Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-Minute Bible Hour Podcast. And I don't know if you've heard about this or not, but there's sort of a fight going on in my country, the United States of America. There are people who kind of think all one blob of ideas, and there are kind of people who think all another blob of ideas. And without speaking to the merits of either of those blobs of ideas, it's all been pretty simply boiled down to if you think one of these things, you kind of need to think all of these things from your team's idea blob. And then when you go on the internet, you say things at people from the other idea blob. And that way everybody knows which idea blob team you are on. Well, every now and then somebody comes along and they don't play. And that really bothers the people who are in the fight and make a living on the fight and who think the fight is truth and is the point of everything, and who view the fight through the lenses of my blob good, your blob bad, people in my blob ethical, people in your blob bad, people who do dirty things but help my blob, forgivable, people who do dirty things but help your blob, unforgivable. So when these wild card characters come along in society who don't say anything about political stuff at all, they just do stuff. And a lot of times these people are artists, musicians, actors, maybe athletes. And it seems like they're running this calculation to me when I look at them, where they're like, uh, if I get sucked into the idea blob fight, I only get to talk to half of the people, but I want all of the people to like my thing or at least potentially be a customer. So I'm just not gonna do that. Well, it seems infinitely logical, right? Like you remember the famous Michael Jordan saying when people were mad at him for not representing certain causes hard enough. And he said, well, even people from you know this other political party, even they buy shoes. That was his famous quote. Some people still don't like him over that. Other people are like, that's pretty shrewd. Well, a few such characters have come along lately, and it's fascinating to me to watch how the thought blob industrial complex goes right after those people who aren't saying what team they're on loudly enough. And sometimes they'll even go so far as to be like, if you don't say the thing, I can only assume you're on other thought blob team. And every now and then it works, and people can be pressured into saying stuff or apologizing for imagined offenses. But a lot of times these people are committed to no, I'm just playing a different game. I'm not in the thought blob. They'll really stick to their guns. And one such lady who did that recently that I thought was very interesting, at least, was Sydney Sweeney. She's a young lady from the Panhandle of Idaho who hit it big with some childhood TV roles maybe 15 or 20 years ago. And then she's become, you know, like a model and an icon and hosted Saturday Night Live. And everybody's got Sydney Sweeney fever these days, right? I don't know, she seems like a uh sweet kid, but also very observably apolitical. She's not doing the thought blob routine, and somebody had her on a podcast or something, the kind of podcast where you film it. I tried that once, it's way harder. But it's the kind of podcast where it's a video sit-down or whatever. And this lady is the the interviewer was kind of gross. She was cloying and trying to draw certain responses out of Sydney Sweeney, and like, I'm gonna be the girl that cracks the coat of Sidney Sweeney and gets her to say what team she's on. So she throws some nonsensical accusation at Sidney Sweeney about an imagined slight that really was a ridiculous accusation. And Sydney Sweeney pauses for a moment, and you can see her calculate and reckon what is being done. Like, oh, that isn't a real question. We're not having a real conversation. You're playing games. And she says something to the effect of no. I don't care to comment on your question. And I think if I have something to say politically, people will know. And that was it. It didn't matter how much the interviewer lady tried to out fox Sydney Sweeney, it just it just didn't work. She wasn't a part of the thought blob. And that it messes with people, man. When you are in a highly charged culture where people are debating and fighting about everything, but it especially it hasn't gone hot, like it's a cold war, it's a word war, it's a social war, it's a meme war, whatever it is. Like you got to know who's on your side and who's not. I feel like that's kind of the situation we're getting with John the Baptist here at the beginning of not just John, but the beginning of all the gospels. You've got a guy who's got a really big platform, he's got a lot of followers, got a lot of clicks, got a lot of subscribers, he's very, very popular and very well liked. And he's sort of positioned outside the thought blob, like really way outside the thought blob. He's a total wild card. He doesn't even dress properly. He's bypassing the entire religious thought blob conversation in first century Israel, Judea and Galilee, that is. And instead, he's like, hey, you gotta repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So be baptized. And then people are like, that makes sense to me. That rings true, and they go out and they get baptized. Well, it's working, and part of the threat from John the Baptist toward people who make their money and think hope is in the first century thought blob. Part of the threat from John the Baptist is that his very existence is a threat to their entire system because his existence proves, yeah, you don't really need any of that. You don't have to do any of the things, you don't have to learn all the fights, you don't have to participate in all the fights, you don't have to hate this group of people and like this group of people and have your entire, you all of your ability to think and talk and consume art and make art and have relationships. It doesn't all have to be funneled through this stupid two-side thought blob thing. And they're like, no, everybody must be a part of the thought blob fight. Yet here John the Baptist is out in the wilderness baptizing a whole bunch of people, and all he's doing is just pointing them to God without all the other mechanisms. Well, that's pretty compelling. I'm gonna talk more about why he's threatening in a minute, but let me go over to Matthew 3. Here's Matthew's account of what that looks like. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, a voice of one calling in the desert, preparing the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. John's clothes were made of camel's 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. Mark doesn't really give us a whole lot more. Or here in Mark 1, 2 through 6, he paints this picture. It's written in Isaiah the prophet, I'll send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him, confessing their sins. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message. After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. I could read you the Luke one as well, but we're going to get tight on time if I do that. Trust me, it's a lot of the same material. All three synoptic gospel authors, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, paint basically the same picture. It's a religious revival out in the wilds, and they all tell the same story of John's message. He's pointing toward this one who is to come, and he's preaching and offering a baptism of repentance. What is repentance? Well, you were walking this way, and then you're like, that is not the way I'm gonna go anymore. And then you do an about face and you go this other way. People were turning away from their sin. Well, you know what? There were probably a lot of sins they were turning away from. Like probably some scandalous, dirty, naughty, sexy stuff, probably some substance abuse scandal. Probably some of them were kind of thievy and tricksy, and they were taking other people's money and other people's stuff. Maybe some of them were brigands or thugs or highwaymen. Some of them maybe it was estrangement or relationship stuff. I don't know. But I bet some of them were out there repenting of their mindset. I bet some of them were out there repenting of their thought blobbiness. And the fact that somewhere in the midst of arguing against the dreaded other side, and somewhere in the midst of obsessing about their side, there was all kinds of compromise stuff on the sides of the thought blob fight in the first century in Judea and Galilee. I bet somewhere along the way a lot of these people were out getting baptized by John and repenting, were repenting of the compromises they made along the way in the name of the thought blob. So John's a threat. His very existence is a threat to the religious leadership and the religious establishment and to the thought blobs of the day. Also, he's a threat because he is painting a picture of a different way forward, one that is truly and deeply God focused. Third, he's a threat because this is working on all kinds of people. Normal people, fancy people. They're all looking at this and saying, like that I want that. I want what John is preaching. And John is a threat because people who manipulate thought blobs are really good at reading a moment. And they could tell, dang it. It's this guy's moment. It is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand moment. It is go out in the wilderness and reject fancy things and reject the thought blob moment. So John the Baptist Star has shone too brightly. He's too big a wild card. There's too much power in the following that he's amassed. That power either needs to be destroyed in the thinking of thought blob types, or it needs to be harnessed and weaponized for the advancement of our part of the thought blob and the destruction of other thought blobs. We have to know what John the Baptist is up to. We gotta know who he is, we gotta know what he's telling people. We can't just let him operate freely and with impunity anymore. And so, in the very first scene in John chapter one that we get outside of the prologue that we've spent so much time on, the authorities, the first century thought blob leaders are going to dispatch metaphorical podcasters to find out what the heck is going on with John. And John's answers, of course, are not going to fit with anything the thought blobs think. And those who walked so far out in the wilderness to find him and pin him down are going to walk away disappointed. That's what we'll be looking at starting tomorrow in John 119 and moving forward. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again today.