The Allure of Power

If I say “Jonestown”, how many of you know what I’m talking about?

Jim Jones was born in 1931 close to the small town of Lynn, IN, next to the Ohio line

He was one in a family of 12 children and they were dirt poor

He didn’t have a lot of friends but he was a voracious reader and spent a lot of time reading books by Stalin, Marx, and others.

The small town of Lynn had 5 churches of different denominations and he attended all of them at one time or another and also left all of them for different reasons. But that helped to shape his opinion of religion.

He also at an early age began to despise how African Americans were treated and he began to fight for racial equality which made him even more unpopular than he already was

He got married at age 18 or 19 and he and his wife moved to Bloomington, IN where he attended Indiana University. By this time, his reading of Marxist thought had caused him to become a self-proclaimed Marxist.

He needed a platform to proclaim his Marxist thought and was surprised when in a strange twist, a Methodist district superintendent allowed him to become a student pastor at a local Methodist church.

He later left that church because they refused to allow Blacks to be integrated into the church.

But he continued to be shaped by various religious experiences, such as witnessesing a faith-healer at work.

This inspired Jones to organize a huge religious convention where the headline speaker was a popular faith-healer. Out of this, Jones was able to start his own church which he called the Peoples Temple Christian Church Full Gospel. It was a racially diverse church and it gave Jones a platform to continue his fight for racial equality.

He even earned a Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian award for his work.

In 1957 Jones and some of his followers went to Philadelphia to visit a black charismatic preacher who called himself Father Divine. He impressed jones because he preached racial equality and communal living. But the dark side of Father Divine was the fact that he also proclaimed himself to be god. He had complete control over his followers. Jones liked that.

One Peoples Temple member said that after Jim Jones visited Father Divine, he:

“was a changed man. I saw it right away … I sensed the change. After that, it was ‘my way or no way.’ It was ‘I am ’m in control.’ He was not just the pastor in the church. He was The Man. Father Divine convinced him he was The Man — that he was God.”

From then on, Jones became increasingly power hungry and his teaching became more and more a mix of socialism, Marxism and the Gospel.

But his following grew because of his work with racial equality. He met with politicians and statesmen.

But personally he became more and more paranoid and erratic in his bahaviour. He began taking drugs to help him sleep and drugs to help him stay awake.

He was afraid of nuclear war and government conspiracies.

Long story short, his “church” bought a plot of ground in the country of Guyana in South America and he moved down there with a large group of his followers in order to form a socialist commune and stay away from scrutiny by the media and the government.

Many of you know what eventually happened in November of 1978.

If you don’t, you can look it up. It’s almost too horrific to talk about.

A terrible story. But it illustrates starkly something that awoke in mankind the instant that the serpent came to Eve in the Garden of Eden: That is, the hunger for power. The hunger to be like God. The hunger to BE God.

Today in our passage, we read about how John the Baptist had the opportunity to fall to that temptation.

(ESV)

The Testimony of John the Baptist

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Behold, the Lamb of God

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

So here we have John the Baptist. You remember the circumstances surrounding his birth. How his birth was foretold by an angel to his father. His father didn’t believe and was struck dumb until John was born.

And we know that John was a wild child. He went and lived in the wildnerness, surviving on locusts and wild honey and making clothes out of camel skins.

The ultimate survival expert: a real man’s man.

Pretty self-confident I imagine

And he was charismatic because Matthew says that Jerusalem and ALL Judea and ALL the regions about the Jordan were going out to him. People were attracted to him. Maybe because of his no holds barred type of approach.

Like when the Pharisees and the Sadducees came out to figure out what he was doing in and he laid into them, called them a brood of vipers and called them out in their hypocrisy

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Everybody is probably standing around saying, “Yeah, you go John! Tell em!”

And we know that he had followers even well after Jesus’ ministry began and that he continued to preach and baptize

So John is popular, well-spoken, bucking the status quo, identifying with the little guy. Not your typical polished guy who was educated at the leading schools of the day.

And the crowds love him!

Even Jesus had good things to say about him:

(ESV)

7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written,

“ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way before you.’

11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

In our passage today, his popularity is attracting attention so the Jews decide to figure out who he is. the Jews: verse 24 says that it was the Pharisees that sent these priests and Levites out to him.

And then ensues a game of 20 questions:

Who are you? And here is the opportunity that a lesser man might have jumped at: “Who am I? Why…I am the Christ!”

I think it’s significant how writer John records John the Baptists’ reply: He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed...”

I think that JtB’s answer made a huge impression on the Apostle John

Man, he could have answered so differently. He could have taken this and run with it!

He could have denied that he was a mere man and instead tried to claim that he was the Messiah

But JtB was a well-grounded guy. He knew exactly who he was and what his mission was.

I am not the Christ

Are you Elijah? “See I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes”

I am not

Are you the Prophet? ( says promises a prophet like Moses who would speak the word of God

No

Well, who are you then? Tell us! We need to give an answer to those who sent us. We can’t just go back with denials

John says, “I am just a messenger”

I am the voice of one crying in the wildnerness, “Make straight the way of the Lord as the prophet Isaiah said.”

I am the fulfillment of a prophecy. Not a prophecy about someone great. But a prophecy of a herald: one who blows a trumpet and calls the attention of the audience. Not to himself but to someone truly great

I am here to bring a message: Prepare for the Lord’s arrival! Get ready! Make the way straight! The Anointed One is coming!

Oh, so you aren’t the Christ. Why are you baptizing then if you aren’t anybody great.

Let me tell you, when you are on mission for the One who sent you, you will always face these kind of questions questions.

From others: Where you do you get the authority to do this? We’ve known you since you were a little kid and we know that you don’t have the ability to do this or the authority to do this

They even treated Jesus this way: “Isn’t this Joseph the Carpenter's son? Who does he think he is?

And we fear those kind of questions

From yourself: Self, what do you think you’re doing? You’re going to fail.

Because the lure of power is not just the temptation to take power away from another person, the lure of power also tempts us to hang on to our “secure place”…to hang on to that person that we have always perceived ourselves to be or who we think others perceive us to be.

And giving into the doubt that these questions bring to our hearts and minds keeps the Church of Jesus in a state of ineffectiveness

But I love how JtB answers them. He doesn’t even defend himself.

Instead he simply points them to Jesus, the One who had sent him

Look, if you only knew about the One who is already among you and the One who is so great that I am not even worthy to mess with his shoes, you would have more to be concerned about than who I am or worry about what I am doing.

I really love John the Baptist.

To me, he passes this test with flying colors.

He resists the deadly allure of power and popularity.

But unfortuntely many religious leaders and preachers throughout the ages have failed this test miserably.

Oh, we may say, “Yeah, but it’s for Christ and His kingdom”

But deep inside, or maybe not so deep inside, we love our large gleaming buildings.

We love crowds of people looking up at us and thinking, “My oh my, what a speaker! What a guy!”

And we start to get puffed up with pride and our success in our minds is dependent on those things.

And if we don’t have those things, we think, “I must be doing something wrong”.

But it’s not just preachers and leaders. We all have that tendency.

And Unfortunately, I see in the religious leaders the same attitude that many of us in the Church have.

Who does that guy think he is?

Man, he sure dresses funny. How can he think he is a preacher when he doesn’t dress right.

Where does he get the right to baptize people? He isn’t ordained.

Here’s the thing:

JtB was a servant and knew that fully. His mission and his attention was fully fixed on Christ. His mission was fully for the glory of God. He completely resisted the temptation to build up his ego and popularity.

We never even read that there was any real interaction between him and Christ.

In fact, we know that later on, as he was in prison about to have his head cut off, he asked Jesus, “Are you the Christ or should we expect someone else?” He was having a crisis of faith.

For you and I, it’s clear what JtB’s example means for us:

Our lives, our mission are for Christ and Christ alone. Our lives and our service should be only for Christ and His kingdom and glory

My existence on this earth, my presence in this church are not ultimately for my benefit.

The kind of music that we sing, the order of service, the decorations that we use, the color of the carpet whatever it is that we have a problem with.

These should not be the questions in our minds. The biggest questions that we should be considering are:

In what way have I been making it about me?

What attitudes or actions does He want me to change in order that He might receive more glory, more fame,