Sermon Transcript:
I don't know how many of you remember this or how many of you are familiar even with the reality of it, but some 16 years ago, I want to start off by describing there was a workout program. Of all things that I would talk about, a workout program that was a huge deal called the Insanity Workout. You probably always see the infomercials for it, Insanity by Beachbody, blah. There's a guy named Sean T., whatever it may be, even if you do or do not remember it. But if you were lucky enough to be in middle school around the time that I was in middle school, so circa 2012,
it was this Insanity Workout that we did each week or each day for PE. We'd spread out throughout the gym. We'd play it up on our big projector screen at the time, and we'd go do this workout of sorts for about 45, 50 minutes before we had our game time. I'll tell you, as a, let's see, probably a 14-year-old at the time, it was absolutely horrible. Horrible, and I hated every minute of it because what it was is it was called high interval. training, which was kind of a newer thing at the time, which is just workout speak,
for long periods of intense exercise broken up by very brief periods of rest. So push-ups, crunches, planking, burpees, jumping jacks, ab twists, whatever you call them, usually for about nine minutes, and then you get about one minute of break. And then you'd go right back to another nine minutes of whatever it was. And you'd probably do that cycle probably like four or five times is usually what it was. And so rinse and repeat, you do it over and over again. And I don't share this torture with you or this memory with you because I think I've.
repressed much of it for the sake of the memory, but I share it with you for the focus on one word, the workout's title. It was the insanity workout. It was called insanity because there was no weights, no workout machines, it was all self weight, and all you ever did was really the same exercises over and over and over again. Like I said, burpees, crunches, planking, whatever it may be. And for the. For the most part, it actually worked. I mean, I don't think I appreciated it or knew it as much as a 14-year-old, but it really did. You know, they always would boast, you know, insane results, losing weight,
increasing your lung capacity, endurance, all things that I could have cared less as a junior high kid. But for the most part, it worked. You know, it was monotonous, repetitive work that achieved its purpose. And I explain it that way because that illustrates the fundamental definition of what true insanity is. You know, ever since I've come to this church, I've kind of said the same phrase from this pulpit. I know I've said it in Bible studies and maybe in conversations with some of you, but I've brought up the definition of insanity many times.
It is, and I quote, doing the same thing you have always done over and over and over again, expecting different results. It's never changing a habit, doing the same things, having the signs. Same mindset, and yet expecting change, expecting growth, expecting expansion, whatever it may be. And the case in point of that being, you'd be insane to think that you could do the same workout repetitively and yet get different, stronger results.
And yet, with the Insanity Workout, you could. That was part of the name of the mantra of it. And I bring that up because I always brought it up in the context of our church body. You know, I always brought it up, and I'd say things like, if we have a desire to grow as a church, or a desire to grow as a body of Christians, or as an individual Christian, then in general, things have to change. Something must change. I'm not saying change for the sake of change, but in order for a different result to come about, something must happen.
And it must occur for the desired result, or a newer result, to even change. be a possibility. Going with the flow doesn't work. Doing what we've always done won't necessarily cut it. Therefore, we as Christians must be acutely aware of places in the church body where repetition can become vain, where repetition breeds insanity. And I start there because, amidst all of the places in the church that we tend to play.
this repetitive game where we have a tendency just to play church, rather than do what the church does where we just play church, our time each week, which we set aside for God's Word, is subject to that kind of repetition. The time we do the same thing, we read the same thing, we stand up, we read, we say the same stuff, we sit down, I talk for too long, and we just, that's it. Each week it's the same thing over and over again. It has an opportunity to be one of those.
insane parts of our behavior. Because after a while, While if we aren't careful, repetition breeds stagnancy, stagnancy breeds indifference, and indifference becomes disinterest. And I think we've seen it time and time before, especially when we talk to people outside the church, that they just got disinterested with church because all it was was the same thing over and over and over. And it took 18 years, they went off to college, and then they finally got their freedom from that repetition.
You know, that's kind of the mantra of young people today, is that when they went to college, they finally got away from faith. And they say it like it's a good thing, when in reality we know that's not the case. And so even then, our weekly study can do just that. It can be something that pushes us away, that isn't feeding us, that isn't encouraging us, and instead we almost become desensitized to it, to where the Word of God cannot have the effect we want it to have. Now I, as a teaching pastor, as someone, who stands in the pulpit, I have a tremendous response.
to you all to not stand up here and preach the same sermon week after week with the same words, the same kind of isms and sayings so that you guys all know exactly what I'm going to say. But you all also as hearers and intakers of God's word have a responsibility that when you show up, when you come through those doors and you sit down and we open up the word of God together, that you're ready to hear from it, that you're engaged to hear from it and that it can speak to you as the Holy Spirit desires. So just as I can't preach the same sermon, I mean, you guys can't show up and act the.
same each week either. Doing anything less than that, doing anything less than being prepared, you know, we'd be walking in the exact same definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and over expecting to grow when in fact, as I said, it would just breed stagnancy. So with all that in mind, I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but we're going to return to the first chapter. The gospel of Luke. Luke, perhaps a little bit beginning of our insane behavior, but we find ourselves today.
back in the Gospel of Luke. We find ourselves in this conversation we started a few weeks ago, taking a new look at the same truths that an angel started to share with a priest named Zacharias. It was in this conversation that our author, Luke, has been kind of explaining how the angels have been explaining things. Luke has been recounting and retelling what the angel, really what the angel is going to tell us about John, the man we started to talk about last week.
And as we looked at a few weeks ago, and actually if you have your, I have one as well, if you have an outline, I told you the angel was going to kind of give us four key points in this conversation. You know, the angel and his conversation with Zacharias was going to talk about this boy to be man named John. And he was going to talk about the effect John would have on people. The position John would have with God. The consecration. John would have before God and the calling that John would have before God as well.
And you remember, we talked about it a little bit in detail, but with John's birth, the angel said there was going to be rejoicing. That came in verse 14, which we don't have up there. He said, with this birth, the parents will rejoice. And we talked about why, because the parents were initially barren. And so, when the child came, they would rejoice. But he said there would be others who would rejoice as well. And they would rejoice for this very reason, that John's birth was going to be of prophetic significance. For example, with John's birth would come a prophet.
who would be great in the sight of the Lord. Verse 15. With John's birth would come a prophet who would be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's the end of verse 16. That's not up there. With John's birth would arrive the forerunner to the Messiah, God's prophesied Savior, as verse 17 will tell us next week. And essentially, this child would be a big deal. And so that's why he'd be a reason to rejoice. That's why his effect on people would be rejoicing. And so after we talked about his effect, we talked about his position.
The angel said, Many will rejoice because this child will be great in the sight of the Lord. And I told you that this greatness wasn't personal greatness. This isn't greatness like a good sports athlete or like a politician. This is greatness that comes from God's perspective. You know, the true measure of any man is how God views that man. And God said, This man, John, was going to be great. And we talked about it last week. We tied true greatness to how one lives to please the Lord. And we talked about how that's a Christian's calling.
A Christian is somebody concerned with pleasing the Lord. I'm sure we remember much of that conversation. And so today, having talked about the effect, having talked about the position, we now find ourselves in the continuing conversation where the angel tells us about John's consecration before God. Now that's a 10-cent theological word. We're to talk about. To talk about if John's going to be in Christ, if John's going to have a relationship with God, he must be holy before God. And that conversation starts in verse 15, where he said,
for he will be great in the sight of the Lord, speaking of John, and he explains how his holiness is going to kind of flesh out in his life. He will drink, speaking of John, he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. So at face value, these are two very simple distinctives that will distinguish John's life from the average Israelite around him. It just says, no wine or liquor, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
He shall not be influenced by alcohol, but he will be influenced by the Holy Spirit. He says one negative statement he can't do, no wine or liquor, and he gives one positive statement, which he can do, be filled with the Holy Spirit. But why these two things? Of all the things God is concerned with, of all the things that God could say about a godly man, why does he zone in on alcohol and the Holy Spirit? What link does he give them? Well, I think we can make sense of them.
if we kind of look at them individually. And so we'll do just that. First, the angel says, with such a great position before the Lord, John will not drink wine or liquor or really any fermented drink is what he's getting at. And the word there for wine is the same word for wine everywhere else in the New Testament. So we know what he's talking about. We know he's talking about just grapes, fermented in a jar, whatever it may be, just alcohol, just good old-fashioned wine. That's all he says. But what's more interesting is the word for liquor,
which comes right after that. And it's, again, rather interesting that some translations, they say liquor, some say fermented drink, others actually say beer. But the majority translate, it depending on what you're drinking. translation you read from. The majority translate the word liquor there as strong drink. And let me give you kind of the Greek dictionary lexicon definition of that. Here's what it is. A strong drink, so this is for the word liquor, a strong drink, an intoxicating beverage different from.
wine, so they specify it's different from wine. It was an artificial product made from a mixture of sweet ingredients usually derived from grain and vegetables or from the juice of fruits such as dates. Or usually it says a decoction of honey. Now I'm not a drinker, but I'm smart enough to know that if something tastes good and is also intoxicating, that's generally a dangerous.
combination. It's the kind of drink that makes for a long night and an even longer morning. And that's exactly the type of drink that the Bible, is talking about here. It's mixed strong, it's intoxicating, it's sweet, it tastes fruity, it tastes like honey. Anybody in their right mind would probably like it. And I know for folks with a low alcohol tolerance, that probably spells trouble. And so the angel says, John, the prophet in mind here,
cannot, shall not, will not drink anything of that nature. And with that definition I just read you, I'm sure we understand why. He'd be asking for trouble if he was drinking such things. He'd be asking to give up his control, to give up the influence that he would possess over himself instead for the influence of such a sweet concoction. It says he will not drink it because he will instead be influenced by something else.
He will not drink this and he will be consecrated to God because he will be influenced, as verse 15 says, by the Holy Spirit. Rather than be filled with alcohol, he will be filled with the Spirit. It won't be alcohol influencing and affecting and controlling his thoughts and actions. Instead, end of verse 15, it's the Holy Spirit doing it. It's the Holy Spirit, which maybe more appropriately, will control him. The alcohol won't control him, yet the Spirit will.
In other words, John will be led by the power of the Spirit. Call it whatever you want. The Holy Spirit will be the dominating factor in the life of this to-be prophet, John. And it even says this influence begins while yet in his mother's womb. From day one, John will say no to alcohol and yes to God's influence. No to giving control of himself, control of his faculties, control of his abilities. No to giving it over to alcohol. And instead, yes to submitting to the Spirit of God.
Now, this is kind of a perfect segue to introduce you to an Old Testament, concept. That really would have no bearing anywhere in the New Testament, other than two places, this being one of them. Let me read for you from number six, what is called a Nazarite vow. The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the Israelites and say to them, If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, or a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazarite, they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink,
and they must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins, as long as they remain under the Nazarite vow. They must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. And then verse eight, which I don't have up there, says at the very end of this, Throughout all the period of this dedication, throughout all of this time in which they forbid themselves to drink or even eat of anything of the, of the vine,
these people are consecrated. There's our word. These people are consecrated to the Lord. And so do you see how that connects to our passage we're in today? Number six, they must abstain from wine, any fermented drink. Luke 1.15, John will be not a drinker of wine, not a drinker of strong drink or fermented drink, but instead he will be devoted to the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit. You see that John fits into this Nazarite mold.
And the connection that's notable here is a connection that I'm going to read from one of the commentaries I read this week. It says, And here's the reason why. Because the vine... The vine itself was a symbol of God's joy.
And these men gave up the joys of the earth, so the joys of the vine, the joys that God has put on the earth through the vine, in order that they might be wholly devoted to God himself. They set aside the world and said, God, I want you. Then there were other regulations laid upon them as well. So we didn't read this, but here's more of the Nazarite vow. They were not to become defiled by going near any dead body. They were to grow long hair, indicating the place of dependence, until the days of their Nazarite ship were fulfilled.
Samson, as we all know, his long hair, was to be a Nazarite from his birth, but he became weak when he allowed his long hair to be cut. John the Baptist also was to be a Nazarite from his birth. He was to be wholly devoted to the service of the Lord from the very beginning." Now our passage doesn't say anything about John. not being able to go near a dead body or to be able to not cut his hair. But we see the part that talks about the devotion through not approaching wine.
or grapes or fermented drinks. Because again, those things symbolized earthly joy. Those things symbolized, you know, as it was custom in those times. If you wanted to have a good time, you'd go to like the wedding, like the wedding in Cana, and the people drank the wine to relax, to enjoy the evening. And he's saying, those devoted to me will set that aside. Because their joy will be found in me. And so it's not a complete Nazarite vow that we talk about with John. But the core principle is there. No wine, no earthly joy,
so that he might have the spirit, which would be heavenly joy. And what's interesting to me is that in both number six, what I just read for you, and Luke one, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, notice God drawing this kind of line of demarcation, this separating line. In which he says, on one hand, mankind has the ability to obey God and to walk deeply in His Spirit. And then on the other hand, he says,
subjecting ourselves needlessly to alcohol and being influenced by its intoxicating nature, those are two separate things. Now, I'm not talking about just drinking alcohol. I'm not talking about the idea of alcohol. Surely Christ Himself drank alcohol. You know, He drank wine. I'm sure many Christians throughout centuries have enjoyed alcohol. But God is drawing this connection of saying, if you want to wholly devote yourself to Me, there have been men in the past, John the Baptist, Samson, I think even Samuel,
the prophet for David, kind of has under this vow. He says, men who have been devoted to Me, forego the pleasures of wine, the pleasures of alcohol, to instead focus themselves on Me. God draws this line. He says, there is, kind of a relation, between how much you approach this one versus how much you can obey me. And in this conversation about, you know, we've been talking about spiritual greatness, we've been talking about spiritual blessing, spiritual privilege.
In this conversation, the first thing the angel says, the first thing out the gate an angel of God tells Zacharias is, Your son will not drink. Your son will not enjoy or take part in any drinking of alcohol. No ifs, ands, or buts in the discussion. And it's a notably very strong language. It's something that I think even we as Christians today maybe don't quite grasp the serious nature of kind of what the angel is addressing.
Again, I'm not saying when it comes to alcohol that we have to be, you know, hard in the fat, hard in the, what's the word I'm looking for? Hard, you know, kind of just set in our minds, set in our minds. Just, you know, alcohol is either this or that. But when God begins to talk about alcohol, he's saying there exists some relationship between obedience and service to God and obedience and submission to how we treat our alcohol. And what I'd like to kind of verbalize on this or apply from this is this longstanding fear of mine that I think exists in God's people with relationship to alcohol.
And it's this fear that Christians would forfeit spiritual blessing, forfeit spiritual greatness, as we've had in this conversation of John, and forfeit wholehearted devotion to God because alcohol has a key or a maybe more important role in our lives than we'd like to admit. Because we'd rather give part of ourselves, part of our time, part of our energy, part of our effort.
To relaxing. Or letting go with alcohol. Then we would rather wholly submit ourselves to the word and the power of God. Not for the sake of you drink on a weekend and you miss church or anything like that. But for the sake that even as Christians, every part of our life would be under God's authority. That every part of our life would be under God's subjection. And so that Christians who would rather have that freedom, quote unquote, that alcohol brings.
Or the letting go that alcohol brings of being buzzed or getting drunk. That they would forfeit devotion to God than give up that hindrance to devotion to God. There's a reason in the New Testament the Apostle Paul tells us, Do not get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. He puts them at odds. He puts them at odds with one another. He says you're either getting drunk and you're treating alcohol in this way. or you're submitting and serving God this way.
It's one or the other, mutually exclusive. And what it comes down to, biblically, is the question of what, and this is what it comes down to for John. The question is, what are you filling yourself with? At base value, what are you filling yourself with? And even I can get off the subject of alcohol, because alcohol is notorious for taking away control. It's notorious for filling people, per se. But there's other things that we can be filled with that take our control, not just alcohol. Anger, jealousy, really emotions, lust, greed, comfort,
all of these are capable of filling a Christian and removing their ability to serve God. All of these things would gladly step in and take away our influence and control that the Holy Spirit wants in our lives. And if you don't believe me, let me give you a few examples. The Bible teaches that one of the, the Bible talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, it talks about many times, The book of Galatians 5 talks about being filled with the Spirit. And it says, Being filled with the Spirit, one of the fruits of the Spirit, I'm sure all the Sunday school kids have sung,
one of the fruits of the Spirit is love. And so if we're filled with the Spirit, we have an ability to love one another. So let me give you this example. Let's say your neighbor is mowing their yard, in this beautiful weather we've been having as of recent, and they send a rock through your bedroom window. Not only that, but before you get the window fixed, you get the privilege then of listening to the dog they locked outside accidentally bark through your window the rest of the night. And though they can't hear them because they have perfectly intact window panes,
you are stuck with that privilege of hearing it. So, tell me this, what is the first thing you would say to your neighbor the following morning after this blessed privilege? Hopefully, something PG. But, if you submit yourself to... your anger, if you give yourself the control, the influence you have over yourself over to your anger, I'm sure many of us know the words we could use. But, as I said before, as followers of Christ, if we are in Christ, if we are filled with.
the Spirit, we are filled with the fruit of the Spirit, love. And so I would tell you that in this situation, it's a perfect opportunity to therefore illustrate the tremendous love and forgiveness that we have received in Christ. You know, remember what Christ said, he who is forgiven little will love little. He who is forgiven little will not extend much love, but he who is forgiven much loves much. So if you understand the forgiveness Christ has given you for your eternal sin debt, then.
how hard really should it be to forgive someone who offended you in such a way? In such a slight manner. Jesus actually tells a parable of this almost exact verbatim situation. There's a guy who owes 10,000 talents. 10,000 talents is 60 million denarii, and a denarii is about a day's work. And so what that would come out to be is about 60 million days' work is what this guy owes somebody. And he says, upon being called to pay back his debt,
he says, I can't pay it. Of course I can't pay it. It's 60 million days' work. I don't know how many years that is, but the point is that it's insurmountable. And he says, all right, you can't pay me back, fine. I'll forgive you. You no longer owe me this debt. And so with that, the man's forgiven. He goes free. His big debt, gone. But now the man who owed the debt, the 10,000 talents debt, when he finds out that his own servant can't pay him a few pennies, do you remember what he does to him?
Does he forgive him? Does he say, oh, I was forgiven 60 million days' wages. Therefore, you owe me. About five minutes worth of work, I think I can just forgive you. No. Rather than be sympathetic, he puts the penny debtor in prison. So we, in the same way, we are so willing to accept God's forgiveness. We're so willing to accept our eternal debt being paid. And yet, when someone crosses us ever so slightly, they're in prison.
We put them in prison. We stop them. We lock them up. We say, hey, you did this to me, and now I'm mad at you. Rather than let the fruit of the Spirit, love, shine through me, because my 60 million days' work has been forgiven, instead I am mad at you. Or another example, we all have our manicured schedules each week. I'm sure we all have our same agenda, our same book. We have the kids' sports on this night, organizational meetings on this night, club meetings on this night.
Your parents are coming over. Did you set the chicken out to thaw? It's meticulously planned. That's how it always is. But then one little thing comes along, and then what happens? The whole thing's gone. Well, this has to get moved to here, and we need to do this. We need to adjust that. We've got to get this over here. And why does that happen? Why do we operate that way when it happens? Why do we freak out a little when our schedule breaks? Because it's comfort. You know, just as in the previous illustration, our anger was what we gave ourselves to.
With our schedule, it's often our comfort we give ourselves to. We like being in control. We like knowing what's next. And if we don't like being caught off guard when it comes to our schedule, we love the routine. And so if we have our little routine, what happens next? That's usually right about the time God comes, and he starts kind of, Hey, I have something I want you to do. Hey, I have something I want you to start. Hey, I want you to be a part of this. Hey, I want you to make time for this.
Hey, I want you to start meeting with this person. And then what do we do? Yeah, that's usually, it's like, you know, be quiet, close the blinds, turn the lights off. God, I'm not here. Like, it was fun, but I'm actually really busy this week, and I can't take that right now. That's always how it is. When God starts knocking, we kind of start, you know, well, I wanted you to knock, God, but not this week. And that's always, always, always how it goes.
But what takes the wheel there? Comfort, because we like our schedule. We like what we have going for ourselves. That, again, that's not the Holy Spirit. That's not being filled with the Spirit. That is comfort taking the wheel. And so what I tell you all this, because as Christians, you know, we should aspire to be in the same position as John. Really with, and I've already kind of given some application throughout this sermon. But as I close, I just kind of want to circle the wagons by saying this.
John was to be filled with the Holy Spirit. John was to be filled with the power of God. John was to set aside earthly and embrace heavenly. And so if John and his God-given greatness of verse 15 was to be wholly devoted to the Lord, all the way down to what he drank, then how should we as Christians live if last week Christ identified us as greater than John? If John had everything down to what he put into his body,
and he said, even this I submit to God, I will turn away from alcohol, then what thing should we as Christians be willing to say, you know what, I do need to get rid of that. God came knocking, I know he wants me to do something about it, but am I willing? If John denied the earthly pleasures of alcohol so that he might better know God, what pleasures should we be denying so that we might better, know God? Because I know for a lot of us it's usually stuff like our schedule. Our sleep, you know, our kids being able to do this, us being able to enjoy this, whatever it may be.
There's always something I'm convinced that God is knocking on. But what are we going to do? Because I close by bringing us back to the definition I started with. Definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. So if God comes by every time and knocks, and he's just whispering to you saying, I know we can do this. I know you should do this. But we keep closing the door, and how can we ever expect to grow closer to him?
How can we ever expect to more clearly hear his voice if we treat his knocking the same way every time? Again, that's the definition of insanity. So let me pray for us in closing. Lord, I pray that the things we talked about today, we look at them in light of John the Baptist. We look at them in light of your servant, John. But in reality, Lord, they're truths that apply to us. You know, if John was doing all these things and he was the greatest man who ever lived,
then what should we be doing as Christians if we are considered greater than he in the eyes of Christ? Lord, there's always, always something that we as Christians, we don't give it up just to give something up. We don't give it up because we hate being happy. Lord, we give it up because we know we can use the time, the energy, and the desire to greater pursue you. That's what the angel said John was going to do with alcohol. And I think there's something in every one of our hearts here that you're knocking on,
saying maybe if you just gave this up for me, I could use you more. Maybe if you just cleared this time for me, you would grow this much more. But it comes down to stepping out of the insanity of life and stepping into the faithful calling we have as Christians. So let that be true of each of us here. Let us step into that calling. Let us desire you more than anything else. And let's let our schedules and our emotions and our actions show for it.
So we thank you and we pray these things in your name. Amen.
