[image: Saguaro Sunset, 2013, JA Van Devender]
Matthew 3:3 (NKJV)
3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the willderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; "Make His paths straight.’ ”
Sermon Text: Matthew 3:01-12
Our God does all things well.
John was exactly tailored to his mission. He could not be ignored... he could not be silenced... he could not speak other than he did.
I imagine that there was a churning in his innards that simply would not go away. I would not think that he would qualify as a "happy" man... in the sense that we think of that adjective. A prophet's life was cruel in a way... he could not be at peace as long as the message was burning a hole in his stomach. He was the herald, the sounding gong at the beginning of the parade, the advance guard that was sent to probe the enemy defenses. His life was dominated by urgency.... I wonder if he ever got any sleep in those last days or weeks or months he was given to speak before his Lord took up the role that He, and He alone, could fulfill.
He was a voice in the wilderness... as strange and as glorious as the desert sunset. In him all of the nation of Israel, as a separate people on the earth, gained their climactic prophetic role. Of all the men born of women, prior to the Messiah, he was the greatest. The sun set on Israel in his life and a new dawn arose in the Eastern sky as he saw his Lord approach and he proclaimed Him the "lamb that takes away the sins of the world."
He called us to repentance... to reject our old way of life so that we may be unburdened in our taking up of the new. He proclaimed that the New Wineskins were coming and therefore the Old Ones must be rejected. There was no more claim to privilege in being a son of Abraham... the temple was to lose its sacredness... the glory that was Solomon's was to be surpassed by Someone far greater.
We had to give up the old to see the new... and we have to still.
We must repent.... turn away from all that ties us to this world in our thinking, aspirations and our actions. We must embrace the New, Better, but far more Scary World that has come... the Kingdom that has drawn near.
The voice in the wilderness has sounded... the sun has set on the world, the flesh and the devil... it is now for us to confess one faith, one Lord and one baptism for the remission of sins. The voice has sounded... is anyone listening?
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