Strange Preacher . . . Strong Proclamation, Part 1

One of the delightful aspects of studying the Bible is coming to know the colorful characters that bring life and vibrancy to the truth. In fact, we're often surprised how God shows unlikely people to accomplish His divine purposes. Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will introduce us to a man whose singular assignment was very clear, but his odd persona is somewhat surprising, if not altogether shocking. His story is recorded for us in Matthew chapter 3, and we'll begin by reading the passage together.

Chuck titled today's message Strange Preacher, Strong Proclamation. My great hope for you is that you have Jesus. I mean really, really and truly that you have Him. And more importantly, that He has you. Could you make it this year that you decide He will have first place?

I don't care how bright the future may be, I don't care how involved you are, or what it looks like for your company or your future. Just remember these words, these simple words from yesteryear, Lord, just give me Jesus. First and foremost, first in my decisions, first in my mornings, first through all the trials that will come. Just give me, in my life, the presence and the significance of Jesus Christ.

It'll be a year like you've never lived before, I can assure you. Now, your Bible, hopefully, is open to Matthew chapter 3, where we pick up our subject as we go through this Gospel by Matthew, who was in his earlier days as an adult, a tax collector who was converted to Jesus. And when he realized the place Jesus was to have in his life, he closed the books, released the business, and became a follower, ultimately one of the twelve disciples. Matthew writes to Jews mainly, but not only. That's why so many references are made to sections of scripture that would be known to the Jew, or to references stated by those familiar to those in that day. You find Matthew 3.

Earlier I thought I would make it all the way through the chapter, and after giving it two weeks of study, I'm going to be doing well to get through half the chapter. So we'll go through verse 10, and then we'll pick up verse 11 next time. The version I'm reading from is the New Living Translation. If you haven't a Bible, simply listen carefully. In those days, John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, he is a voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him. John's clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist for food.

He ate locusts and wild honey. People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. You brood of snakes, he exclaimed, who warned you to flee God's coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don't just say to each other, we're safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.

That means nothing. For I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now, the acts of God's judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees.

Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire. Our hope is that the Lord will lift this print from white pages before us and implant on our hearts an understanding of how it applies to the lives we live today. For all scripture was given for our admonition that we through patience and comfort from studying the scriptures might have hope.

That's our hope today. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies.

And now let's resume the message titled Strange Preacher Strong Proclamation. Doing what I do makes me vitally interested in others who do the same. That's not uncommon when you are interested in the world of athletics. You find other athletes very interested in that world, in that sport. If you're in education, you follow with interest others who are in the profession of educating other people. You're fascinated by that. Those in the military are often grateful for others who wear the uniform and they understand their world and often make a study of those who have earned the medals that now fill their chest.

Actors are students of fellow actors and others in the performing arts. It just stands to reason that because you are in a realm of whatever may be your work that you have a keen interest in others in the same way. I'm a preacher. I think of it in the daytime.

I dream of it at night. I work at it. It is my craft.

It is my joy and my responsibility. Therefore, I'm interested in what makes other preachers effective. I'm curious about the different styles of communication. I pay attention to the way other preachers handle the scriptures and the way they fit those scriptures into the message that God has given them. I notice their ability to connect with the audience and I study them.

I read them. I have a shelf and a half in my library of nothing but books about preachers or books written on the subject of preaching and I turn to those books frequently. I found two things true of those who preach. Number one, each has a unique gift mix. Each one has a unique gift mix and no two are alike. You will never find two preachers that are identical.

I've often said God doesn't cookie cut his messengers. Each one of us is a unique individual. Each one has his own voice, has his own style, his own approach, his own way of thinking. I noticed also secondly that many of us are really unusual preachers.

Maybe strange is a good way to put it. When I study the preachers of yesteryear, I smile realizing there aren't many churches today that would ever call that person to come to be their pastor. I don't know of a church in America that would want Martin Luther to be the preacher. Even though we admire him, the things he accomplished, the courage he modeled, he himself said on more than one occasion, I never preach better than when I'm angry. So his messages were filled with anger. Melanchthon, his long time companion would try to tone him down and soften the blow a little bit. Luther, there was no softening of the blow.

I have for years appreciated the writings of G. Campbell Morgan who filled a pulpit at Westminster Chapel in London and very effectively wrote his books on exposition. And I was surprised to find just this last week that he smoked as many as eight cigars a day. I wouldn't have guessed that. As a matter of fact, Spurgeon enjoyed a good cigar and a Methodist minister rebuked him on one occasion, reprimanded him for smoking, and he said to the minister, if I ever find myself smoking to excess, I promise I will quit entirely. What would you call smoking to excess?

The other minister asked. Why? Smoking two cigars at the same time would be an excess. Now what's interesting, you may not laugh at that because you may hate cigars that much that you can't even find any humor in that.

And for you, I'm sorry. What's interesting is that Spurgeon had no room in his life for anyone who attended the theater. None. That was verboten. Isn't that interesting? He liked a good cigar but he had no room for anyone who would be in the theater. Do you realize how many of those preachers in the day of Lincoln's assassination blamed Lincoln for the fact that he was shot because he had gone to the theater?

Of all things. We're a strange lot, we preachers. None more strange than John the Baptizer. Trust me, this church and none other I've ever been in would ever call John the Baptizer to be the pastor. You want a guy preaching to you in camel's hair with a diet of locusts and wild honey?

Probably not. Would you like a guy preaching to you who opens a sermon with you brood of vipers, snakes in the grass? That's John. He had his own way, didn't he?

Why would he do that? Listen carefully. Because his calling was to be the forerunner of one who was to transform the world. And you become a forerunner by capturing the attention of the listener who is steeped in religion. Had John taken the time to wade through Jerusalem he would run across all kinds of official religious authorities in their robes of righteousness arguing over the length of their phylacteries, proud of their voice and their rules and regulations that would put the Ten Commandments to shame. They held those rules more tightly than you can imagine. They were the original legalists. That was the religion of the day. And most were so turned off by that or intimidated by it that they couldn't imagine a God who was approachable. And how do you get the attention of those who promote that kind of hypocrisy?

You begin by calling them snakes in the grass. You look into the eyes of those hypocrites and you say to them, how dare you think you can use these right words when all the while your heart is dark. Get rid of the darkness and there will be room for the light that Jesus, whom I'm announcing can bring into your life. I mean it, folks. I mean it when I say we have become enamored of our times.

We have a very small window of acceptance of the style of ministry that we will listen to. Discernment is one thing. Proud of one's own religion is another. And I warn you to guard against the Pharisaism that is in your own life.

I must fight it like the plague. I must work regularly and faithfully to keep from looking like I am one way when in reality I am another. How valuable authenticity is. And if nothing else, John the Baptizer was authentic. He had nothing to lose. You realize how little he cared what you thought of him? He didn't care what you thought of what he was wearing or what he ate or where he slept or how he lived.

He had one clear channel and that was to the one who called him. And listen to this. Jesus said of him what he had said of no one else. No greater person ever lived than John.

I'll repeat it. No greater person ever lived than John. In his day, John would be known as John Ben Zechariah. Ben is the word for son. Zechariah is his father.

The Hebrew is Ben. John, son of Zechariah, he suddenly drops on the scene of Matthew's Gospel as if he were a meteorite flashing through the night sky. You see him, he comes suddenly, you don't expect it and you watch the flash as it goes by and he's gone, beheaded by this godless Herod in a drunken state who out of lust for the one who danced in front of him called for the head of John the Baptizer. That's the ending.

What a life. Begins in the wilderness winds up with his head on a platter. A very unusual man. But the Lord knew if I'm going to bring my son to this earth and prepare people for his arrival and his kind of ministry, I need to get their attention. Indeed he does as he selects the baptizer. The words began, chapter three, in a rather innocuous manner in those days. In those days, ho-hum, life as usual, Pharisees still proud of their Pharisaism, Sadducees in all their wealth and liberalism still proud of their lifestyle, all of those who live under the tutelage of rabbis who studied under them and with them imbibing all of that religious garbage. What will it take to break through in those days? It takes John the Baptizer out of nowhere, out of the wilderness.

Look at it. In those days, John the Baptizer came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching his message. Judean wilderness.

That's where John was trained. Before the training began, he was born into the home of a barren, otherwise barren mother, whose name was Elizabeth. Getting up in years, we're not told how old, but she was far past the childbearing years.

I would guess between 60 and 80. His conception was amazing. It was the greatest thing that had happened to Elizabeth. She finds from the words of the angel, you're going to have a child.

And it is just the most magnificent message she could hear. When Zachariah, the dad, hears the message, he doesn't believe it. And you know what happens to him? The Lord shuts up his hearing and closes his tongue so that he can't speak or hear throughout the nine months waiting for the birth. So here is an older and aging mother-to-be and a father who is a mute.

The only thing he can do is write. In fact, when asked about the name of the boy, he wrote, the name will be John. They said, it's not going to be John. You only have a John in your family.

Oh. That's where the angel told us to name him. We named him John. How long the parents lived, we're not told, but for sure you can believe his mom and dad helped him understand because of the words of the angel, you are the forerunner of Messiah. Never forget it.

F.B. Meyer with a little sanctified imagination thinks of the father's words to his young boy. My boy, God has fulfilled his holy covenant, has fulfilled his holy covenant in you, the oath which he swore unto Abraham our father. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel. The Lord's hand is on you, son. The Lord's hand is on you. Sometimes, Meyer writes, when they were alone together in the early dawn and saw the first peep of day, the father would say, John, John, you see that light breaking over the hills? What that day spring is to the world, Jesus, my cousin at Nazareth, will be to the darkness of sin.

You're the forerunner. Don't ever forget it. When John would ask why he wouldn't ever cut his hair or why he would not be able to drink strong drink like the other boys around him, she would say, you're a Nazarite.

You're a Nazarite. No cutting of the hair, no drinking of strong drink. In fact, you're never to touch a dead body, not even a dead bird that you're tempted to pick up. Stay away from that. Meyer then adds, how indelible are the impressions of the home. May I say to you, all of you who are in a home, you may have a small family, you may have a grown family, you may have little ones coming along, you may have adolescents. Do not ever discount the importance of the counsel of a dad or the nurturing of a mother.

Don't ever, ever doubt that. John's life was marked by the stamp of Zacharias, by the words of Elizabeth, John. We're old, but we can tell you, all of this abstinence is worth every bit of it because it keeps your vow before God, and you want to be a clean vessel that announces the coming of Messiah. On the heels of John's life came the one who would transform the world. His name was Jesus. Before he steps on the scene, John is in the wilderness. If you ever travel to Israel, make sure your guide takes you to the Judean wilderness. You've never seen anything like it. You think you've seen wilderness.

Not like this. Alongside the Dead Sea and further south, there isn't a sprig of vegetation. It is rock and gravel.

It is unbearably hot during the day and cool at night. On occasion, a rain will wash through, but for the most part, it's barren. There was his place of training. The howling winds of the wilderness were heard by John throughout his growing up years.

I think his mother and dad by now were gone. John alone grows up in the Judean wilderness, and there he learns the harsh demands of an existence. There he dismisses all human opinion. You don't like the message.

You've got to deal with it. It's not my message. It's God's message. Well, we're just getting started in our study of Matthew chapter 3. It's a message Chuck Swindoll has titled Strange Preacher, Strong Proclamation. And in the event you missed any program in this brand new study of Matthew, remember you can catch up by streaming the audio directly from the Insight for Living website.

You'll find all the information at insightworld.org. Now behind the scenes, we're quite excited about this new series called The King's Arrival. We're praying that thousands, perhaps millions will join us in this exciting introduction to Israel's long-awaited king. In the coming weeks and months, Chuck Swindoll will guide our global audience through Matthew's account of Jesus' birth, his entire ministry on earth, right through his parting words commonly known as the Great Commission. Along with the daily program, Insight for Living Ministries has prepared a number of additional resources for you, and each one is designed to help you dig deeper into God's Word on your own and to apply the principles to your daily life. For example, the online Searching the Scriptures studies will complement each sermon. This gives you a way to explore the passage on your own and to take notes of what you're learning.

You can even print out the document and share it with friends. So to search the Scriptures with Chuck, go to insight.org slash studies. Finally, along with the release of this brand new series on the daily program, Chuck has just completed his verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Matthew as well.

It comes in two hardbound volumes. Alongside the verses in Matthew, you'll also gain access to charts, maps, photos, key terms, and of course Chuck's practical insights. So to purchase Swindoll's Living Insights commentary on Matthew, call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. That's 1-800-772-8888. Or go online to insight.org slash store. Chuck Swindoll's brand new study through the book of Matthew continues Wednesday, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Strange Preacher, Strong Proclamation, was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.