Preparing the Way: John the Baptist's Radical Call

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Now what is significant about this I think is that the text is showing that the ministry of John and the ministry of Jesus were both solidly rooted and grounded in real history. [00:05:43]

From antiquity, the people of God have always faced the dilemma of the intrusion of syncretism into their worship. Probably the most destructive thing that ever happened to the Jews in the Old Testament is when the kings, for example, and the people wanted to blend their religion with the pagan culture around them. [00:06:05]

Well, anytime syncretism takes place, something corrupt is added to the religion of God, and at the same time, something vitally important is removed from the truth of God. And the church has had to deal with that from the first century until today. [00:06:47]

The 20th century, for example, saw two very important type syntheses come to be, come into being, which did immeasurable damage to Christianity and to the church. One that you might be familiar with is called liberation theology, which was a conscious attempt to blend or synthesize biblical Christianity with the philosophy of Karl Marx. [00:07:27]

Christianity was then seen as really having its purpose and focal point not the personal salvation of the soul for eternal life but rather the establishment of a kind of what they call social justice which is really social injustice but in any case, they were concerned about translating the meaning of the gospel to the here and now, to social and political issues. [00:08:02]

But here comes Luke on the stage, Luke who's been heralded as the greatest historian of antiquity, Luke who's telling us of things that happened where they happened, when they happened, and why they happened as he now gives us the setting for the appearance of John the Baptist. [00:16:15]

In that desolate wilderness between the hill country of Judea and the Dead Sea, that piece of real estate there where nothing grows except a few scrub bushes here and there, where the land is not covered with sand, not that kind of desert, but the land is covered by pebbles and stones and rocks under which live scorpions and snakes. [00:16:47]

The new requirement is this: they must be baptized for the remission of their sins. We really don't understand how radical that concept was to the Jews because prior to this time the only kind of baptism that was any significance among the Jews was called proselyte baptism. [00:18:24]

Now all of a sudden after 400 years of silence of the voice of prophecy out of the wilderness comes this man who acts and looks every bit like the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament and he says to the Jewish people come to the river and be baptized for the mission of sins. [00:19:54]

This is not New Testament baptism. This is not the baptism that is the covenant sign that Jesus instituted. This is preparatory baptism. There are many points of contact between the baptisms of John and the baptism of Jesus but they're not identical. This is given to the Jews because what John was saying or what God was saying through John is look, everything has changed. [00:20:10]

The prophetic word delivered in poetic imagery that's talking about what has to happen to people as God is coming to them. The proud, the arrogant, who have exalted themselves and appear as high mountains have to be brought low, and those who have been abased, those who have been oppressed, have to be lifted up. [00:24:25]

And all the thorns and the rocks and the stones and obstacles that fill our sinful hearts, our hearts of stone, have to be changed, the crooked places made straight, the rough places made smooth, because he's here, and you're not ready, and then all flesh will see the manifestation of the salvation of God. [00:25:52]

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