John 1:6-8: Lamps in the Dark

We hear mission, Great Commission, and evangelism and we our first though is preaching on a street corner, going door to door, or moving across the world be a missionary.

And by doing so, we miss how we can live out the Great Commission in our everyday, normal lives.

The Big Idea, or rather I should say the Big Application from John 1:6-8 is...

Christians are Lamps sent to a dark and dying world to shine the light of Christ’s salvation.

My hope today is to bring the Great Commission down to earth.

To show you that you really do have a part to play in God’s Kingdom and it probably looks a lot different than you might think?

What does a faithful and effective Christian witness look like for all of us? The Normal Christians.

Ones just trying to serve God and live for Him in our everyday life.

I hope to take some of the guilt off and help us see that living out the Great Commission is a lot closer than we might think.

First, we need to see how Christians are simply called to be Lamps for the gospel, and how that idea of lamps changes how we see our role to play in the Great Commission.

Then we are going to look at what a faithful and effective Christian witness looks like.

How living out the Great Commission means we preach Christ and Him Crucified

And we back up our preaching with holy and godly lives in our day to day life.

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. Christians are Called to Be Lamps to the Gospel

John 1:6-8 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Let me remind you where we are.

This is the beginning of John’s gospel.

The gospel written, John 20:31 that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The gospel starts with verses 1 and 2, where John says that Jesus Christ is eternal God.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

Verse 3 says all things were made through Christ so He is Creator God.

And then verses 4-5, He is the God of our salvation.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The life is eternal life and eternal life is the salvation for mankind.

The light shines in the darkness, shines out in a dark and dying world, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And then in verse 6, There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

Wait! What happened?

Where does John come from?

We were just talking about Jesus and then, basically out of nowhere, John the Baptist shows up.

What’s going on?

Why doesn’t John get through Jesus and then introduce John the Baptist later down in verse 19 when He actually starts talking about him?

Wouldn’t that make more sense?

Why did John write it this way?

Remember John’s purpose statement. That you may believe in Jesus Christ and by believing have life in His name.

John the Apostle puts John the Baptist here, because John the Baptist helps do exactly that.

Who was John?

You cannot tell the story of Jesus without telling the story of John the Baptist.

He appears in all four gospels and he is a pivotal character in proving Jesus was who He said He was.

And that’s John the Baptist’s main purpose here.

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light.

The witness of John the Baptist is important for John.

It doesn’t just mean that John the Baptist saw Jesus, like someone was there to witness something happen.

A witness is someone who proves or attests to the fact that something they saw or know is true.

They are someone who puts their name on the line and says this is true because I saw it happen.

And that’s John the Baptist with Christ.

John is a witness that Jesus was who He said He was.

That He really was eternal God who came to give life and salvation to everyone who believes in Him.

And in case you didn’t know, that’s a pretty big claim.

But John the Apostle puts John the Baptist here, because he is a credible witness.

One who is trustworthy and, for John, proves who Christ was beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Well what makes John the Baptist such a credible witness? Why should we believe him?

Two things:

His Miraculous Birth

And His Prophetic Ministry

His Miraculous Birth

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

John the Baptist wasn’t just sent as an adult. He was set apart by God at his birth.

John’s parents were named Zechariah and Elizabeth and the Bible tells us they were both advanced in years (Luke 1:7), which is the Christian way of saying they were old as dirt.

And if that weren’t enough Elizabeth, herself, was barren (Luke 1:7).

They were never able to conceive a child after all their years of marriage.

Until one day the angel Gabriel showed up and told Zechariah that Elizabeth would bear a son and he would call his name John.

He would be great before the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15).

And he would prepare the people for the coming of the Lord, the Messiah, the One God would send to save His people from their sins.

Zechariah doubted this promise, and so Gabriel made him silent and unable to speak until John was born.

And once he was, Zechariah named him John and immediately Zechariah spoke and blessed the Lord, and all their friends and family wondered what John the Baptist would be for the hand of the Lord was with him (Luke 1:66).

Everything about John the Baptist birth said this was a man sent from God.

And if God sends a man, you better listen to him.

His Prophetic Ministry

And that takes us to the other thing that makes John a credible witness.

His prophetic ministry.

God sent John to bear witness about the light.

He was the first prophet in over 400 years to proclaim the word of the Lord, and he came to prepare the way for Christ.

Luke 3:4-6 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

John the Baptist was a credible witness to Jesus because he was the Forerunner to the Messiah.

Isaiah prophesied that there would be one crying out in the wilderness before God sent the Messiah, the Savior of the World.

And this forerunners entire job was to Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.

Prepare people for Christ.

To fill every valley and bring every mountain low.

Straighten every crooked path and smooth out all the rough ways.

In other words, the Forerunner was sent to make a highway leading people to Jesus Christ, and that’s just what John did.

John came preaching “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2).

He was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3).

He said Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees (Luke 3:9).

And the winnowing fork of Christ was in hand to clear the threshing floor.

He would gather his wheat in his barn, but the chaff he would burn with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12).

John the Baptist’s whole ministry was show Israel they were not ready for Christ.

They were unclean and needed to be cleansed, which is why he came baptizing.

John the Baptist made a highway of salvation and Prepared the way of the Lord by confronting Israel’s sin and showing them their need for God’s grace and mercy.

The very grace and mercy that was about to arrive with Jesus Christ.

And look what happened.

Mark 1:5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

The hand of the Lord was with him.

John the Baptist was the Forerunner to the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah.

His prophetic ministry made him a credible witness to testify to who the Messiah was.

He was not the light. He was the forerunner. But he was sent to bear witness about the light.

And as the Forerunner John the Baptist pointed to Christ and said, There He is! He’s the One!

He’s the Savior of the world!

In Him is life and He is the salvation of mankind!

You cannot tell the story of Christ without telling the story of John the Baptist.

He’s the corroborating witness sent with the sole purpose of pointing people to the Messiah and preparing the way of the Lord.

Now there are a couple of points I want to draw out of John the Baptist from this passage.

God’s Missionary Heart

First, God’s missionary heart.

God sent John to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

That’s a purpose statement.

God sent John because He wanted people to be saved by Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist shows us God’s amazing grace and heart for sinners.

Jesus didn’t just show up on the scene.

God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way.

God wanted people ready for Christ. Looking for Christ. Desperate for Christ.

The axe is laid at the root of the tree. You’re unclean. You need to be saved!

John the Baptist shows us the missionary heart of God.

God’s Missionary Plan

Second, John the Baptist shows us God’s Missionary Plan.

And this is really where I want to camp out today to draw a lot of application for today.

What does an effective and faithful Christian witness actually looks like?

How do we take the light of Christ out to the world?

Notice verses 4-5. The light of Christ, which we said last week represents the salvation that only Christ can give, shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And then verse 6 moves to immediately talk about John the Baptist and verse 7 says that he was sent by God to bear witness to the light that all might believe through him.

Now that through him is not through Jesus Christ.

The through him is through John the Baptist.

And this is profound.

John the Baptist shows us that how God pushes back the darkness of sin, death and the curse and shines the light of Christ on a dark and dying world is through ordinary human witness.

Believers bearing testimony about the light of Christ is instrumental in God’s plan to save the world.

That means you’re instrumental in God’s plan to save the world.

Look what Zechariah, John’s dad, prophesied about John the Baptist when he was born.

Luke 1:76-79 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

And here’s how...

to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,

In other words, proclaim the gospel.

Shout to the world that God has been merciful to our sins and sent His Son to save us.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

That sounds like the mission of the Church doesn’t it?

Take the gospel to all nations that all might believe in Him and be forgiven of their sins?

The passage continues...

whereby...

That whereby is important there.

In other words through John’s ministry and bearing witness to the light, through preaching the gospel....

the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

When we preach the gospel, the sunrise comes and shines on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

God pushes back the darkness through human messengers bearing witness about the light of Christ.

And that means we all have a role to play in God’s Missionary plan to save the world through Jesus Christ.

God is a missionary God.

And God sends missionaries to shine the light of Christ on a dark and dying world.

God sent John the Baptist.

Over and over again in John’s gospel we are told that God sent Jesus.

And in John 20:21 Jesus sent us...As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

Does the Bible not say we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:20)?

That God has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation?

That He has entrusted to us the gospel that we would keep it pure and take it to all those who dwell in darkness that all might be saved?

As Charles Spurgeon said, every Christian is a missionary.

And that’s how we need to start seeing our lives and our mission as a church.

Those entrusted to carry the light of the gospel to a dark and dying world that will perish without the light.

In this way, we are all called to a John the Baptist ministry.

We are all called to bear witness to the light and prepare the way of the Lord so that all might believe in Him.

That’s what Mission is. And that is the purpose for which we are sent.

Not to hole up in a holy huddle hoping the darkness of the world will pass us by.

But to take the gospel to the world of sin and death, believing what Jesus said, that the gates of death will not prevail against the Church (Matthew 16:18).

If God the Father has a missionary heart, so should every Christian.

Like our heavenly Father, when we think of mission, our mindset should not be Pagans gonna Pagan.

It should be our Father’s will…that none should perish but all should reach repentance.

That God’s missionary plan is to shine the light of Christ on this dark and dying world through human witnesses, and that means we have a job to do.

Lamps

So here’s the question, how do we do it?

Let’s look again at John the Baptist.

John 5:35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

Here’s the first thing I want you to see. John the Baptist was a lamp.

This has been huge for me in how I think my life fits in the Great Commission.

I’m just a lamp.

Its Christ’s job to save the world. All my job is, is to shine his light wherever I go.

That means you don’t have to go to China or into full time ministry to live out the Great Commission.

Just be a lamp wherever you are.

Be a faithful witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ and you will make an impact for the Kingdom.

The road that gets us there is built one brick at a time.

You don’t have to be Paul, John the Baptist, or Martin Luther.

You can be you.

If you want to live on mission, just say to yourself, I am a lamp.

I’m called to shine as a lamp wherever I am today.

So what does it look like live out the Great Commission in your everyday life?

To be a part of God’s Missionary Plan to push back the darkness and shine the light of Christ on a dark and dying world wherever you are?

What does it look like, biblically, to live as an ambassador for Christ and how can you have a more effective and faithful witness to the gospel wherever God has placed you and our church today?

I want to draw attention to those two words Jesus uses for John the Baptist: burning and shining.

Those two words, along with John the Baptist’s life tell us how to have an effective and faithful Christian witness in our everyday life and be a part of God’s Missionary Plan to push back the darkness and shine the light of Christ.

Point number 2...

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II. Missionary Lamps Shine Out the Truth of the Gospel

The word shining doesn’t just mean a bright light shining out its radiance.

It can also refer to illuminating. Revealing. Or giving knowledge.

Helping someone to see something they didn’t see before.

So Shining has to do with our message...what we preach.

And John the Baptist shows us two things that are essential to shine brightly for the glory of Christ.

1. We must preach a clear Gospel and 2. We must not Compromise with the world

First preaching a clear gospel.

John 1:7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

John’s bore witness about the light.

His whole message was Christ.

And here was his goal..

That everyone would believe in Jesus’ name.

There’s no way around it, if we want to be a faithful witness we need to bear witness about the Light, bear witness about Christ and preach a clear, and faithful gospel.

Jesus is the good news and there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved (Acts 4:12).

Look what John the Baptist preached: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

A clear, concise gospel.

Without the gospel, we don’t have any light to share with the world.

Here is the good news of the gospel.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again three days later.

Jesus, eternal God, took on human flesh to live a perfect and sinless life man failed to live.

He died on the cross to pay the wages of our sin which is death so that through faith in Him we could be forgiven.

And he rose again three days later, conquering sin, Satan, and death once and for all to give us eternal life.

That’s the gospel.

And then what did John do? He called people to repent and believe.

Luke 3:3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And when you start doing that, you’re going to offend some people and the world is going to start pushing back, and when that happens we must pray for boldness and instead of dimming our light, refuse to compromise with the world.

2. Refuse to Compromise with the World

Now that seems like a duh, but one of the reasons the American Church’s light is so dim in our culture is because we’ve settled for a truncated gospel.

A gospel that is doesn’t offend anybody, doesn’t contend for the truth, and is palatable to the world.

But the Christian message is repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24).

When we bear witness, our job is to preach it as faithfully and forcefully as we can urging people on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).

To preserve the gospel and contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

We are not free to change, water down, or tamper with the gospel in any way to try and make it more appealing to the world no matter how much the world might push back.

Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t try to present it in a way that’s appealing to the world.

Paul says I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some (1 Corinthians 9:22).

What it means is that we preach the full counsel of God’s Word and trust God to accomplish the purposes of His Word.

Paul says 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

Change your definition of success

So for the Christian, living on mission sharing the gospel, you never fail.

You are either sowing, watering, or reaping.

Or your witness is sealing their guilt for rejecting Christ.

Sometimes that can be sowing seed. Spreading the gospel hoping to find fertile ground.

Sometimes that can be watering. Answering questions, reinforcing, teaching.

And sometimes that can be reaping. Seeing somebody get saved.

We all have our part to play.

1 Corinthians 3:5-8 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

Shine the light of the gospel and change your definition of success from someone making a commitment to Christ, to being faithful to share the Word.

Your job is to be a lamp and let the light of Christ shine through you trusting God to do what He will.

And for unbelievers who die in their sins, the gospel you preach will one day be used to condemn them.

You heard the gospel and still you refused to believe.

There’s no way to lose sharing the gospel, unless of course you tamper with God’s Word.

2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

The word peddlers was used for wine sellers who would water down their bottles of wine and still sell them at full price.

That is what so many try to do with God’s Word.

They water it down hoping to make it more palatable, more acceptable, more winsome to the world.

Their hope is to bring people to Christ, but ironically they give people a false savior.

The gospel is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23).

Its a stumbling block to moral and religious people who believe through their good works or their religion they can save themselves.

And its folly and utter foolishness to unbelievers who hate being told they are sinners who actually need a Savior.

And they hate it even more when you say they need to live a life of repentance and turn away from all their sins.

But no matter how much the world might hate the gospel and the darkness might hate the light, we stay committed to the Word.

The world might call us:

Foolish.

Backwards.

Hypocrites.

Unloving.

On the wrong side of history.

But no matter what, no matter how much the world might try to get us to bend and compromise the Gospel, we proclaim...

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

If you want to shine as a lamp…Hold fast to the gospel.

That’s the message. That’s what we shine about.

Not sports, or movies, or hobbies. Its ok to talk about those things. Listen. You need to be able to interact with other people as a human being.

But we should shine about the gospel.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

To have a faithful and effective witness and live out the Great Commission:

First, we are just a lamp. Wherever God has put us that’s where we are supposed to shine.

Second Missionary Lamps shine out the gospel. Our message is Christ and Him crucified.

And Third...

III. Missionary Lamps Burn with Zeal for the Gospel

The word burning means to be on fire or consumed.

Its the same word used in Luke 24:32 when the disciples asked “Did our hearts not burn within us?” after they talked to the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus.

Being a burning lamp means that we are someone who is consumed with a burning passion for Jesus Christ.

That all of our life revolves around him.

If the last point talked about how we need to have the gospel to have a true witness, this one says that we need to have a gospel life to have a true witness.

That having a faithful and effective witness isn’t just having the right message.

We need to have lives that match up to that message.

If we say Jesus died to save us from our sins and that He is worthy of all of our life and worship, we need to live actually like it.

We need to burn with Zeal for the gospel.

Do our lives bear witness to the light and truth of the gospel just as much as our mouths?

Well what does that look like from John the Baptist, the chief burning and shining lamp of the gospel?

What has to mark the character of your life?

Three things...

1. Gospel Focus on the Glory of Christ

First and earnestness and priority for the glory of Christ.

John 1:7-8 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Two times we are told that John came to bear witness about the light.

And then we are told the purpose of John’s life was that all might believe through him.

John saw himself as a missionary sent by God to lead others to Jesus Christ, and He lived like it.

He preached day after day after day in the wilderness baptizing everyone that came to repentance.

Well ok. But He had a ministry. What about me what am I supposed to do?

A gospel earnestness really is nothing more than living for the glory of Christ.

Listen to what John said about Jesus.

I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal (John 1:27).

He must increase, I must decrease (John 3:30).

These two statements alone tell us that John lived all of his life for the glory of Christ.

It wasn’t about him. His life was for Jesus.

And in everything He had an earnestness to offer all of his life as a living sacrifice for the glory of Christ?

Does that describe you and me?

Number 2...

2. Gospel Holiness

Even from his birth John the Baptist was set apart for the Lord.

He was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb and he was commanded to not drink wine or any strong drink (Luke 1:15).

Not because those things are sinful in themselves, but because John was consecrated to the Lord.

Let me put it this way, there is no quicker way to discredit your gospel than a sinful life.

Its why Pastors must be above reproach.

A sinful life brings reproach to the gospel, because it denies the gospel’s power to save.

Look at what Jesus said in...

Matthew 5:15-16 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Here, your light is your good works.

And when the world sees your good works along with your testimony to the gospel, they give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Why?

Because your life proves that the gospel really does have the power to save.

There is no faster way to burn our witness than an absence of holiness.

Who wants a gospel that makes you look just like everybody else?

You know its funny.

People usually think about being consumed. Passionate. Zealous for the Lord as someone that sells everything they have and flies halfway across the Lord to be a missionary.

And that’s great.

But I think the mark of someone who is truly consumed with the Lord is a simple life of repentance.

If you have sin in your life, running rampant, unchecked - pornography, broken marriage, lying - whatever it is…it will absolutely sideline you and make you ineffective in living out the Great Commission.

Even our secret sins, the one’s know one knows, sideline us from the great commission because how can we speak boldly to the world when we know in our heart, we are hypocrites?

We must put sin to death everywhere we find it in our life. No compromise.

Philippians 2:15 That you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

If we are going to shine as lights of the world, we are going to have to look different than the world, and that means living a life of holiness.

Number 3...

3. Gospel Courage

John was beheaded for preaching the gospel.

He told Herod it was not lawful for him to have his brothers wife and so Herod put Him in prison, and eventually killed him.

And John never flinched. He held fast to Christ.

That is the kind of courage we are going to have to have to be a burning and shining lamp.

If the world pushes back on us and we shrink the witness of the gospel shrinks too.

But God says...

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

This is the famous armor of God passage and Paul ends it with mission.

Pray also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak (Ephesians 6:19-20).

If we are going to burn as a shining lamp we need to be strong and courageous and boldly proclaim the gospel as we ought to speak and not flinch when the world pushes back.

Conclusion

Christians are Lamps sent to a dark and dying world to shine the light of Christ’s salvation.

The main thing I wanted you to see today is that every Christian is a missionary.

That John the Baptist shows us that God’s plan is to push back the darkness and shine the light of Christ through human messengers bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that means every Christian, including you, has a role to play in the Mission of God.

Our church has a role to play.

We are Reformation Church.

Reformation = Repentance and Revival.

If we want to see the darkness pushed back by the light of Christ we all need to be lamps.

And as a Church we need to be a city on a hill.

We preach repentance and we pray for God to send a revival where dead sinners are made alive and turn to Christ.

That’s our mission.

And it won’t happen without us. Don’t get me wrong. God will accomplish His purposes. We can’t thwart God’s plans.

But do we want to be part of them? Then we need to be Reformation Church.

Because how will they believe in Him whom they’ve never heard? And how will they hear without someone preaching?

We started this sermon off by asking what does it look like to have a faithful and effective gospel witness?

First, we need to see ourselves as lamps, and shine wherever we are.

Whether thats in our dinner table.

At the office.

In the supermarket.

Or halfway across the world.

God has sent us to be lamps shining in the dark.

And the way we do that is by faithfully holding fast to the gospel preaching Christ and Him crucified.

And having a life that burns with the glory of the Gospel by:

Living with a gospel earnestness in all of our life for the glory of Christ, not ourselves.

Walking in Gospel holiness to show with our lives the gospel we preach really does have the power to save.

And Standing firm with Gospel courage even when the world pushes back.

That is how we honor Christ as burning and shining lamps in a dark and dying world.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Romans 10:13-15 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”