Dr. McCracken Sermon, Personalities of Advent, 1963-12-08

with christmas drawing near let us think today about john the baptist the man who heralded the advent of the messiah he was the last as he was the greatest of the hebrew prophets if that seems high praise in thinking about ice that and jeremiah your disposal to question it remember what jesus said about his foreigner repeatedly made him through the tributes he said that he was a burning and a shining lights more than a profit the elijah who by this

coming would restore of all things he's said that among those barton of women that had arisen no one greater than john high praise indeed though are more did not believe that last tribute i'm qualified but went alone to add he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater the first thing to note about the baptist is the man out of his life he scored and he has an election he enjoyed a hot mess and hardship he cracked down his wants to the bare minimum wong the simplest rough this

close race nor value on positions first did for your nose was this wave of milk on pensions saxe are headed of life so readers and ascetic who makes hardly any appeal to us we are relieved when we think of it to have the gospels tell us that jesus came eating and drinking and was so far from satisfying the expectations of those who took for granted what a profit ought to live like a helmet in the desert that they accused him all being honest man i'm going to buy the framed of public consensus among us to the world

is much more common than even the minute this type of asceticism for long enough my hat and then they was called eaten by winston churchill of here we need to remind ourselves that while jesus declared that his yoke is easy and his but unlike is more requirements are searching and exiting the name used to say that was a real reason why there are so few christians is because christianity is a very stern greed greed for heroes why we wait our good natured political people or wish to have a

good time and to give others a good time living as he did jaws three to see what he thought to speak man to man the high and will the priests politicians princes the rank and file of the people he was independent and an enormous as the state don't resort to expediency and compromise to trim ranch dogs play for safety he was no month of dead men's sports your sleep but the parade and blunt man

speaking from the questions to the conscience neither drop in soft arraignment nor lead shaken with the wind human applause and deprivation meant nothing to them because of the simplicity is and similarities of his way of life he and the moral right to speak up and to speak out we need such a man today man home to lots of office does not to name the homeless barrios of office cannot but mayoral make a stand and the willow by not because it is popular not because it peace but because it is right what did john a preacher he preached about the state of affairs

in the nation's east throughout society of it shatters exposed and denounced its sins became its conscience in a way that only off disinterested type of person there are presumed to do and his preaching wild social was practically an arsenal which is what any preaching worthy of the name should be he put a finger on the specific besetting sins of individuals and sent rick perry he was a man a lot of money the bed instead as adults with the blood was the attacks come back to the bed in the

refrain from draft was he a song the bad in love again with violence was the adolescent when he told him that religious office in fact proceed in terms of anybody on forever on to do robin and duty and responsibility was absolutely worthless was a public official living in a doctor where he shot him up looked at history in the eye and coming at once to the point say it is not the more hopeful you to have that here his soul on fire his spirit indomitable was a servant of god with a passion for justice for justice seen every

idiot of life about him we say instinctively what his fellow countryman still say about another john doe jon moss he never he had the face of a man james then a scottish theologian and preacher of a bygone date when he entered the pulpit was soviet solemn appearance and this costs it has on record that his wife after listening to him one sunday said james doty take down your hand and be gracious the same admonish a microbe advantage of being passed on to john le been a wonderful thing for john to add a life he called for repentance and made no mention of greece people all the emphasis

on justice and said nothing about mercy he often your second chances he demanded that people quit wrongdoing or take the consequences his metaphors show programmed his preaching was the ex lady killer out of the three he was beheaded women act a fan time seeing the thrashing falk of shop to be blown in the furnace yet he is a remarkable thing stare an uncompromising as he's preaching was the problems were drawn to him and this has happened again and again seven or almost just such a preacher and you never know where the congregation jonathan edwards was just such a preacher and never let a congregation in travels with charley

john steinbeck in days against our psychiatry priesthood in large cities without us that our cities aren't really sends a toll but accidents that are set in motion by forces beyond our control and then stein bit extols of mr preacher he had who left his congregation in no doubt that they were transgressions of the loss of the box and deserving of judgment and punishment from how reaching that is cvs and or steer that makes the thief field he must emptying his pockets that makes the bad mandy white with accusations

that makes medical groups and easily it is you as if he were sitting on farms and state to himself denied that june at the church brought many will never come back again his preaching for which there is always an audience so it was with the baptists never did a man keeps atlantis to the ground this year drones by a magnet before oct two in from jerusalem and both media and all the region around about your the composition of his audience was a striking as its side is representing as it did a cross section of the entire nation set to seize as well as fighters seize mingled with soldiers tax collectors merchants peasants and what is more things began to happen

since will repent ago lanes with sage oh palestine was conscious of ahmad quickening a spiritual revival we need sex man today then just when the revival under john was at its height jesus appeared and forge arm that was the beginning all the and her alma mater moment his popularity declined the grounds you into his best disciples left and to go after the new leader manet a person would have been sugar mean would've become resentful and rebellious instead jong rejoiced in the growing influence of its pins month told the people around him but he

had said all along the plan finder a tournament he was about to appear that his was a subordinate role but he was not a messiah but only the forerunner of the messiah paving his way pointing exultantly dejesus your next play and he must increase i have mass decreased oil stove in case one it must be hard to draw a multitude send larry that another is drawing larger multitudes it must be still harder to take prisoner and it only of a great salt would do what this man did badly step aside and not only be some pasta but superseded so normally attack every person of any significance has to face the same sort of acid

test he has to give a waste of his successor the jon hamm who who steps into the business the outcome from an associate join colleagues begin as a matter of course to the fair the new judge elevated to the bench for holding the retiring judge has to make way he who is coming off to me by the sixties people begin to reflect on the nano man oh and their success at an office will be and if they're jealous of the office not so officially not for a few last saw the monument it brings but less the success that should fail to measure up reflection deepens and two and sam and anxiety will

the work of a lifetime disintegrate and go to pieces the subject for a brief period of location no reference and reminiscence and then be why i'm also a shadowy ingredient sold or bolivia and sanctimonious it makes a difference to have the faith that sustained job to russia may say he had played as successor was the son of god what it to lie about look again at the record's john of these doubts whereas if you had been thrown into a dungeon as he was would you have had your boats was not only that he was imprisoned by hannah it was this is what solo nags of

people it was that his successor was so i'm like himself no oracles know our city to be filed whenever people were to be found at dinner parties in the company of maron delinquents armed so sure i'll pass your unlikely player jude to date variation in when john ahead in prison about the dean's of jesus he said messengers to ask are you the one who has to come why we could begin looking for another band from the first snow alien bing all the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world and how we can pass from elation to despondent

that entry and so walter scott's intern for myself i scarcely know how life you sometimes as basra sometimes as weak as the wave are pretty excited he wanted his the shari addison the fact that the follow letting guns to nathan last of them to look at was due to one thing that just one thing so there was no promise elsewhere he was a prisoner of marriage and had a prophetic instinct about what was going to happen to him after what he had made paul to say can

trust in god that was what he had dressed in their sovereign purposes of god and that didn't work in our claim and police and especially in dark days it has done for many of us it's day it really show if you see without it he would've had nowhere to turn you would've got to be six he would have been a broken beat and disillusioned man that's the thing thought was what two foundations under and this is why this day we saying i'll foundation the saints overlord and don't you think that more than anything else this is what opponents were the greatness of a man well his model statute they absence enameled any suggestion

of genesee the humility with which he directed attention from himself to his success second tent he was to be of course emphasizing that this was a second banana role that jesus was going to take up his work developing complete to make it permanent but jesus was so we measure the recipient to him but he wasn't where the two one pie issue wasn't self and considerations of self that gave us with the baptists it was thought it was the kingdom of god well no one can see himself as a seventh of the most my god and be puffed up with a sense of his own importance well the man following god comes first the supreme consideration is the cause it isn't the messenger who matters it's the message

it isn't the one who does the what it is that the way it is in the institution it's the mission that the institution exists to accomplish a new testament times they had a lot of trouble with it with a gentleman named dr things who like to point in southwest and was always asking in this in and in the limelight he sees joe alves in every war polite service gets mixed up with the state that people will find it impossible to be happy unless the work they are doing is to recognize appreciated singled out for commendation unless they are recognized applauding made much all they are hypersensitive about rank them with them on about the credit due to them and

praise to which the laborers entitlement the spouse in a fine thing all the requirements to be done in the world who could easily be done it will only people would rise up and leave a pop not carry who gets the glory walk mac i'll leave mine on another's date so right word reset and life the sweetener made well john was a man passed in that mold serving a cause that made him forget in so pointing away from an seo and yet great man or he was he had his limitations it is to his

credit that he knew he had his limitations he believed in what he preached and lead down his life are in what he knew that it was not the whole truth it had to be complimented or to supplement so much of what the man had to say was negative that he was yesterday denouncing evil or as the new bidding is humorist to or renounce evil the soldier to refrain from violent acts collected from exporting meat from at home as the heat the clergy from status seeking the moment yes morgan repentance and renunciation was needed grease was needed inspiration was needed baptism with fiat was needed long walk out so that inevitably

we find ourselves comparing and jesus jesus knew and jesus used a pilot john never knew the guards fatherly love the explosive part of our new affection and it was this that to go wrong not do at home it's a life in that is a lot of the villages and towns of galilee and judy and it was this that took him into the halls of the people that made him set little children on his knee and in the group of its eye that cost him to set off a low cost stables john had once the retailers retailers mr elliston justice no mercy from yarn that jesus is from law to brace from my own

not that invitation from sinai the greatest man ever born of warm and get the least in the kingdom of heaven so oder praise john and then we see the final representative of the line that relied man without warning indignation where the passion for it just miss and this one message repeat least in the kingdom of heaven goes further he sees low as the ultimate motives and pollard in the universe as the un force in as the perennial source and inspiration of righteousness he focuses

on he finds on the most evil by all means call people to repeat of that to have done with it on any member of jesus talked to the baroque father not only to see after denouncing to see the elimination of evil but the plan the route over it system is deep in the recognition all god as our father whose love in forgiving now see lyft says above it the higher nobler wildlife bear spray the peak the jazz gracious god so

to open our hearts to be but the light and warmth of i love me flat our beings so to worship and commune with the throat set formula known on life may be renewed at its deepest source and new creative impulses tibet within us for christ sake commons by the pope fb fb