Revival
Under John the Baptist
Just
prior to Jesus' public ministry there was a sweeping religious
revival in Judea with John the Baptist as main person. John himself,
as we shall see was a special case so we should not expect to see his
likes in our time, but there may still be lessons in what happened
then that we can learn from.
John
was the fulfillment of prophecies made more than 500 years before his
birth. Jesus attested to this: “… a
prophet? Yes, I tell you and more than a prophet. This is the one
about whom it is written: 'I will send my messenger ahead of you who
will prepare the way before you'
[Mal.3.1]”
(Luke 7.26,27) and the Gospels bring in another prophecy: “He
went around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah
the prophet. 'A voice of one crying in the desert, “prepare the way
for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be
filed in, every mountain and hill made low. The crocked roads shall
become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see
God's salvation”' [Isaiah 40.3-5]” (Luke 3.3ff).
His
birth was doubly miraculous: It was announced to his father by the
Archangel Gabriel and it involved an elderly previously barren woman
becoming pregnant! Gabriel's message was: “ …
he will be filled with the Holy Spirit
even from birth. Many of the people of Israel he will bring back to
the Lord their God. And he will go before the Lord in the power of
Elijah ...”
After
his birth his father gave an oracle which included both these themes
after the vital part that God's salvation was about to dawn in the
person of Jesus: “Praise be to the Lord the
God of Israel, because he has come and redeemed his people. He has
raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant
David ...” (Note: Jesus was, but John was
not of the line of David) “And you my
child will be called a prophet of the most High; for you will go
before the Lord to prepare the way for him. To give his people
knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins ...”
So
John was no ordinary evangelist and this was no ordinary revival, it
was to prepare the way for Jesus ministry among the people. None the
less it was a revival and we see again the key element
which marked the earlier prophets.
The
immediate purpose was to bring the people back to God by them
coming to repentance so that they could receive knowledge
of God's salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. This is
an important and succinct statement of God's purposes for humankind!
It is then in Jesus that we learn what it cost God to make this
forgiveness available.
John's
message was as blunt as any of the prophets before him: “You
brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance … a man who has two
shirts should share with him who has none …” (to tax
farmers) “Don't collect any more than you are
required to” (to soldiers) “No
bullying, no blackmail: make do with your pay” His message
is also easily recognisable as in harmony with all the Old Testament
prophets.
His
reception among the people however was much better than his
predecessors. “And so John came preaching a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean
countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.
Confessing their sins they were baptised in the Jordan River.”
His
reception among the religious leaders was in stark contrast. We see
this illustrated in an exchange between Jesus and the religious
leaders when they questioned his authority and he asked them about
John's authority: “John's authority, was it
from heaven or from man?” They discussed among themselves: “If
we say 'from heaven' he will ask 'why didn't you believe him'
But if we say 'from men' the people will stone us because they are
persuaded that John was a prophet” (Luke 20) The saddest
part of this, besides the fact that the religious leaders had not
believed John was that they did not care whether his
message was from God or not. Earlier Luke comments: “the
Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for
themselves, because they had
not been baptised by John.” (Luke7.20)
Lessons
I think we can safely apply to our times are these:
a)
John, like the prophets, was sent by God: this revival did not
spring from any human plan or desire.
b)
John's message, like the prophets before him, was: “repent and
receive God's forgiveness, and show it in your new lives.”
c)
John operated outside the religious institution, and indeed the
established religious leaders rejected his message.
