Make Jesus Famous
Theme: Followers of Jesus Christ are called to point people to Him.
Text: Luke 3:1-20
Here’s a thought: The measure of a great church is not how many people are there on Sunday morning but what is happening in the church when the buildings are empty. - Richard Halverson
“Twins?” asked the visiting minister.
“Yes,” replied the mother, “both boys.”
“How do you tell them apart?” asked the pastor.
“This one,” said the mother, pointing, “is this, and that one is that one there.” “But,” said the minister, pointing, “couldn’t this one be this, also?”
“Yes,” said the mother, “then, of course, that one could be that.” “How do you manage to separate them?”
“We seldom do,” explained the mother, “but when we want to, we put one in one room and the other twin in another room.”
“How do you know which one you’re putting in each room?”
“We look and see which is in the other room, and then we know the other is in the other room.”
“But if one of them was in the house, and the other was away somewhere, would you be able to tell which was in the house?”
“Oh, yes,” said the mother. “We’d just look at him and then know the one we saw was the one in the house. Naturally, the one away somewhere would be the other. There are only two of them, which makes it easy.”
“Yes,” wailed the pastor, “If they were quintuplets, it would have driven me out of my mind!”
We read of another mistaken identity in Luke 3:1-20:
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar - when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene - 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’” 7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. 11 John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” 13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. 14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely - be content with your pay.” 15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. 19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, 20 Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison. NIV
There are common ingredients in successfully introducing people to Jesus Christ. John the Baptist shows us that we must:
Cultivate (Luke 3:1-6)
John the Baptist and Jesus Christ were not legendary figures who lived at some vague time in the dim past. They were real people whose lives could be dated by relating them to others who lived at the same time they did.
Most scholars agree that John’s ministry began in A.D. 26. Jesus, born in 5 B.C., was about 30. This was when “the word of God came to John.” This expression reminds us of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament prophets. John lived in the desert around the Dead Sea when God’s word came. Upon receiving his call, he went into the country along the Jordan River to find an audience for his message. Like the prophets of old, he thundered out a message of repentance. Those who heeded the message and repented were led into the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of their sins.
John’s message stirred people up. Judaism of that day had taught that forgiveness of sins came by making the proper sacrifice and observing the ceremonial rituals. In contrast, John demanded a radical change of heart. Without this, nothing else mattered. Even baptism, unless preceded by repentance, could not bring about the forgiveness of sins.
John was not declaring a new message but repeating what the people had ignored or forgotten. The prophet Hosea, for example, addressed Israel in about 780 B.C. in Hosea 6:6:
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. NIV
More than 700 hundred years before John the Baptist, Isaiah prophesied that before the coming of the Messiah, God would send a forerunner to prepare the way (see Isaiah 40:3). “The forerunner is here,” John proclaimed, “and I am he!” What a bold claim for someone with little formal education and who had spent most of his life in the desert, far from the centres of power! John the Baptist was confident of his call and identity, providing an example for us today.
The people had to be spiritually and morally ready for Christ’s coming. Most of the Jews wanted and expected a Messiah who would lead them in a military campaign to throw off the Roman yoke and establish once again an independent Jewish kingdom.
As John cultivated the soil, he prepared it to plant the seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. John pronounced to the people that a change was in the wind.
God sent His Son to provide an opportunity for lives to change radically for good.
As people turn from activities that give them false hope and distract them from heaven’s values, they can embrace our only hope for eternal life - Jesus Christ! Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is still in the business of changing lives.
Whom would you like to introduce to Jesus? Will we go before Him with this message to cultivate readiness within the hearts of men, women and children? How can we prepare them for such a meeting?
John the Baptist shows us that we must:
Cultivate
Confront (Luke 3:7-14)
John’s greeting to those who came out to hear him revealed that he had not read “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” To call them a “brood of vipers,” a bunch of snakes, was hardly the most politically correct way to welcome them. Yet the strong language of this rough prophet from the desert did not alienate them. It seemed to attract them all the more. There were shallow self-righteous curiosity seekers who had little genuine interest in God. Only shocking language could jar them out of their worldly concerns. The same is true and needed today.
A young businessman was running to catch the morning train from far out suburbia into the city. Trotting up to a farmer, he asked, “Say, do you mind if I take a shortcut across your field? I want to catch the 6:45.”
“Sure, go ahead, young feller,” replied the farmer, “but if my bull sees you, you’ll catch the 6:15.”
The soft side of love can reach some people. Others must be confronted with the tough, hard side of love. It was these that John addressed. John demanded not just lip service but a changed life that gave clear evidence of a changed heart. It is this balance of the kindness and sternness of God (see Romans 11:22) that I wish for us. The Bible tells us that a changed heart leads to a changed life.
Jesus explains it very clearly in John 14:23-24:
23 If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. NIV
John the Baptist anticipated their argument that they were descendants of the godly Abraham. He reminded them that the Lord could raise the little rocks along the riverbank to be His children. It was true then, and today, God has no grandchildren. We have little reason to be confident of our standing before God and entering eternity with Him simply because our parents or grandparents were Christians. Each of us must decide what to do with Jesus Christ. Will we accept or reject Him as our Master and Saviour?
Three groups of people asked John questions: ordinary Joes and Janes (Josephs and Marys), tax collectors and soldiers. He gave each of them the same reply - God calls His people to live selflessly, readily willing to share with those in need and not pursue self-gratification. He did not counsel them to leave their jobs for more “spiritual” occupations. He knew the Lord wanted to reflect His character in the most “secular” circles through their words and actions.
Similarly, it would be foolish to challenge all of you to quit your jobs and become vocational pastors, evangelists or missionaries. However, God wants you to influence people whom many pastors and missionaries would not reach. There might be a few here that He is leading in that direction.
What evil, immorality or injustice in the world has the Lord called you to confront? When and how are you going to speak out?
John the Baptist shows us that we must:
Cultivate Confront
Concentrate (Luke 3:15-20)
Both the content of John’s message and the authority with which he proclaimed it made a profound impression on the people. With their hopes running high that Christ would soon appear, it is not surprising that many considered John the promised Messiah. The coming Messiah was more powerful than he. Indeed, John asserted that he could not even untie the Messiah’s sandals. John quickly corrected this false notion. John baptized people in the water, but the Messiah would baptize far more dramatically with the Holy Spirit and fire. This looked forward to Christ’s ministry and Pentecost when the apostles were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
John’s prophetic vision carried him beyond Jesus’ earthly life to His return to judgment. The threshing floor provided a dramatic figure to describe that judgment. A threshing floor in Palestine was a bare rock or an earthen surface levelled and packed hard. It was located where a strong breeze would blow across it. The sheaves of grain were laid out on this, and oxen pulled a heavy sled over them. Sometimes threshers would beat upon the grain some more.
They would then throw the grain and chaff into the air with winnowing forks. The grain would fall to the threshing floor, but the chaff would be blown away. The grain could then be gathered and stored, but the chaff was burned. So God’s people will be gathered into His city forever, while those who reject Him will be baptized in unquenchable fire.
Revelation 20:13-15 paints the picture of a fateful day that is approaching:
13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. NIV
The declaration of coming judgment was the news. Presenting the opportunity for salvation from this coming judgment was good news.
John was imprisoned nearly a year later, but Luke records it here to finish the story of his public preaching. John’s ministry is marked by his ability to focus and to concentrate on the One he had come to point the people to - the Messiah.
Will people soon know who or what is important to you when they look at or listen to you?
Is there anything in your life that would leave people wondering, “Are you living for yourself or Jesus Christ?”
Richard Halverson (1916-1995), a former chaplain of the U.S. Senate, offered this rule of thumb:
The measure of a great church is not how many people are there on Sunday morning but what is happening in the church when the buildings are empty.
As our society’s values and morals continue to decay, the church is faced with a tremendous opportunity to make an impact on people. The Lord is growing a people today that will impress many who do not yet know Jesus. They will be impressed with our love for one another, the power of the Holy Spirit that is evident among us, the stability of our families and our personal security. As they see us and become impressed with us, we will choose whether we take the credit for our strength, health and wisdom or point them to Jesus.
Let’s commit together to making Jesus famous!
There are common ingredients in successfully introducing people to Jesus Christ. John the Baptist shows us that we must:
Cultivate
Confront
Concentrate
Followers of Jesus Christ are called to point people to Him.
