– Wayne Dobratz

As long as mankind has looked at the stars, we’ve been wondering: “Is anyone else out there?” The first Lunar Lander had a message on it just in case anyone from another world might find it. Radio telescopes are listening for alien signals, as depicted in the recent Motion Picture: CONTACT. Nervous NASA people are still waiting for the first message from the Mars Polar Lander.

People in the time of John the Baptist were waiting too–for a message from God, from the great beyond.

I invite you to join me in thinking about:

A MESSAGE FROM BEYOND

1) Many were looking for it–then & now 2) Its form–then & now 3) Its promise–then & now

If you think this scenario of a prophet calling in the desert is far-fetched and out of date, think again. You don’t have to go to the desert to get attention these days. All you need is a reporter looking for a story and your message can be sent world-wide in a matter of minutes.

There are so many people filled with anxiety about the end of the world at the end of the Millennium that just about anybody with a prophetic message can get a hearing.

John didn’t have reporters to help him spread his message by satellite. He had to depend upon word of mouth. That’s all they had in those days and it worked splendidly.

John was: “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'”4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

John was a voice from God’s World. He was the one calling in the desert: PREPARED GOD’S WAY FOR HIM, MAKE STRAIGHT PATHS FOR HIM.

It was a message for them then and for us now. The picture is of a roadway strewn with boulders. The stones must be cleared before the King’s visit. Then, as now, the really heavy stones are within, inside of the human heart, the stony ground of sin and rebellion. As strange as it may sound, John had to wear a costume to dramatize his mission.

Mark tells us in the middle of the last paragraph of the text: John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

That sounds pretty strange until you remember that John’s role was to be like that of Elijah. His lifestyle, right down to his clothing and his diet, were like that of Elijah. Then, as now, people were looking for a message about the future. John was the first Prophet that God had sent to them in 400 years.

Motion pictures as far back as the 1950’s depict people from other worlds coming to save us from own self- destructiveness. Michael Rennie appeared with a message from beyond in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Telephone man Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss, had an encounter with alien creatures who later visited the earth and promised peace, prosperity and eternal life in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.

There is a better place, but it’s not in outer space; it’s in God’s space; it’s in the Kingdom of God that John was proclaiming. John came to introduce Jesus to God’s ancient people. The only way one could really be prepared to meet him was to come to grips with the sin that made his coming necessary. You just can’t understand Jesus without knowing the deadly power of sin.

That’s why John’s message was one of REPENTANCE. He baptized people for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus told his followers to do the same thing. They had to turn from the ways of sin and death and follow Him. This turn-about was made obvious by the new way of life that Jesus called THE FRUITS of repentance and faith.

It was when Jesus came to where John was speaking that John pointed to Him and said: BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD

We need to heed this message as much today as they did then. Sin is one of the constants of human nature. All human beings except Jesus were born with it. There is no cure except that which Jesus brings.

And that takes us to THE PROMISE. This message from God is summarized in the last 6 lines of the Gospel on the text sheet: 7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus was John’s cousin. John was 6 months older, but John knew that Jesus’ origin was a lot older than that–older than the universe, older than the earth, older than time itself. John was pointing the people to the fulfilment of a prediction that God’s Prophet Micah had made so many years before: “But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”(Micah 5:2)

Many at the time were looking for an earthly Kingdom. John was pointing to a Heavenly Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. It’s not much different today. People are looking for a better world. God’s promises a place that is literally out of this world, the Paradise of God that Jesus promised to a dying robber on the cross right next to Him, not long before both of them died.

Today you will be with me in Paradise. He gives you and me the same promise. Paradise is waiting for God’s children by faith in Jesus, the faith that confesses sin the way the people did when John baptized them. There is a Kingdom in another world waiting for those who confess their sins just the way the dying thief did on the cross next to Jesus.

The message of the Promise is that Jesus the One uniquely qualified to take away the sin of the world. Just a few verses later in Mark’s Gospel, we read: Mark 1:9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit came from him in eternity and comes from Him now in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the one who reminds us again and again of Jesus’ fulfilment of God’s promises. He baptizes WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH FIRE. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and then points to Jesus. The fire purifies from sin and corruption.

Jesus is the only One who can help. He was the only One who could help then and He’s the only One who can help now. Trust His promises for your future, my friend; you’ll never be sorry that you did.

Jesus said: (John 5:) 24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

>From death to life–that’s the trip you take as the Holy Spirit leads you to repent of your sins and to trust in Jesus’ death on the cross for you. Repentance–you’ll find it illustrated in every corner of life, if you know where to look. In Hank Ketchum’s Comic Strip “Dennis the Menace”, Dennis is kneeling beside his bed saying his prayers: “I’m sorry, but I’ve got a whole bunch of ‘I’m Sorry’s’ tonight!”

Erwin Lutzer writes: How does God take a person who lives one-half inch from Hell and make him live one-half inch from heaven? It is not easy. There is a price to be paid. The divine Surgeon must be permitted to use His scalpel to cut, cleanse and break, so healing can take place. In fact, such SPIRITUAL SURGERY is more painful than physical surgery. God, you see, doesn’t use an anesthetic; He doesn’t do His work while we are asleep. God can take any brokenhearted believer and make him or her a radiant, loving person. But when He performs such “soul surgery”, his children are wide awake. Pain is a part of the process.

Walking in the old ways of sin leads to death here and now and separation from God forever. Changing your mind about sin and following Jesus is life here and now and there in then in our Father’s house. Newness of life is what we seek and newness of life is the only way to peace and hope in this life. Thank God for the Holy Spirit who changes us the only we can be changed–from the inside out.

Bless the holy name of Jesus, now and forevermore, amen.

– Wayne Dobratz <
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