Word of Salvation – Vol. 33 No. 06 – February 1988

John’s Witness Τo Christ

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on John 1:19-34

Reading: Luke 7:18-30

Singing: 431; 204; 328; 169

Beloved Congregation,

Who Was John the Baptist?  John's own answer to that question was,

"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.  Make straight the way of the Lord".

John gave this answer to a party of men (Pharisees) who were sent out by the religious leaders of Israel to check up on John's teaching and identity.  John had become quite famous because the Holy Spirit had been powerfully at work through him.  Many heard John's preaching and invited others to go and listen.  Many who listened came to see their sins and submitted to John's baptism for forgiveness of their sins.  It would therefore not be surprising if there were talk about John.  Who is he?  How come he is baptising?  Is he one of those men promised in the Bible (Old Testament)?  Is he a forerunner of the Messiah?  Is he perhaps the Messiah himself?

These were some of the questions which the Pharisees wanted answered.  So they went to John the Baptist himself.  The apostle John, who wrote the gospel, seems particularly interested in this incident.  Maybe there were disciples of John who could not bear to leave John for Jesus, and who therefore made excessive claims about John the Baptist.  Anyhow, in our passage John the Baptist is portrayed as vigorously pointing away from himself to someone far greater, far more important, far more helpful.  It seems that John is so keen to turn people's attention to Jesus, who is the Christ (the promised Messiah) that he cuts off any discussion about himself.

To all the questions about himself John answers, NO!  No, I am not the Messiah.  No, I am not Elijah.  No, I am not the great prophet foretold by Moses.

I am just a voice in the wilderness, urging people to prepare for the coming of the Lord.  It looks like John did not want to see people wasting time on discussions about him.  Turn your thoughts and hearts to the One coming after me, whose shoelaces I am not worthy to untie.  He is so much greater than I, that I am not fit to be his slave.  Perhaps here we have an answer to the question, how it is that John denies being the Elijah who was to come, while Jesus later said that John was the Elijah.

John must have heard from his father what the angel had said about him.  Let me just read that with you in Luke 1:13-17 (read it).  Here we see that John was a great man.  Jesus said that he was the greatest among those born on this earth.  Yet John did not want attention for himself.  He wanted nothing other than to be true to his calling: to be the herald of Jesus.

So let us listen to what John the Baptist had to say about Jesus.  We have already mentioned something about the greatness of Jesus.  Jesus is great because He is the LORD.  Now, the word 'lord' can have a number of different meanings in Scripture.  It can mean 'master', one who has control over his servants.  It can refer to 'high officials' or to 'powerful rulers'.  'Lord' can also (and often does) refer to God.  'Lord' draws attention to God's majesty, power and faithfulness, as well as His uniqueness.  Jesus is God, the Lord who became man and came in the form (or role) of a servant.  Anyhow, John the Baptist spoke of Jesus as the Lord who was promised to come to save His people from their sin and misery (Isaiah 40:1-11).

John makes that very clear by calling Jesus the 'Lamb of God', who takes away the sin of the world.  Here John the Baptist contrasts Jesus with himself.  It is as if John says; I preach forgiveness; Jesus provides forgiveness and freedom from sin.

'The Lamb of God' is an expression which reminds those who are familiar with the Old Testament of a number of things.  For instance, it reminds them of the sacrificial lambs that were offered every day in the temple.  Or the lamb killed and eaten at the time of the Passover, when its blood was smeared on the doorposts.  It even reminds us of the words of Abraham to his son Isaac: the Lord will himself provide a lamb for an offering.

Jesus is the Lamb provided by God to take away the sin of the world.  What an amazing statement that must have been to the ears of John's Jewish hearers.  The Jews thought of the Messiah as saving Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, talks about a world-wide ministry of the Christ.  “The sin of the WORLD!”  What an amazing concept.  God, in his saving purpose, is interested in the world.  Not just a small group of people here and there, but, as the rest of the Bible shows, a multitude beyond counting, drawn from every tribe, nation and decade.

Jesus takes on the sin of the world.  He takes it away.  He reconciles the world to God!  No matter how much the world may be under the power and curse of sin and the rule of the devil, there is a sense in which the world is God's world; a sense in which the world is Christ's world.  But let me just emphasise that the Messiah's saving work is mainly pictured as dealing with our sin.  Christ takes sin away.  He sets sinners free.  Free from the guilt of sin and free from the power and pollution of sin.  Jesus provides forgiveness and cleansing.  Rescue and renewal.  Jesus not only makes up for our disobedience, by taking the rap for us and dying on the cross.  Jesus also enables us to become obedient.  He gives us power to become children of God, to be imitators of God.  To love and serve God.  The truth is stated in the activity of Jesus which John calls 'the baptism with (or in) the Holy Spirit’.

John said, I baptise with water, Jesus baptises with the Holy Spirit.  I (John) am involved with symbols; Jesus is involved in the real thing.  The baptism with the Spirit is the gift of a new nature.  The Holy Spirit causes us to be born again.  He gives repentance and faith through the hearing of the Gospel of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit applies the work and benefit of Jesus Christ to the believer.  This has all kinds of implications.  Let me just mention one here, namely, that when Jesus baptises people with the Spirit of God their hearts become filled with Christ and their lives are changed.  Their hearts are renewed.  Those who have received the Spirit from Christ bring forth (produce) the fruit of the Spirit.  Jesus does this.  Jesus provides this.  He earns and obtains this gift for the people he saves.  Is it any wonder that John the Baptist told people to look to Jesus?  My task, he said, is to make you realise who Jesus is.  John said, I didn't even know myself.

Twice John said, I did not recognise Him (verses 31 & 33).  Probably John does not mean that he had never seen Jesus.  Rather he was saying something like, I did not know who he really was till God Himself showed me.  "He who sent me to baptise with water told me, 'the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.'" (vs.33).

Jesus is the Saviour, the Helper.  John was privileged to meet Christ and to point to Christ.  So are we.  We are even more privileged than John.  For we know what Jesus has done and won.  We may know what it means to believe in Him who died and was raised from the dead and what it means to be baptised with the Spirit by Christ.  And we may point others to him who sets men free from sin.  We may do that as parents, as brothers or sisters.  We may point our friends to Christ.  We may tell our neighbours or the people at work or at our club.  We may do the same as John, pointing away from ourselves.  We are only messengers.  The message is Christ.  Believe Him!

That prompts a very personal question.  What do I know about Jesus that I am convinced is important for my neighbour to know?  Or is Jesus not really special to me?  What has Jesus done for me that I would like Him to do for my friend, my relative, or my workmate?  Telling others about Jesus requires faith, the knowledge of who Jesus really is, and what he does for sinners.  John the Baptist knew Jesus.  God showed him, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and baptises with the Holy Spirit.  John passed this on so that others also might know it and believe in Jesus.

May the Lord so impress His word on your heart that you will believe in Jesus and pass the great news on to other sinners.

AMEN.