The Office of John the Baptist

​Advent 3 (Gaudete)| 1 Corinthians 4:1-5| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| December 15, 2024

Jesus tells us that John is more than a prophet; he is the messenger God sent to prepare the way for Christ. John indeed was a tremendous preacher, who led many people to Christ. However, John has not preached a sermon on earth for nearly two thousand years. And although Scripture tells us that large crowds gathered to hear John preach, we’re still talking about maybe a few thousand people a couple thousand years ago. So, how does John the Baptist prepare the way for Christ today so many centuries later? John continues to prepare the way for Christ today, because he serves as a precursor to the Office of the Ministry, that is, the preaching office, which Christ instituted to prepare His way into our hearts.
Article V of the Augsburg Confession states, “So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22]. He works faith, when and where it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake. Our churches condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that through their own preparations and works the Holy Spirit comes to them without the external Word.”
So that we may obtain this faith, Christ instituted the office of teaching the Gospel. So that people could receive Christ Jesus in faith, God sent John to preach. Holy Scripture describes the preaching office by reporting to us John’s preaching, and Christ’s description of John as a preacher, and Scripture’s record of John’s life entirely devoted to pointing people to Jesus, even sending his last two disciples to Christ before he was beheaded in prison. St. Paul, another messenger for Christ who was beheaded for Christ’s sake, describes the Office of the Ministry in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
John was a servant of Christ as is every Apostle and pastor who comes after him. A minister indeed serves the church, he serves his parishioners, but he remains Christ’s servant. He does Christ’s bidding, not the bidding of men. St. Paul writes that he does not preach to please men, but to please Christ (Galatians 1:10). He followed well in John’s footsteps. Jesus asked the crowd if they went out to see a reed blowing in the wind. A reed blowing in the wind is a preacher who preaches what the people want to hear. He licks his finger, holds it up to the air, and wherever the wind is blowing, that’s how he’ll preach. St. Paul tells us that these are the type of preachers people want. “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4) And we see this today. They call them woke preachers, who embrace the extreme trends of sexual immorality and perversity. It makes good fodder online for Christians to rebuke radical heretical preachers. Yet, it’s not just the so-called woke preachers, who are reeds blowing in the wind. The winds of human opinion blow strong. And because preachers fear men rather than God, they frequently overlook God’s Word where it displeases the people. So, fornication is no longer preached against. Preachers tip toe around divorce and homosexuality, the rejection of the distinction between men and women in the church and in the home, and persistent unrepentant sin. They know which side of their bread is buttered, as they say.
John was no such reed-shaking-in-the-wind preacher. He was in prison, because he preached against Herodias’ unjust divorce of her husband Philip, Herod’s brother, and against Herod’s unjust marriage to his brother’s wife who divorced him. Herodias did not forgive John for preaching against her sin, so she incited her daughter to ask Herod for John’s head on a platter. So, John, the greatest man born of woman, the preacher who sets the standard for all New Testament preachers after him, had his head cut off in a prison cell for preaching against divorce and adultery. Yet, he died for Christ’s sake. And so, St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4, “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. … We are fools for Christ’s sake … We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” (vss. 9, 10, 13)
So does Scripture describe these servants of Christ, as ministers of the Word should model themselves today. They are sent to proclaim God’s Word, regardless of the cost, regardless of whether they listen or not. Yet, why does God send His preachers for this task? To prepare the way for Christ into people’s hearts. He does this first by preaching repentance. This is what Isaiah means when he says that every hill will be made low. Everyone must humble himself before God and His Word and repent of his sins. John didn’t call the Pharisees brood of vipers to be mean. He was calling them to repent of the pride in their hearts and to receive Christ with meekness. John didn’t tell Herod he had sinned by marrying his brother’s wife, because he wanted to show how much better he was than Herod. He was warning Herod to turn from sin before he would be damned to hell.
And so, preachers of the Word must preach the Law, even when it hurts feelings. They must preach against not only the sins that their parishioners disapprove of, but especially against the sins of their own people, just as John told the rich to share with the poor, the soldiers to stop extorting money and to be content with their wages, and the tax collectors to stop stealing. Preachers must preach against their people’s sins, because Christ commands them to, so that His sheep may receive Him. They must do this, so that Christ’s people may be comforted. Christ only comforts those who recognize that their sin is evil, that they deserve God’s wrath, that they need to be forgiven. Preachers must preach the Law to make way for the Gospel, so that sinners who see the wages of their sin, may be comforted that Christ has paid double for them (Isaiah 40:2).
St. Paul calls ministers of the Word stewards of the mysteries of God. A steward is one who manages that which does not belong to him. A steward is not free to do what he wishes with his master’s property. He must manage it at the direction of his master. And so, pastors are under the commission of Christ their Master. They are answerable to Christ for how they manage the mysteries of God. But what are these mysteries?
The mysteries of God are the holy Word and Sacraments. They are what Augsburg Confession V call the instruments through which the Holy Spirit is given. In Matthew 13, Jesus tells His disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven…” The mysteries of God’s kingdom can only be understood by faith, which can only be given by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12-14; 12:3; John 3:8). The preacher does not get to choose who believes and who does not. That is up to the Holy Spirit. The preacher’s job is to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). This means that the preacher does not preach what he wants, but what Holy Scripture says, so that God’s people may be rightly instructed, exhorted, rebuked, warned, and comforted. As stated before, the pastor must preach the Law, preaching against sin and calling people to repentance, and he must preach the Gospel, that Christ Jesus died to save sinners and that He forgives those who repent and trust in Him.
The mysteries of God also include the Sacraments: Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, as well as the office of the keys. Pastors must baptize according to Christ’s command and teach those they baptize (Matthew 28:19-20). The Lord’s Supper is Christ’s true body and blood under the forms of bread and wine. It grants forgiveness of sins to those who receive it in faith. It brings judgment against those who receive it in unbelief or impenitent sin. The pastor does not have the liberty to do with the Sacrament what he wills. He must instruct, examine, and absolve those who wish to receive it. And those who would be harmed by receiving it, because of their ignorance, unbelief, or impenitence, the pastor must refuse to give it.
The office of the keys is that special authority, which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent. Pastors must forgive those who repent of their sins. If a sinner confesses his sins privately to the pastor, the pastor must keep those sins private forever. His job is to comfort those in need of Christ’s consolation. Yet, if sinners continue in their sin openly and refuse to repent, then it is the job of their pastor to refuse to declare Christ’s forgiveness to them until they repent.
This is how Christ’s servants and stewards manage His property, which are the mysteries of God. He may not do as he wishes with them, but as the Lord directs him. This is why Scripture says that a pastor must be above reproach, soberminded, able to teach (1 Timothy 3) and trustworthy (1 Corinthians 4:2). Yet, pastors are only men. They are sinners. And they are weak. They doubt and need comfort and assurance from the Word as well. Yet, Christ has chosen them to prepare His way, as He chose John the Baptist and Paul. He did this so that His people may obtain saving faith. So, dear Christians, pray for your pastor and all pastors, that they be kept from sin and error, and that they be given the wisdom and courage to do what is right and to be faithful servants of Christ and stewards of His mysteries. It is the Lord who will judge His ministers (1 Cor. 4:4), and we know that they will be judged more strictly than the rest (James 3:1). So, as John’s disciples no doubt prayed for him while he was in prison, and as St. Paul frequently urged his listeners to pray for him (Ephesians 6:19), so I ask you to pray that I too may be found faithful by our Lord. And I urge you to pray for yourselves too, that you would not be like Herodias and Herod, who imprisoned and murdered John for His preaching of the Law or like the Pharisees who mocked John’s appearance, but that you would be like the tax collectors and prostitutes who repented at John’s preaching and were given power to become children of God. God gave us ministers of the Word, so that we may have faith in Christ and be saved. That you have a pastor is a sign from God that He wants to save you through faith in Christ.
Lord, empower your ministers and make way for Christ into their hearers’ hearts. Amen.