That’s the key to living our lives to the fullest too - in this world and the next. Amen.
