Calling All The True Believers
Luke 2:41-42
"Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom."
The friends and family traveled together to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover holidays. When it came time to leave for home Mary and Joseph didn't know that Jesus had stayed behind. They assumed he was with the rest of the travelers. This was a biblical version of a Home Alone sort of thing. Mary and Joseph traveled a full day before they realized Jesus wasn't with them. So as you might imagine after they discovered he was not with them, and put together that he must have stayed at Jerusalem, they still had to travel another day to get back to Jerusalem. Though it's likely that they traveled in haste on the return trip. What we do know is...
Luke 2:46
"After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions."
So even after returning to Jerusalem and frantically searching it was still in total three days before they found him.
What sort of kid was Jesus?
It's hard to imagine. His parents are extremely upset, frantically searching for three days. Imagine what that would be like. In this day and age, people would be losing their minds. There'd be an amber alert across the entire nation. Mary and Joseph find Jesus and he's having theological debates with the temple priests and prophets. And upon finding him, Mary lays into him about why he did these things and how he was upsetting them so much. And all Jesus has to say is, don't you know I must be about my Father's business?
Luke 2:48-49
"And his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress." And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
What kind of response is that, I mean, seriously what is this kid thinking? For three days he's been debating the life of faith and all sorts of things in the temple of the Lord. What did he do that entire time? Where did he sleep? Where did he eat? What did he eat?
These are the things that Mary's thinking about. He could've been abducted and, I guess in that age even taken off into slavery somewhere. I mean, seriously what was he thinking.
Well, he tells us what he was thinking. He's thinking about the people of Israel and the people of God and the things they've got on their mind and the things that they are thinking about. And these things weigh on his mind so much that even as a 12-year-old boy he's compelled to do something about it.
Luke 2:51
"And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart."
And so, here we have the gospel telling us that Jesus submitted to his mother and decided I guess to behave himself for a few more years. As if that was entirely his choice. And I suppose it is at the end of the day. I can't imagine a runaway Jesus, a teenage runaway Jesus. But maybe he is so compelled by his passion for truth and Gods eternal will that he would runoff to get involved in some sort of religious experience. It seems like that kind of thing could happen. That's kind of the thing that happened to his cousin John the Baptist. So maybe at the end of the day this wasn't an unusual thing at all in that age.
At any rate, Jesus grows in knowledge and experience, and then the real religious debates begin. But before that, his cousin John the Baptist begins his earthly ministry. It was "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar". This period is generally dated to be around 27-28 A.D. when Pontius Pilate had been made governor of Judea.
John the Baptist was doing his thing in the wilderness. Wearing camel hair and eating locust. Living the life of reclusive religious figure. When he caught a Word from God...
Luke 3:2
"during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness."
So think about the implications of what's happening here. The king of the universe Almighty God hasn't really spoken to the people of God for hundreds of years. What was that world like? What were the people like, who didn't have a word from God? And now, John in the wilderness meets up with the word of God. Imagine what that was like. And I wonder about this word from God. Just exactly what does that mean. Did he receive a revelation, a vision, a dream. Or did the literal word of God, meaning Jesus himself, take a road trip out to the desert and meet up there with his cousin John? Did Jesus spend a little time with his cousin discussing how they might get the ministry going? I suppose it's possible. Somehow or another God motivated John to begin.
Luke 3:3
"And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
As preachers go, John must've been something powerful to see indeed. A real Billy Graham, sort of guy. His words cut deep and right to the point. And he was an expositional preacher using the Old Testament scriptures to call people to repentance.
Luke 3:4-6
"Make his paths straight!"
"Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low!"
"And the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways!"
"And all flesh shall see the salvation of God!"
This was the promise that John was giving to the people, that as they prepared themselves, they would find and see God's salvation. And so, people from all around, a real revival, would come to him for baptism into this promise. And many who showed up were the self-righteous Jews. He called them a generation of vipers.
Now, imagine your pastor gets up and looks across the congregation and calls out to everyone, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
John comes across to me as a type of Charles Finney character. He's looking around the land for outward signs of repentance. He wants legitimate repentance. Fruitful actionable obedience to God's commands. Maybe out there by the Jordan he'd set up a mourning bench like Finney would. Maybe an altar rail would work. Some means for getting to the true heart of the people who are coming to him for forgiveness.
However you feel about these sorts of things, these altar calls, and revival camp meetings, you have to admit that they do draw a crowd. And in the case of John and the Jews, who came to him, there was this prevailing attitude among many, that this promise was owed to them. That the grace and mercy and forgiveness of the Lord God Almighty was something they possessed by virtue of being a Jew. And they even said this to him suggesting that they have their father Abraham to stand in the gap for them. And in all the excitement of a camp meeting and altar calls, many people will renounce their sin and renounce their lives outside of God's will. They'll vow to do better and be different next time. John the Baptist essentially says to them, "Words are cheap", "Show me the money."
So John is calling for changed lives, and he says something really profound here as if he can read their minds...
Luke 3:8
"...And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."
That is such a great point and it's something that everyone really needs to think deep about. God truly is able to do anything if anything was what he was trying to do. If he wanted a multitude of worshipers, who would worship him perfectly in all the ways that he wants them to worship he could literally look at the rocks and stones and the dust of the ground, and he can make them. He could build a congregation out of the Earth of autonomous robots, worshiping him constantly in perfect worship. But obviously that's not what he wants.
The Jews claim that they are the beneficiaries of the Abrahamic covenant. And they said the same things to Jesus, and Jesus would say to them pretty much the same thing that John said, show me some fruit, where is the money, if it works, why isn't it working?
John 8:39
They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did."
Have you seen the movie Moneyball?
That's what this is. This is one of those Moneyball moments.
There's a point in the movie, Moneyball, where Billy Beane says about a potential player...
"If he’s a good hitter, why doesn’t he hit good?" – Billy Beane
And it's just a common sense observation, but it's profound. John the Baptist is looking out over the crowd of would be baptized people and he's saying to them
"if Abraham is your father, why isn't Abraham your father?"
If God is your ultimate concern, why isn't God your ultimate concern?
Why aren't you living it already?
Where's the beef?
What he's recognizing in them is that they use this Abrahamic covenant as a sort of excuse for living however they want. Because they feel like they're covered under the Abrahamic covenant. And if you can't lose it, then you might as well live it as you please, not as God wants, not to please God, but to please yourself.
John is calling out for a true believer who has true repentance. And he's telling them that when they don't there's a cost that will be paid.
Luke 3:9
"Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
The day of reckoning is at hand, the kingdom of God is near. And the crowd asked him what they should do and he tells them what basically amounts to a social gospel, a golden rule gospel. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Charity, goodwill, kindness. Essentially the Micah 6:8 principles.
Luke 3:11
"Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise."
Micah 6:8
"And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Don't do injustice anymore. Share what you have. Do not bear false witness. Do not cheat the people. LOVE mercy! The Ten Commandments.
And following this sermon John reminds them all...
Luke 3:16-17
"I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
The fire of the Holy Spirit is a purging cleansing fire. And we'll learn a lot more about that going forward as Jesus begins his earthly ministry.
For now, think about the Moneyball question for your life.
"If he’s a good hitter, why doesn’t he hit good?"