"Go, Preach the Good News!"
Notes
Transcript
Engage
Engage
This morning we mark the return of our focus to the Gospel According to Luke after a seven-week break where our attentions were fixed upon Jesus, who is God’s Image, God’s Wisdom, and God’s Mystery…the same Jesus who in our last time with Luke, was that boy who was at the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions.
We spent these past weeks unpacking what it means for Jesus to be Colossians 1:15-20 “...the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” We looked at Jesus who has created everything through himself and for himself and how we know he is King of all because he is God himself who died for our sin and rose to life everlasting. We did this to attempt to grow our collective understanding of who Jesus is. And growing our understanding is all well and good but that cannot be all that is taking place in each of us. I wonder if our gains have only affected our brains and done nothing within our hearts? Because it would be a terrible thing if that were true.
I mean, imagine a child whose arms grew rapidly but their legs did not grow in proportion to those arms. Or, imagine if the legs grew long but the arms did not. If we just observed a child with arms and legs that were not of proportionate length, we might rightly determine that the child had something abnormal going on. We’d think this because there’s an expectation that each limb of the body will grow in proportion to the rest.
So, if one part of a body is expected to be in proportion with the rest, it is a bad sign if one’s head was to grow faster than their heart. Yet this is a danger facing many who find themselves among a Christian congregation. Many who know more than they feel. Many who criticize more than they believe. It is an especially evil thing when one’s tongue grows bigger than the head, when that person has more to say than he or she even knows. When that happens, they are similar to the character from Pilgrim’s Progress whose name is Mr. Talkative. If you read it, which I would encourage you to do, you’ll find that Mr. Talkative has quite a bit to say about the road to heaven, but he hasn’t gone very far down the road himself.
Tension
Tension
Holding on to that image for a moment… Where are you in relationship to the narrow road that Jesus describes as the way that leads to life? Be honest… Do you “know” more about the narrow road than the actual feel of it beneath your feet?
It’s so easy to know much about that road, or moving this away from the imagery of a road…it’s easy to know a lot about God. It’s easy to know a lot about the Word of God. Consider our day and age where vast troves of information, even theological information, is accessible at your fingertips. In this church, across all the ages and stages, by my Natalia math, there are 32 active and unique groups, all meeting with Bibles open and God’s Word being proclaimed. Praise God, right?
Praise God, yes, but also, that praise must be balanced with, so what? So what if the only measurable growth in each of us is found in the swelling of our heads if hearts remain shriveled? It’s one thing to say that you know about God and it’s an altogether different thing to say that you know God in a way that has transformed your heart so that it beats for Jesus. If you need proof, look no further than the devil. The devil knows a lot about God. The devil knows the Word of God. And yet the devil is not concerned with a love for Jesus…this much we’ll see in a couple of weeks when we make our way into Luke 4.
So then, let’s pretend we were with the youngest children at church this morning. Let’s put ourselves in the position of a patient, stretched out upon a table, ready for inspection by the physician. Let’s see if the doctor can hear if that heart in our chest has been made alive and is beating for Jesus.
Truth
Truth
As we do so, we turn to the perfectly tuned instrumentation that God has given to humanity in his Word, the Bible. This being the only book that reads us for as much as we read it, is the God-given stethoscope, EKG, you name it, instrument that checks the condition of our hearts. And in the Word this morning we find that a fair amount of time has elapsed since that time when Mary and Joseph packed up everything and headed back home from the family trip to Jerusalem, forgetting just one item of importance: the Son of God whose name is Jesus. As an aside, give yourself grace if you forget to pack enough socks or deodorant on your next trip, ok?
Any way, Luke fast forwards from then to the time where certain men were situated in strategic places within the Roman power structure. The emperor of Rome was named Tiberius, who history records as someone who lived in constant fear of challenges to his authority. The underling of Tiberius who was charged with governing the region of Judea was named Pontius Pilate and the ruler of a third of Palestine was Herod. And lest we think that Rome would leave anything to chance, Luke also brings to our awareness two Jewish high priests, each of whom could only assume that office by appointment from Rome. To bring the landscape that Luke is outlining to us in the modern day, for us this would look like an unelected president who has assigned a person to serve as the governor of Texas, the judge of Medina County, the mayor of Devine, and even the pastor of this church. And I specifically mention the likes of Pilate and Herod and Annas and Caiphas because these are four men who will each continue play a direct part in the crucifixion of King Jesus. They are men who will each have royal blood on their hands.
And while each of these names that Luke records might appear to be quite impressive in their rule and reign, none of them are admirable. They would appear to be men of great influence, yet little did they know that in the wilderness of Judea, in a prophet without any following to himself, God was moving in ways that would shake their rule and alter the course of human history, bringing the empires of the world one step closer to the oblivion they deserve.
What Luke is bringing to our attention in this text is that God is now going to link the age of promise that is the Old Covenant to the age of fulfillment in the New Covenant. As we read the Old Testament, there are numerous instances where God promised to send his Messiah to deliver souls from their bondage to sin and here in this text we find both an instance of promise and fulfillment. We read in verses Luke 3:4-6 a reference to what the prophet Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before this time. In Isaiah 40 the Lord had declared that his judgement would come. That all the corner-cutting and advantage-seeking ways of man would be rendered null at the judgement of God himself. And in announcing the coming of God’s judgement, there would be one whom the Word of God would come to so that he would declare the coming of the Lord.
And Luke records that the Word of God has come to John the Baptist, in the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. But this wasn’t the only prophecy fulfilled. Because God is a promise keeper, he can add promises upon promises because he has staked his reputation on making good on every one of them. This is all to say that the uniqueness of circumstances that surrounded the conception and birth of the boy given to Zechariah and Elizabeth were not just coincidental. No, what the angel told Zechariah that day in his priestly service at the temple many years before was now being fulfilled, that the son that Elizabeth would bear would Luke 1:15-16 “...be great before the Lord…and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” And here we are now, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when what was promised is coming to be. John the Baptist is preaching about God’s arrival, about God’s judgement, and imploring others, REPENT.
I’ve got to tell ya, what John was calling for here wasn’t customary in this day and age. This whole baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin that he was calling for was something completely foreign to an every day Jew. They’d be like, “Baptism? In the Jordan? Why do I need that? I go to the temple and the synagogue and I do what I’m supposed to to get cleaned up enough to get in there.”
John’s saying, “That may be true, you can get cleaned up the way that the priests have told you, but your heart has never been in any of it because really, you’ve just been playing church. You come and go to keep appearances up, but truly, you are mocking God in all of this. You can convince others of so many things that are not true about you, but the Lord knows the secret things of your heart. The Lord knows what you know about yourself but chosen to ignore…that you live with a sense of guilt and you can’t shake free from it.” So John calls sinners to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. He calls these sinful men and women to immerse their lives in the God that he is announcing the arrival of. He calls them to stop living for themselves and for the compromised kingdoms of the world and to their need to be born into the kingdom of God.
Is that you, my friend? Are you playing church because in the coming and the going you believe you’re trading your sin for grace through some imaginary deal that you’ve worked out with God? There’s an old saying that goes, “he or she sowed wild oats on the weekdays and prayed for crop failure on Sundays.” Is that you? Like the people to whom John preached, we must understand that there is neither a secretness to our faith nor is there a thing as partial obedience to the gospel. If you have met the risen Lord Jesus, he calls you to identify with him in his death and burial and resurrection via a first step of obedience by being baptized publicly. For every step that follows after that, your life is lived in submission to the King who has called you into his kingdom by grace, and your willful obedience to him is an offering of thanksgiving.
Now, I know that some of this lands on the ear as repulsive because we live in an age where we hate the idea of long-term commitments. We despise contracts. If the cable company or cell phone company or whoever wants to lock us in, we’re out. We want freedom to do what we want, when we want it. And I imagine that some reject Jesus for this very reason. People look to the life of Christians and think, “That life is boring. He goes to work and comes home to his family every night. His family prioritizes church over everything else. They gives their hard-earned money to the church. I mean, is there even such a thing as sin? That sounds like just a way to control people. Why would anyone want to limit themselves to a lifestyle that would say getting drunk is wrong? Or having sex with whoever is wrong? Or dressing provocatively is wrong?”
This is where we all start in life, by the way. We start out with a contentment in our independence. Like teenagers who cannot wait to finally be free from the iron-fisted rule of mom and dad who have just kept them from all sorts of fun and pleasure. And we go out and do whatever we please, believing that we are living free. But that freedom isn’t actually real. It’s a lie. This lie closes our eyes to the fact that we are bound by shackle and chain to all that is empty and dead. That is, until there’s an intervention and our eyes are open to real freedom and real life. Someone who is far greater and the only one who can free us from the death we are bound to.
And often that eye-opening moment comes in the form of something as harsh are when I wake up my girls by blaring a recording of reveille on a bugle. In John the Baptist’s case, that comes by welcoming people with, “You brood of vipers!” Now, I think many of us might be grateful that John the Baptist isn’t heading up our hospitality ministry here. Imagine as you’re walking in and one of the smiling faces says, “Welcome to First Baptist Church, you son of snakes. Can I offer you a bulletin?” Could you image the entrance to the children’s area having a sign that read, “Lil Snake Den”? That would be sorta shocking, wouldn’t it? Yet, that’s how John’s greeting these people who are coming to the Jordan for baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. Why’s he saying this? He’s getting to the heart of the matter for everyone. He’s calling to everyone’s attention that until we are born of the Spirit, until our hearts are renewed, we are not all God’s children as some cheap coffee mugs and t-shirts might have you believe. Rather, until we are born again, until God has gifted us new hearts, Jesus says himself that we are children of our John 8:44 “...father the devil...”
That’s why if someone comes up to me and tells me, “I want to get baptized,” I always ask, “Why? Why do you want to get baptized?” Now, my approach is certainly more gentle than John’s, but it’s with the same intent. It’s because the devil knows all this business about the cost of following Jesus. The devil knows about the need to be born again if anyone is to be saved. And that lying devil of hell would make someone believe that all they need to do is get dunked and they can go on their way. Just going on their way, believing they’re right with God, but their heart still cold as ever.
Did you know that’s the devil’s game plan for you? To lure you to a place of relative confidence before God where if you were asked, “Why should God let you into Heaven?” you’d start your answer with the first-person singular. You’d start your answer with “I.” “I got baptized.” “I never missed a Sunday.” “I went on that mission trip.” “I fed the hungry.” “I gave to the poor.”
There’s just one problem with starting your answer with “I.” I can’t go to a cross for sin. I can’t empty a burial tomb. Jesus did those things. No one else. That’s why Acts 4:12 “…there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” And that’s the truth that the devil would obscure. He would attempt to keep us from knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. He would see us remain dead in our sin, trusting in ourselves and not in the only one mighty and able to save. My friend, there is no single thing you or I can do to be saved from the wrath of God that comes at our judgement for our sin. Being baptized won’t save you. Perfect attendance at church won’t save you. It’s only Ephesians 2:8-9 “…by grace through faith...” that anyone might be saved. This is God’s gift to you, if you would receive it.
And if you were to receive this gift from God, the gift will transform you. The gift will not leave you how you were before you received it. It will bring you under new management and whether you and I are first century tax collectors and soldiers like those who interact with John or we’re twenty-first century educators and business owners, our thoughts, our passions, our actions, our complete way of living will be transformed. This gift is a call to a life that honors Christ as a humble expression of adoration and thanksgiving offered in response to the gift of God in Christ Jesus. It’s a life that has been saved from judgement because Jesus took our blame. A life saved from God’s wrath because Jesus was subjected to it for us. And beside the aspects of future implications of the gospel’s effect upon one’s life, it is a life that lives to reveal God’s glory because there is a very present reality for the Christian.
And I will tell you, if that’s true in any one of us, others are going to notice. Boys and girls, your teacher is going to notice. Teenagers, your parents are going to notice. Ladies and gentlemen, everyone with whom you conduct your business dealings and life with are going to notice. Authentic, Holy Spirit given transformation is OBVIOUS.
Now, something I’ve got to say right now is a word of warning about what transformation is and what it is not. See, far too often transformation gets sold around churches as just a life that has accepted conforming to boundary markers.
And in Baptist life, we’ve trained generations to conform to boundaries and paid only lip service to Holy Spirit transformation. Here’s an example that I’m confident was true of this church. Do any of you remember the offering envelopes passed around in Sunday school that you could record your name, the amount of your offering, the number of phone calls and visits you made? On the bottom of that slip, there were boxes you could check, remember? With each box you checked you worked your way to 100%. You were present in Sunday school, check! 20%. You were on time for Sunday school, check! Another 10%. You brought your Bible, check! Tack on 10% more. You made an offering of any amount, check! 10% added to your column. If you read your lesson before class, check! A whopping 30% credit! And you’d get another 20% if you attended the preaching that Sunday. Check all six boxes off, and viola! You were a 100% Christian!
None of those are bad things and actually, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from any of those things at all. But just as an observation, in my own experience, I’ve heard those same categories applied to measure the genuineness of someone’s faithfulness to Christ. “Did you hear that Dan Newburg got saved? No way! How do you know? He carries a Bible with him to church!” Or more pessimistically, “can you believe her? She claims she’s a Christian and she didn’t even bring her Bible to church.” Folks, those are all things that the unconverted can do. Do you know what the unconverted person cannot do? He can’t grow more loving toward God and toward people.
On the day of his crucifixion, there were also two thieves crucified and raised on either side of Jesus. One of the two thieves looked upon the sinless Savior and experienced transformation. He looked upon Jesus and asked for King Jesus to remember him. This is a guy who was cussing out Jesus and now as an evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life, is now in repentance, acknowledging his undeservedness of God’s mercy and grace.
There’s one more thing that transformation does and it’s what we see John doing from Luke 3:15-20. He is preaching good news of the coming of God’s Messiah who will deliver sinners. He’s preaching about the hypocrisy of those Roman rulers who start the chapter and how a perfect King is coming and is bringing his kingdom of righteousness with him. In the midst of his preaching, when given the opportunity to take credit for himself, to feed the pride of his flesh, he lifts the eyes of those to whom he is preaching because their gaze is cast too low. He says that forgiveness for sin is not something that he gives himself. He doesn’t have the authority to do so. That can only come from God himself. That can only come from the God who is willing to extend forgiveness to fallen creatures by becoming one of them himself. John pointed others to Jesus, the Christ of God, whom all authority in Heaven and earth dwelled in bodily form.
Application
Application
My friends, if King Jesus is growing your heart, then he is doing the work of joining your heart with his and so you love what he loves and your heart breaks over what his heart breaks over. John the Baptist’s was appointed to a specific assignment for a specific time to prepare the way of the arrival of the King of kings. And yet, you and I have a similar call. We’ve been commanded by Jesus to Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ... and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that ...” King Jesus has commanded.
We have the command of the King to make his name known, to point the lost and hell-bound to Jesus, because at the heart of the matter, 1 Timothy 2:3-5 “...God our Savior...desires all people to be saved...” from his coming judgement. We are commanded to point others to the Savior who began a good work in us by transforming us from lives that were once enslaved to drunkeness, sexual perversions, and sourcing our identity in ourself. We do this not because we want to train a people to check six boxes to be whatever Nashville says makes 100% Christians, but because we know the power of Christ and his resurrection. We know that Messiah Jesus was promised and he came. We know that his substitutionary death was promised and it happened. We know his resurrection was promised and he got up from that grave!
We know his return in glory is promised and, maybe it’s just me, but I’m not about to go thinking that God isn’t going to keeping his promises now.
Go, preach good news! Point to Jesus!
Inspiration
Inspiration
That’s what you and I have the sacred privilege of doing, like a sister in this congregation did this week. I’m told that she was being criticized for no longer living a life of partying and getting drunk. Her criticizers knew of her past and were aware that her past is no longer true for her, and these criticizers were calling everything in question. They asked her, “So why did you give it all up?” They tried to rationalize the change in her life. Her response was just four words. Four words that make all the sense to the living and four words that are foolishness to the perishing.
In answering the unbelievable transformation that took place in her life that the criticizers were calling into question, our sister said, “Because I met Jesus.”
Action
Action
My friend, have you met Jesus? If you have, then preach good news! Tell of his marvelous works! Point the lost to Jesus!
And if you haven’t, permit me the privilege of introducing you to him. He has an outward appearance of being gentle and extremely humble, but don’t let that appearance make you think lightly of him. He is the mightest you will ever meet. He is faster, stronger, and smarter than anyone else. He commands Heaven’s armies. By his word he has spoken all things into existence and by his word will all creation be judged. That includes you.
And yet, don’t be surprised when you hear this, but he already knows of you. He knows of you because he’s also your Creator and he gives your life worth because he made you in his image. He has sent his Word that he desires you to know him because unless you come to know him, you will not know true peace in this life or in what comes after it. In fact, he is the only person who is able to offer the peace you have been searching for your entire life. This is peace that only he can offer because he paid the price himself to obtain the olive branch of peace that he offers to you today. He knows that deep within you, you long for peace and in all the ways you’ve failed in trying to obtain it for yourself, he’s able to offer it to you because he’s never failed. He wants you to know that he extends true peace to you today. He won’t reject you if you come to receive his peace. He won’t bring up all the ways you’ve failed. He won’t ask you to try to make up for your failures. No, he won’t. He won’t because he’s already paid the debt for your failings by being beaten, whipped, and scourged. He’s already paid the debt by being nailed to and hung upon a cross.
He is God. He is deserving of the grandest of trumpet announcements and yet, he prefers to extend an invitation to meet him in this way: Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””
This Jesus that I am introducing you to is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I am an unworthy messenger who has met this King and I can only conclude by saying that your salvation, this peace, comes by the name Jesus and none other.