Team Talk
Bible Heroes
Lessons from John the Baptist
Wild, hairy, ‘out there’. That’s how I’d describe what must be one of the most unusual persons in
the Bible. I’ve always found John a little uncomfortable to deal with. He’s the kind of personality
that is, well, prickly.
He’s the one who doesn’t ‘fit in’, who has a completely different view of how the world should be.
Maybe you’ve met some people like that. They don’t always sit easily with people.
While John might be like this, there’s more to him than the camel hair apparel and wild honey diet.
His uncompromising call to holiness and personal change is a tough message to swallow. But John
is also intriguing, mysterious, unstinting in conviction and also a surprisingly popular figure in his
time. He’s not just the one who introduces Jesus to the world, he’s a man and a ministry all of his
own.
John the Baptist was ‘the Greatest Man to ever live.’ (Matthew 11:11).
So we should take a closer look at this remarkable figure, he has a lot to say to us about how we live
our life for Christ. These are some ways John the Baptist’s life and ministry can help us to help us
grow in God.
1 You’re meant to be different.
From Luke’s gospel it’s clear that John was set aside for a divine purpose. He was meant to be
different. From the extraordinary events surrounding his conception and birth we fast forward to
the grown man, prowling the desert and howling at the injustice of his time, because there were
reasons to howl. Israel was ruled by the most powerful empire the world had known, Rome. They
were pagan whose rulers opposed the rule of Israel’s God, while Israel awaited the promised
messiah to liberate them and inaugurate the Kingdom of God.
We can’t overestimate the feelings of most Jews at the time and their expectation of this deliverer
from Roman oppression. It inspired all sorts of sects and religious movements. Among the
communities living in isolation close to where John was preaching and teaching were the Essenes, a
strict religious community closed off from the outside world who through pursuit of personal
holiness sought to bring about the Kingdom of God.
John was different. He had no interest in retreating, his message was very much on the offensive,
while being disarmingly simple;
‘and so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for
the forgiveness of sins’ (Mark 1:4).
The lesson for us as followers of Jesus is to be distinctive and set apart from those values that are
opposed to God’s values. Our ways of living and operating may not be in line with God’s ways so
we need to make personal changes, to even repent so as to be truly different.
2. Challenge the status quo.
What attracted people to John was the fact he wasn’t ‘business as usual’ and he was popular for it.
The temple authorities even got to hear of him, ‘Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to
ask him who he was’ , (John 1:19). What’s more Jewish historian Josephus mentions John a number
of times in his work, Antiquities, proving again he was well known in Israel.
Continue….
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