Embracing Your Unique Calling: Living Out Faith Through Action and Individuality

Speaker 1: 0:00

Thank you guys for letting me come and be a part of Madison Church. I absolutely love getting to come here and just need to unlock my laptop here so I know what I'm talking about. But I love every time I get to come here. You guys are always just so warm and welcoming and I appreciate it so much. But I'm wondering, if you guys ever go anywhere and you feel like you're kind of like the odd one out, does that ever happen? That never happens here to me. Maybe it can happen to some people, but here it doesn't happen.

Speaker 1: 0:33

But sometimes we can go places and feel like we're just weird, and maybe it can be a school event or a work event, maybe it's even with your own family. Sometimes it can happen in friend groups, right, if somebody new comes into your friend group and you can all of a sudden feel like you're being kind of shoved to the side. Or sometimes, like I said, it can happen at church, unfortunately. And there's so many different things that can make us feel different from the group of people around us, right, it could be race, gender, relationship status, clothing style, economic status, education level, maybe homeschool, private school, public school, maybe you're sporty, maybe you're nerdy, maybe you're artsy, maybe you're a combination and that makes you extra weird. Maybe you talk too much and you're really loud, or maybe you're too quiet and people tell you that you need to speak up more and you get lost in the crowd. There's just so many different ways to be weird, and I feel like this is something that I encounter personally pretty frequently and it used to really bother me. It used to bother me a lot, but as I get older and then even older, I feel like I have learned to kind of embrace some of my quirks and my weirdness, right, because I've learned that God makes us all different. He makes us all different for a reason, and it's okay. In fact, it's better than okay. If we're willing to let God. He can even use us in our weirdness, right, and that's fantastic. I mean, have you guys ever heard of John the Baptist? That guy was weird. I don't know if you knew that, but I'm just going to say it. That guy was a weirdo, he was a cousin to Jesus and he was what we call a forerunner, right. So he announced his coming. He announced that he was preparing people to meet Jesus, to experience Jesus and also to be baptized, and he even baptized Jesus. So that's a pretty big calling. It's a pretty big, important job, but he was such a weirdo.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Let's take a look at what the Bible says. If you have either a paper Bible next to you or brought one along, or if you have one of those really great Bible apps that I highly recommend, go ahead and open it up to Luke 3 so you can follow along with me. We're not going to have slides today, so that might help you just not get super bored and fall asleep. Verses 1 and 2 in Luke 3, again just kind of start out, giving us this very specific time frame and things going on in that era so that we can place this in world history pretty easily. And it says the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. So that's again where we see that John is the cousin of Jesus. You can turn back to the left a couple of pages and see where Mary was pregnant with Jesus and she went to go see her cousin, elizabeth, and Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah were expecting a baby that they would name John. And here he is all grown up.

Speaker 1: 3:57

And I want to point out that our author here, luke, is being really nice. He doesn't describe John, he just kind of quotes the Old Testament and moves on. Which Bible nerd fact is kind of weird because Luke is usually the one that adds in the extra detail and in this case, for some reason, he chose to leave it out. But Matthew and Mark gave us more detail. Matthew 3, 4, and Mark 1, 2 both say John's clothes were made of camel hair and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locust and wild honey. Guys, even back then this was weird, it just was. He's not living in the city, he's not living in a farm, he's not living in community with other people.

Speaker 1: 4:40

He is a wilderness guy. I imagine he smelled awful. Just throwing that out there he has, he's got it. When I picture him, he's got this crazy hair sticking up all over the place. He's got this beard and it's dripping with honey and bugs stuck in it. He decided to say the heck with fashion, I'm just going to wear this fur and I'm going to tie this little belt around it. Heck, I don't care what I look like, I'm in the wilderness. Weirdo. If I'm there, I'm probably a little bit nervous to get close to this guy, right? I don't know if I want to get too close to somebody like that in my brain. So, by all accounts, john is weird. He's socially off, he dresses weird, he eats weird, he's operating in the middle of nowhere in the desert. I mean, this guy is trying to lead some kind of religious movement, this new thing, and he literally goes to the least convenient place that people have to hike out to and he'll sit there. Great idea. John Thumbs up, but you know what? People showed up, weirdly. People showed up and it becomes this really big deal.

Speaker 1: 5:59

And Luke describes this moment as John as the forerunner. He's preparing the way for Jesus to come onto the scene, and that's where we get to verses three through six. It says he went into all the country around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, a voice of one calling in the wilderness. So it's not like his message is hey, I support you, everything about your life and who you are, what you're doing. So it's not like his message is hey, I support you, everything about your life and who you are, what you're doing. The Lord just wants to prop you up, give you a pat on the back, say you're wonderful, just the way you are. John's message is one that was repent of your sins. You were going this way, but let's stop. Do this baptism thing, flip around and go the other way.

Speaker 1: 7:07

And the idea here is that everyone knew, whether they were Jewish or not, that the world is weird. We know that today too, don't we? The world is weird, something is off and it's not working, and this passage is a promise that God is going to straighten this stuff out in a pretty dramatic way. The original audience to this time would have had this verse from Isaiah memorized. They would have had it committed to their heart because it was one that gave them great hope. So verses 7 through 9 say that sounds a little harsh, doesn't it? It's a little bit harsh, but John is addressing his Jewish audience here and he's warning them that being Jewish alone doesn't mean you're good. It doesn't mean it's enough. You can't just be born into a religious group, keep others out and treat other people like trash and think you're good. He's telling them you're missing it In verse 10, what should we do?

Speaker 1: 8:36

The crowd asks Okay, what? This is strange to me because I think if I came here and I called you guys, a bunch of snakes told you we're doing it wrong you would probably use the first opportunity you could to get up out of here and not come back anytime you heard that I was coming here again. Fair, the good news is I'm not going to call you a bunch of snakes. But here no one did that right. No one actually wants to be told that their religious assumptions are wrong or that they need to be adjusted. Nobody does.

Speaker 1: 9:10

But something is going on here, because all of these people who've traveled this really long way, through all this tough condition, to get to this weirdo John in the desert are like okay, well, what do we need to do next? And John is telling them repent and be baptized. But what does that even mean? You can say these words, but what do they mean? What does it mean to get to a place in life that, whatever point you're at, you're at the point where you say this isn't working point you're at. You're at the point where you say this isn't working. Maybe some of it's working, but something needs to change if I want my life to be aligned with God, because that's what repentance is. And John kind of breaks it down for us in the next few verses.

Speaker 1: 9:56

In verse 11, it says John answered anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none and anyone who. It says Now, this is really interesting because this isn't an instruction to stop doing something that one might consider bad. It's a proactive instruction to stop not doing something good. So what he's saying, first of all, is change your whole idea of what it is to follow God towards something that looks more proactive. John is saying quit living for just yourself and think about others.

Speaker 1: 10:34

Verse 12 and 13,. He continues. It continues even tax collectors came to be baptized Teacher. They said what should we do? Don't collect any more than you are required to. He told them. So tax collectors were known to be thieves. Some of us already know that right, they collected extra tax money from the people that they were supposed to be collecting from so they could make extra bank themselves. So what does repentance look like? According to this verse? Quit cheating people. That's it. Just quit cheating people. Verse 14,.

Speaker 1: 11:10

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. Now, there weren't really Jewish soldiers at this time so these most likely would have been the Roman soldiers coming and asking questions, and he's telling them to not extort money or accuse people falsely. So he's basically pushing back on everything that an occupying soldier, who doesn't have a whole lot of accountability, would be tempted to do to the helpless people that they're overseeing. Or to put it another way be a good person, even if you don't have to be Quit cheating people. Be just. If you think about it, these are the exact opposite values that we tend to lean towards in our broken state. It's a push back on what we want to do, if we can get away with it, and a push towards something that looks more like the value system of God. But then look what happens next.

Speaker 1: 12:11

In verse 15, the people were waiting expectantly and were wondering and we're all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. So people are starting to notice that John is really compelling. People are paying attention to him, so he must be the Savior. Right? That's the conclusion they come to. But John goes out of his way to be like no, I am not the hero of this story. It's not me way to be like. No, I am not the hero of this story. It's not me. I'm just the one that's going to point to the Messiah, the person I get to be, the person that points to the one who is the Savior. In verse 17, it says John answered them all. I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, he will baptize. So what John is talking about here is salvation through and from Jesus, right and judgment, which, even though it's kind of a little scary the idea of judgment right, that's also the responsibility of Jesus at some point of judgment right, that's also the responsibility of Jesus at some point. So John is describing this pretty serious, pretty impressive, pretty authoritative Savior, even though people don't really know who he is yet.

Speaker 1: 13:31

And as we go along a little bit further, we see kind of this side note from Luke about John's rivalry with Herod and about how John isn't going to be able to be there forever to keep pointing people back to Jesus. This is his shot, this is his time. His job is going to end because, as we see in verses 19 and 20, herod is ultimately going to arrest John, and we know if we cheat and know the story a little bit in advance, that eventually Herod cuts off John's head, so no more pointing. So again, john is telling everyone he's not the Savior, but he's the forerunner. John's the one pointing to people in the direction of Jesus, the actual Savior.

Speaker 1: 14:15

And then we get to verse 21, and it starts when all the people were being baptized. Jesus was baptized too. So here we have Jesus joining all of these people like regular, everyday screwed up people with actual problems going on in their lives, and they're getting baptized out in the wilderness by John. I mean, this is Jesus, the actual Messiah, the actual Savior. Why would Jesus need to be baptized, right? Have you ever wondered that? Why in the world is Jesus being baptized? I'm pretty sure he was already Christian at this point, just taking a guess, and I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that I'm pretty sure he was already going to heaven at this point, probably. So baptism can't be something that makes you a Christian and it can't be something that gets you into heaven, right? Instead, it looks like something that is a statement of identification Identification with God, identification with his kingdom. So Jesus shows up, he gets baptized, and then the rest of verse 21 and then verse 22 say and as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form.

Speaker 1: 15:40

So let's think about that first century audience for a minute. And what's going on here? I mean, this would have probably blown their minds right. They were probably like at first, like okay, john, you have to say like this guy's descended from God because that's your job, but we've been waiting to hear from God for a long time. Our people used to hear from God regularly, but it's been 400 years of silence and you know that's fine.

Speaker 1: 16:17

But then we have God showing up. God shows up. All three people, all three persons of the Godhead are present, the whole Trinity, and they're all affirming what's going on in this moment? We've got the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, we've got the Father's voice and we've got Jesus in the flesh. And I think we can easily understand Jesus in the flesh. We're used to seeing people. We know what they look like. A Father God is something that we can, at least in concept, relate to, but the Holy Spirit is often a mystery to us.

Speaker 1: 17:00

So I want to take just a minute to talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit. As believers, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, equipping and empowering us with gifts to transform us into people who reflect love and grace and kindness, forgiveness. The Holy Spirit wants to empower us to restore God's dream for the world, and that makes this next sentence in the scriptures, here in verse 23, all the more interesting to me. The first part of verse 23 says Now. Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. So we have Jesus getting baptized, publicly, displaying his identification with God, and the Holy Spirit shows up, and then Jesus begins his public ministry. It's then that Jesus goes out into the rest of the world to reach all kinds of people and tell them of the love, the grace, the forgiveness that he is offering to them. It all gets real once the Holy Spirit shows up, the Holy Spirit that does the empowering. That's a great story, sarah.

Speaker 1: 18:13

What are we supposed to do with it? What does that mean for us? I have never seen the heavens open up, I've never heard God's voice, I've never saw Jesus in the flesh. So what do we do with this? Well, to put it into our terms, the first thing we can do is we can repent, right. So what does that mean again? It means stop not doing something good. Quit living just for yourself and think about others. Quit cheating people. Be a good person, even if you don't have to right. Stop going this way. Stop Go the other way. Get baptized right, we can get baptized in water, just like Jesus. And that doesn't make us a Christian, it doesn't get us into heaven, but it publicly identifies us as believers in God. It's a statement of identification with God and his kingdom. If you haven't had the opportunity to be baptized in water, I highly recommend that the next opportunity here at Madison Church, you take that opportunity, even if you did it when you were maybe too young to remember or didn't know the complexities of it. Do it, just do it. It's incredible. So we can repent, we can be baptized and then we can recognize that the Holy Spirit that dwells in us as believers and trust that the Holy Spirit is transforming us, equipping us, empowering us to share with others about the love, the grace, the forgiveness of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 19:49

John gave a really practical message to the people who came from many different walks of life. He was saying if you are going to be a Jesus follower, people will know you. They will know you're a Jesus follower because of your actions. If you're going to be a Jesus follower, people will see you as generous. People will see you're a Jesus follower because of your actions. If you're going to be a Jesus follower, people will see you as generous. People will see you as honest, even when the cashier gives you extra change back. They will see you as just as fair as kind, even if your job requires you to keep people in line. People will know you are a Jesus follower by your actions and it might make you stick out. It might make you a weirdo. At times you may feel like a crazy-looking man in the wilderness with bugs stuck in his beard.

Speaker 1: 20:39

But we too are called to be forerunners. We too are the ones that get to point and introduce others to Jesus. We get to prepare the way for them to be introduced and to learn more, even about the Jesus that we know and love. Because salvation in the Bible is tied to the idea of recognizing Jesus for who he is and responding. Recognizing Jesus for who he is and responding, guys, if a smelly guy wearing camel skin, with a little belt and honey and bugs in his beard, if he can do it, if he can be a forerunner for Jesus. We can, too. We can, so let's do it right. Let's be sure, by our actions, that people know you're a Jesus follower. Let's be generous, let's be fair and let's be ready. Let's invite the Holy Spirit to do the work that the Holy Spirit does and encourage us to introduce people around us to the Jesus that we know and love.