In seeking to better understand the Biblical term “gospel,” we’ve made excellent progress by working our way through the Old Testament. We’ve also taken our first steps into the New Testament. There we considered the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear a son who would be the Messiah – the king of Israel. We also looked at the angel’s gospel message to the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy…Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord!” We’ll soon dive headfirst into the life of Jesus. But I wish to make one more stop before we get there. When Jesus began his own ministry, he decided that the appropriate starting point was to join a movement which had already begun under the leadership of his relative: John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is an important figure who finds a prominent place in all the accounts of Jesus’ life. In Matthew 3, John is recorded as saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This announcement is nearly identical to the way Jesus himself begins his ministry: “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time is come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!'” (Mark 1:14-15) Thus, for both John and Jesus, the declaration of the “good news” could be boiled down to one short phrase: “the kingdom of God is near.”
Hopefully all the hard work we’ve done up to this point starts to really pay off! Because our previous studies should allow us to grasp exactly what John and Jesus meant. As good Jews steeped in the scriptures, they would have known that God created mankind as his image bearers. God delegated his authority to humankind so that they might serve as regents, exercising his wise and joyful reign over all the earth. We should immediately note two things. 1) The gospel of the kingdom is much, much more than a message about individual salvation. The gospel is a declaration that God is restoring the entire created order in accordance with his original purposes. Of course, if God is setting the whole creation right again that is good news for every individual human being who chooses to join this magnificent rescue project. But we should never forget that our individual stories are only one small part of a much larger picture. 2) The good news is very much a message about the present world. It has absolutely nothing to do with people being transported to a realm called “heaven” after their death. Rather, it is about a dramatic transformation by which God will bring justice, peace and flourishing to the world. We’ll have much more to say about these two things later.
Let’s jump into the account of John the Baptist’s ministry in Luke chapter 3. All four of the gospel accounts link John with Isaiah 40, the very passage we’ve already studied in association with the word “gospel.” Isaiah 40 is all about the good news that Israel’s exile was over. The time of Israel’s rebellion and idolatry was coming to an end. At the time of the exile, God had withdrawn his presence from the people of Israel. But God would not abandon Israel completely. He had promised to return, to again bless them with his presence when they turned back to him with all their hearts. And God’s blessing would flow not just to Israel, but through Israel to all the nations.
Luke quotes the key passage in Isaiah which talks about the greatly anticipated return of the Lord. “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the LORD, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.'” John the Baptist clearly saw that his task was to serve as this voice, the royal herald, who would announce the return of Israel’s God. The language of valleys being filled in and mountains being made low is clearly figurative. This isn’t about any literal changes in the topography; it is about the urgent task of preparing the people of Israel for the return of her God, because they clearly were not ready.
The problem was that Israel was not producing the fruit that God wanted. John urged his listeners: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance!” What is this fruit? Well, it’s the same covenant obligations we’ve studied earlier: proper worship and obedience. The people of Israel needed a radical change in behavior. John’s exhortations are recorded in Luke 3:10-14. Unfortunately, some in Israel were hoarding possessions while leaving their brothers in destitution. John called them to a life of generosity. John called the tax collectors to exercise honesty and integrity. He called the soldiers to leave behind their extortion and false accusations. In short, John was calling his fellow Israelites to covenant obedience.
One other key theme of John’s preaching: Abraham. “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” In fact, references to Abraham are all over Luke’s gospel. Listen to part of Mary’s song (the Magnificat) when she learns that she will give birth to the Messiah: “[The Lord] has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.” Listen also to Zechariah’s (John the Baptist’s father) song, “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us – to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham“.
I certainly hope, dear reader, that his does not surprise you. We’ve seen this all before. Remember, God’s whole rescue plan begins with Abraham. (First century Jews had certainly not forgotten this, even though many modern Christians have.) God had promised that his blessing to the whole world would come through Abraham and through the “children of Abraham” – the people of Israel. Clinging to this promise sustained Israel through the long night of her exile. Even though they had broken the covenant and been scattered among the nations, they remembered God’s solemn promise that he would use Israel to bring blessing to the world. And God would not, could not go back on his promises. Someday he would redeem Israel. Old Simeon in the temple courts hadn’t forgotten. The Holy Spirit told him that this great moment of redemption was at hand. He took the newborn Jesus in his arms and sang, “For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32) Simeon knew that the Messiah would bring glory to Israel, but he would also bring light and salvation to all people.
In his preaching, John affirms the key role Abraham’s children would play. However, he adds a new and potentially troubling twist: John warns Israel (the physical descendants of Abraham) that if they do not produce the fruit that God desires, God has the power to create a new family for Abraham, even if it means they will come from the very stones on the ground. John does not explain this mysterious claim. He simply implies that those who think they are irrevocably apart of the family of Abraham may not in fact find themselves included in that category. John does make it clear that the criteria for inclusion as a child of Abraham is the fruit of obedience.
One additional key point regarding John’s preaching. I want to draw your attention to the close correlation between judgment and the “good news.” John was not a man to shrink from confrontation. He calls his audience a bunch of snakes and ask them, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” Ominously he declares, “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Like all the prophets before him, John has the unenviable task of warning Israel that she needed to urgently change her ways. If Israel persisted in rebellion and wickedness, God’s wrath would come upon them. The trees that didn’t bear the fruit of proper worship and obedience would suffer judgment; they would be “cut down and thrown into the fire.” Nor could the people of Israel find comfort by telling themselves that they were physical descendants of Abraham. They could only find favor with God by producing good fruit: covenant obedience, justice, honesty, integrity.
John announces that this impending moment of judgment will come upon Israel with the arrival of the Messiah. Luke reports, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah.” John reminds them that he is only the royal herald. But soon enough, the true king is surely coming: “One more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” As above, John warns that a time of great judgement is bearing down upon Israel. The measuring stick will be whether or not Israel has been faithful to her covenant God. And the coming Messiah will be the agent of God’s judgment; the faithful in Israel he will gather like wheat into his barn, but the unfaithful he will burn up like chaff.
There is one additional phrase we need to examine: The Messiah as the one who will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Remember our earlier studies: the Messiah would be the righteous king who would finally lead Israel in righteousness. No longer would she be filled with rebellion and wickedness; rather, the Messiah would baptize them with God’s very own spirit, enabling them to serve him with all their hearts and thereby find deliverance at the time of judgment. The image of “fire” could be an image of negative judgement, but it’s also used in the Bible to indicate purification. I think either would make sense here. To those in Israel who reject the Messiah and the gift of the Holy Spirit, they will be consumed by “unquenchable fire”. But those who allow the Holy Spirit to purge them of impurity will find salvation.
Luke concludes his account of John the Baptist’s preaching in this way: “And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.” But after reading what John actually said, it sure doesn’t sound like the good news we might have learned in Sunday school, the common understanding of the good news we set out at the beginning of blog #2. What do we make of this? We’ll continue to develop this idea in future blogs, but for now, I just want you to begin acclimating yourself to the idea that judgement is a crucial part of the gospel. I’m sure that many readers will want to say, “Wait a minute! How can judgement be a part of the gospel? Isn’t the gospel the opposite of judgement? Isn’t the gospel the solution to impending judgment?
My initial response is simply to point us back to the scriptures. Re-read Luke 3, and John the Baptist’s preaching of the good news: “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” “Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” “He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Moreover, we could look at what Paul says in Romans 2:16: “This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus the Messiah, as my gospel declares.” Or we could look at what John the Seer writes in Revelation 14:6-7, “Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth…’Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgement has come.” In the scriptures, judgement is a key part of the gospel, over and over again. If we really want to understand the gospel, we will need to find out why.
