This Leader Spoke Straight From the Heart and Not From His Own Heart But From the Heart of God
When we read the opening verses of the Gospel of John, we read about another John.
It is John the Baptist, or John the baptiser, or John the plunger.
We could have prevented so much confusion in the Church of Jesus Christ if we had called him John the plunger or John the dipper, because that is exactly what he did.
John took repenting people and plunged them in the Jordan River.
John is around 30 years of age and he is a strange looking man wearing strange clothing and eating a diet of locusts and wild honey.
Mark tells us that in Chapter 1.
John walked onto the scene with a straight from the shoulder word, which came straight from the heart of God.
He is preaching.
"You are all dirty.
Repent and turn from your sins to God.
Come into the river and be washed as a sign that you need a moral and spiritual bath.
" He was a man with a message and the message was simple and clear and direct.
How would that message be received and embraced in many places today? Some would resent such essential preaching.
Crowds of people flocked down to the River Jordan, at that time, to hear this man, and as they heard the man, they realised they were listening to a man of God, and hearing a word that never been sounded for some 400 years, and certainly not in this manner.
This leader drew massive crowds not because he was giving people what they wanted but because he was preaching what God wanted preached.
People soon saw how dirty they were and how their hearts needed washing.
John was preaching the word which God gave him.
"Get ready.
The King is coming.
" Crowds travelled to hear this simple message.
Even tax collectors went.
Soldiers dared to go to the riverside to hear this preacher, and John had something to say to everyone who came.
God always has.
"Repent.
Get washed.
Clean up your life.
Share what you have.
Don't line your pockets.
Do not be violent.
Do not bully.
Be satisfied with your wages.
" You will find the heart and core of his preaching in Luke Chapter 3.
No wonder people thought this might be the Christ, the Anointed One.
They had never heard such preaching.
Jesus Christ, the Saviour, the Lord, the Messiah, the Anointed One Who would save people from their sins would appear very soon.
God was saying to the people through John, "Get ready for the coming of Jesus.
" For 400 years God had been silent.
People had never heard such prophecy.
The nation had never witnessed such prophetic preaching since the days of Malachi, and so some were wondering.
Could this be Elijah? Could this be Moses? Is this the Christ? All this is happening down at the Jordan River, but the Temple is some 60 miles away in Jerusalem, where it was all so formal and dry and dead.
Here is God moving outside and outwith the limiting and restricting walls of the church of the day and outwith formal religion.
God speaks through a peculiar preacher who was down at a river, and who was drawing great crowds and who was immersing them in the waters of the river as a sign that they seriously wanted to clean up their lives.
This was leadership of a very different type! This had never happened before and that usually causes trouble.
When God begins to move in a new way, and do something different and something real, that can be upsetting for many.
How would you have responded to John's powerful and piercing leadership? How do you respond to this man of God who spoke truth from Almighty God?
It is John the Baptist, or John the baptiser, or John the plunger.
We could have prevented so much confusion in the Church of Jesus Christ if we had called him John the plunger or John the dipper, because that is exactly what he did.
John took repenting people and plunged them in the Jordan River.
John is around 30 years of age and he is a strange looking man wearing strange clothing and eating a diet of locusts and wild honey.
Mark tells us that in Chapter 1.
John walked onto the scene with a straight from the shoulder word, which came straight from the heart of God.
He is preaching.
"You are all dirty.
Repent and turn from your sins to God.
Come into the river and be washed as a sign that you need a moral and spiritual bath.
" He was a man with a message and the message was simple and clear and direct.
How would that message be received and embraced in many places today? Some would resent such essential preaching.
Crowds of people flocked down to the River Jordan, at that time, to hear this man, and as they heard the man, they realised they were listening to a man of God, and hearing a word that never been sounded for some 400 years, and certainly not in this manner.
This leader drew massive crowds not because he was giving people what they wanted but because he was preaching what God wanted preached.
People soon saw how dirty they were and how their hearts needed washing.
John was preaching the word which God gave him.
"Get ready.
The King is coming.
" Crowds travelled to hear this simple message.
Even tax collectors went.
Soldiers dared to go to the riverside to hear this preacher, and John had something to say to everyone who came.
God always has.
"Repent.
Get washed.
Clean up your life.
Share what you have.
Don't line your pockets.
Do not be violent.
Do not bully.
Be satisfied with your wages.
" You will find the heart and core of his preaching in Luke Chapter 3.
No wonder people thought this might be the Christ, the Anointed One.
They had never heard such preaching.
Jesus Christ, the Saviour, the Lord, the Messiah, the Anointed One Who would save people from their sins would appear very soon.
God was saying to the people through John, "Get ready for the coming of Jesus.
" For 400 years God had been silent.
People had never heard such prophecy.
The nation had never witnessed such prophetic preaching since the days of Malachi, and so some were wondering.
Could this be Elijah? Could this be Moses? Is this the Christ? All this is happening down at the Jordan River, but the Temple is some 60 miles away in Jerusalem, where it was all so formal and dry and dead.
Here is God moving outside and outwith the limiting and restricting walls of the church of the day and outwith formal religion.
God speaks through a peculiar preacher who was down at a river, and who was drawing great crowds and who was immersing them in the waters of the river as a sign that they seriously wanted to clean up their lives.
This was leadership of a very different type! This had never happened before and that usually causes trouble.
When God begins to move in a new way, and do something different and something real, that can be upsetting for many.
How would you have responded to John's powerful and piercing leadership? How do you respond to this man of God who spoke truth from Almighty God?
