Walking With Christ

18 days until Christmas.

Luke 1:76-77 (76)And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, (77)to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins(ESV)

We’ve watched prophecy become promise become reality. We’ve studied the reason why Christ came including sin, repentance, salvation, and restoration. Yesterday, we talked about what it means to prepare the way and connected the life of John back to the prophecies in Isaiah. We’ve already talked a little about the prophecy of Zechariah and how they were the first words he could speak since Gabriel had told him that John was coming. Today, we will continue to dig a bit deeper into that prophecy.

John the Baptist was unique in the bible. There are no other prophecies about a prophet being born. The coming of Christ was so important that not only was He shown through prophecy but His herald was shown through prophecy. Jesus had a mission. So did John. John’s entire life from the moment he was conceived was devoted entirely to the announcement of the coming of Jesus. John was the hype man for Jesus. His entire job was to shake people up and to tell them to pay attention because something was about to happen. John was a radical departure from the type of ministry that people were used to. Rather than teaching in a synagogue or temple and letting others come to him like all of the other religious teachers of the day, John chose to live and teach from the wilderness while wearing incredibly uncomfortable clothes and eating locusts and wild honey. Other spiritual leaders of the day wore the best clothes and ate the best foods. They held an honored position as was tradition.

John turned away from all of that to focus on the humility of his position. His life of humility that shunned all of the riches of life was spent speaking about repentance (metanoia – changing one’s mind or direction). He lived a life of self-denial that created such stark contrast between himself and the spiritual leaders of the day. The priests at that time were more focused on following the letter of the law and observing rituals that they often missed the deeper meaning behind the very lessons they taught. John lived to upend that. John lived, not to teach what a normal day should look like, but rather to build the anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s promise for salvation.

Zechariah said that John would bring the knowledge of salvation to the people. This was meant to be more than just teaching that God had promised to send someone to save the people. Moses had been sent to save the people. For the moment. John was sent to tell people that being saved for the moment wasn’t good enough and that one was coming who would save them for all of eternity. The people of Israel had lost sight of the eternal aspect of salvation. They had been taught that simply following the law every day was enough to guarantee eternal life. What they didn’t understand was that the sacrifices they made only covered the sin. It did not remove it.

This was an earth changing shift in views on what salvation meant. It was a shift away from works that we do and towards the works that God is doing. John the Baptist is the bridge between prophecy and fulfillment.

What does the life of John the Baptist mean to us today? We are called to follow Jesus. We are told to pick up our cross, die to ourselves, and follow Jesus. John’s mission was to tell everyone he met about the imminent coming of the messiah. When we became Christians, it became our mission to tell everyone we meet about the imminent second coming of Christ. It was prophesied that Christ would come. It was promised. Then it was fulfilled. It is now promised that He will come again. We know that God will fulfill His promises. We know that following Jesus and having a personal relationship with Him is the only way to find salvation. We’re all sinners who deserve hell and there is no amount of good works on our part that can change that. We know that the good news is that Jesus paid for those sins and anyone who has a saving relationship with Him will spend eternity with Him in heaven. Our mission is to spread that message.

Father,
We sing Your praises for making a way. We come before You in joyful anticipation of seeing Your promises fulfilled. We praise You knowing that we live under the flag of grace as we shout the good news for all to hear. We know that You are with us even in the deepest, darkest valley. You give us strength when ours fails. You carry us when we can’t walk and give us rest when we are tired. You comfort those who mourn and fill our cups to overflowing when they are empty. You are our source of joy everlasting. You are our peace. We ask today that You pour out Your spirit on us as we go through our days. Give us wisdom, knowledge, discernment for how we should be walking with You. Open our eyes and guide us through Your will. Show us how You would use us today. Show us the areas where we need to grow and change to be of better use to the kingdom. Show us the needs of those around us that we might reach out to lift up our brothers and sisters in their time of need. Give each of us the boldness to speak the truth of Your love in Your name.

In Jesus name we pray, amen.