“Preparing the Way”
Luke 3:2-6, 15-18, 21-22
John the Baptist put on quite a show and the people noticed.
Can you imagine the crowd coming to the edge of the river and watching what must have seemed like a spectacle of powerful preaching and baptisms?
Excitement would have been in the air and the people must of wondered who this preacher was.
And quite naturally, the people started to lift John up and to project their hopes and dreams onto him.
Verse 15 says: “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.”
And so, they asked him whether he was the Messiah who had come to save them from the oppression of the Romans.
John was clearly an extraordinary person; so, in their longing for a savior, the people wondered out loud whether John was that savior.
The crowd was looking for a star, a leader to take them away from their troubles, and they looked to John with hopeful eyes.
If he had said, “Yes, I am the one,” they would have followed him anywhere.
They were putty in his hands, and he knew it.
It must have been quite flattering.
He could have gotten a really big head out of it all.
He easily might have started believing all the wonderful things they were saying about him.
“Maybe I am as great as they say.”
“Maybe I am the Savior of the world.”
I mean, history is filled with false prophets…
…folks who are so eager for power over others and a way to aggrandize themselves that they will say and do just about anything to hold onto that power.
And yet, John resisted the temptation to accept their praise and bask in the glory that the crowd was offering him.
He resisted the temptation to take advantage of these vulnerable and desperate people.
He chose instead to point them to Jesus with a humility that must have taken his listeners by surprise.
He directed their attention away from himself and instead worked to excite the crowd even further in anticipation of the Great One Who would follow him.
“I baptize you with water.
But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
It is tempting for many of us to accept accolades for the work we do for Jesus and the church.
As we pour ourselves out in service, it feels good to have others notice and give us praise for what we are doing.
But there is a danger there, is there not?
For, if we start doing things, only to receive the praise of people, only to gain power and prestige for ourselves…
…well, why then are we doing it?
Are we doing it out of love for God and neighbor or for selfish reasons?
And if we are simply doing it for selfish reasons, would we still do it even if no one cheered and clapped at the end of the day?
I know it’s all very confusing and mixed up.
We are complex creatures.
And it’s good for us to receive compliments and give compliments to one another—and to encourage one another.
But we must keep things in perspective.
We must remember who we are and Whose we are.
We must keep Jesus at the center of everything we do, and remember that it is because of Jesus and His love for us that we too, can love.
And it is because of Jesus and His salvation, that we are being changed into His image and are called—by His love and empathy to seek to unveil the new life found in Him to others.
Remember what Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians: “think of what you were when you were called.
Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one can boast before him.
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”
We are to tell of what God has done through what we do.
You know, even the ability to have faith is a gift from God.
And so, when we think about it…
…we are really saved by God’s faith, not our faith.
We are saved by the faith God has offered us, not the faith we deserve nor the faith that we created or came up with on our own.
It is God’s faith.
It is God’s gift.
It is God’s salvation.
And we belong to God.
Let anyone who boasts, boast in this!!!
Before I was presented with the gift of faith I was totally lost in my sins and darkness.
There was no way I was going to get out of it on my own.
There was no way for me to change outside of Christ.
And I still have a long way to go.
There is still a lot of the “old Ken” left in me.
So, that gives me even more reason to keep my eyes on Jesus, to remember that it is only because of God’s grace that I can be found in Him.
Left to my own devices, I have no idea where I would be.
One time, as he watched convicted criminals being taken to the gallows, English Preacher John Bradford uttered the now infamous words, “But, for the grace of God goes John Bradford.”
“But, for the grace of God goes I.”
John the Baptist was a great man who had been given the great privilege of making “straight paths” for our Lord, but it was the Lord Who chose him for this job.
It was the Lord Who gave him this task before he was even born.
And so, John gave the glory to God.
In Matthew Chapter 11, Jesus utters these words: “Among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist”—wow, what a compliment from Jesus Christ Himself!!!
But, Jesus doesn’t stop there.
He goes on, “yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
In our world, many believe that it is the powerful who climb to the top.
It is the bully who is able to push everyone else aside who wins the race.
But in the Kingdom of Reality it is the last who shall be first.
It is those who humble themselves who are greatest.
And it’s not a “greatest” in the worldly sense.
It’s a “greatest” in the sense that those who humble themselves are best able to direct others to Jesus Christ the Lord.
In order for others to come to Christ, we must be willing to step off our thrones, get down on the ground, prostrate ourselves and give our all to Christ.
This is true love, not selfish love but love for God and neighbor.
And there is nothing more powerful in all creation than humble, self-giving and serving love.
This is Christ’s love that went to the Cross, not seeking glory for Himself, but seeking to glorify His Father in Heaven.
And this love is available to us as well, when we humble ourselves for the sake of God and others.
This love is truly other-worldly.
It is the love that transforms a criminal into a saint…
…it is the love that transforms a deranged psychopath into a sane person who sits at the feet of Christ…
…it is the love that transforms a sin-stained person into a child of God.
John the Baptist’s example is an excellent reminder for us.
For, we must be reminded of this day after day.
It is so easy to become puffed up.
It is so easy to lose our humility…
…to lose sight of God’s agape love.
For, before we know it, we will start believing that we are the reason for something good happening…
…we will start thinking we are better than others because of whatever ministry we are involved in…
…and then, what we do because of and in God, will become a means to an end…
…it will become something to be used to empower ourselves, to feed our ego, to have a leg-up on someone else, to show off, to brag, to look down on others…
…and when that poison starts to enter in, we had better watch out.
We had better get down on our hands and knees in repentance and remember Whose we are and Who bought us with His blood.
For in this world, it is hard to be humble.
And when we are not humble, it is nearly impossible to love with the true love of God.
And when we are not loving with the true love of God, we really are not loving at all.
“But, for the grace of God, goes I.”
“Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
A father and son were walking through a great cathedral with beautiful stained-glass windows.
The son asked his father who the people in the pictures on the windows were.
The father answered, those people are saints.
The son asked, what are saints?
The father thought for a moment and then said, “Saints are people who let the light shine through.”
John the Baptist was a person who let the light shine through.
He deflected the praise others were giving him to Christ, he didn’t keep it for himself.
And again, that is love.
That is greatness.
That is the only way to evangelize; to share Christ with the world and to make disciples.
In Matthew’s Gospel we are told that “People went out to [John the Baptist] from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.
Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”
Clearly, the ministry entrusted to John was a huge success.
And it was a huge success only because John was going about God’s business, not John’s business.
Our role, like John’s is to seek praise for God, not us.
And when we do this, we gain great confidence.
We experience true freedom and the joy of pure love.
Because, we will have forgotten about self.
And that is the key.
In John Chapter 3, we are told that people were “constantly coming to be baptized [by John the Baptist],” but after John baptized Jesus the crowds were leaving John and following Christ instead.
When John heard about this, he was “full of joy,” and said, “[Jesus] must become greater; I must become less.”
And that is the key.
As we reach out to others we can evangelize in a positive and fruitful way by making it clear that our actions are motivated by the love of Jesus.
This doesn’t mean that we become pious and “holier than thou.”
It means that we be REAL and REALISTIC in our estimation of ourselves and what we are doing.
It means we admit to sometimes being motivated by selfish reasons.
It means we don’t try and make people think we are something we are not.
It means we seek to get out of the way so that others will see Christ, not us.
It means we be those who let Christ’s light shine through.
Because, let’s face it.
No one is going to be saved and transformed by believing in me or any other human being.
We can only be saved and transformed by believing in Christ and accepting what He has done to save us from our sins.
John the Baptist was a humble servant of God who prepared the way for others to come to know and follow Jesus.
Preparing the way for others to come and know Jesus.
Is this not the mission of every Christ-follower, of every Church?
We are to prepare the way for Christ to enter into the lives of the people in this community.
There are so many folks who are walking through this life without knowledge of the love of God.
There are so many who have not experienced the second birth which comes through giving our lives to Jesus.
There are so many who do not know they are loved.
And we, like John the Baptist, are called to prepare the way for Christ to enter into their hearts and change their lives.
And we do this with humble, selfless love…
…put into action.
There is nothing more important in all the world.
May we do it as John the Baptist did it.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake.
Amen.
