Follow up to today's teaching--as promised.

This morning I was preaching on Acts 18:24-19:7. And I spent a little bit of time talking about John the Baptist where the context called for that. During that discussion, I mentioned that I would post much more about John the Baptist here in my blog.

The information I'm posting below is from a sermon I preached in September of 2003 at King's Chapel--I haven't bothered to go back and do any editing--just a quick cut and paste.

Enjoy--or not.

Well for those who weren’t here last week, we began a new series in the Gospel of John. We looked at the introduction to the book and we met a guy named John the Baptist. Today, as we look at John 1:19-34, we’ll find out who this John the Baptist guy is and what his job is. And that’s where we are headed today. We want to learn about John the Baptist, but more importantly, we want to find out what his role was in the story of Jesus. And as we do that, we’ll learn all sorts of things about Jesus Christ, since John was always pointing us to him.
So let’s start by reading that passage together now. If you have your Bibles, open them up to John 1:19-34. That’s John 1:19-34. Follow along with me as we read from John’s gospel.
READ JOHN 1:19-34
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought that John the Baptist was one of the most fascinating characters in all of scripture. I mean here’s this guy who’s conception and birth are predicted by the angel Gabriel (that’s the same angel that predicted Jesus birth, remember), and when Gabriel does this, he basically lays out John’s life before his father. Then, when he grows up, he goes off to the middle of no where, and he lives in the wilderness until it’s time to begin his public ministry of prophecy to the people of Israel. Then, around AD 27, he suddenly comes out of the wilderness wearing a leather girdle and coat made of camel’s hair! He starts baptizing people, telling them to repent of their sins. If that isn’t an interesting character I don’t know who is?
Now most of those details of John the Baptist’s life don’t come from the Gospel of John, but from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. Here in this gospel, everything we learn about John is focused on Jesus, which is sort of the point. So let’s look at the testimony of John the Baptist, starting in verse 19 of John one.

Verse 19 tells us that “This was the testimony of John when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants (or Levites) from Jerusalem to ask John whether he claimed to be the Messiah.” Just to set the scene a bit here, John is being interrogated by these men; this is not a fun little interchange he’s having. The Jewish leaders of the day were not happy with him, because his baptizing was bringing Israelites from all over the area; they were coming to John for repentance. So the Jewish leaders want to know if he thinks he’s the Messiah. It’s a fair question. Some people were saying that John might be the Messiah and that would have filtered back to the powers that be.
Well what did John say when they asked him if he thought he was the Messiah? Verse 20 tells us that “He flatly denied it. ‘I am not the Messiah’, he said”. Ok, you’re not the Messiah. “‘Well then, who are you?’ they asked. ‘Are you Elijah?’” Now, why would they wonder if John the Baptist thinks he’s Elijah? Some of you might be wondering who Elijah is anyway, and that’s Ok.
Here’s the deal, 2 Kings 2:11 tells us that Elijah didn’t really die, he just sort of went up to be with the Lord. Ok, keep that little fact in mind as we fast forward to the last book of the OT which is Malachi. After the book of Malachi was written, four hundred years pass before Jesus shows up on the scene. So, Malachi is kind of an important book simply because of where it lies in the OT. Now in the last paragraph of the last chapter of the last book of the OT, just before that four hundred years of silence is about to start, this is what God says through Malachi to the people of Israel: “I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes”.

So Malachi taught that Elijah had to come back before the Messiah could arrive. And that’s why they wanted to know if John thought that he was Elijah. And what did John say? “NO”. Now, does this cause a problem for us? The Jews believed Elijah had to arrive first; John refuses the title of Elijah. Well, it gets a little more confusing, in Matthew 11:14 Jesus tells us that John IS Elijah? So is John contradicting Jesus? I think the answer is found in Luke 1.
This is the angel Gabriel talking to Zechariah as he was working in the Temple (remember, he was a Jewish priest). He’s just predicted that Zechariah’s wife will soon have a baby and that he should name him John. Then he starts telling him all about his son, and how he’s going to be this great prophet, and look what he says about John in verse 17. “He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah”. Then he goes on to essentially quote the book of Malachi.
So you see, it wasn’t so important that Elijah himself came before Jesus, but that someone LIKE Elijah came. Someone with the spirit and power of Elijah. And John the Baptist was appointed by God to be that man. But John is the poster child for disciples. He’s always taking the attention of off himself. So either he doesn’t yet realize that he is the fulfillment of the promise that Elijah would return, or, he’s afraid that by admitting to it, he’ll call attention away from Jesus.
So he denies being the Messiah, he denies being Elijah. Then they ask him if he’s the Prophet. Most experts think that this is a reference to a prophet who was prophesied about way back in Deuteronomy. But again, John says “No, I’m not that guy either!”
At this point, these guys are getting frustrated and they say in verse 22: “Then who are you? Tell us, so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” (Verse 22). Then John replies by quoting the prophet Isaiah. He says: “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, Prepare a straight pathway for the Lord’s coming!” (verse 23). This is some pretty serious language to proclaim to the delegates of the Jewish leaders. What it amounts to is a stinging indictment of the spiritual condition of God’s people of the day, namely Israel, or, the Jews. It’s like going to the President’s advisors and telling them that you have all kinds of dirt that will ultimately lead to the president’s impeachment when it becomes public. That’s how serious John’s words are.

So John’s description of himself is pretty serious, but it’s also a great model to follow in a way. John is asked if he’s the messiah, and he says no, he’s asked if he’s Elijah, and he says no, he’s asked if he’s the prophet and he says no. What is John? He’s a voice, he’s just a voice. And that’s all God asks us to be. If you are a Christ follower today, you have been called to be a voice for God. I don’t mean that you get to invent new words from God, what I mean is that when you find yourself with a chance to share your faith, God wants you to be a voice for Him. Or when you have a chance to encourage someone who is really down about something, God wants you to be a voice for Him.
Every week, I pray before I preach that God would allow me to get out of His way and simply speak through me. That I would be His voice for these few minutes. It’s amazing how God does put things in your mind to say.
I give a copy of my sermon to Fred and Navaar Johnson back in the sound booth before the service so that they know when to put the PowerPoint slides up. Every now and then Fred will comment that I left out a whole paragraph or page even. Other times he informs me that I went completely off the page and added a bunch of stuff that wasn’t there. But since he gets to read how it was going to be, he can compare that to how it actually turned out. And most of the time it’s a spirit driven, on the fly, improvement. And most of the time, I don’t even know that I’m doing it! That’s when I truly become, just a voice. Like John the Baptist was just a voice, like you too are just a voice for God, when you are prayed up and open to His leading. This isn’t some spooky thing that happens, it’s just the way God works sometimes when we are open to being a voice for Him.
Well, John’s claim of being a voice from the wilderness does not satisfy some of the people who had been sent to interrogate John. And in verse 25 the Pharisees get down to business when they ask him this question: “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?”
Let’s pause here for a minute and talk about the significance of John’s act of Baptizing people. If you’ve ever studied this passage before, you might have found yourself wondering why John was baptizing. I mean, we know that God told him to do so, but what significance did baptism have for John since Jesus hadn’t made himself known yet. I mean, what did John’s Baptism do that couldn’t wait for Jesus to show up? Why did God choose this symbol? John says that he’s a voice, isn’t that good enough? Why does he have to baptize people too?

Ok, let’s talk about the Jewish culture of the day to answer some of these questions. Contrary to popular belief, Baptists did not invent baptism. In fact, often times, when a non Jew would convert to Judaism, he or she would be baptized, that is dunked under the water to show a clean break with your old life and habits and religious beliefs. When you would be baptized into the Jewish faith your whole life would change. So, people of the day were familiar with the concept of Baptism. It wasn’t anything new to them. Jews knew that Gentiles (that’s you and me), were dirty before God and needed cleaning up so they baptized them in water.
But here’s the thing, and this is the key to understanding this issue. John wasn’t just baptizing Gentiles, he was baptizing Jews! In fact, he was focusing all his attention on Jews! What did that say about those Jews who were being baptized? Their Judaism wasn’t good enough anymore. Jews were just as unclean as gentiles before God. Everyone needed to seek forgiveness and repentance. Even upstanding, model Jews.
We all need repentance as well. I grew up in a strong Christian home. I don’t remember the first time I prayed for God’s forgiveness through Jesus. But I know I did at some point. And I know that later on I made it real in my life. Others here in this room went through long hard journeys of drug abuse, alcohol addiction, living life to the full so to speak, and then God humbled them and brought them to Himself. It doesn’t really matter what your background is. I don’t care if your mom or dad were strong Christians, or complete atheists. I don’t care if you’ve never done anything really bad in your life, or if you’ve lived like hell. When we come to the foot of the Cross where Jesus died for our sin, we are all on the same level. No one gets a head start when it comes to forgiveness.

Well, when John starts baptizing Jews for repentance, he’s making a clear statement that things are about to change in a big way. It’s no surprise then, that the Pharisees, (those were the legalists of the day), were so upset with John’s baptism and wanted to know what right he had to be doing it. John doesn’t really answer them; he just kind of taunts them. He says in verse 26 “I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not know, who will soon begin his ministry. I am not even worthy to be his slave” (or untie his sandals-which was something reserved for slaves in that day). In other words, ‘you’re upset with me? Just wait till the next guy comes along, then you’ll really be mad, I’m nothing compared to Him’.
So John tells us that this whole thing took place near the Jordan River, in a village called Bethany and this was one day. Verse 29 starts a new day.
So verse 29 tells us that: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” You know it’s easy to just skate right over this verse and just say ‘Yeah, John is pointing out Jesus to the crowd, that’s his job, to point to Jesus. But what does John call Jesus? He calls him The Lamb of God.
I heard a story of a pastor who asked someone in his church why he thought Jesus was referred to as the Lamb of God? And this man replied that it was probably because Jesus was so gentle and nice.
Well, there’s a lot more to it than that. This could be a reference to the Passover Lamb, or it could be reference to the temple lamb. See, in the Jewish temple at the time, every morning and evening, a one year old lamb would be killed on behalf of God’s people. Regardless of which lamb John was referring to, one thing is for sure, to Jews of the day, all lamb sacrifices showed deliverance, forgiveness of sin, and messianic salvation.
Jesus came to this earth to die. His life was a sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice. After Jesus died, no other animals needed to die. But unlike all those lambs that had been killed, Jesus rose again from the grave. Jesus beat death, he fought death and he won. And because of that, he is able to offer forgiveness of sins to all who will accept that gift.
So when John calls Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he’s basically stating that one day Jesus will die. Here in Jesus’ first days of His public ministry we are getting a glimpse forward to his last days of public ministry.
So John points to Jesus, calls him the Lamb of God and says in verse 30: “He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Soon a man is coming who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before I did.’” You know what John is? John’s a movie trailer. You know what a movie trailer is? You go the movie’s and before the movie comes on; they have all sorts of previews for other movies. They announce the coming of a new movie, they point to a new movie. But the preview is no substitute for the actual movie. John’s the preview, the trailer.
You know, Jesus has been making Hollywood headlines a lot lately right? A lot of people are talking about Mel Gibson’s film about the life of Jesus. Well, when they find a buyer for it, I think they would be really clever if they had an actor playing the part of John the Baptist do the trailer, the preview. It would be very consistent with the story of Jesus.
Anyway, John’s whole job is to point out Jesus, to announce Jesus, to prepare the way for Jesus. As he went around baptizing Jews he was forcing people to ask, “What new order is coming to the people of God that would require good Jews to be baptized?” But in pointing to Jesus, he also teaches us about Jesus. And here in verse 30, John tells us that Jesus existed long before he did. Some translations simply say, “He was before me”. Now Jesus and John were born right about the same time, but John was actually born before Jesus. So, this isn’t about one’s age here on earth. It’s about the fact that Jesus has always existed. The son was sent by the Father at a particular time in our history, but in whatever sense God the father has always been, -and I think that we have to throw away our notions of time and space to even get a glimpse of what that means-, on whatever plane of existence God is, Jesus is there with him for all eternity backwards and forwards.

Now, what’s amazing is that John didn’t know who Jesus was when he began baptizing for repentance; he just knew that God had told him to do so. Look at verse 31: “I didn’t know he was the one, but I have been baptizing with water in order to point Him out to Israel. Then John said, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘When you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting upon someone, he is the one you are looking for’”.
Now throughout the Old Testament, we see godly Kings, and judges and prophets receive the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit existed in the Old Testament times. But, and here’s the big difference between Jesus and all those prophets, judges and kings: When the spirit landed on a great king of old, he didn’t hang around for ever. He eventually left. The Holy Spirit never perpetually lived in someone until Jesus came along. When the Holy Spirit landed on Jesus, he stayed there! This was a permanent anointing.
This is a huge shift in the way the Holy Spirit works and, it foreshadows what will happen on the day of Pentecost shortly after Jesus goes back up to heaven. See, later on in the story, when Jesus is getting this new thing called the church going, he promises that when he leaves, the Holy Spirit will come on the church and dwell inside of those who follow Jesus. This is a major shift.
And just as the Holy Spirit landed on Jesus and stayed, when we become Christians, when we step out in faith and accept God’s forgiveness, we too experience the power of the Holy Spirit and the spirit doesn’t leave us again.
That doesn’t mean that we can’t smother the Holy Spirit. You know, one can truly make a change in his or her life, experience true salvation in Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit and then a year later or whenever, begin living his or her life completely devoid of the spirit’s action. It’s not that the Spirit has left that person; it’s just that the Spirit is hindered or quenched, as we sometimes call it, so that He is no longer manifesting his work clearly.
We don’t have to pray to get refilled over and over again with the Holy Spirit. Once is enough. What we can pray for is that the Holy Spirit would manifest itself in a very real way in our lives and in our church, and in our Sunday morning worship service, and when we meet for small groups. The Holy Spirit’s presence is assumed in the life of the Christ follower, His manifestation is the thing that we seek, and that we pray for constantly.
So John baptizes with water to demonstrate a need for repentance on the part of the gentile and the Jew. Jesus, John tells us, will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
John closes this section with one more statement from his testimony. He says: “I saw this happen to Jesus (referring to the spirit landing on Him in the form of a dove), so I testify that he is the son of God.” And that was John’s whole job, to point people to Jesus. And he did that. He didn’t draw attention to himself; he didn’t even want to be called Elijah even though Jesus later on stated that he was Elijah in a way. John the Baptist was the first disciple of Jesus and without a doubt, one of the best examples for us to follow as disciples of Jesus. John was a man with a mission. He was always far more concerned about the life of Jesus than he was about his own life. He was focused on the job he had been given to do. And John was available, God told him to go baptize and he did. He could have said, “I don’t know God, I’m not really a people person, that’s why I’ve been hanging out here in the wilderness. I just need my space.” He could have said, “Well, I want to make sure I’ve got enough money set aside for retirement, can we talk a little more about my benefits package?” No, God said go, and he went. I would leave you with this to think about. What is God calling you to do for him? Or what has he already called you to do that you know in your heart you’ve been putting off? It doesn’t really matter if you die penniless, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t get to live the quiet life you had hoped for, or whatever life you had hoped for, what matters most is that you follow God’s leading in your life. Whatever that is.
We have the power of Holy Spirit on our side, we have the truth of Jesus in our hearts, and we have a mandate from God to be His voice to those around us. The question is, can we keep our focus, and will we be available. Let’s close in prayer.

Worship and Prayer

Recently, a friend of mine from college reconnected via email after running into a mutual friend of ours. After the normal "how is your life, tell me about your kids, etc. etc." kind of stuff. But soon, the conversation turned more serious and questions about the nature of worship took precedence. It's like when you run into a mechanic friend, you've always got questions about some random thing your car is doing--I get that as a pastor with regard to spiritual and biblical matters. It occurred to me after responding to these questions that the answers may be of some help to those in the Terra Nova community. So here it is. Names have been starred.

Phil, Here is the question I have for you~ are there any references to public prayer in the Bible, as a positive thing? Even when it refers to Jesus blessing the loaves and fishes it doesn't specifically say he did it over a loud speaker (if you know what I mean). ***** believes that it is a very private thing and tends to think that people do it more like the pharasee. I understand that ***** can't see into their hearts but ***** sincerely questions the traditions of public prayer.

Another question:~ worship, why are Sunday church services (this person attends church in another state) more like a Bible study? There are the traditional songs sung before and after the sermon. One Pastor said that knowing, learning about the Bible is worship? You opinions will be very interesting. These things used to be a source of great contention between ***** and I but more and more I see the validity in the questions. ***** thinks beyond the traditions and that is something we haven't ever found anyone to banter about because so many are okay with the familiar traditions.

So what do you think?

My response is lengthy and follows now::

You are opening a whole can here. This is such a huge issue. My guess is that what ***** is reacting to is people who have abused worship. In general, I think we need to see all of life as an act of worship. going to work is worship, changing diapers is worship, singing, praying, giving, learning, loving, sex (between a husband and wife) is all worship in some sense. this is based on the fact that every aspect of our life should be lived for God's glory, in that sense, we are as christians, by definition, worshipers. in the old testament, you see this again and again where the people of Israel are described as worshipers of the one true God, they were defined by who they worshiped. we see prophetic words in the Old Testament telling us that while in that day, formal worship (officially) happened in a temple, or on a mountain that held sacred meaning---that one day we would worship God in spirit and in truth. we live in that day now, though because we are still tainted by sin, we worship poorly most of the time. we don't treat every aspect of our lives as worship, but that is the goal, the ideal.

I think the work that our worship arts pastor, scott womer, has done on this is really good. Here's the link for it. http://www.terranovachurch.org/worshiparts.html This is basically a statement of what Terra Nova church believes about worship, and I agree with it wholeheartedly.

I started answering your question by going to the big picture of seeing all of life as worship because in many ways this trumps the other questions and renders them moot. Now, let me go to another big picture issue that I see as influencing your questions. You have to deal with the importance of the church gathered. This could be a worship service where hundreds or thousands are worshiping together, or a small group of people sitting around a living room. This is the church gathered. When Christ called you to himself, he also called you to the church. The Christian life cannot be lived outside of the context of community. The idea of the individual worshiper who never worships in community is antithetical the whole thrust of the new testament, and really the entire bible.

All of scripture could be seen through two lenses. In the Old Testament, it's all about being rightly related to the nation of Israel (God's people in that day). In the New Testament, it's all about being rightly related to the church (God's people in this day). So, I say all of that to say that as Christians, we must live our lives with other Christians in an intimate way where other followers of Christ can speak into our lives- truth, and encouragement and rebuke and love and all of that good stuff that we need.

To bring it to your questions, we are called to be worshipers who must worship in community. This is a core truth for me that guides and informs everything I do as a pastor and as a Christian.

One more big issue on worship in general. Keeping in mind what I said above, we shouldn't be too quick to define exactly how worship looks either privately or corporately (by yourself or with the church). For example, scripture never says that you can worship by painting a picture, or paddling a kayak. But for me, the second one is very true. Many people feel very connected to God while in nature. They worship God well there, by themselves or with others. We can't find a verse and chapter for every picture of worship, but that does not mean this type of worship is invalidated.

So, in asking what type of prayer is appropriate worship (private or public)---knowing that all of life is worship, and we must do life in the context of Christian community, and that worship can look very different for different people in different times in different cultures, it should become really clear that both private and public worship are appropriate when not abused. (anything can be abused).

Personally, I can't imagine really engaging in true community with other followers of Christ and never praying with them? I can't imagine telling people at a worship service not to shout out to God. Even the songs we sing become words of prayer in a way. I can't imagine telling the pastor not to pray before teaching God's word and asking God to humble our hearts and use that time.

Your other question was "why are Sunday services more like a bible study". For 2000 years, church worship has by and large looked the same. Singing (most of the time), prayer, scripture reading and explaining, and communion (Eucharist, lord's table, you pick the name for it). In different times throughout history, one or more of these aspects of public worship has been emphasized more than others. In recent years (meaning a couple hundred years), due to the enlightenment and the reign of philosophical modernism and it's emphasis on rational thought, the church has attempted to explain everything in scripture with scientific precision, which has made the scripture aspect of church more teaching and less preaching. Meaning that it has often felt like an academic bible study, and not a time where God speaks to you and challenges you, and pushes you, and encourages you. This is a sad development that is thankfully beginning to change all over the country as we raid the good points to be learned from post modernism while leaving the behind the extra. Really, we are becoming pre-modern in our approach to worship, and that's a good thing and I think very balanced.

I don't believe that church should only feel like a bible study. I'm sorry that yours does. I think it should touch the mystical and eternal aspects of God, while challenging us to think more deeply about who God is. I see this happening through all aspects of how God has created us. It happens through scripture, through prayer, through singing, through art in all forms, through community, as we engage each other. It's a multi-faceted thing that isn't always easy to pin down or identify, and to some extant, it involves preferences for worship styles, teaching styles, etc. But one thing I'm sure of is that church should not feel like a glorified bible study in an academic sense only. Worship takes many forms.

So, you and ***** can talk about all that, and get back to me with further questions. Focus on the big picture.

phil taylor

To the Terra Nova Community--and anyone else reading the blogs::I'd love to see a good discussion on this emerge in the comment feature of the blogs.