Bible Passage: Acts 13:24-26
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  June 24, 2018

“Clearly, the hand of the Lord was with him.” That’s how our gospel ends for today. It’s quite the statement about an 8 day old child. He hadn’t even said his first word or taken his first step. How could they possibly know? And yet, their words certainly rang true as John grew. Luke reports at the end of chapter 1, “The child continued to grow and became strong in spirit.” And then we get to John’s ministry and we hear Jesus say about him, “If you are willing to receive it, he is the Elijah that was to come.” And, “Amen I tell you: Among those born of women there has not appeared anyone greater than John the Baptist.”

Clearly, the hand of the Lord was with him. Clearly, it would be easy for us to lose our way this morning focusing on the greatness of John. There’s certainly enough written about him in the Scriptures to do so. But that’s not why we’re here. That’s not what John would have wanted. In fact when people tried to idolize him, he shut them down. You see that clearly in our lesson from Acts 13, where John plainly says: “Who do you suppose I am? I am not that One. But look! That One is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.” You see, for John everything he did was ever and only and always about Jesus. And the same holds true for us. Today, we are going to take some time to ponder the ministry of John, but as we do, may we see that John’s message and ministry along with ours Is All About Jesus!

So why is John’s ministry being discussed in Acts 13? It starts with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had called Paul and Barnabas to be missionaries. He sent them on a journey which took them to Cyprus and now had led them to the town of Antioch in Pisidia. As would be Paul’s custom, whenever he came to a new town, he went to the synagogue. And while they were there, Paul and Barnabas were invited to speak to the assembly. The words right before our second lesson tell us: “After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, ‘Gentlemen, brothers, if you have a word of encouragement for the people, say it.”

How would you like that? You’re a visitor from out of town and you’ve stopped in at the local church for worship and you’re asked to give the sermon! What would you possibly say? With the Holy Spirit’s guidance, Paul went to his sermonic well and he drew up the water of Israel’s history, of God’s salvation story. He recounted how God had worked through the people of Israel through their time in Egypt, through the conquest of the Promised Land. He talked about the time of the judges and the prophet Samuel. Then he led them to the kings, and specifically David. Why David? Because it was through David that God promised the Savior would come. And then Paul says in verse 23: “From this man’s descendants  God brought the Savior Jesus to Israel, in keeping with his promise.” And that brings us to John.  Before John was born, the angel Gabriel told his father, Zechariah, about John: “He will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to prepare a people who are ready for the Lord.” John was to go before Jesus and prepare the way for him. And how would John turn the sons of Israel back to the Lord? How would he turn the hearts? How would he prepare the people?

Before Jesus appeared publicly, John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. So what did that look like? Perhaps not what you would think. How do you think people would react if they came to church and heard this coming from the pastor: “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” Not quite the warm welcome we would want to give, right? And yet John understood well how necessary it was to preach the law to the people. If the people didn’t see their sins, why would they see any need for a Savior? And yet isn’t that our challenge? Especially in our society today, where any semblance of a rebuke is viewed as hate speech or bigotry or racism, aren’t we tempted to soften the law? Oh sure, we’ll talk about sin. We’ll gladly say that no one’s perfect. But are we willing to confront sin head on. Are we willing to have the hard conversations, to hold the law before people when their path has strayed from the truth? Are we willing to look into the mirror of the law ourselves and admit that our sins truly do deserve God’s punishment, both now and in eternity?

Before Jesus appeared publicly, John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. Did you catch the key phrase there? It was a baptism of repentance. It wasn’t a baptism of contrition, a baptism of sorrow over sin. No, that was only part of it. John followed his harsh and necessary preaching of the law with the sweet comfort of the gospel. John preached with the goal of offering the forgiveness of sins. John preached ever and only and always with Jesus on his mind. It’s why when Jesus appeared publicly John was quick to point to Jesus and say: “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” It’s why when people started wondering if John could possibly be the Messiah, he quickly deflected and shut down those words. “Who do you suppose I am? I am not that One. But look! That One is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.”

Luke summarizes John’s ministry with these words: “With many other words, John appealed to them and was preaching good news to the people.”  The good news is the Gospel. The message that John proclaimed was a message that pointed to Jesus. And notice how Paul recaps his story up to this point:“Gentlemen, brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, this message of salvation has been sent to you.”   Brothers and sisters, in just as miraculous of a fashion, this message of salvation has been sent to you! It’s the message about Jesus and all that he accomplished for our salvation. It’s the message that God chose to love us when we were unlovable. That he was determined that we wouldn’t spend our eternity separated from him. And so he sent men like John to preach. And he’s preserved his gospel in Word and Sacrament for nearly 2000 years. And for the past 90 plus years that message of salvation has been preached here at Eastside. But what does it look like? May it follow John’s example.

Unfortunately, there have been times where I have been unwilling or afraid to preach the Law in all its fullness because I knew it would hurt. I knew it would hurt and that people might react negatively to it. Perhaps you know the feeling? Perhaps you too have been unwilling to lovingly share the law with a family member, a child, a friend because you knew it was going to hurt. God forgive us for not taking those opportunities! God forgive us for not remembering that the most loving thing we do is to apply the law when necessary to prepare the way for the gospel. And unfortunately there have been times when the gospel could have been preached and I failed to do it. Opportunities to share Jesus that were lost because of a fear of rejection or an unwillingness to be vulnerable. God forgive me for not trusting the the gospel’s power to change hearts, to grow faith.

But friends, the message of salvation is that there is forgiveness for all of our sins, including those times we have avoided repentance! There is forgiveness because Christ has taken away the sins of the world. And now there is power to heed John’s message and follow his example. So what does that look like? It starts with daily contrition and repentance. Remember your baptisms. Remember to drown that old Adam with all it’s evil deeds and desires. Through the Holy Spirit’s power, raise up that new man daily to live before God in righteousness and purity. It continues with being willing to rebuke, to confront people with their sins. Later this year we are going to start a congregational program called “The Peter Plan” to reach out to our brothers and sister who are straying from worship, who are starving themselves of bread of life. May God bless us with courage and the conviction and the love for our brothers and sisters to have those hard conversations. And finally, like John, may we be willing to suffer for the truth. Faithfully preaching the law cost John his head. Ane while it may never come to that, we may find hurt feelings on the other side of our words. We may be hated because we are doing the will of the Father, because we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters.

It was said of John when he was only 8 days old, “Clearly, the hand of the Lord was with him.”  May the same be said of me and of you! May our connection to the message of salvation lead us to faithfully grow in Jesus and tell of his love. Because in the end, as it was for John, it is ever and only and always all about Jesus. Amen