John the Baptist: A Model Preacher and the greatest man that ever Lived

Luke 3:1-9

                    "John the Baptist was a man governed by the Spirit, a God-centered man.  He had a commitment to fearlessly, powerfully, uncompromisingly preach.  He spoke the truth whether people liked it or not.  He spoke the truth whether it was received or not.  His goal was not to get and keep a large crowd, like many preachers today.  He didn't think his job was to be as positive and "feel-good" as people wanted him to be.  His job was to speak the truth for God's glory and to be helpful to people by telling them the truth for their own good, whether they understood it or not. 
                     He was a model preacher.  Many preachers today try to make you feel as good as they possibly can, even if it means not telling you the whole truth. What if you had a doctor like that?  Now say you have blood where you shouldn't have blood, pain in your chest where you shouldn't have pain, numbness in your body where you shouldn't have numbness, you've got severe headaches.  So you finally go in to the doctor and he smiles and says to you, "everything's gonna be alright!" even though you'll be dead in two years.  People that won't accept that with doctors, will accept that with preachers.
                    The people were telling themselves, "I'm Okay! Abraham's my father, I know that the scriptures are from the prophets and they're from God.  John says, "Don't even begin to say to yourself because you know all that, that you're okay! I can tell by your life that you are not okay.  If God has done His work in you, you'd be following Him and have left all that behind. The axe is laid at the root of the tree!" 
                    John the Baptist was also a good news preacher (vs 3). His aim was not to judge them or condemn them, his aim was to get them to see, "you too need to repent, you too need to be forgiven".  He preached  God's grace and mercy and pardon in Christ. The glory of Christ captivated John beyond any man that ever lived (John 1:24-27).  He clearly saw the glory of the person of Christ ( John 1:29-30). When he preached forgiveness, he understood that the forgiveness of sins would be because of the atoning work that Christ did on the cross.  He says in John 1:29 when he say Jesus coming to him, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" 
                     This is the greatest man that ever lived."