Luke 1:5-23
The baby who would be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth had a God-given mission to fulfil; the angel said that John would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord”. Before the Lord sent the long-promised Messiah into the world He was sending a forerunner to prepare the way for Him, just as the Old Testament prophets had said (Isaiah 40:3, see also Matthew 3:3, Malachi 3:1)
A forerunner was necessary because the nation of Israel were called to be “holy”, which means “consecrated” or “set apart”. (See Leviticus 20:7, Leviticus 20:26). As God’s holy people they were meant to be radically different from all the other nations, living in a way that would demonstrate God’s will and character to the rest of the world. But by 4BC, they were far from holy. Their heart attitudes and behaviours were just like those of the pagan people around them. God was about to send the Messiah to usher in His kingdom, but His people were not morally or spiritually ready to receive Him. So John’s mission was to bring the people back to a place of holiness. His ministry would be to urge people to repent of their sins and to turn their hearts back towards God so that when Jesus came into the world they would experience Him as Saviour rather than as judge.
To equip John for his mission, he was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (v.15). The Spirit’s first work was to make John personally holy. He did not drink either wine or strong drink, he lived alone in the desert (v.80), he wore hairy clothing and ate locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4). His ascetic lifestyle might sound bizarre to our ears but it symbolised his separation from the culture around him and his dedication to his God-given mission.
The Holy Spirit also equipped him for ministry. The angel told Zechariah that John would have the same power and anointing as the prophet Elijah, who had risen up in Israel some 800 years earlier during the reign of king Ahab and his wicked queen Jezebel, to call the nation to radical repentance (v.17). John did indeed prove to be a bold and uncompromising prophet who spoke to people about their urgent need to repent of their sins and live up to their calling as God’s people. No one could ever accuse John of crowd pleasing! He boldly confronted the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, even calling them “a brood of vipers” at one point. He rebuked king Herod for his immorality and he died a martyr’s death rather than compromise the truth.
John’s life and ministry is a challenge to God’s people today as we await Jesus’ return to the earth. Like the people of Israel we are called to be holy because our God is a holy God.
1 Peter 1:15-16 (NLT) “But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. [16] For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
However, the spirit of this world has infiltrated the Church to the point where many who call themselves Christians live just like people around them, focused on things which are temporary, rather than eternal, and walking in compromise and impurity. Those of us who have been born again already have the Holy Spirit in us. But we won’t experience the fulness of our anointing unless we let His Holy Spirit do His work of making us holy. Hebrews 12:14 tells us to “pursue holiness”, because without it “no one will see the Lord”.
We cannot afford to be casual about the holiness of God. We will not see the Lord working through us in signs and wonders, or be those through whom other people’s lives are transformed, if we are living unholy lives. Ephesians 4:1 tells us to “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called”. The Holy Spirit wants to make us clean and pure, set apart from the things of this world, from sin – from wrong thinking and attitudes and from everything that is in opposition to the will of God – so that we are able to fulfil His purpose for us.
God is preparing a people to host His presence and take Him to the world. He is looking for those who are willing to consecrate themselves to Him. He is calling us to holiness. Will you say yes?
Prayer
Father God,
I come before You in the realisation that I have allowed myself to become compromised by the thinking and standards of this world, instead of walking in true holiness. I thank You that You love me and accept me on the basis of what Christ has done, rather than any good thing in me. Nevertheless I realise that, in order to play my part in the mission of the church on Earth, I need to walk in holiness so that the people around me see Your love, Your goodness and Your purity.
So I come before You to consecrate myself afresh today. I pray that the Holy Spirit would cleanse me from the inside out, that I might walk in holiness for Your glory.
Amen.
All references are from the NKJV unless specified otherwise.
Jill Partis
bearing-kingdom-fruit.com
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