Sermon Tone Analysis

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?