Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:1-2).

Certainly Jesus highly approved of John’s simple message, as it was the same message that Jesus preached wherever He went (see Matt. 4:17). John called people to repentance—to turn away from a life of sin and turn to a life of righteousness. He knew that a relationship with God begins with repentance, and that those who don’t repent will be cast in to hell.

Unlike so many modern evangelists, John never mentioned the love of God. Nor did he talk about people’s “felt needs” as a means to entice them to pray a meaningless prayer of “accepting Jesus” so that they could begin to experience “the abundant life.” He did not lead people to believe that they were basically good people whom God wanted to take to heaven if they could only realize that salvation was not of works. Rather, he saw them as God saw them—rebels in danger of facing eternal consequences for their sins. He solemnly warned them of the wrath to come. He made certain they understood that if they didn’t change their hearts and actions, they were doomed.

So the second quality that John possessed that is worthy of every disciple-making minister’s imitation is this: John proclaimed that repentance was the first step in a relationship with God.

And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed, and did not deny, and he confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” They said then to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said” (John 1:19-23).

John knew his calling and pursued it.

How important it is for ministers to know their callings and pursue them. If you are an evangelist, you should not try to be a pastor. If you are a teacher, you should not try to be a prophet. Otherwise, you will only find frustration.

How do you know your calling? First, by seeking the Lord, the one who has called you. Second, by examining your gifting. If God has called you to be an evangelist, He will equip you for the task. And third, by the confirmation of others who will certainly notice of your gifting.

Once you are certain of your calling, you should pursue it with all of your heart, letting no obstacle hinder you. Many are waiting around for God to do what He expects them to do. Noah didn’t wait around for God to build an ark!

It has been said that the word ministry is spelled W O R K. Satan will surely try to stop you from fulfilling your calling, but you must resist him and forge ahead by faith. Even though Scripture doesn’t tell us about, you can be sure that there was one day when John first started preaching around the region of the Jordan. No doubt his first crowds were much smaller than his later crowds. You can be sure that people made fun of him and that he experienced persecution. But he would not be stopped. His sole aim was to please his God who had called him to his ministry. Ultimately, he succeeded.

John’s first spiritual quality that is worthy of our imitation is this: John knew his calling and pursued it.

He [John] therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Luke 3:7-8).

As John’s ministry began touching more people, he obviously did not compromise his message. John may have even become suspicious of people’s motives when he noticed that it was becoming quite popular to be baptized. Even scribes and Pharisees were making the journey to the Jordan (see Matt. 3:7). He feared that many people were just going along with the crowd. So he did all he could to keep them from being self-deceived, knocking over any props that supported their deception. He didn’t want anyone to think that just the act of baptism saved them, or that just a profession of repentance would keep them from hell. He warned that true repentance brings forth the fruit of obedience.

Moreover, because many Jews considered themselves to be saved due to their physical lineage from Abraham, John exposed the fallacy of that hope.

John’s fourth praiseworthy quality is this: He loved people enough to tell them the truth. He would never assure an unrepentant, unholy person that he was on the way to heaven.

You may be surprised to learn that Jesus had a favorite preacher. You may be even more surprised to learn that Jesus’ favorite preacher was not a Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Anglican, or Presbyterian. Rather, he was a Baptist! We know him as John the Baptist, of course! Jesus said of him,

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11a).

Since all people are “born of woman,” this was another way of saying that, in Jesus’ estimation, John the Baptist was the greatest person who had ever lived. Why Jesus felt that way was is a matter of conjecture. It seems reasonable to think, however, that Jesus thought highly of John because of John’s spiritual qualities. If so, we would certainly be wise to study and imitate those spiritual qualities. I’ve found at least seven spiritual qualities in John the Baptist that are praiseworthy. Although John’s ministry best represents the ministry of an evangelist, all seven spiritual qualities are appropriate for any and every minister of the gospel. Let’s consider the first of seven.

John would not baptize people who didn’t appear repentant, not wanting to bolster anyone’s self-deception. He baptized people “as they confessed their sins” (Matt. 3:6). He warned those who came:

The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire…. And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:10, 12).

John was not afraid to tell the truth about hell, a subject that is often avoided by preachers who are trying to win a popularity contest rather than win souls for God’s kingdom. Neither did John fail to proclaim the same theme we discovered in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount—only the holy inherit God’s kingdom. Those who don’t bear good fruit will be thrown into the fire.

If John were alive today, he would no doubt be castigated by many professing Christians as a “hellfire and brimstone preacher,” a “gloom and doom prophet,” “not seeker-sensitive,” or worse, “negative,” “condemning,” “legalistic” or “self-righteous.” Yet John was Jesus’ favorite preacher. John preached about hell and made it clear what kinds of people on their way there. Interestingly, Luke referred to John’s message as “the gospel” (Luke 3:18).

Because of his desire to make disciples, teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded, the disciple-making minister will be very interested in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. There is no lengthier recorded sermon of Jesus, and it is full of His commandments. The disciple-making minister will want to obey and teach his disciples everything Jesus commanded in that sermon.

This being so, I’m going to share what I understand about that sermon contained in Matthew chapters 5-7. I encourage ministers to teach their disciples the Sermon on the Mount verse by verse. Hopefully what I’ve written will be helpful to that end.

Below is an outline of the Sermon on the Mount, just to give us a general overview and to highlight the primary themes.

I.) Jesus gathers His audience (5:1-2)

II.) Introduction (5:3-20)

A.) The traits of the blessed (5:3-12)

B.) Admonition to continue being salt and light (5:13-16)

C.) The Law’s relationship with Christ’s followers (5:17-20)

III.) The Sermon: Be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees (5:21-7:12)

A). Love each other, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (5:21-26)

B.) Be sexually pure, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (5:27-32)

C.) Be honest, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (5:33-37)

D.) Don’t take revenge, as do the scribes and Pharisees (5:38-42)

E.) Don’t hate your enemies, as do the scribes and Pharisees (5:43-48)

F.) Do good for the right motives, unlike the scribes and Pharisees (6:1-18)

1.) Give to the poor for the right motives (6:2-4)

2.) Pray for the right motives (6:5-6)

3.) A digression regarding prayer and forgiveness (6:7-15)

a.) Instructions concerning prayer (6:7-13)

b.) The necessity of forgiving each other (6:8-15)

4.) Fast for the right motives (6:16-18)

G.) Don’t serve money, as do the scribes and Pharisees (6:19-34)

H.) Don’t find little faults with your brothers (7:1-5)

I.) Don’t waste your time giving truth to the unappreciative (7:6)

J.) Encouragement to pray (7:7-11)

IV.) Conclusion: A Summary of the Sermon

A.) A summarizing statement (7:12)

B.) An admonition to obey (7:13-14)

C.) How to recognize false prophets and false believers (7:15-23)

D.) A final warning against disobedience and summary (7:24-27)

A pastor or teacher’s ministry would of course be characterized by a broader range of subject matter than was John’s. John was preaching to the unrepentant. Pastors and teachers are supposed to be primarily teaching those who have already repented. Their teaching is based on those things Jesus said to His disciples and that are written in the New Testament epistles.

We often fail, however, to rightly identify our audiences, and it seems today that sinners are often preached to as if they were saints. Just because people are sitting in a church building does not mean our job is to assure them of their salvation, especially if their lives are essentially indistinguishable from those in the world. There is a crying need today for millions of “John the Baptists” to preach from church pulpits. Will you rise to the challenge? Will you become one of Jesus’ favorite preachers?

Finally, Jesus called blessed those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Obviously, He was speaking of people who are living righteously, not just those who think that Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to them. People who obey Christ’s commandments are the ones whom nonbelievers persecute. They will inherit God’s kingdom.

What kind of persecution was Jesus talking about? Torture? Martyrdom? No, He specifically listed being insulted and spoken against on His account. This again indicates that when a person is a true Christian, it is obvious to nonbelievers, otherwise nonbelievers wouldn’t say evil things against him. How many so-called Christians are so indistinguishable from nonbelievers that not a single unbeliever speaks against them? They are not really Christians at all. As Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). When all men speak well of you, that’s a sign that you’re a false believer. The world hates true Christians (see also John 15:18-21; Gal. 4:29; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 John 3:13-14).

The sixth trait of the heaven-bound is purity of heart. Unlike so many professing Christians, true followers of Christ are not just outwardly holy. By God’s grace, their hearts have been made pure. They truly love God from their hearts, and it affects their meditations and motives. Jesus promised that they shall see God.

Again may I ask, are we to believe that there are true Christian believers who are not pure in heart and who therefore will not see God? Is God going to say to them, “You can come into heaven, but you can’t ever see Me”? No, obviously every true heaven-bound person has a pure heart.

If the first characteristic is listed first because it is the first necessary trait of the heaven-bound, perhaps the second trait is also listed meaningfully: “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matt. 5:4). Could Jesus have been describing heartfelt repentance and remorse? I think so, especially since Scripture is clear that godly sorrow results in a repentance that is necessary for salvation (see 2 Cor. 7:10). The mournful tax collector Jesus spoke of who humbly bowed his head in the Temple, beating his breast and crying out for God’s mercy, was indeed a blessed person. Unlike the proud Pharisee who also prayed in the Temple, the tax gatherer left that place justified, forgiven of his sins (see Luke 18:9-14). I suspect that there were those among Jesus’ audience who, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, were mourning. Comfort from the Holy Spirit would soon be theirs!

If Jesus was not speaking of the initial mourning of the repentant person who is just coming to Christ, then perhaps He was describing the sorrow all true believers sense as they continually face a world that is in rebellion against the God who loves them. Paul expressed it as “great sorrow and unceasing grief in [his] heart” (Rom. 9:2).