John the Baptist stands at the turning point between the Old Covenant and the New, calling people to repentance but also pointing beyond himself to Christ. The true greatness of John lies not in any miracles or the drama of his message, but in closeness of his message to the coming of Jesus, the One who fulfils all that the Old Covenant anticipated. Religion, repentance, and good works, though valuable, cannot save; only faith in Jesus can make a person new. The challenge is clear: do not remain in the shallows of the old religion, but go on to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] I don’t know whether they gave Logies to the prophets in the Old Testament for how well they went, but sometimes we today discuss about the Old Testament prophets as to which ones were the most important or had the greatest roles to fulfil. And of the choices, usually Moses, Elijah, Elisha and John the Baptist, are the major choices about, let me word it, Old Testament prophets, though we read about John the Baptist in the New Testament. He is the last of the line of the prophets that came in the Old Testament and Jesus actually said about him, excuse me, Jesus didn’t say excuse me, he said about John the Baptist that there is no man greater than John the Baptist but the person who’s least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. That’s talking about you and me. If we were to be put up in there,

[00:01:08] we don’t get in the list of the Old Testament prophets. They had a special role to fulfil. But interestingly, John the Baptist, in Jesus’ estimation, would be the greatest. Moses was perhaps the most enormously powerful and useful and leader-y. He was one that is a primary figure of setting up the Jewish nation. Elijah, very heroic and often quoted, and a great role model for prophets. Elisha, I think, did more miracles. But John the Baptist is called the greatest by Jesus. Have you ever wondered why? The reason is that he’s the one next to Jesus. Because in heaven’s estimate of things, your position close to Christ outranks every other thing you may have done. John the Baptist, the final Old Testament prophet. But we’re in a series of studies, as started from the end of last year,

[00:02:19] going through two books of the New Testament, Luke and Acts. Luke and Acts are written by the same person. There are two books in two volumes of one bigger book, Luke and Acts. And starting from just last week or so, I’ve determined that that’s going to be preaching in the Sunday mornings in particular, across the next maybe one year or two. We’re not going to say how long it will take. But we’re going to go through the scriptures. And we’re starting in through the book of Luke. Because Christmas events have taken the first chapters of Luke, I’m really doing that starting in chapter 3, which was last week. And we’re still in chapter 3. And we’re talking here about the ministry of the Old Testament as compared to the New Testament. There was a Sunday morning when,

[00:03:23] using a little Bible I have that happens to be King James, I notice in between the two Testaments, it had a page for New Testament. But underneath it said New Covenant, which sent me chasing, and I’ve talked about this for a week or two, but it sought me chasing the word for Testament and the word for Covenant in the scriptures, in the Greek versions for example. And the word Testament and the word covenant are both used to translate the one same Greek word Our last testament, will and testament when someone dies, there’s a will and a testament it’s the final thing said it’s going to be listened to and that’s what a testament, a covenant is and what we have in that list don’t put it up again but that list of the Old Testament prophets is going through those that contributed to what was the Old Covenant.

[00:04:26] And the Old Covenant was what by which the Jewish nation was built as a way to worship God. And it summed up our Old Testament of the Bibles, the first part of the Bible. It’s got most of the pages. In fact, New Testament is quite small compared to the Old Testament. But it’s how to know God through how he first revealed himself and through to the giving of the Old Covenant. That’s why it’s called the Old Covenant or Old Testament. But the Old Testament and Old Covenant has a final prophet, John the Baptist. The reason why John the Baptist is such a pivotal role is because he’s the final spokesperson of the Old Covenant, but he’s also the one who’s introducing the major spokesperson of the new covenant, Jesus. And so John the Baptist has both a role in summing up what it is

[00:05:28] to have Old Testament worship and serving God and also introducing the person who will speak for the new covenant, the New Testament. The word covenant figured in some of the Old Testament prophecies where it spoke about the fact that there was going to come a time of a new covenant and the new covenant is that which the New Testament is built upon. It is a replacement of what is the final word in testament, which is the Old Covenant. Not a cancelling, but an addition to and an ongoing revelation from. That’s our New Testament. Why am I talking about these things? because in chapter 3 of Luke the apostle writing the gospel well I’ll call him an apostle because so he became Luke a writer of scripture and one who gave us one of our four gospels but because in that giving of the gospel of Luke

[00:06:33] we have a comment on the usefulness of the old covenant and the finality of it summed up by John the Baptist why am I talking along this line because it’s important for us to realise the benefits that we have in the old testament and the old covenant but also for us to realise that we’re called on by the new testament to go on further and if you have a Christianity which largely is built of the old testament you haven’t yet arrived where the gospel of Luke wants to take you and in fact through writing up of John the Baptist our writer of the gospel of Luke has a very beautiful way to bring this to the head and in this chapter 3 verses I want to there we are you’ve already got it on the screen is how Luke is talking he says he said therefore to the crowd that’s John the Baptist they came out to be baptised by him

[00:07:40] you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come I’ve always been rather stunned at such an entrance by Luke or Luke quoting John the Baptist to call all the people who responded positively a brood of vipers that’s always caught me by mystery I don’t understand but I did have one commentary that gave a bit of light and the bit of light it gave was that John the Baptist was talking about a great punishment and a fire and he used pictures of the judgement of God being like a fire but one of the things the people of Luke’s generation knew that when you have a bushfire you’ve got to look out for all the snakes it gets to send out of the bushes and one of the features I mentioned this the other day of there being a bushfire is the snakes all turn up

[00:08:45] And John the Baptist knew that from his living in the wilderness and his dealing with little fires here and there, that if you set things alight, you get a brood of vipers to turn up. And when he started preaching about the fire of God’s judgment, all of these people came running to be baptized in a baptism of repentance because, and he called them a bunch of snakes, because they’re running from the fire, they’re being like snakes. When you set the bushes alight, they get out not to be burned up. When John the Baptist warned about when the Messiah came, there would be judgment at the house of God, as it were. And when he gave that warning, a lot of the people came to be baptized because they knew they were existing in the old covenant days in the Jewish religion, but they were existing in the bushes,

[00:09:40] not coming out into obvious light because they were a brood of vipers. It’s actually a comment on the human nature that the Old Testament addresses and seeks to help. It is the fact of our sinfulness, and even in the Jewish nation, that was called to be God’s people. They demonstrated by their desertions from time to time and their betrayals of trust in disobeying the laws that Moses gave them, the whole storyline right through the book of Numbers and how the Jewish people kept on disobeying those laws and God had to judge. It’s actually not a very merry tale to go through that book of Numbers and to see what’s happening to who are the people of God that represent his truth of how many times they fail it, they disobey it, and they show the sinfulness of the human heart. so much so that John the Baptist

[00:10:35] when he sees them all scurrying to be baptised that they won’t be punished he calls them a brood of vipers who are escaping the fire brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come now it tells us something about what the old covenant religion was like and what it is if you are a person who’s come to faith in God because you found it in the Old Testament readings and you found it in the religion properly put by the Old Testament it’s a book to bring people to God and to have faith it uplifts obeying the commandment it uplifts putting faith in God and gives examples of Abraham and others who come to faith which is the major thing that makes you right with God if you have an Old Testament faith properly found in the Old Testament look out our prophet John the Baptist

[00:11:32] who’s the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets he’s next to Jesus he points out that what the Old Testament is on bear fruits in keeping with repentance it’s on the place of repentance and the place of getting right with God by confessing your sins all good things to be done and then he goes on, look at it there and do not begin to say to yourselves we’ve got Abraham as our father we’re good Jews we’re keeping the laws oh yeah we disobey now and then but we get forgiven and come back they’re actually people who did pretty well at some stages of the Old Testament history in their old covenant other times they’re not they’re disobeying and getting punished but that’s what Old Testament Christianity is it’s keeping up by repentance and getting back to putting belief in God I’m not speaking against it

[00:12:40] I’m not saying it’s harmful I’m just telling you that it’s not New Testament Christianity and one of the features that you find within our Christian church especially if you minister as an itinerant and go around and teach and preach the gospel that every now and then there are people who respond who said I thought I was a Christian who thought they were in the church who loved the Old Testament who had an Old Testament religion but my sermon this morning is to bring to you the shout of John the Baptist because not only did he say make bear fruits in keeping with repentance but he goes on to speak about the fact you mustn’t trust in your good heritage having Abraham as a background don’t trust in your many years of family being in church you’re knowing the hymn so well you’re participating in worship

[00:13:42] have found a good expression of faith in God all of which is bright and proper and I’m not speaking against but I’m saying that John the Baptist because his ministry wasn’t only to sum up as the last of the Old Testament prophets it was to be the one that introduced Jesus and when he introduced Jesus he let go of the Old Testament regime he represented and Jesus is the chief spokesman of the new covenant and Jesus brings extra meaning to last will and testament by his death on the cross by his paying the penalty for our sins by him raising from the dead to offer a new life if any man be in Christ he becomes a brand new creation a new religion it is to come to Jesus which far subedes far goes ahead of far overcomes far better than having an Old Testament faith and one of the features that I discovered

[00:14:54] in being a person who toured and preached the gospel was that this gospel and the gospel of Luke is no one that doesn’t fail to do it he goes on past John the Baptist and showing the works fruits of repentance and faith he goes past that to speak about Jesus and to call for people to join in what is called the new covenant the new covenant that’s made in Jesus’ blood that is what the gospel of Luke that we from chapter 3 and on will be experiencing and it is not a wiping aside of the standards represented by the Old Testament it is not a belittling of the examples of some of its famous people even Abraham they Jewish people said they have great trust in having Abraham as their father nonetheless Abraham examples that the only thing that really saves you is when you put your faith in the promises of God

[00:16:06] and you’re saved by faith it’s the New Testament theme picked up from Abraham that Jesus was all about and that’s where we’ll be sailing as we go through the gospel of Luke from here on out let me draw your attention to something that the book of Hebrews says the book of Hebrews in chapter 6 and it talks about the fact that there’s a danger of being stuck in the elementary doctrines of Christianity and that’s what I discovered around churches that there are quite a number of people I’m talking about Baptist churches I was the Tasmanian state Baptist evangelist and went to go around all the churches I’ve been in the same role in West Australia and in other quarters of Australia where there’s Baptist churches that somehow as you go there you find people come to you and explain, they thought they were a Christian

[00:17:12] because they’d been taught in Sunday school, because they’d been introduced to have faith in God and had had that faith from an early age sometimes. A young man in a church, they asked me to come for a youth crusade. He barely got into being youth. But he got in the door with Jesus when he realised he needed to be converted. He needed to have some experience of Jesus and to move on from the Old Testament faith that he was introduced in Baptist church life. The book of Luke is written in order to call us to go on, but it’s not the only New Testament treatise so to do, but the book of Hebrews says, Therefore, chapter 6, verse 1, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God.

[00:18:18] That’s the difference between the old and the new. Dead works are those that don’t get you anywhere. The only works that do are not your works. That’s why all that you do is a dead work. All of the worship times you might have had, you might have as a youth sung with the groups that did the music. You might have been trained to teach Sunday school. You might have been brought up in a Baptist church. You might have even gone through the ceremonies such as baptism, but I want to tell you that they’re not the things that save you. The only thing that saves you is when you follow leaving dead works works done in your humanity and you move toward a faith in God let us therefore leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity the whole book of Hebrews have you noticed its title the book of Hebrews

[00:19:15] because it’s the Hebrew people who illustrated what it is to only get as far as dead works until they got gospelized which is why our four gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John read them for yourselves in how they seem to want to make a point that the whole thing this book is about is the gospel of God which takes you on from the elementary works to put your faith in the death and the resurrection and the offer of forgiveness found in the person of Jesus as I quoted before if any person be in Christ that one becomes a new creation this is not a matter of the old style it’s not a matter of the old things given as true as they are and the call of the Old Testament for us to leave the dead works and to be showing works suited for repentance we need to go on to Jesus you know the book of Hebrews is a massive contradiction

[00:20:22] apparent contradiction it’s not a contradiction at all but it’s called Hebrews but it gives you what the Hebrews couldn’t get in the Jewish religion it’s a book about it all being found in Jesus and the Gospel of Luke is doing just the same I didn’t know how many verses to quote so if I’ve given you too many don’t worry about it but let’s look at some of the Gospels Mark and chapter 1 verse 4 and in this particular Gospel it says John appeared baptising in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins now I’ve met people who often when you’re a travelling speaker you get lectured a little bit after you’re giving your effort by someone who wants to give you a correction of some sort or at least show that they’ve got something to add and sometimes I get people coming and telling me about

[00:21:29] how they don’t modern day preachers and so he’s inferring me and what I’ve just given don’t use enough repentance in it. They have a point. There are plenty of preachers who say just they leave out the matter of sin. They don’t mention repentance, so it can be quite correct what they’re saying. But you need to notice in the Gospel of Luke that John the Baptist majored on repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But if you read the Gospels, they major on Jesus, knowing him, and being converted to him. Not even, doesn’t matter what you’re converted from, what matters is who you’re converted to. If any person leave all their sins, no, it doesn’t say that. If any person join the right church, no, it doesn’t say that. if any person be in Christ that one becomes a new creation all things are passed away

[00:22:43] behold all things are become new in Jesus it’s all found and John the Baptist with a great heritage of being one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets and certainly I agree with the judgment because of how close he is to Christ he’s actually the greatest he didn’t have to do much else but be the one that introduced Jesus and he’s done the greatest thing have you been introduced to Jesus I remain forever grateful for the African student in my father’s college this is in Adelaide who arrived and turned the college upside down amongst professors and students for the ministry all very people come from churches to get into the ministry and study and become pastors and all but he stood out amongst a lot of us because he had a simple testimony and a simple question and he used to ask every person he met.

[00:24:02] He was studying at the university and boarding at the college, and he used to go to university, and I heard from my older sister the stories of how he got around and challenged people about Jesus. Coming up to a big-time professor and asking him in front of other professors, Do you love the Lord Jesus as your own personal saviour, but with such sincerity and obvious burning love for Jesus that that professor, according to the report, was visibly moved? And he asked the different people in the college, Do you love the Lord Jesus as your own personal saviour? Have you gone on from religion and proper conduct in a Baptist church or being someone that does jobs and is exercising all sorts of roles in the church, have you gone past that being on which you rest to loving Jesus?

[00:25:06] Loving Jesus is worth a million, million more than one little bit of Christian service. Now, I’m not belittling Christian service because one of the things that happened to that fellow from Africa is everywhere he went, he served Jesus. He loved Jesus. And because I heard him ask that question many times, he never actually asked me, and I have to confess, I was scared that he would one day because I didn’t know what I was going to say. But he introduced to me that it’s all about Jesus, knowing him. So the Bible, Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they are staggering when you compare them to the Old Testament, when you compare them to where their place of emphasis is. It’s all about knowing Jesus. Let’s look at Matthew 1, 14 to 15. And because this is the beginning of going through Luke,

[00:26:23] I’m also referring to the beginning of the other Gospels. And we’ll mark 1 to 4, we’ll do. Now, after John was… Then we’ll go to Matthew next. Then after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God and saying, the time is now. That’s what it means. The time is fulfilled. And the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. Not only just show good works of repentance, but repent and believe in the announced good news. The Gospel is the announced good news. You and Gellion. This announcement of the time is open to put your trust in this good news of Jesus. That’s Mark. Let’s go to Matthew. Matthew. I think I had the verse. No, I didn’t. All right. Then we’ll stick with Luke. Why don’t we do… No, let’s go to John. John chapter 1. One thing about the Gospel of John

[00:27:37] is it’s a bit different from Mark and Luke and Matthew. And John’s Gospel opens up with a simple letting loose of who is this Jesus. All things were made through him. Can’t you hear? The respect of John, of the wonderful Saviour Jesus. All things were made through him. That sums up the whole Old Testament teaching. Without him was not anything made that was made. And John’s Gospel goes on to speak of Jesus, the source of all things. And in the story line of Nicodemus coming to Jesus, John records, he tells him, unless you’re born again, you don’t even get to be counted in the show. Unless you’re born again, you won’t see the kingdom of God. This one who made all things. He’s the centre of it all. And the heart of Christianity is so much all in Jesus. It’s not that the other isn’t necessary.

[00:28:55] It’s not that the other’s not there. The whole Old Testament is much wonderful teaching on wisdom and teaching on how to live. But the essence that the book of Hebrews called on us not to fail to go ahead and find, is to find it all in Jesus. I wanted to ask you the question, have you found Jesus? Or maybe somebody here this morning needs to be asked, have you lost Jesus? Sometimes in the study of theological things, you see this in students who go to theological college. Sometimes it’s not the fault of the college, but the fault of what is the curriculum to pass their exams they have to go on through, of knowing all the different ways of interpretation, of knowing all the different ideas, of knowing the philosophies that stand behind and have an influence, of knowing all the applications

[00:30:03] to know how to put it into practice in the church, the overwhelming sets of things that people sometimes get to study when they go off to college but they came in like that fellow that African bloke who only knew one thing now he wasn’t a dunce because he was studying at the University of Adelaide but he was a person that knew something so deep and certain that is all found in Jesus that he couldn’t stop talking about him and I realise because I watch theological students in my father’s colleges and I want to tell you that some of them came in on fire for Christ and they went out cold in all their studies and their academia there’s something to be lost if you know Jesus and you move on and think you’ve found something greater than him or you’ve found a whole lot of expertise that gave you to be the person that could point

[00:31:05] to folk and say here how it’s wrong here and here’s how the better way to understand this here and I’ve studied this and I’ve become it. I want to tell you, have you found Jesus? This call this morning is to go on deeper into Jesus. It is a call to leave behind the works of repentance as necessary as they are back then in that time but it’s a call to see that the New Testament takes you to Jesus and to walk with him and to love him and let him take over absolutely everything that brings you ability to interpret this book. Do you know the final bit of the Gospel of Luke? I won’t say it now. Go home and read the final chapters about two disciples who had to get reminded that what it was all about was Jesus. It’s possible in the midst of Christianity especially when it’s Christianity

[00:32:14] as to how we think and what we do and how we serve and what we do with church all of that has got so minuscule application as compared to this one thing that I think God wants us to hear. Go on! Don’t linger in the shallows. Don’t linger back where you started about repentance, about the Old Testament religion, about those things. Go on! Don’t linger in the shallows. Go on! To Jesus. The book of Hebrews. I think there’s such a, not a sarcasm, but such an enormous comment made by calling it the book of Hebrews, telling him, don’t keep thinking about your background as Jews. Think about Jesus. And that’s exactly what John the Baptist says here in his third chapter. Don’t be thinking about you’ve got Abraham as your father. Think about knowing Christ. It’s why the gospel is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,

[00:33:24] as Mark puts it, as John exemplifies it with the storyline of Nicodemus. The whole book of John traces through about Nicodemus because he finally finds Jesus and becomes a convert so that when Jesus dies and his body is taken down from the cross, Nicodemus and one other fellow go along to be the ones to demand the probably danger of their lives, the body from Pilate. And Pilate gives them the body of Jesus. They go and bury him in that man, extra man, special tomb. He was a rich man that had a cave. That’s where Jesus’ body was put. In the book of Hebrews calls on us, don’t linger in the shallows. Get keen on Jesus. Go into the deeper things of Christ and who he is. Study the scriptures for what they’ll tell you about Jesus. And when you take on board that way of looking at scriptures,

[00:34:27] you’re looking for the person of Jesus. You’re looking not just for propositions concerning him. There’ll be enough of those, yes. But when you read the scriptures and you do it with a prayer, Jesus, show yourself to me, you’ll be staggered at how he is actually the presence behind. Every line, every precept, every teaching is Jesus and suddenly you realise his authority is in this book and all previous times and I’ve seen this among scholars, people studying at universities and at teacher’s colleges, the people who find this book as a book for them to have their theories on and they write dissertations for but you know some of them miss, they miss the greatest use of this book. it’s the fragrance of Jesus found on every line it’s his person who speaks to you it’s a type of living that an African bloke showed me

[00:35:30] that the greatest thing you could do is to love Jesus and take it as a calling in life to do what he did I know I’ve told my story many times but I got scared one day he’d ask me the question Jim do you love the Lord Jesus as your own personal saviour I knew Jesus as my saviour I knew I was a Christian I knew I had an evangelistic calling of some sort but I didn’t know that I could have responded to him and said that I loved Jesus the way I saw he did this fellow from another country love Jesus and the Gospel of Luke goes on to be one of the four Gospels that tells us of Jesus which is what our teaching is going to follow across the next two years we’re going to do Luke and the Gospel the Book of Acts they’re two parts from the same author so you call it a two volume book Luke and Acts

[00:36:39] and that’s what I’ve given myself to preach on. I’m happy with the task because I’m already aware I’m going to find Jesus on every page. Join with me in it as we seek to open up the storyline of Jesus. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the wonder of your revelations. The revelation of the Old Testament, the fact that it’s got a covenant, the last will and testimony, the Old Covenant, and that has been overruled or taken further is a better word to say. It didn’t make the Old Testament wrong. It gave it its follow-up, the New Covenant or the New Testament. And this New Testament so rightly has four Gospels. And they begin as Mark does, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. May we not miss him. May we find him. And may we worship him, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.