Witnesses of Jesus

Call to worship

Welcome everyone!

Reminder we will have our communion service and potluck on the 29th.

A suggestion was made to do a soup and sandwich meal to ring in this nice fall weather.

So, everyone bring a soup, chili, sandwiches, or desert. We will have a sign up sheet in the back so we do not double up on things.

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord,

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord,

SERMON

Introduction

John’s Gospel is filled with eye witness accounts of Jesus because that is an essential ingredient for John’s reason for writing. Remember John said, “these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ”.

The first witness in John’s account is John the Baptist. We often think about John as the one who baptizes, or the one who prepares the way for Jesus, or the one who was a mighty preacher calling people to repent. He was all of those things! BUT he was also an eye witness of Jesus before he even began His ministry and miracles.

Just as John witnessed of Jesus so we are called to be witnesses of Jesus. God’s ordained will for your life is to testify of the saving power of Jesus Christ, witness to this dying world that Jesus is the Savior of the world, so that people can be delivered from sin, sealed for eternity, and light in the darkness.

Lets begin with this:

#1) Witnesses make themselves insignificant so that Jesus can be magnified

John 1:19–23 NASB95

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

Explanation

John almost immediately is interrogated by the Jews when he begins his ministry

The Jews represent the religious leaders of the nation of Israel

They are mentioned over 71 times in this gospel and become the primary enemy of Jesus

Here they are sending representatives to question John about who he is

“I am not the Christ” which implies that the coming of the Messiah was expected in those days. They were looking for Him. The prophecies pointed to His coming. Daniel’s prophetic timeline put the Messiah’s coming in those days

Christ is a term that means anointed one or the Messiah.

Jesus Christ is not a first name and last name. Jesus of Nazareth would have been his entire earthly title. Christ was a title applied to Jesus’ name that identified Him as the Messiah

John denies quickly that he is the Christ.

1) Are you Elijah?

Why did they ask if John was Elijah?

Because the prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6 states that God would send Elijah before the Lord would come:

Malachi 4:5–6 NASB95

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

Now John was indeed the fulfillment of this prophecy, BUT not like people expected. John came in the spirit of Elijah, not some kind of Elijah reincarnation

The angel told John’s parents before he was born that John would “turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him (the Christ) in the spirit and power of Elijah”

It is also interesting that John wore a camel hair tunic and leather belt— the same clothing wore by Elijah

2 Kings 1:8 NASB95

They answered him, “He was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

John said, I am not Elijah either.

2) Are you the Prophet?

Who is THE Prophet they are referring to?

There were many prophets in Scripture, but THE PROPHET is different from all the rest.

Moses told Israel, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” (Deut 18:15)

John says, nope thats not me either.

3) “What do you say about yourself?”

(v 23) “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

They said this guy must be someone very special to be preaching and baptizing people like this. He must be the Messiah. He must be Elijah! He must be the Prophet! Who are you John!

I am none of these!

John seek no prominence whatsoever about who they are speaking to. He refuses to be elevated to any kind of platform.

And it is so hard to read this without seeing this depth of humility in the character of John the Baptist.

Never once does John tell them, I wear the clothes of the great prophet Elijah!

Never once does John say, I am the very cousin of the Son of God!

Never once does John say, “I tell it like it is! My theology is is solid! I know the doctrine of repentance is essential to entering the kingdom of God!

John says my status is so low, I will not even tell you my name, I am simply a voice of one crying out!

Application

This is such an important attribute of an effective witness.

One who truly wishes to bear witness of Jesus Christ must be sure that he is not drawing the attention to himself in any kind of way.

We have all sorts of ways we do this

Sometimes we love to show off our knowledge of the Bible

Sometimes we love to list all the holy things we do and all the sins we have put away

Sometimes we hold up our accomplishments to world, our church success, the letters attached to our names of our degrees we have earned, the number of people we have witnesses to

And all the time we are taking the spotlight off of Jesus and putting it on us, or our church, or something else that cannot save them

I wonder how many more people would be converted and part of the church if we could learn some true humility

I wonder how much stronger the church would be is its leaders would practice humility

I wonder how much more profound Jesus would be to the world if we made everything we do all about Christ, our ministries all about Christ

What an example we have in John the Baptist

Are you the Prophet, nope

are you the Messiah, not even worthy to untie His sandal

Are you Elijah then? not even close.

MY name is not even important! I am nothing but a voice who cries out for God!

Be a voice for God and nothing more!

2) Water baptism is not the end goal of a witness

John 1:24–28 NASB95

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. “It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Explanation

Why then are you baptizing John?

John the Baptist practiced water baptism in the same manner as we practice water baptism in the church and that wasn’t the motivation of the question.

The religious leaders baptized people but only Gentiles who were converting to Judaism.

The Jews believed they did not need to be baptized because they were children of Abraham and that was enough!

But John was baptizing Jews which went against the religious norms of the day and required an investigation.

(v 25) “John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

I want you to notice what John does here. He takes the significance off of his own actions, and places the emphasis on Jesus (though he does not mention his name yet)

I baptize with water (will not save anyone)

(BUT) He who comes after me…(v 33) “this One baptizes in the Holy Spirit”

These priests were all focused on what John was doing, not the deeper meaning behind John’s baptism.

And John is sure to make it about the deeper meaning which is the fact that baptism in water means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING part from Jesus

Bridge

The goal of a good witness is not to get someone is the baptism waters.

I am not undermining the importance of baptism. It is a command, that we are to follow and do and it is a joy to see people baptized. Baptism is very important.

However, baptism is not the end goal. It does absolutely nothing for a person to get baptized who does not know Jesus. John said I baptize with water, “but among you stands one whom you do not know”

All they were concerned about was this outward ordinance which was only symbolic of that which only Jesus could do.

Application

Church, we must never become so spiritually watered down to thinking that if we can just get people to be baptized, we have done them a great service. Or if we can just get people in church we have done them a great service!

I cringe at the churches who baptize carelessly for the sake of numbers.

I cringe when people who baptize children who are 4, 5, and 6 years old and who have no clue what it means to repent, nor should they! They are innocent children who are not mature enough to know what sin is, nevermind turn from it.

We must understand the much greater need is show People who Jesus is. That is what John did.

If your child comes up and wants to be baptized, point them to Jesus. Show hem what it mean to follow Jesus. Help them understand the nature of sin and why Jesus is essential to our forgiveness.

If your neighbor, friend, person you are discipling is fascinated with baptism, help them to see that knowing Jesus of far greater And more significant.

I truly believe there will be more baptized people in hell then there will be converted saints in heaven.

Do not settle for the lesser baptism which is only water, and has no power to save! It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that people need and the church must practice this!

3) Point people to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

John 1:29–31 NASB95

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! “This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”

Explanation

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

What is the meaning of the Lamb of God?

It would have been much clearer to Israel (whom John was speaking) than to us today

THE PASSOVER LAMB

Israel’s history of a free nation began by the laughter in of a Lamb

All the way back to Moses in Egypt when the Israelites were enslaved for 400 years, God told all the families to slaughter an unblemished male lamb and put the lambs blood on the doorposts.

The Lord said when HE goes through Egypt that night, He will Passover over house that has the blood on the doorposts but will strike dead all firstborn that do not have the blood.

And God did exactly was He said He would. All who were covered by the blood, He spared.

Now the Lord commanded Israel to have a Passover celebration every year to commemorate that event and remind them of God’s great act in freeing them from slavery.

And even to that day, when John proclaimed this, they would celebrate the Passover feast.

“Who takes away the sin of the world”

This does not mean that Jesus was going to do away with all evil powers. It means that Jesus would make forgiveness of sin possible to the whole world.

And the idea being that this one Man, would make it possible for all the sin of the world to be forgiven.

Bridge

Now I don’t know what kind of response this statement had back then, but I believe it was probably greater than it has today

I try to tell people when I witness to them, why they need to be saved. most do not have a clue what it means or what they are being saved from.

But the response I get most often is not one of great excitement. When I tell people that Jesus can save them from their sins, they normally give me a look like no big deal

And if it’s Super Bowl Sunday, or some other ball game is on, they usually tell me that they are really busy and do not have time to talk about that.

To hear of one that can take away sin, is not really worth the time to many people

But I do want to say to us, whether we truly believe this or not, there is nothing more important in your life than having your sins removed from you!

No amount of physical healing could even compare to the spiritual healing that we all need.

No amount of financial relief, emotional healing, worldly comforts will even come close to our need to be forgiven.

When John the Baptist said this, He addressed the greatest need of the human race EVER!

We don’t need Trump as President, or COVID to go away, or cancer to be cured, or taxes to be lowered nearly as bad as we need our sins taken away.

All other things that we come to God for are temporary!

Help with whatever it is we need help with

To feel better, to be satisfied

For our kids to grow up and be great adults.

All of that is temporary, but forgiveness has external consequences, and we will all face them!

We will never see the greatness of Jesus until we first realize the greatness of this truth

Application

And like John practiced, this is the truth the world needs to hear

They need to hear God’s people testify that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of Gid who takes away the sins of the world And He can take away their sin too!

The world does not need to hear the lie that Jesus is going to make their lives great and easy!

Nor do they need to hear that if they will just come to church, everything will get better

People who see Jesus in this way, and come to Him for forgiveness, receive it

Those who come for all other reasons often do not make it when those needs are not met

If we wanted to sum up all of Christ’s mission, we could do it in this phrase

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

That’s what people need to hear. If that is not good enough, then nothing else we say will matter anyways.

John’s had settled convictions of Jesus are settled because of a personal encounter with Jesus

John 1:32–34 NASB95

John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Explanation

John did not recognize Jesus at first as the Christ, the Messiah the anointed One. That is because Jesus was just an ordinary man who was nothing special to look at.

Don’t buy all the pictures people create to make Jesus look like some earthly model: tall with long wavy hair and super white teeth.

Isaiah 53:2 NASB95

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

When Jesus took on human flesh, he fit right in with everyone else so that people would not be attracted to Him for superficial reasons such as His appearance.

So how did John know Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

Because God told John that the One whom the Holy Spirit remains upon is Him.

So as John began preaching and baptizing people, he waited to see the sign that God had told him would happen.

And sure enough the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus.

Now the Holy Spirit is not a visible person, though He is a person.

What John saw was the Spirit of God in physical form but in the form of a dove

He said, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove”

And that is because the dove is a symbol of the Spirit all throughout Scripture.

The dove is graceful, gentle, and innocent

It is a great representation of who the Holy Spirit is

(v 33) “this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit”

Now this what God told John. The One whom the Holy Spirit descends upon and remains upon is the One who will baptize in the Holy Spirit.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not some kind of charismatic event in someone’s life that causes them to speak in tongues and dance around the sanctuary.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a visible event at all. No one has ever seen God send a dove upon a person in the church that made them act charismatically.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a metaphor that is used to indicate one’s conversion. It does not need to be in conjunction with any kind of charismatic activity.

It may be compared to Paul’s word to the Ephesians: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,” (Eph 5:18)

And baptism of the Spirit happens to every single person who becomes a child of God, who is born again, who is regenerated by the power of God.

Bridge

I highly doubt any of us have ever seen the Holy Spirit today, nor Jesus, nor God. In fact if someone claims to have seen God, it would make me very skeptical of them and especially what they have to say.

It was very rare event in human history that people could even have a glimpse of God in any manifestation.

Nevertheless, everyone who is a child of God has been baptized by the Holy Spirit and it is that event in one’s life that empowers them to become a witness of Jesus.

Acts 1:8 NASB95

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Application/Closing

You will never be an effective witness apart from the indwelling power and presence of the Holy Spirit

Salvation is the most significant thing that has ever happened to me in my life

When God baptized me in the Holy Spirit my entire life changed.

I’m not talking just stopped going to bars and start attending church

I mean my very nature changed, my spiritual DNA, who I am was transformed forever.

And it is that ongoing experience that keeps this settled conviction in my heart that Jesus saves.

When God baptizes you in the Holy Spirit, you can’t help but tell others

You cant help but testify of what God has done

You cant help but speak out to world that does not know Him, but desperately needs Him

By what grounds should you do something so radical as just hand over your life to an invisible God and follow Him?

By the grounds of eye witness after eye witness

For John the Baptist died for his witness of Jesus

John who wrote this gospel was exiled forever to Patmos, dipped in boiling oil because of his witness of Jesus

And the church STILL stands today boldly proclaiming to a dying world that the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world 2,000 years later

And He can and will take your sin away if you will come to Him and seek forgiveness!

~PRAYER~

RESPONSE

PUBLIC INVITATION

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

OFFERING

We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.

BENEDICTION

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’”