Sunday's Sermon

John The Baptist
John 1:19-34

The Who - John 1:19-28

Few figures in scripture are as intriguing as John the Baptist. He was a prophet and according to Jesus, the greatest of prophets (Luke 7:27-28). We know that John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:5-6). John had many, many disciples. Large crowds came confessing their sins and were baptized by John (Mk 1:5, Matt 3:6). He had an on going dispute with the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes of the day over their religious state (Matt 3:7-10), John’s identity (John 3:19-24) and John’s purpose (John 3:24-28). I call it a dispute even though many came and still were baptized. However, his current situation seems odd when you put it to the rest of what we know about John.

John did not come from nothing. In fact, John came from the priesthood. John the Baptist’s father was named Zechariah. He was a priest. Listen to what Luke writes in Luke 1:5-25 and Luke 1:57-80. This, my friends, is John the Baptist. He went from the priesthood to the wilderness. How many of us would even think twice about going and listening to a man like this today? How many of us would write this man off as crazy? How many of us would try to get him locked up for not only his safety but for the safety of others?

This is the most important aspect of who John was; he was called and anointed by God! Read with me again Luke 1:76-79. John the Baptist was ordained and sent by God for the benefit of the people to have the knowledge of salvation. To give light, not be light, but to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. To guide our feet into the way of peace. What a blessed life to know what your position in the kingdom is!! But perhaps it is even better to know who you are not, and John most certainly knew who he was not!

“Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you the Prophet?”

“No! No! No! I am not.”

“Well then who are you?”

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord. I am not even worthy to untie the strap of the His sandal.” John knew who he was not.

The Message – John 1:29-34

The message of John was simple. First, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2)”. Second, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8)”. Third, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said… (John 1:29-30)”. To put it simply, “This is who is coming. This is what you must do. This is who He is.”

I do want to point out that without the Spirit of Christ dwelling within us; we can not bear fruit in keeping with repentance. It is the fruit of the Spirit. It is with the Spirit’s aid and work that sin is put under within us. It is with the Spirit that we produce love, joy, peace… (Galatians 5:22-23). So in other words, the message is “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus is God’s tender mercy towards sinners.” Praise God!

The Result – John 1:35-39

We, as a church, must ask and be honest with our answer at this point. What should the result of our teaching and preaching be? Some will sneer at this question. We have a pretty good answer for the most part; don’t we? “To see people come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior” right? John the Baptist showed Christ to the people. John pointed them directly to Him. After hearing John say “Behold the Lamb of God” Andrew and Phillip left and followed Christ and stayed with Christ. The result ought to be seeing people reconciled to God like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. This is the danger in which I believe we may face. We spend so much of our time talking about Jesus, but not enough pointing to Jesus.

This is how we have the list we looked at last week. Jesus is our friend, our brother, our savior, our, our, our, our, and the list goes on and on. And as a church we can easily draw to ourselves, a crowd that likes to hear about Jesus as long as we don’t make it personal. But again at the same time, there is even a greater potential danger. We actually do tell them about Jesus and point them to Jesus and then proceed to lump every rule and regulation known to mankind on them. Listen to what Paul writes in Galatians 2:18-21, 3:3, 6, 11, 15.

Friends, Jesus says if you love him, you will keep his commands. But we do so out of love of our Lord not out of an effort to find favor with God. Remember when Hebrews told us that there has been one sacrifice so that there is no longer any need to offer repeated sacrifices. Christ made that sacrifice in order that there would be forgiveness of sins.

I have one real fear of pastoring this church and it is this; we fall more in love with the message and the commands than the object of them both. We become the church of Ephesus. We lose our first love. In fact, if that happens I fear there will be many who will never be pointed to Christ and therefore will never follow Christ. Who will never know forgiveness and never see God’s face. This being so, this message will change. We will begin to preach a message about the blessing instead of the one who blesses. We focus on how we come to Jesus to get eternal life, we get forgiveness of sins, we get, we get, we get. But let me ask this morning, “What is wrong with simply getting Jesus?!?” We get Christ! Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

John the Baptist was a preacher, with a simple message and pointed people to Christ. Not himself. As many of you have heard prayed “May we decrease, that Christ may increase” you have heard a quote from John the Baptist. This came at a time when his crowds began to dwindle in size and people were beginning to follow Christ. But not everyone who was with him left to follow Jesus. I sometimes wonder about these men and women. Were there regrets for not following Jesus? I pray that you will not regret later in life that which you can do today.