2-1-2-The_Learning_Church

Who has been "John the Baptist" in your life?  How did he or she prepare you to meet Jesus?

Who are today's "Pharisees and Sadducees"?

How is repentance linked to your experience of salvation: In the past?  Now?

How has God affirmed you as his child in Christ?

How do John's and Jesus' ministries compare?

What do the images of judgment mean: The coming wrath?  The ax?  The fire?  His winnowing fork?

What angered John so much about the Pharisee and Saducees?

How would you paraphrase John's message (v.2) for people today?  What is the "Kingdom of heaven"?

What was John the Baptist like?  Why would anyone go out of their way to hear this radical preacher (v.7)?  Who did they think he was (see 2 Ki 1:8)?

Read Luke 3:1-18

Tiberius, the Roman emperor, ruled from A.D. 14 to 37.  Pilate was the Roman governor responsible for the province of Judea.  Herod (Antipas) and Philip were half brothers and sons of the cruel Herod the Great, who had been dead more than 20 years,  Antipas, Philip, Pilate, and Lysanias apparently had equal powers in governing their separate territories.  All were subject to Rome and responsible for keeping peace in their respective lands.

Under the Jewish law there was only one high priest.  he was appointed from Arron's line, and he held his position for life.  By this time, however, the religious system had been corrupted, and the Roman government was appointing it's own religious leader to maintain greater control over the Jews.  Apparently the Roman authorities had deposed the Jewish-appointed Annas and had replaced him with Annas's son-in-law, Caiaphas.  Nevertheless, Annas retained his title (see Acts 4:6) and probably also much of the power it carried.  Because the Jews believed the high priests position to be for life, they would have continued to call Annas their High Priest.

Pilate, Herod, and Caiaphas were the most powerful leaders in Palestine, but they were upstaged by a desert prophet from rural Judea.  God chose to speak through the loner John the Baptist, who had gone down in history as greater than any of the rulers of his day.  How often we judge people by our cultural standards-power, wealth, beauty-and miss the truly great people through whom God works!  Greatness is not measured by what you have, by your faith in God.  Like John, give yourself entirely to God so God's power can work through you.

Repentance has two sides-turning away from sins and turning toward God.  To be truly repentant, we must do both.  We can't just say we believe and then live any way we choose (see 3:7-8), and neither can we simply live a morally correct life without a personal relationship with God, because that cannot bring forgiveness from sin.  Determine to rid your life of any sins God points out, and put your trust in him alone to guide you.

In John's day, before a king took a trip, messengers would tell those he was planning to visit to prepare the roads for him.  Similarly John told his listeners to make their lives ready so the Lord could come to them.  To prepare for Jesus' coming to us, we must focus on him, listen to his words, and respond to his directions.

This book was written to a non-Jewish audience.  Luke quoted from Isaiah to show that salvation is for all people, not just the Jews (Isaiah 40: 3-5, 52-60).  John the Baptist called all mankind to prepare to meet Jesus.  That includes you, no mater what your standing is with religious organizations and authorities.  Don't let feelings of being an outsider cause you to hold back.  No one who wants to follow Jesus is an outsider in God's Kingdom.

What motivates your faith-fear-of the future, or a desire to be a better person in a better world?  Some people wanted to be baptized by John so they could escape eternal punishment, but they didn't turn to God for salvation.  John had harsh words for such people.  He knew that God values reformation above ritual.  Is your faith motivated by a desire for a new, changed life, or is it only a insurance policy against possible disaster?

Many of John's hearers were shocked when he said that being Abraham's descendants was not enough for God.  The religious leaders relied more on their family lines than on their faith for their standing with God.  For them, religion was inherited.  But a personal relationship with God is not handed down from parents to children.  Everyone has to commit to it on his or her own.  Don't rely on someone else's faith for your salvation.  Put your own faith in Jesus, and then exercise it every day.

Confession of sins and a changed life are inseparable.  Faith without deeds is dead (James 2:14-26).  Jesus harshest words were to the respectable religious leaders who lacked the desire for real change.  They wanted to be known as religious authorities, but they didn't want to change their hearts and minds.  Thus their lives were unproductive.  Repentance must be tied to action, or it isn't real.  Following Jesus means more than saying the right words, it means acting on what he says.

John's message demanded at least three specific responses (1) share what you have with those who need it (2) whatever your job is do it well and with fairness, and (3) be content with what your earning.  John had no time to address comforting messages to those who lived careless or selfish lives-he was calling the people to right living.  What changes can you make in sharing what you have, doing your work honestly and well, and being content?

Tax collectors were notorious for their dishonesty.  Romans gathered funds for their government by farming out the collection privilege.  Tax collectors earned their own living by adding a sizable sum-whatever they could get away with-to the total and keeping this money for themselves.  Unless the people revolted and risked Roman retaliation, they had to pay whatever was demanded.  Obviously they hated the tax collectors, who were generally dishonest, greedy, and ready to betray their own countryman for cold cash.  Yet, said John, God would accept even these men.  God desires to pour out mercy on those who confess and then to give strength to live changed lives.

John's message took root in unexpected places-among the poor, the dishonest, and even the hated occupation army.  These people were painfully aware of their needs.  Too often we confuse respectability with right living.  They are not the same.  Respectability can even hinder right living if it keeps us from seeing our need for God.  It you had to choose, would you protect your character or your reputation.

These soldiers were the Roman troops sent to keep peace in this distant province.  Many of them oppressed the poor and used their power to take advantage of all the people.  John called them to repent and change their ways.

There had not been a prophet in Israel for more than 400 years.  It was widely believed that when the Messiah came prophecy would reappear (Joel 2:28, 29; Malachi 3:1; 4:5).  When John burst on to the scene, the people were excited.  He was obviously a great prophet, and they were sure that the eagerly awaited age of the Messiah had come.  Some in fact, though John himself was the Messiah.  John spoke like the prophets of old, saying that the people must turn from their sin to avoid punishment and turn to God to experience his mercy and approval.  This is a message for all times and places, but John spoke it with particular urgency-he was preparing the people for the coming Messiah.

John's baptism with water symbolized the washing away of sins.  His baptism coordinated with his message of repentance and reformation.  Jesus' baptism with fire includes the power needed to do God's will.  The baptism with the Holy Spirit was fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit came upon believers in the form of tongues of fire empowering them to proclaim Jesus resurrection in many languages.  The baptism with fire also symbolizes the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing God's judgment on those who refuse to repent.

John warned of impending judgment by comparing those who refuse to live for God to chaff, the useless outer-husk of the grain.  By contrast, he compared those who repent and reform their lives to the nourishing wheat itself.  The winnowing fork was a pitchfork used to toss wheat so that the kernels would separate from the blades.  Those who refuse to be used by God will be discarded because they have no value in furthering God's work.  Those who repent and believe, however, hold great value in God's eyes because they are beginning a new life of productive service for him.

The evangelist sets an emperor, a governor, two high priest, and three tetrarchs in a few lines, as of very subordinate interest compared with the one many, the child of the desert, whose coming dated a new era.  After all, it is religious men who really make the history of mankind.

The word of God came unto John the Baptist... "and became."  That is the true order.  Get your message and them come.  It is often in the wilderness of life that God's words find us.  The man who is going to master men must first master the appetites of his own body.  If you seek popularity, you will lose it; if you seek to do God's will, men will almost certainly come to find you.  Souls require a clear pane of glass when they lock on the infinite expanse of the sky!  Be real.  Touch eternal truth for yourself.  Fear not the face of man!

Who have been "John the Baptist" in your life-people who have shown you the way, led you to Christ, encouraged you, and given you a kick in the pants.

What would John say you could do specifically to show Christian love and repentance?

What one action will you take this week to "produce fruit in keeping with your repentance"?

How much time passes between appearances of John the Baptist here and in 1:80?  What do you suppose John was doing in those intervening years?  Why?

Why does Luke list all the political and religious figures in verses 1-2?

How would you describe John's message and style?

What radical about John's message?  What does the "foot" and fruit signify?  Is he advocating social upheaval?  Or inner transformation?  Is he "preaching" or "meddling"?  Why?  Why would anyone go out of their way to hear such a preacher?

How does John's message to the people (vv. 7-14) illustrate the kind of repentance he is calling for?  What does John say about the need for and outcome of repentance?

Why is John confused with Christ (v. 15; Jn 1:19-28)?  By contrast how does John differentiate himself and his ministry?  What does the "wheat" and chaff" signify?

What is the beginning of the end for John's ministry (vv. 19-20)?  What does this illustrate about John?

The Learning Church

The learning capacity of the laity is the greatest single human resource of the church.  The ratio of laity to clergy is approximately 300 to 1.  This fact alone suggests the vast potential given to the people of God, to say nothing of the imagination, insights, and experience of the laity.

Lay Accountability

The church will face no greater question than this:  To whom and for what is the laity accountable?  As we have moved in the direction of more visible clergy accountability, the church must likewise be laying the keel for launching an ethos of expectation for lay leadership.

How can church members become participants in responsible adult learning,  especially our lay leaders who have responsible adult learning, especially our lay leaders who have responsibilities on boards, committees, and work areas?  Why should we expect clergy leaders to be involved in lifelong learning unless we also expect proportionate learning from the church's lay leaders?  While to be sure a great deal of learning takes place beyond formal designs of education, why should we expect the latter from clerical leaders and not from lay leaders?

The future faithfulness of the church to the gospel of Jesus Christ is inevitably connected with the question of lay learning and accountability.  Unless there is an imaginative and effective program of lay learning across the church, the consequences are usually predictable: we inevitably drift toward popular cultural assumptions; we become adjusted, acculturated, and adapted to a domesticated religion of benign spirituality; we lose the Divine Discontent of Christian thought and action.  The constant "messages" of the society around us anesthetize us to the needs of a suffering world and the gospel is remade in our own image.  In short, we lose the wonder, the challenge, the power of the gospel that calls us to be transformed to Jesus Christ, not conformed to the world.  Without lay learning on a vast scale, so called lay ennablement will in actuality result in an erosion of historical and theological vision, a disablement of the power and authority of the Word in the Body of Christ.

Years ago James D. Smart wrote a book called The Rebirth of Ministry.  In a chapter entitled, "The Teaching Ministry." he eloquently described the connection between a teaching ministry and an active discipleship, as well as the consequences of an untrained laity:

The weakness of the church at many crucial points arises directly from this failure of members of the church to become disciples of Jesus Christ.  It causes a tragic shortage of competent lay leaders because so few mature adults have any thorough education in the faith to which they are earnestly committed.  Their Christian education ceased in their teens.  They have read little or nothing about their faith (Although the sale of religious novels and religious books that are like spiritual get-rich-quick manuals is sometimes large, books that would be useful for growth in real discipleship have a pitifully small sale...)  The consequence often is that men become lay  leaders in the church not because of any unusual development or competence or understanding of a peculiarly Christian nature but because of their engaging personal qualities.  They have the character of a leader, but not the knowledge or understanding or penetrating Christian judgement that are necessary to empower them for Christian leadership.

If clergy want an educated laity, we need to be willing to teach, to share, to become mutual learners.  We need to plan for the learning process with laypersons so that mutual growth can take place for the benefits of the church.  As a layperson, are you willing to risk new learning and are you willing to work at loving God with your mind?

The church has a right to expect the training of all lay leaders in basic biblical interpretation, theological reflection, and the ministry of all Christians.  It is not the expectation of learning that is unreasonable or too demanding.  Rather it is the expectation that a high standard of lay leadership is possible when no training occurs in the basic areas of the church's life and faith for which leadership is expected.

Fear of Learning

It's O.K. to feel foolish and embarrassed in the service of attempted new learning.  And this is terribly important adults to discover because the fear of feeling or appearing foolish-or stupid-is one  of the great deterrents to adult education.  If our selfhood is rooted in Jesus Christ, we don't have to impress others or worry about "getting it all together." [God] "is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, 'Let him who boasts boast of the Lord'" (1 Cor. 1:30-31).

When Jesus Christ is our center-of-being, our animating principle and person, we are freed to learn, to risk, to discover anew, and to feel foolish in the process if need be.  When Jesus Christ is the final Word for our lives rather than our own ego, learning assumes a joyful and anticipating face instead of a fearful or anxious one.  To love God with all of our mind is, in the strength of Jesus Christ, to welcome new facets of our Christian tradition.

While there is an always present fear of learning, there is also planted in the human heart and mind a thirst and hunger for learning.  It is the church's task to turn this questing spirit into the joy of learning.  And the joy of learning into the hallowing of life.

Directions, Dreams, and Designs for a Learned Laity

Similarly lay leaders who assume key responsibilities for a year or more should be expected to commit themselves to a structured learning process.  The should see themselves and be seen by others in the church as accountable for serious adult formation in biblical literacy as a minimum, and hopefully in church history, a theology of worship, and the mission of the church  Lay leaders would be regarded by their congregations and by the church-at-large as accountable to the governing body of the congregation and to the ecclesiastical structure to which the ordained minister is immediately accountable.  To create and develop an ethos of expectations will take years and will need constant building up and renewing, just as with  the continuing education of ordained ministers.

We need at least as "high" a view of the general ministers of the church as we do of the ordained ministers.  The first disciples were a learning church.  Today's faith seekers are accountable to God and the church for an intentional learning in the service of the world.

Homework

1. What are the most important insights and values that you have learned in the Body of Christ?

2. What structured learning opportunities are available to you in the church and how can you envision a strengthening of these possibilities?

3. Does a theology of accountability for lay leaders have a place in the church?  How do you see this taking place, either in actuality or in dreaming for the future?

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