Real Success (John the Baptist)

One of my favorite aspects of biblical study is the examination of the lives of men in the Bible, and to ponder the way I can connect with them.  I have looked at Moses and considered times when I have taken matters into my own hands.  One example is when Moses visited the Israelites and killed one of the Egyptians because he thought his own people would recognize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not (Acts 7:25). I’ve looked at Jacob and how God appeared to Him and promised to bless him, but Jacob said, “If God will watch over me, and will bring me back THEN will I serve him,” essentially putting God on hold.  I realize that through the years that I have done this as well.

However, at this stage of life and the experiences I have gone through my attention has turned to John the Baptist. While I make no claim to be like this great man, who Jesus said was the greatest among men, I discover important markers of his life that I can connect with.  In this article I would like us to consider this as an opportunity to understand what true success is all about.

            The first observation is that John’s life began with a calling.  Luke 1:5-17

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendent of Aaron.  Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.  Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.  And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.  Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.  When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.  But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.  He will be joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.  He is never to take wine, or other fermented drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before he is born.  He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.  And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people for the Lord. 

John had a definite calling that God had in mind for him.  This should lead us to address the question of whether we have a calling from God on our life!  I am reminded of a small African American congregation that I heard about.  It was a poor church but there was a young man who said he was called to ministry, and the congregation raised all the money they could gather to send this man to Seminary so that he could become a preacher.  When he had graduated and was coming back home it was announced that the following Sunday he would deliver his first sermon.  The people were excited and everyone came out to hear him.  After he finished preaching, the elderly pastor came up to him and said, “Were you sent or did you just went,”  in other words he could see no evidence in him that he had a calling from God.  In my lifetime I have witnessed men who didn’t have a calling but felt like this was something they wanted to do or perhaps it was something their mommy wanted them to do.  I know of one young man who wanted to go to Bible college and his mother said no.  To this day there is no evidence in his life that he even has a relationship with Christ.  I have often thought that I wouldn’t want to be in that mother’s shoes.  At the same time, I realize that the fact that he gave up indicates that this was just a passing fancy and not a genuine calling.  A few months ago, I had the opportunity to be in a television studio with two other pastors where we were asked to describe how we were called to ministry.  Each of us had a slightly different story but it was obvious by our responses that we had a clear calling. 

In addition to having a clear calling, John had a clear understanding of what he was called to do and throughout his short life he never deviated from that calling and never got sidetracked from that calling.  For him it was: He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.  And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people for the Lord.  As I ponder my life in ministry and speak with many people who have been called to ministry, I observe many distractions that we have allowed to keep us from our true calling.  The greatest calling is to proclaim in whatever context the Word of God to disciple and develop believers into Christlikeness.  In ministering to people in ministry, there are some who burnout because they were never called to the ministry, but the overwhelming of those burning out is because they are caught up in these distractions.  They serve on committees where they have no knowledge or passion in that area.  I remember being on the staff of a church in which we were told that we needed to be in this meeting at a certain location in the church.  When we arrived, we were told that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss whether we should replace the carpet in that room.  My thought was this, “My wife wouldn’t let me pick out the carpet in our home, so why should I be contributing to this discussion?” So, I ask you and myself, “What are we called by God to do?” Remember in Acts 6 when a dispute occurred between two groups of widows regarding their needs.  The response of the apostles was to take the matter seriously but to appoint men to take care of this because their ministry was the preaching of the word and prayer.  They would not allow anything to deviate from that.  I came face to face with this while pastoring up in the Adirondacks.  We needed a new shed at the church.  I thought this meant approving the trusties to go to Home Depot and purchase the materials.  However, a couple of guys came up with the brilliant idea that we would all go to this place that had an old chicken coup that hadn’t been used in years and take it apart and used the material to build this shed.  I was expected to be there.  I remember getting there and all I could smell was chicken poop that was probably a hundred years old.  After a short period of pulling the boards off I stepped back and stepped on a nail protruding from one of the boards.  It went through my sneaker, and right into my foot.  Now I’m thinking, “Great now I have hundred-year-old chicken poop in my foot.  In the end they gathered all the materials, took them to the church and erected this incredible shed.  I decided right then and there that I would focus on what I was called to do and leave the other stuff to people who were called to do their tasks.  Before we go any further looking at John the Baptist I ask you to pause and consider the following:

1. Was I truly called into ministry?

2. Make a list of what you are truly called to do in ministry

3. Examine the areas you are currently serving in that have nothing to do with your calling.

4. Plan to eliminate those areas that you were never called to do.

            The Next observation we make of John the Baptist is his ministry in action

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” This is he who was spoken o through the prophet Isaiah; “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” John’s clothes were made of camel hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.  People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.  Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan river… I baptize you with water for repentance.  But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

A good 20 years ago I along with three other colleagues went to a church growth training.  In attendance were several hundred pastors and many district superintendents.  I remember watching many of these pastors hobnobbing with the superintendents in hopes of eventually getting more lucrative and appealing churches in the future.  But here we see John the Baptist quite content with his ministry in the wilderness knowing this is where he was called.  A man that eats locust and honey and wearing camel hair and a leather belt will never be considered in today’s ministry a huge success.  Nobody would sign up for his gig.  We envy the pastors who lead mega-churches, travel the book signing circuit sharing how you can have a mega-church like them and look to be part of the big shot crowd.  All this in the name of the one who had no place to lay his head.  Or men like Paul who was stoned, shipwrecked, beaten, left for dead.  Or the other disciples who abandoned everything for sake of the call.  Or I think of Isaiah who had the encounter with God in Isaiah 6 and when God asked him, “Whom shall I send to the people of Israel?” Stated, “here am I, send me,” only to have God say, “Oh and by the way they are not going to listen to you!  He still went.  All of us have programmed to accept a definition of success That models more of the world.  Years ago, I heard one of the leaders of a denomination say to a group of us Pastors that we needed to understand that some of us may be called to close a church, to show to them that they are no longer listening to the voice of God and are standing in the way of God’s work.  Although this is true, we want to resist it because we want to be known as having grown a big church.  Our thinking needs to become more like John the Baptist who accepted the place he was called to and what he was called to do. 

The next lesson we can learn from John the Baptist is there will always be a cost to ministry.  There will be at least one time when you will experience the cost of taking a stand. 

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias. His brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

Eventually this would lead to his being beheaded.  Ministry that is truly in the name of Christ will bring us into conflict with the world.  Now it may not be as severe as John experienced but you will face people that are not honoring Christ in their life, and you will have to decide whether you will confront them or let things slide.  Vance Havner once said, “Be careful of too much jesting with people, you might be the life of the party, but it will be the death of the prophet.”  John was called to proclaim the kingdom and call the people to repentance and to prepare the way for the Messiah.  He also knew that Herod’s actions were not aligned with that mission.  He chose to make the decision to speak out no matter the cost.  A pastor who led one of the church’s I served at was faced with a situation where one of his associate pastors was exposed for a grievous sin.  In spite of that, there were those in the congregation that opposed his decision to dismiss that pastor.  However, because he made the right decision regardless of how unpopular it was there was true healing that occurred in that church, and the work continues to this day. 

Another lesson is that we will all go through a season of insecurity where we wrestle with the calling and wonder if we missed the calling.  John had one such experience. Luke 7:20-23

“When the men came to Jesus they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”  At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sickness and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.  So, he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John, what you have seen and hear: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” 

Even John the Baptist who had been so bold in his proclamation of the kingdom news had his season of doubt.  Here he was languishing in a prison for who knows how long.  He was nearing the time when he would be beheaded by Herod.  He had declared that he was the forerunner to the Messiah.  He had been faithful to the calling.  However, here in the moment he wants to know if his ministry was in vain.  Through the years I have talked with many pastors and people in ministry who get caught up in trivial pursuits that have nothing to do with their real calling but provide instant validation.  True ministry as described by our Lord is like planting seed.  The time between planting and reaping is long with a good portion of the time with little or no outward evidence.  Many of the actions like watering and weeding are necessary for a good harvest but can’t be immediately seen.  As a result, we settle for little projects that give a sense of instant reward.  We sit on a committee and decide what color the carpet should be and when a decision is made, we conclude that we have accomplished something.  But when it comes to the eternal reward we can’t always see and like John, we can begin to doubt.  A couple of years ago I was going through such a season of wondering what fruit there had been to my ministry time in Niagara Falls.  I was discouraged and ready to conclude that my time there was for naught.  One day out of the blue I got a call from Charlie.  Charlie and his sisters Beverly and Elenore had started coming to our church as kids.  Charlie came to faith in Christ in our youth group and became close friends with my son Matthew.  After high school he went to a Bible College to study for ministry. Charlie was calling me to tell me that he had accepted the pastorate of a church in New Jersey.  He said, his instillation service was coming up and because I was his first pastor he wanted me to come to his instillation and bring the message.  It was to me, the equivalent of Jesus saying to John’s disciples, “Tell John the blind sees, the deaf hear.” I realized then if I was the forerunner to whatever Charlie accomplishes in ministry then it was worth it.  I believe that we need those reminders.  This is why I have followed the advice of other pastors who have said that they have a file in their office of letters of thank you and encouragement that they pull out in times of discouragement to remind themselves that God had used them.  I recommend that you do the same. 

Then there is John’s profound conclusion in John 3:26-30:

They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man which was with you on the other side of the Jordan – the one you testified about – look he is baptizing and everyone is going to Him.  To this John replied, A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.  You yourselves can testify that I said, “I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of Him.  The bride belongs to the bridegroom.  The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.  That joy is mine and is now complete.  He must become greater; I must become less.

This statement of John’s might be the greatest statement anyone man ever uttered.  HE MUST BECOME GREATER; I MUST BECOME LESS.  Revelation reminds us that there is a day when Christ will come in triumph!  The total focus will be on Christ.  We all have our titles, our places that we consider to be important, for John it was Rabbi; but these are very temporary.  All of us would declare that we want Christ to increase, if we are noticed as well.  Pastor so and so is a great proclaimer of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  If you are still the center of your ministry and your ministry is known more for your preaching, then you have not decreased and therefore Christ cannot increase and be exalted.  Our lives and therefore our ministry are like a vapor that appears for a moment and then is gone.  I think of some of the flashiest preachers of my lifetime who appeared on the scene for a moment and then it is gone.  Like you I have watched as mega-church pastor after mega-church pastor have been exalted and thousands of wannabee pastors have flocked to their training seminars and praised their techniques only to watch as they have fallen into moral failure, their churches either nonexistent or a fraction of what they once were.  They were built on the man and the man never sought to decrease and exalt Christ.  Then I think in my lifetime of A.W. Tozer, who spent his life seeking to exalt Christ and to never make it about himself.  If you have ever heard him preach on an old tape or podcast you will realize that he was dryer than a popcorn fart.  And yet two of his works span the test of time, The Knowledge of the Holy and The Pursuit of God.  Why because in them we see much made of God and nothing of the man who wrote them.  The cry of my heart is that He must increase and I must decrease. In John 22 we see Peter on the seashore with Jesus and Jesus saying to him in essence, You think you are such a hot shot, well the day is coming when you will be carried where you don’t wat to go.  And when Elijah had finished calling down fire from heaven fled in terror because he had concluded that he was so important, the only one in Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal and God told him he didn’t know what he was talking about and that he should go and anoint his successor so the work would continue while he was called home on a chariot.  The only successful ministry has been accomplished by those who became convinced that Christ must increase and they must decrease. 

The final lesson we receive is that of recognizing the right kind of appraisal.  Jesus had said that those who seek the praise of men have their reward.  People would look at John from the world’s eyes and think; lived in the wilderness, ate locust and honey, wore clothes of camel skin and ended up beheaded, what a waste of life, what a failure.  However, look at Jesus appraisal of this man. 

After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John; “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces, but what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it was written: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.  I tell you among those born of women there is none greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Now that should be the final aim of everyone called into ministry!  May it be the aim of you and I!

©2026 David W. Drake, President, Renewed Hope, Inc.