Additional Details – John and His Ministry

In this part of the sermon: This section focuses on John's camel's hair clothing, leather girdle, and diet of locusts and wild honey. Martin explains the practical nature of these items and raises the…

Martin describes the camel's hair garment as a coarse, burlap-type fiber, likely put together like a blanket with folded corners for armholes, to help the listener visualize John's simple attire.

This garment of camel's hair, we must not think of it as the skin of a camel, but rather, it was a coarse burlap-type fiber made from the hair of a camel. And it was very durable cloth. It was cloth that might be found in the average peasant. And most likely, it was put together for the sake of description, much like a blanket in which two of the corners are folded over.

8:15 - 8:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section focuses on John's camel's hair clothing, leather girdle, and diet of locusts and wild honey. Martin explains the practical nature of these items and raises the…

Martin notes that in Eastern and African countries, locusts are still considered a delicacy, helping to contextualize John's diet for a modern audience.

wild honey now for most of us that's not the idea of our sunday afternoon best meal to pull off the legs and the wings of a locust and to you know roast it and then to eat it but apparently from what i've been able to read in eastern countries to this day and in many african countries these locusts prepared in various ways are considered a delicacy and certainly we don't need to go to the outside the bible for information about honey you remember the incident in the old testament when in the midst of a battle jonathan found some wild honey and strengthened it and then he took it and put it in ...

10:29 - 11:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section focuses on John's camel's hair clothing, leather girdle, and diet of locusts and wild honey. Martin explains the practical nature of these items and raises the…

He references Jonathan finding wild honey and Samson taking honey from a lion's carcass to illustrate the widespread availability and use of honey as a stable food in biblical times.

wild honey now for most of us that's not the idea of our sunday afternoon best meal to pull off the legs and the wings of a locust and to you know roast it and then to eat it but apparently from what i've been able to read in eastern countries to this day and in many african countries these locusts prepared in various ways are considered a delicacy and certainly we don't need to go to the outside the bible for information about honey you remember the incident in the old testament when in the midst of a battle jonathan found some wild honey and strengthened it and then he took it and put it in ...

10:29 - 11:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin argues that John's external appearance immediately suggested a connection to Elijah, his spiritual prototype, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy and underscoring John's…

Martin quotes 2 Kings 1:8, where Elijah is described as a 'hairy man' with a 'girdle of leather,' directly linking John's appearance to his prophetic prototype.

We could back up to verse 8. Verse 7. And he said unto them, that is, the king to his messengers, What manner of man was he that came up to meet you and told you these words? And they answered him, He was a hairy man, or as the marginal reading has it, a man with a garment of hair, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins.

14:12 - 14:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: John's ascetic lifestyle served as a stinging rebuke to the ostentatious and materialistic scribes and Pharisees of his day, sacramentally declaring God's concern for the inner…

Martin alludes to Jesus' words about the Pharisees loving long robes and devouring widows' houses, contrasting their ostentatious lifestyle with John's asceticism to highlight the rebuke.

And you remember Jesus said of these people, they love to appear in public with their long flowing robes and in finery. They devoured widows' houses. They were grasping, greedy men who manifested their grasping, greedy lifestyle even in their external appearance. And now into...

20:42 - 21:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Preach with conviction, ensuring your own life validates your message down to your patterns of dress, eating, and drinking.

Martin uses the example of a preacher's expensive suit label and car in the parking lot to illustrate how a materialistic lifestyle undermines a sermon against materialism, making the message 'hot air'.

This is why many preachers can't preach to the consciences of their hearers about materialism. Because as the preacher tries to cry out against the sins of materialism, all they need to do is open up the inside of his jacket and see the label of his expensive suit and turn their head sixty degrees and look in the parking lot at his excessively expensive car and say, preacher, say all you want, it's a lot of hot air.

25:46 - 26:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to John's recurring preaching emphases, noting that these were constant themes woven throughout his ministry, not occasional remarks.

John's continual preaching emphases are compared to the 'melodic theme of a great musical work of art that is woven through the entire fabric of that composition,' emphasizing their pervasive nature.

And the form of the verb used indicates that these are things John was continually preaching. These were not occasional notes that he sounded. These were notes that he sounded again and again and again. They were like the melodic theme of a great musical work of art that is woven through the entire fabric of that composition.

29:36 - 30:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Humility is simply facing up to the reality of what the creature is in the presence of God. What the sinful creature is in the presence of a holy God.

Martin explains the cultural practice of the lowliest house servant untying sandals and washing feet, to illustrate the depth of John's humility in declaring himself unworthy of such a task for Christ.

Now again, anyone in that Eastern context would have understood the imagery. If you came in from a long journey, your feet would be dirty. You needed to have your sandals untied and taken off and your feet washed. Well, that pass was given to the lowliest house servant.

32:13 - 32:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He must increase. I must decrease.

Martin recounts the story of people trying to make John jealous that crowds were flocking to Christ, and John's response, 'He must increase, I must decrease,' to illustrate his humility and Christ-centeredness.

Remember his words when people tried to make him jealous? They said, John, don't you see what's happening? People that once were coming out to listen to you and hear you, why, they're now all flocking over to Christ. And they thought this would get John upset.

41:00 - 41:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He must increase. I must decrease.

John's role is likened to the 'friend of the bridegroom' who delights when the bridegroom arrives and all eyes turn to him, rather than having a 'pity party,' emphasizing John's joy in Christ's preeminence.

But when the bridegroom comes and all eyes are on him, the friend of the bridegroom doesn't stand there and have a pity party. He doesn't stand there and pout. His heart is glad. He's been waiting for the bridegroom.

41:32 - 41:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that the recurring emphasis of your preaching, both explicitly and implicitly, in life and message, is the exceeding worth of Jesus Christ.

The immense popularity of George Whitefield, drawing thousands without modern media, is used as an example of a preacher whose life was attractive due to his obsession with his Savior and humility.

That he can say and make it stick, I preach not myself, but Christ Jesus the Lord. No heroes in Christ's church, but Christ himself. No big names, no super personalities, you see that's why the life of a man like Whitfield is so attractive. That even when multitudes were flocking to that young man in his middle twenties, the mere announcement, George Whitfield will be in town tomorrow, no television, no radio, no flyers, no promos, no nothing!

42:41 - 43:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Focus on Christ's crowning work of baptizing people with the Spirit, leading to ethical and moral transformation, rather than promising health, happiness, or prosperity.

Martin recounts Spurgeon's impassioned sermon where he wished his name forgotten for Christ's glory, collapsing afterward, to illustrate the depth of commitment to Christ's worth.

There was this obsession with his Savior, this longing that men might forget George Whitfield, and know and love his Christ. And that was true of Spurgeon. Do you remember that sermon that he preached on that notable occasion? When so caught up in the glory of his Savior, he said, and I paraphrase, let my name be forever forgotten, but his name be known and loved to the ends of the earth.

43:48 - 44:19 Read in full sermon