Mark tells us of a crowd heading out to the wilderness,
“people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem,” to see a preacher by the name
of John. It would be a long and tiring journey, but in the end, worthwhile. No doubt, on the trek, they would be sharing stories and things they heard about this
preacher, known as “The Baptiser.”
That he was a holy man was beyond doubt. Some even said (and Jesus would later agree with them) that he was the promised Elijah who would return
before the Messiah came to earth.
There were the strange circumstances of his birth
into the priestly family of Zacharias. Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth had grown old and had no children. One day whilst performing special duties in the temple, Zacharias claimed to have been visited by an angel,
who took away his powers of speech whilst at the same time promising that his barren wife would bear a child to turn many
back to the Lord.
Elizabeth became pregnant and gave birth to a boy
child. After 8 days they came to name him. Zacharias
wrote down the name which angel Gabriel had given – ‘John’. The
moment he wrote it down, Zacharias’ power of speech returned and he started to praise God. Luke’s gospel (1:66) records, “All who heard these things kept them in mind, saying, “What
then will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was certainly
with him.”
When he grew up, John became a prophet and a preacher. He went out into the desert to study, observed a strict lifestyle, clothed himself
in camel’s skin and a leather belt, and lived on a diet of locust beans and honey. He
preached a message that convicted people of their sins and turned their lives around. So
effective was his preaching that people were prepared to go down into the waters with him, as a sign they were washing away
their old life and preparing to start over again.
About 275 years ago, over in Wales, there was a preacher
by the name of Daniel Rowland. Although not widely known outside of his own land,
for he was a preacher in the Welsh language rather than in English, his impact on the nation of Wales was phenomenal.
Daniel Rowland was an Episcopalian minister in a
small Welsh village called Llangeitho. His Father and his brother were also ministers at a time when religion was at a very
low ebb. Whilst a young man, preaching was his occupation but not his passion.
As his father grew older he took over the duties of the village church.
There was a preacher in a village nearby who attracted
bigger crowds. Daniel was intensely jealous. He
visited that man’s church and started, with some success, to copy the preacher’s style. He started to write sermons full of images of fire and brimstone and the judgment of God, and he delivered
them with as much velocity of voice as he could muster.
People started to come to his church, to see the
wild eyed, loud shouting, Hell-Fire preacher. But with the young Daniel Rowland
it was mostly an act, a show he was putting on to fill the pews. Whilst he sounded
convincing, he himself was not convicted of any truth in his words.
Around the end of the year 1735, Daniel Rowland went
to hear a visiting preacher by the name of Rev. Griffith Jones. In the middle
of the sermon, Griffith Jones stopped dead, pointed straight at Daniel and said he wanted the congregation to pray for a proud,
arrogant young preacher in their midst, who could, if only he would let God, be the cause of many turning from their sins.
Daniel rode away from the service, broken, confused,
feeling like he had been rumbled big-time, and ready to turn his back on the church for good. In
his brokenness, he sought to know what he should do. For the first time in his
life he gave himself to Christ, and God’s love came to him in a powerful and unexpected way.
The next time he stood up to preach, people were
aware that something supernatural had happened. There was still the thunder and
the idea of judgment, but now it was tempered by a message of forgiveness and acceptance for those who would turn to God. There was a change not only in his style but also in his voice that could only be
accounted for by a change in his heart.
The strangest thing was the effect his sermons had
on the congregation. His words came alive.
When he spoke of the fires of hell, people shouted out in fear asking God for mercy, because they said they could feel
the flames licking at their heels. When he spoke of heaven, people said they
saw the clouds move aside and things too wonderful for words. When preaching
on the cross, there were those who said they saw Christ before them crucified and dieing for their sins.
Tears of sorrow and laughter flowed freely. People would fall to the floor, broken at their own pitiful spiritual condition. These were not flash in the pan experiences, but moments that changed their lives on
a permanent basis, an experience of true revival.
As news of Daniel Rowland spread, people came in
the thousands to hear him preach. They would travel from every corner of Wales,
sometimes taking days at a time - sleeping out in the open - some coming to mock, others just to see, others seeking to know.
So many came that he often had to preach in the fields, for no building could
hold them. It was a phenomena not experienced before nor since that time in the
land of Wales. Thousands became Christians.
One can see similarities between Daniel Rowland and
John the Baptist. Both preached a message of judgment and repentance. Both had an impact on people that marked a turning point in their lives. Both
had a message worth traveling to hear. Yet there is another, far more important,
element to their preaching that we should focus on as we journey towards Christmas.
In Daniel Rowland, it was expressed by the word humility. The more who came to hear, the less worthy he felt to speak to them. A constant prayer with him was "May the Lord have mercy upon me, poor worm, and sinful dust and ashes!"
Every time he entered the pulpit he agonized over the fact of his position. A constant theme was that he didn't care if the world forgot about him; his only desire
was to lift up the name of Jesus, of whom he felt unworthy to be a servant.
In John the Baptist, such humility is expressed in
Mark 1:7 – "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me;
I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized
you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
As the crowds flocked to hear John, there was that
added edge to his preaching. He spoke of ‘One to come’; One, who
by comparison, made John’s ministry seem insignificant. When Jesus came
down to the banks of the Jordan, John says to Jesus, "I'm the one who needs to be baptized by you, do You come to me?"
(Matthew 3:14). John recognized in Jesus One who was far more than he
would ever be.
What strikes me about John the Baptist and Daniel
Rowland, these powerful men, these charismatic personalities, these holy, holy people, is that their holiness expressed itself
as a sense of unworthiness before God. As they drew near to God, it was not with
a sense of familiarity or any kind of "God's my Good Buddy and Jesus is my co-pilot" attitude, but it was with a sense of
awe and fearful reverence, a sense of the power and love and Grace of God that was way beyond anything they should expect
or earn or deserve.
This sense of the otherness and holiness and awe
of God comes through many times in the prophets. Think, for example, of a passage
like that of Isaiah 40. It carries tremendous words of encouragement, such as
"Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people," and tremendous promises such as "He will feed his flock like a shepherd; He
will gather the lambs in His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep."
These comforting words are spoken in the context
of an awesome God who holds people accountable for their sins, who will not hesitate to punish unrighteousness, and who rewards
wrong doers with what they deserve. “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely
the people are grass.” “See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm rules for Him; His reward is with Him,
and His recompense before Him.”
Christmas has become a warm fuzzy festival. We have taken a scary story about a pregnancy outside of marriage, an unjust taxation
imposed by a corrupt government, a hostile town that wouldn't even give a room to a young pregnant girl, a birth in a filthy
stable, unlikely events encompassing shepherds who had frightening visions of angels, a megalomaniac governor who murders
any child that couldn't escape his wrath because he was so insecure in his position..... we have taken all that and made it
the subject of cute cards, cozy greetings and merry messages.
Before I’m accused of saying “Bah Humbug” to Christmas, let me tell you that Christmas is one of my favorite times of the
year. I like the decorations, the feel of goodwill, the carols, the Nativity
and so much more. But all that is on the surface.
What I really like about Christmas is the gospel
message of light shining in the darkness; God with us in our struggles, Jesus, Emmanuel, born on earth and being born in the
hearts of those who receive Him still. That experience is heightened, not lessened,
by the awareness of our own unworthiness to be disciples of Jesus Christ. All
this is happening - in spite of our sins - not because of our goodness, but as an unprecedented act of the grace of God.
Prepare the way for a truly blessed Christmas by
having with you a sense of the wonder and the awesome mystery of God’s love. Humble
yourself before the mystery of God. Remember John the Baptist - a holy man who felt unfit to even untie Jesus’ sandal
laces. Think of Daniel Rowland, one of the most blessed preachers the world ever
witnessed, yet one who felt such a tremendous awe of God’s love, that at times he could barely speak of it.
Prepare the way, not by taking this season for granted,
but by thanking God for God’s mercy in allowing us to share in its joy. Christian
life is not a duty, not a way of earning God’s favor, but an undeserved privilege given by a God who could reward us
for our wrongs but chooses to forgive us through the death of His Son on the cross..
The child that was born
in Bethlehem became both our Savior and our Redeemer.
Now that’s something
worth celebrating!
Prepare the Way.
Adrian
J. Pratt
