Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / John

John 1:19-34 04/10/05

Message: ‘John the Baptist  Jesus Christ’                                                                                                                                   Main Text: John 1:19-34

Introduction:
Quotes: “Muhammad Ali was on a flight and was about to take off when the stewardess reminded him to fasten his seat belt. He came back brashly, "Superman don't need no seat belt." The stewardess quickly replied, "Superman don't need no airplane, either." Ali fastened his belt.” James S. Hewett

“The story is told about an old minister who survived the great Johnstown flood. He loved to tell the story over and over in great detail. Everywhere he went he would spend all his time talking about this great historic event in his life. One day he died and went to heaven and there in a meeting all the saints had gathered together to share their life experiences. The old minister got all excited and ran to Peter and asked if he might tell the exciting story of his survival from the Johnstown flood. Peter hesitated for a moment and then said, "Yes, you may share, but just remember that Noah will be in the audience tonight.” James S. Hewett

Explanation: There have always been
•    People whose lives shout… ‘look at me’ ‘Pay attention to me’
•    People who can’t stand the conversation focusing on anything but themselves or their interests.

Humility is a rare quality in a person and I am so glad that I have it. Opps lost it.

Transition: Turn in your Bibles to John 1:19 (pg. 809 in the church bible) where will examine a man whose humility was a way of life. And we will find that God expects no less from each of his children

John the Baptist: the man
Read: John 1:19-21

John was what many today would call eccentric.

His camel hair robe was not what the urban hip professionals of Johns day were wearing.  And his diet, well I guess it really isn’t as strange as some of what we do today. Such as: 
•    Grapefruit Diet: The premise is to consume only 800 calories a day through eating lots of ‘fat-burning’ grapefruits.
•    The Tapeworm Diet: A number of famous women, including supermodel Claudia Schiffer, are alleged to have tried this. You ingest a tiny parasite that lives in
      your intestines, helping to consume your food so that you remain thin no matter how much you eat.
•    Kissing Diet: A married couple kissing burns about four calories per minute…you can do the math!

So John’s diet of locusts and wild honey doesn’t sound so odd.  Even with his odd behavior, he was the talk of the town. Because John was a successful preacher.

•    Although he didn’t have a large building, he preached and baptized thousands of people from all over Jerusalem and Judea during his ministry.
•    Although John’s ministry didn’t offer childcare and cappuccino, the Sanhedrin (Jerusalem’s religious power) sent a delegation to check John out.

To everyone…except John, he was a big deal.

When they arrive they ask John… ‘Who are you?’ Kind of a strange question. They knew who he was and who his parents were, he came from a priestly family. What they were really asking is ‘Who do you think you are preaching without the blessing of the Sanhedrin?.

If it’s religious in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin controlled it.’ And they didn’t control John. So they weren’t happy with him.

John had the opportunity to stick out his chest and say, ‘Hey, I might not be the Messiah, but I’m the next best thing. Let me tell you all about me.’ Instead he answered, ‘look, I am not the Messiah, I am not Elijah and I am not the prophet.’ He directs the  attention away from himself.

Transition: The  delegation needed some answers to take back to Jerusalem…but John wasn’t giving them any.

John the Baptist: the message
Read: John 1:22-28

I can imagine the delegation almost sneering at John and saying ‘Who do you think you are anyway, avoiding our questions. We can’t go back without an answer and you will give it to us now! Again John had the opportunity to really turn it on ‘I am the GREAT forerunner’ ‘I am a wonderful preacher, just look at all the people coming to be baptized by…ME!’ Instead, John said ‘I am just the voice of one crying in the desert, make straight the way for the Lord’.

This again was not the answer they were looking for, so they get to the point. ‘By whose authority are you baptizing people?’ You see, they were not so much concerned about his preaching as they were his baptizing people. Why? Because the only people who were baptized in that day were the sinful Gentiles who wanted to convert to Judaism. By John’s baptism he was inferring that even Jews were sinful and needed to repent. The pride of the Sanhedrin wanted to have control over the people’s lives, including their sin and repentance.
 
But notice, even here John diverts attention from himself by saying ‘I only baptize with water, but among you stands one you don’t know whose sandals I am not worthy to untie’. Can you imagine what happens next? The people in the crowd, including the delegation from Jerusalem looks hopefully, but suspiciously through the crowd to see if someone would claim to be the one John talked about.  It’s possible Jesus was in that crowd that day but because it was not his time to reveal himself, he kept silent.

John made it a conscious choice to point to Jesus, to talk about Jesus rather than focus on himself. That’s humility and that’s what God desires for us all.

ILL: Someone once said  "I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility." John Ruskin

John was a humble man of God and the message he proclaimed was also from God. We can tell because it wasn’t a nice, warm fuzzie, ‘God loves you and all is well with your soul’. What was John’s message?

•    John’s message was Prophetic: There had not been a prophet of God in Israel for 400 years. That’s a long time. John was the last of the Old Testament prophets.
•    John’s message was Messianic: Israel waited for the fulfillment of the Word from God that promised the Messiah would come. John preached that
     ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand’ but people had too many different ideas of what that kingdom would be like and missed it when it came.
•    John’s message was Preparatory: John continually stressed that he was not the Messiah, but the forerunner of the Messiah prophesized by both Isaiah
     and Malachi.
•    John’s message was Negative: John didn’t sugar coat his message so people wouldn’t be offended. His message was a warning…repent of your sin or pay
     the penalty.

Transition: The delegation wanted to talk to John about John. But John only wanted to talk about Jesus. That was his message. What does he say about Jesus, the Messiah?

Jesus Christ: The MESSIAH
Read: John 1:29-34

John gives four declarations of who Jesus is.

1. Lamb of God.
Seeing Jesus the very next day, John proclaims ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ From the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus heard the word that reminded him of his destiny: his death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.

2. Eternal.
John then declares that Jesus was before him…even though John was older (remember they were cousins). What John was declaring was that Jesus was eternal.

3. The Trinity.
If Jesus is greater than John, why didn’t Jesus baptize John instead of the other way around? Because God used John baptizing Jesus to confirm to John and to us, that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

Notice all three members of the Trinity are present. This is a great text showing the Tri-une nature of the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit…separate, equal, one.

4. Son of God
Finally, John very clearly and confidently declares…Jesus is the Son of God. John realized that Jesus was the one who perfectly revealed the nature and personality of God the Father.

Conclusion
Is Jesus the Lamb who has taken away your sin? Have you received Him as your Savior? When you die, and we all will die and face God, will you tell God he should let you into heaven because of all the good things you have done in your life or will you simply say, Jesus invited me and I said yes!

Where can we meet Jesus? John’s reference to the prophet Isaiah in the text reminds us that Jesus will meet us where we are.

ILL: A father and his small son strolled down the street in Chicago past a place where a skyscraper was being built. Glancing up, they saw men at work on the high multi-story building. ‘What are those little boys doing up there?’ asked the son. ‘Those aren’t boys, they are grown men,’ replied the father. After a pause, the boy pondered ‘I guess when they reach heaven there won’t be anything left of them.’

Christian, the closer we come to Christ, the less others will see of us and the more they will see Jesus.

John was a great man because he never got in the way between Jesus and people. In his humility he always pointed people to Christ.  Christian, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord…by always pointing people away from you and toward Jesus Christ. Like John the Baptist, the Christian must declare, ‘He must increase and I must decrease.’  John’s message to us today is the same as it was in his day…Humble yourself in the sight of God.