Choosing HBO
Devotions for Growing Christians
Choosing HBO
Mark 1:7 And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie."
John 1:23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, Make straight the way for the Lord."
John 1:29-30 The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me."
Matthew 3:7-8 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
Mark 6:17-18 For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."
After 400 years of prophetic silence, John the Baptist burst suddenly onto the scene of 1st century Israel to announce the coming of Christ. No prophet had arisen in Israel since the days of Malachi (about 425BC).
Background
John the Baptist was definitely not the average Jewish citizen of those days. The Scripture says that he "lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel" (Luke 1:80). Was John an Essene - a member of the ultra-orthodox sect of Judaism whose members practiced communal living in wilderness settlements? We don’t know, but it’s likely that John the Baptist spent some time in an Essene-like wilderness community.
John ate locusts and wild honey and wore a garment of camel's hair (Matthew 3:4) - not the typical diet and dress of the 1st century Jew! In both appearance and behavior, John was definitely different from the normal man-on-the-street! He would certainly stand out in any crowd. He was probably considered a complete social misfit by his contemporaries. From the pages of Scripture, he comes to us as an ascetic loner.
In contrast to our Lord, who grew "in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52), social development was not one of John the Baptist's strong suits. But in spite of this, Luke 1:80 says that he became strong in spirit. John grew up to become a man of God, and he was greatly used by God. In fact, the Lord Jesus said that "among those born of women, there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11).
While it's nice to be considered socially normal by our peers, it is far better to be considered spiritually great by our God! Is it possible that you’re discouraged right now because you feel that somehow you never fit in socially? You've tried hard, but you just can't make friends easily. People seem to avoid you. Well, don't be discouraged. If your relationship with the Lord is intact, God can use you in mighty ways. You may be another John the Baptist in the making!
What was it about John the Baptist that caused the Lord Jesus to evaluate him as the greatest of the Old Testament prophets? It certainly wasn't his congenial personality and social graces! Did he perform spectacular miracles, like the great prophets, Elijah and Elisha? No. In fact, John didn’t do a single miracle! So what made John the Baptist the greatest of the prophets?
A major factor, of course, was that John the Baptist had the great privilege of announcing the coming of the Messiah. But besides the fact that he announced Jesus as Messiah, John had three outstanding characteristics that contributed to his greatness. He was humble, he was bold, and he was orthodox. These characteristics will qualify any person to be great in God's sight.
Some of you will recognize that our title - “Choosing HBO” - is a play on choosing the cable TV channel, Home Box Office, but it’s actually a device help us remember John the Baptist's three outstanding qualities:
He was Humble, he was Bold and he was Orthodox.
He was Humble
John the Baptist’s humility is seen in the way he contrasted himself with the Messiah he announced. He insisted that "Christ must increase but I must decrease" (John 3:30). You can only make a statement like that to people who want to make you a hero if you’re a truly humble person! And this is especially true if the person who’s taking the spotlight from you is your young cousin!
To further emphasize his position of absolute humility in relation to Jesus, John said that he was not even fit to stoop down and “untie the thong of the Lord's sandals” (Mark 1:7)! What did he mean? Slaves were required to remove their masters’ sandals and wash their feet. John said that he was not worthy to do even the most menial task for Jesus. In fact, John considered his position to be lower than that of a slave, when compared to the Person and position of Jesus! I'm sure we would have considered washing Jesus' feet a sufficiently humble gesture of faith, but for John this act was only the threshold of humility. How would we measure up to John the Baptist when it comes to modeling humility?
John's level of humility is also observed in the lowly title he used for himself. When asked by the religious establishment to identify himself, he referred to himself as just "a voice crying in the wilderness" (John 1:23). Isaiah 40:3-5 is a prophecy about preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. Just as hills and valleys would be leveled and the crooked wilderness roads straightened if a literal highway was being prepared for the arrival of a king. In the same way, John was preparing the moral condition of the people in Israel for the coming of the Messiah. John saw himself as a humble “road repairman” - the lonely messenger of Isaiah's prophecy. Just a voice crying in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!"
Is that how we would describe ourselves if we were writing up a biographical sketch or a resume? Is that how we would like to be introduced at a business or social gathering? Only a voice?! Or would we prefer to be described as a successful Christian business person? Or an outstanding Christian athlete? Or a well-known Christian singer? Or the president of a significant Christian organization? Or a leading member in a prominent church? Most of us need some lessons in humility from John the Baptist.
He was Bold
John the Baptist was also courageous. He was not afraid to confront the opposition, even at the risk of losing his life. It was, in fact, his bold rebuke of Herod Antipas that led to his death. (See Mark 6.) John did not back down from directly confronting Herod about his adulterous relationship with his sister-in-law, Herodias. John was not afraid of the consequences that would surely follow his bold denunciation of Herod's immoral lifestyle. John was more concerned with being biblically correct than being politically correct!
What about us? Are we bold enough to speak out against what's unholy in our society? Public condemnation of extramarital sex will not win us any popularity contests. Would John the Baptist have remained silent about today's homosexual community? No way! John the Baptist would have boldly exposed and denounced the practice. We need to pray that the Lord would give us John-the-Baptist-like courage to speak up when God's standards are mocked, ignored and violated.
Of course John would have received and baptized everyone who turned back to God, but he would never have been forced to back down from kingdom standards. We must be prepared to reach out and help people turn from the practice of every type of sexual sin. And, like John the Baptist, we must have the courage to take a biblical stand on every other kind of sin as well. This is especially difficult when even the Christian community begins to waver from the pressures of today's permissive culture.
John the Baptist also exhibited outstanding boldness in his statements to the religious establishment of his day. The religious leaders and their followers were riddled through with hypocrisy. John called the Pharisees and the Sadducees a "brood of vipers" (Matthew 3:7)! This type of rhetoric didn't mean that John had a "holier than thou" attitude towards the religious authorities. No! He was simply presenting the facts!
It appears that some of those self-righteous hypocrites were coming to John to be baptized as an outward display of their supposed humility, for the benefit of the general public! But John the Baptist saw through their masks and told them that true repentance was evidenced by spiritual fruit. Even though they claimed to be following the faith of their forefather, Abraham, it was obvious that they were lying. There was no spiritual fruit in their lives. John went even further, boldly telling them that if they didn’t bring forth fruit they would be cut down and thrown into the fire like fruitless fig trees! In that day, you didn’t upset and insult the religious establishment of the Jews lightly. It could result in your death, as it did for the first martyr, Stephen.
Think of the huge crowds, the popularity and the success that John could have enjoyed if he had watered down his message just a little. He could even have won the approval of the religious leaders of the day! But crowds and prosperity were not the bottom line for John. He fearlessly proclaimed the truth without respect of persons or consequences.
Do we have the kind of courage of John the Baptist had? Do we proclaim the truth to our largely self-righteous, hypocritical world? Don't expect a lot of listeners, if you boldly speak out about the judgment of God and the eternal punishment of hell. The Lord Jesus said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you" (John 15:18). Most people don’t want to hear about guilt or personal responsibility for sin.
Many Christians are afraid or ashamed to boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel, because it might be offensive to people. Where are the John the Baptists of today? We don't even have to risk our lives, as John did - and yet we’re still reluctant to follow John's model of courage. We should be ashamed of ourselves for refusing to follow in the bold footsteps of John the Baptist.
He was Orthodox
Orthodox means sound in doctrine. John the Baptist was orthodox, not only because he quoted and applied the Old Testament Scriptures properly, but because he knew the primary focus of these Scriptures was the Person and work of the coming Messiah.
When John announced the arrival of the Lord Jesus, he proclaimed His purpose and work: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." That’s not a direct quote from the Old Testament Scriptures, so where did John get that idea? Most likely John had Isaiah 53 in mind when he referred to the Lord Jesus as the "Lamb of God." As John had read Isaiah 53 and other Old Testament Scriptures, he had come to the realization that the coming Messiah would have to die as God’s sacrificial Lamb. Very few of John's contemporaries had this orthodox view of the Messiah. Even though they had the prophecy of Isaiah, they were convinced that the Messiah would come as a conquering war hero, or as a great prophet like Elijah - not as a suffering Servant!
And John was fully orthodox about the deity of the coming Messiah. Although the Lamb of God would have to be fully human in order to die, John never viewed the suffering Servant as less than God. He stated emphatically that "He existed before me" (John 1:30). In Jewish thought, this statement would definitely equate Jesus with God, the Eternal One.
John further realized that the death of the Messiah would be a substitutionary death. The death of this Lamb would "take away the sins of the world"! When John read in Isaiah 53:6, "the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him," he rightly concluded that the nature of the death of the Messiah would be substitutionary atonement.
When we think of the time frame in which he lived, John the Baptist’s orthodoxy about the Person and work of Christ is truly amazing! Even among godly the Jews at that time, the Person and work of the coming Messiah was not a clearly and concisely defined concept. Joh the Baptist’s clear, well-defined orthodox views were like a Christological lighthouse in the midst of a sea of Messianic questions and false assumptions.
John the Baptist's orthodox statements about the Messiah still stand today as a bastion of orthodoxy - as a strong defense against the onslaught of false views about the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Views of the cross which fall short of substitutionary atonement are shown to be unorthodox, when compared to John's straightforward statement, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Unorthodox views which make Jesus Christ a "good man" - but not God - can’t stand up against John's clear statement that his younger cousin "existed before me." How dare a professing Christian take a less orthodox view of Jesus Christ than His forerunner, John the Baptist?
The acronym from our title, “Choosing HBO,” may help us remember John the Baptist’s outstanding qualities - qualities that we should choose to emulate! Let us choose to be Humble! Let us choose to be Bold! Let us choose to be Orthodox!
- Dave Reid