#20 Lu.
3:15-18; JOHN MISTAKEN FOR THE CHRIST
Introduction:
In our text for the first two Sundays John preached that men who
are saved should live godly
lives. In our text today John is
mistaken
for the Christ.
I.
People looking for the Christ
V. 15, "And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused
in their hearts of John,
whether he were the Christ, or not."
From
the time that the Israelites
went into captivity to
been ruled by the Gentiles. That is, they had been ruled by one
Gentile nation after the other.
The prophets of old had prophesied that it would be this way.
They prophesied that the Babylonians would
rule them. The prophesied
that the Babylonians would be
overcome by the Medes and the Persians.
The prophets had prophesied that the Medes
and Persians would rule.
The Medes and Persians would then be
conquered by the Greeks. The
Greeks would be divided and would
eventually be overcome by the
Romans. The Romans ruled over the Israelites at the
time that John
the Baptist was preaching.
The prophets of old has also prophesied that God would send His
Anointed One, the
Christ as a deliverer to deliver the people from
Gentile rule. The meaning of the prophecy is that in the long
run,
the Christ would deliver them
from the Gentiles. They also
prophesied
that the Christ would deliver them from their sin.
In his prophecy about the seventy weeks Daniel told the exact
number
of years from the time of the command by Cyrus allowing the
return
of the Jews to
There would be four-hundred and
eighty-three years to the coming of
the Christ. That prophecy did not speak of the birth of
Christ, but
rather
of the beginning of the ministry of Christ.
As the time drew near for the coming of the Christ, the
anticipation
among the people grew high. The people
were expectant.
They were looking for the coming of the
Christ.
II. John viewed as possibly being the
Christ
When John the Baptist began his ministry in the wilderness of
high. It did not take long for the popularity of
John, himself to
reach
great heights. Pretty soon people were
flocking by the
hundreds
to hear John preach.
Our text says that many of the people began to wonder in their
hearts
whether or not John was the Christ. john was drawing the kind
of crowds that they would
expect the Christ to draw. He was
certainly
a dynamic speaker. And, since according
to Daniel's
prophecy
the time element fit, they began to wonder if the Christ
were not already here.
III. John's answer to the people
The people must have begun to express their thoughts to one
another
and it got back to John. V. 16,
"John answered, saying unto
them all, I indeed baptize you
with water; but one mightier than I
cometh,
the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he
shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
In effect, what John said was, "I am not the Christ. The Christ
is coming after me." The idea was that John was repeatedly telling
the people that he is not the
Christ. The Christ was yet to come and
would
soon be coming on the scene.
In this verse, verse 16, John presented some information about
the Christ which should
convince the people that he is not the
Christ.
He pointed out that the Christ would administer a much
mightier
baptism than he.
John said, "I indeed baptize you with water." That was no big
deal. Almost anybody could baptize with water. It was not difficult
at all to baptize a man in
water. All you would have to do is to
put
him down under the water and
bring him back up again.
Back when I was a kid, we used to do that to one another in the
summer
time down at the swimming hole. Of
course, we did not
administer
Scriptural baptism. John the Baptist was
sent with God's
authority
to baptize. We kids had no authority to
baptize. So what
we administered was not
Scriptural baptism. But John's point was
that it did not take anybody
special to baptize in water. Just about
anybody
could do it.
But the kind of baptism that the Christ would administer was a
mighty
act which only the Christ could do. John
said, "I indeed
baptize
you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire."
The word, baptize, means to immerse.
When John baptized with
water,
he baptized in the River
in the water so that he was
completely covered with water.
John said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Literally Jesus would baptize
"in" the Holy Spirit. John
said that
the Christ would immerse the
people in the Holy Spirit. He said
further
that this baptism in the Holy Spirit would be accompanied by
fire.
Now in all probability none of them understood at that time just
what John was talking
about. The did understand that he said
that he
is not the Christ. They also understood that Christ would baptize
in
the Holy Spirit. That is all they needed to understand right
at that
time. They did not need to understand how the fire
would come into
the picture at this time.
Later many of them would better understand what John was talking
about. John was talking about what would take place
on the y of
Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would come
down on the church while
they were in the upper
room. The room would be filled with the
Holy
Spirit of God and they would be immersed
in the Holy Spirit. The
whole
group was immersed or baptized at one time.
In addition to that the Scripture says that cloven tongues like
as of fire lit upon each of
them. They were not immersed in the
fire. They were immersed in the Holy Spirit and the
fire lit upon
each of hem. All that were present were baptized in the
Holy Spirit
and tongues of fire was upon
every one of them.
Now let me clarify a point at this time.
This was a one time
event. Search the Scriptures as you may and you will
not find
another
event such as this. You will not find
when anyone was
baptized
in the Holy Spirit and you will not find any event when
tongues
of fire lit upon anyone.
In verse 17 John presented a second reason why they should
believe
that he is not the Christ. V. 17,
"Whose fan is in his hand,
and he will thoroughly purge
his floor, and will gather the wheat
into his garner; but the chaff
he will burn with fire unquenchable."
Let me paraphrase what John is saying.
John is saying, "I am a
baptizer. I am not a judge. The Christ is your Judge." John then
used an illustration that they
were all familiar with to picture the
Christ as the Judge of all mankind. John used the gathering and
threshing
of wheat to picture the Christ as the Supreme Judge over
all mankind.
At the end of the growing season a man will gather his sheaves of
grain
to the threshing floor. He will then
beat those sheaves or use
an oxen to pull a heavy weight
over them. The grains would come
loose
from the stalk and the husk would be cracked open.
The wheat would then be tossed up into the air and the breeze
would
blow the chaff away from the heavier grain.
If there was no
breeze
fans would be used to make one. The
grain would be stored
safely
in the barns and the chaff would be burned.
What John is talking about is that he is not the Christ. John
had come to preach repentance
to the people and to preach the Christ
to the people. John had not come to save anybody. He had not come
to judge anybody. Those jobs belonged to the Christ.
It is the Christ who is able to save and it the Christ who is
able to judge. The Christ will save all who repent of their
sins and
who put their trust in
Him. But He will also judge those who
will
not repent and trust in Him for
salvation. He will burn them in the
fire. And note that John says that they will be
burned in
unquenchable
fire. This is what the Christ will do at
the end of the
age.
IV. The many things which John preached
V. 18, "And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto
the people." In other words, in addition to the things
that Luke
told us in this book about
John's preaching, there were many other
things
that John preached. But he preached all
of these thing to
inform
the people about the Christ who was soon to come. And he
preached
all these things to inform the people what God wanted them
to do in light of the coming
of the Christ.
Now what these other things were that John preached I do not
know. What I would like to do is to go over some of
the things once
more that we do know that John
preached.
John preached that the Christ whom God promised through eh
prophets
of old was soon to come. He was very
soon to come.
John preached that men are sinners and that they should repent of
their
sin.
John preached that men should believe in the Christ who should
believe
in the Christ who was to come. They were
to put their faith
and trust--not in John--but in
the Christ.
John preached that those who repent and believe in the Christ
should
be baptized. The baptism would not save
anybody, but it would
give a testimony to others that
Jesus saves. It would also testify
that the person baptized is
saved.
John preached that those who have been saved and baptized ought
to live godly lives.
John preached that he is not the Christ, but the Christ would be
one who is mightier than
he. The Christ would baptize the church
in
the Holy Spirit of God and
would be able to cause tongues of fire to
light
upon each of them.
Further, John preached that all who will repent and trust in the
Christ, will be gathered into God's
eternal storehouse and kept
safely
throughout eternity.
He preached that those who refuse to repent and trust in Christ
will burn in fire and he called
it "unquenchable fire." They
will
burn forever in fire.