TGAT: John the Baptist

I introduced the Vocational Gospel through a four-part series that went through Scripture cover-to-cover--literally, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation. Now, I want to expand on that introduction by showing individual instances in the Bible where we see the Vocational Gospel explicitly preached or displayed. I'm calling it "The Gospel According To..." Today I want to start with John the Baptist.

John was a man of two worlds: he was the last prophet of Israel, and he was the first preacher of the Gospel, before even Jesus. In Matthew 3:2 John begins to preach, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand"--which is, word-for-word, exactly how Matthew summarizes Jesus' message in 4:17. John's preaching is our first glimpse of the Good News that accompanies the arrival of the messiah, Jesus. So what does he preach?

Well, as we just saw, he preaches repentance. In Luke's account, John's call to repentance is positively fiery. He says, 

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Luke 3:7b-9, ESV)

 John's preaching was vivid and compelling, that's for sure, but it left his audience a little confused. "What shall we do?" they ask him in verse 10. And this question is key. In fact, this question is what all this "Vocational Gospel" business is supposed to address: What do we do? Because even now, almost 2000 years after John answered their questions, we are still confused. Now, if you ask "What must I do to be saved," we have plenty of answers for you (although almost never the answer Jesus gave). But once I've repented, what should I do? What is this all about? 

John's answer is very simple. I was discussing this passage with a pastor friend of mine recently and he said that John's preaching convicted him, because John's answer was so much simpler that his sometimes was. He mused, "Am I making the Gospel too complicated?" And sometimes we do. Because this is what John said:

“Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”( Luke 3:11b, ESV)

Share with each other. Be generous. That's what he says. Repent, and then be generous with each other. Huh.

But then the crowd starts butting in, because they want more specifics. "What about me?" they ask him. Tax collectors asked him, "What about us?" And he said, "Quit your job, give back the money, and become an accountant for a charity." No. Actually, he said, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do” (v. 13b). Some soldiers asked him the same question, and he said, "Leave the army, and join the fight against the oppressors." No, actually, he said, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages” (v. 14b). In every instance, John simply tells them: be honest. Do your job morally. Don't cheat or steal. Whatever you've been doing, start doing it in a godly way.

Now, please do not think that I am condemning or criticizing those who devote their lives and careers to explicit Christian work. That would be a tad hypocritical, since I am employed as a pastor. We all have evangelistic work to do. We should all be reaching out to those around us. But all of our evangelism, all of our preaching and worshipping and blogging and whatever else we do--is ultimately for the purpose of creating people who will govern this world morally, who will do what they were doing in a godly way. This is the Kingdom of Heaven, this is the purpose of the Gospel. 

So, what shall you do? If I were John the Baptist, I might challenge you to look at how you live your life outside of church, how you conduct yourself at work, how you take care of whatever people or property or whatever that has been put in your charge. Are you bearing fruit in keeping with repentance? Are you governing your charge on God's behalf?