Luke 3:3 “And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins…”
Luke 3:7-9 “Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [8] Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. [9] And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Luke 3:18 “And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.”
John’s life, as we have seen, was characterized by great consecration through his devotion to his Lord and Savior. However, there is another aspect of John’s character that we will examine in this chapter, and that is the great courage he possessed as he boldly proclaimed God’s truths and prepared the way for the coming Messiah as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. Luke 3:4 “As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
The courage of John the Baptist can be easily identified through the style in which he proclaimed God’s message to the people who flocked to hear him preach in the regions around the Jordan River. We will consider three elements present in John’s preaching that distinguished his ministry from the other teachers of the law (the scribes, Pharisees, and priests) who lived in his day.
John Preached Openly
First, we see that John the Baptist preached openly and publicly to the people. Although in our Western culture, the majority of Christians are blessed to be able to gather together for worship in comfortable (and at times even beautiful) church buildings, John was never afforded that luxury. He never stood to address his audience behind the rostrum of an ornate cathedral under the cascading glow of glimmering lights that streamed down through rows of stained glass windows.
Instead, John’s pulpit may have been a tree stump or a large boulder that protruded from the muddy banks of the Jordan River; and there, under the middle-eastern sun, blocked only by the shade of an occasional cypress or juniper tree, John would stand to preach with all of his heart about the coming kingdom of heaven and plead with those who came to turn to God in true repentance (Matthew 3:2).
As John the Baptist preached openly his message began to draw large crowds; however, it also began to draw heated criticism as well. What is interesting to note is that the criticism of both John and his message did not come from the common people - the publicans, the tradesmen, the harlots, or the fishermen (for they recognized their sinful state and saw their need for repentance). Instead, it was the religious crowd (the priests, the scribes, and Pharisees) who criticized and pushed back at John’s miraculous ministry!
Sadly, this trend remains true even today, for any time a group of dedicated believers in a local church assembly begin to obey God’s Word and share their faith; and as a result, folks begin to get saved and baptized, and the church begins to grow – mark it down! There will always be a group of modern-day Pharisees who will rise up to critique the work of God and condemn the workmen.
This tactic is one of the tools of Satan to stop God’s people from moving forward in faith, and it is as old as time itself. Nehemiah in the Old Testament faced the laughter and derision of Sanballat and Tobiah when he worked to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, and John the Baptist in the New Testament faced the mockery and questioning of the religious elites of his day as he worked to prepare the way for the coming ministry of Jesus Christ.
Eventually, the truths that John proclaimed openly to all who would hear were validated openly when Jesus was baptized of John in the Jordan River, and both God the Father and the Holy Spirit bore witness to the fact that Christ is and was the perfect, sinless Lamb of God! Matthew 3:16-17 “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: [17] And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
John Preached Directly
Although John’s public preaching drew criticism from many different quarters, he did not back down, cower, or water down his message simply because groups of supposedly “more educated” and “more qualified” religious experts were now coming to analyze his preaching and even heckle from the shoreline as he baptized converts in the river.
Instead of backing down in fear or softening his words when these delegations of religious elites were present in his services, John continued to preach, in the power of God, openly and directly as he made the message of truth known and pointed his hearers to repentance and true faith in God.
Whenever the priests, scribes, and Pharisees traveled from Jerusalem to hear John the Baptist preach, he obliged them by preaching to them directly and by addressing their sins (something that simply was not done in that day)! Matthew 3:7-10 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [8] Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: [9] And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
When John preached God’s Word, he was direct and went straight to the point; but more importantly, the truth went straight to the heart. The Word of God, Hebrews 4:12 tells us, is “quick” and “powerful,” and the Lord is able to accomplish great things when we are yielded and ready to proclaim His word openly, directly, and (as we shall see) boldly. Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
John Preached Boldly
Although his message was unpopular and out of step with the society of his day, John continued to preach with great boldness the truths that God had commissioned him to deliver.
The major theme of John’s preaching was that of “repentance” or getting right with God before it was eternally too late (Matthew 3:2, Mark 1:15). He boldly preached this theme to a prideful people, the Jews, who in that day considered themselves to be the most righteous nation on the face of the earth.
“Preach your messages of repentance to the heathen nations around us,” many of the Jewish leaders no doubt thought, “but not to us! After all, we are God’s chosen people, and we keep all of His ordinances and study His laws… We are not really as bad as our neighbors, such as the Samaritans or the Moabites.”
But despite the prideful protests the religious Jews of John’s day undoubtedly made, John continued to preach boldly what God wanted him to preach; and that was the timely (if unpopular) message of “repentance.” Matthew 3:10 “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Although many hermeneutical “experts” (so-called) in our day would criticize both John’s message delivery and his preaching demeanor, it is worth noting that after the multitudes heard the preaching of Jesus Christ they compared Him to two men – the prophet Elijah (from the Old Testament) and John the Baptist (from the New Testament). Mark 8:27 “And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? [28] And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.”
Throughout his ministry, John the Baptist preached openly, directly, and boldly to the common folks, to the religious crowd; and eventually, he would even stand to preach before royalty (in the case of King Herod). However, John’s courage to stand and preach never wavered and his message of truth never changed!
I Corinthians 1:21 “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
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