The Christ
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
[Illus] For most of us humans, it’s hard to point away from ourselves to the greatness of another.
I once heard a best man give a speech at his brother’s wedding that compared the two brothers.
The brother giving the speech grew up thinking that he would one day have to take care of his brother, but he still lived with his parents while the brother getting married hadn’t lived with Mom and Dad for years and was moving to North Carolina, hours away from home.
The brother giving the speech grew up thinking he was smarter than his brother, but he hadn’t done well in school but his brother wrapping up med-school.
It was supposed to be funny but the speech was really about how he grew up thinking he was smarter than his brother, but he hadn’t done well in school while his brother was in med-school.
The brother giving the speech thought he was more handsome than his brother all his life, but alas he was still single while his brother had that day married a beautiful young woman.
The brother giving the speech thought he was more handsome than his brother, but he was still single while his brother was marrying a beautiful girl.
It is indeed hard to point away from ourselves to the greatness of another unless the greatness of that other person is just overwhelming.
That’s how it was for that best man giving the speech at his brothers wedding, and that’s how it was for John the Baptist as he pointed away from himself and pointed to the greatness of Christ.
[CIT] The people in John’s day who were expecting the Christ to appear might have mistook John for the Christ, the promised anointed redeemer and rescuer of God’s people, but John clears up any confusion by describing the Christ as mightier than himself.
The Christ was to be a leader, teacher, and savior of God’s people. Well, John was leading God’s people to repentance as he taught them about their own sinfulness before God, so they wondered if John, this leader and teacher among them, might also be the Savior?
But John wasn’t confused, and he wasn’t tempted. He knew from the heart that Christ was greater, and that his ministry was to point to him.
[PROP] In the same way, we should understand from the heart that Christ is greater - that he is mightier than anyone or anything that he could be compared to - and that we must spend out lives pointing others to him!
We do this almost reflexively with most anything else in life except for Christ.
If we think the school our child goes to is great, we point others to it by telling them about how wonderful it is.
If we think the new restaurant down the street is incredible, we point others to it by asking everyone we talk with, “Hey, have you been to that new place down the street?”
If we think the newest movie to come out was incredible, we point others to it by saying, “Oh, you’ve got to see it!”
But while most of us in this room this morning would say that Christ is greater, we would only say it in this room.
We might believe that Christ is greater - that he is mightier than anyone or anything that he could be compared to - but if that’s true, why do we point so few people to Christ outside of church?
Perhaps we don’t really believe that Christ is as great as we claim.
Perhaps we don’t really believe that he is mightier than anyone or anything else.
[INTER] This morning, from this passage of Scripture, we are going to answer this question, “How is Christ greater?” or “How is Christ mightier?”
[AIM] And what I’ve prayed is that we would be so caught up in Christ’s might, in his greatness, that we wouldn’t be able to stop ourselves from pointing others to him!
[TS] So let’s look at a few different WAYS that John the Baptist points to Christ as mightier in Luke 3:15-17...
MAJOR IDEAS
MAJOR IDEAS
Way #1: John the Baptist described Christ as mightier in his person (v. 16b).
Way #1: John the Baptist described Christ as mightier in his person (v. 16b).
He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
[] John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[Exp] John himself says, “The Christ is mightier than me. I am not even worthy to untie his sandals.”
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
13:4, 5 The dusty and dirty conditions of the region necessitated the need for footwashing. Although the disciples most likely would have been happy to wash Jesus’ feet, they could not conceive of washing one another’s feet. This was because in the society of the time footwashing was reserved for the lowliest of menial servants. Peers did not wash one another’s feet, except very rarely and as a mark of great love. Luke points out (22:24) that they were arguing about who was the greatest of them, so that none was willing to stoop to wash feet. When Jesus moved to wash their feet, they were shocked. His actions serve also as symbolic of spiritual cleansing (vv. 6–9) and a model of Christian humility (vv. 12–17). Through this action Jesus taught the lesson of selfless service that was supremely exemplified by His death on the cross.
In John’s day people wore sandals and their feet became caked with dust and dirt and whatever else they might have stepped in on the ground as they walked around.
[Illus] Cheryl’s brother, Aaron, lived in New York City for a while. Once when we went Staten Island for our VBS mission trip, we went to visit Aaron and his wife, Jessica.
As we walked down one of the sidewalks, Aaron suddenly jerked his foot up because it had come in contact with some unknown black liquid that was puddled on the ground. He called it something like “New York’s mysterious black sludge,” but it was probably just rain water mixed with all the uncleanness of a public street in New York City.
Aaron shook his foot to get the nastiness off and shook his flip-flop to do the same before saying something about the foolishness of wearing flip-flops in New York City.
The people in John’s day were not fools for wearing sandals, but their feet would have been just as gross at the end of the day as someone wearing flip-flops all day in New York City.
The feet had to be cleaned, and that job was the duty of the lowliest of servants in John’s day. That lowest servant would stoop down close to those feet caked with filth; he would unstrap the equally disgusting sandals; catch a strong whiff of sour foot sweat, before washing and drying the feet.
John said to the people that the Christ was so great, so mighty, that that job - the footwashing job - which was reserved for the lowliest of servants; which was the most disgusting of jobs, was a job to glorious for him before the greatness of the Christ.
John understood that although he was a prophet and although people came from far and wide to hear him preach and although people were coming to him for baptism by the cart load, the Christ was greater. The Christ was mightier because he was the anointed redeemer and rescuer of God’s people, while John was just the prophet preparing the way for the coming Christ.
[Illus] You remember the parable Jesus told about the prodigal son. A father had two sons and one of them wanted his inheritance early so he could squander it on sinful living. Broke and far from home, he took a job feeding pigs their slop. Rock-bottom came when he was so hungry that he wanted to eat the slop he was supposed to feed to the pigs.
Broken over his sin, he went back home thinking it would be incredible if his father just forgave him enough to welcome him back as one of his hired servants. The father, of course, forgives him completely and welcomes him back not as a servant but as a son.
But John the Baptist’s point here in is that if the Christ would welcome him - or welcome us - not even as a valued hired servant but just as a lowly footwashing servant, that would be an honor too great for us because of how great Christ is!
[Illus] John seems to grasp something that we struggle with today and that something is this - Christ is greater than we are! He is mightier than we are! To describe myself as a worm before his greatness is to noble a description.
That’s what one writer said about the change in the first stanza of the hymn, Alas And Did My Savior Bleed.
The original first stanza read, “Alas! and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die! Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I?”
sinners such as I?
At some point the last line of that first stanza was changed to, “Alas! and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die! Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I?”
Maybe people thought that “sinners” was a more direct description of what Isaac Watts, the author, meant by “worm,” but one person said that they were in favor of the change because the worm was too noble a creature to represent sinful man before the Savior, the Christ, holy God in human flesh.
This is what John understood about himself in comparison to the Christ, the promised and anointed redeemer and rescuer of God’s people.
John was less than the lowliest servant.
John was less than a worm.
He wasn’t even worthy to untie Christ’s sandals.
[App] We know that the Christ that John said was coming came in Jesus of Nazareth who was perfect God in human flesh - who lived the perfect life of obedience to God that we all should have lived - who died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins against God -
who was raised from the dead in perfection on the third day so that we might be made perfect before God through faith in him.
[App]
The mighty Christ is coming.
But in order to have Jesus as our Anointed Redeemer and Rescuer; in order to have him as our Christ, we must understand from the heart just how lowly we are before him, and this does not come naturally to us.
Our sin nature causes us to want to exalt self above all others including Christ.
Our sin nature causes us to want to glorify ourselves above all others including Christ.
There are many people in church who sing, “he is exalted,” when what they believe with their hearts is, “I am exalted.”
How does that change? How do we go from self-centered to Christ-centered? From self-exalting to Christ-exalting?
The only answer is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ!
Only as the Holy Spirit invades our hearts as shows us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ do we understand just how great and might is the Lord our God, Jesus Christ!
Only as the Holy Spirit invades our hearts as shows us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ do we understand just how low and wormy we are before Him!
As John said, we are not even worthy to untie his sandals.
[TS] John described Jesus as mightier in His Person - greater just in the nature of who He is.
Way #2: John the Baptist described Jesus as mightier in His baptism (v. 16).
Way #2: John the Baptist described Jesus as mightier in His baptism (v. 16).
He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
[] John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[Exp] John baptized with water, but the Christ would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
John baptized with water.
John’s baptism represented cleansing from sin for the person who had turned away from sin, produced good works in keeping with that repentance, and so proved that they had been forgiven by God.
But while John’s water-baptism was a mere representation or symbolic act, the baptism that the Christ would offer would not be symbolic but actual; not representative but real.
He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
The Christ would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
This baptism of the Holy Spirit was promised in (cf. vv. 28-29) and fulfilled in (cf. vv. 16-21).
It was a promised made and kept by the Christ.
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 3
John the Baptist’s answer indicates that people will know that the Christ has come when he baptizes with the Holy Spirit—which took place at Pentecost in Acts 2.
In , Jesus said that He would ask the Father, and He would give the Jesus’ disciples another Helper, Advocate, or Counselor - the Spirit of truth who would dwell within them.
Jesus referred to that Spirit of truth as the Holy Spirit in who would be sent by the Father in the Name of Jesus to teach His disciples all things and bring to their remembrance all that Jesus had said to them.
In Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would bear witness about Him and that as the Spirit did so, Jesus’ disciples would bear witness to the rest of the world.
As I said, the very thing Jesus promised, He delivered in on The Day of Pentecost. Listen to ...
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
And what were the mighty works of God of which the disciples told as they were baptized by the Holy Spirit? Well, listen to heartbeat of Peter’s sermon...
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Acts 2:22
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The people were convicted; they were cut to the heart, and asked the Apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:
Throughout the rest of Acts and the rest of Christian history, anytime a person places their faith and trust in Christ, they have been baptized by the Holy Spirit.
And the sign of that baptism is not speaking in tongues as false teachers claim today.
The sign of having been baptized by the Holy Spirit is believing on Jesus of Nazareth - crucified, resurrected, and exalted - as the Christ, and the proof of that belief is pointing others to Him as the Christ.
As Jesus said in ...
[] “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness...
[Illus] This goes back to our first point this morning. Jesus is mightier in his person so we point others to Him just as John did. In the same way, Jesus is mightier in his baptism because His is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and those of us who have experienced it point others to Him just as the Apostles did!
In the same way, Jesus is mightier in his baptism because its the baptism of the Holy Spirit and those of us who have experienced it point others to Him!
Back in my early college years, I had a friend who couldn’t stand when someone else received praise. He couldn’t stand it because when someone else was being praised, it meant that he wasn’t being praised!
Now, he didn’t just come out and say, “Hey! I don’t like it when other people are praised!” No, he displayed his hatred in a more subtle way. Anytime anyone else was praised, he would just say, “Yeah, I could do that.”
It didn’t matter what it was! If some professional basketball player did a spectacular dunk, with all his uncoordinated being he would say, “I could do that.”
If someone graduated and was immediately hired by some prestigious company for an important position, his sometimes-employed-self would say, “I could do that.”
If a woman talked about the process of bringing a child into the world through a natural delivery, he would summon up his ignorant male gusto and say, “I could do that.”
Now, obviously I’m exaggerating a bit (he knew he was never going to graduate!), but my point is, every time someone else was pointed to, he pointed to himself.
Do you know that people do the same thing with Jesus?
[Illus] We watched the documentary American Gospel a couple weeks ago, and you heard for yourself one Kenneth Copeland - a false teacher out of Fort Worth, Texas, I believe - who said that God told him that if he had known his Bible as well Jesus knew his that he could have died on the cross and rose from the grave for the salvation of sinners just as Jesus did!
Now, I don’t know what spirit is living within Kenneth Copeland, but I promise you this - it is not the Holy Spirit! Because the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus Christ alone and those baptized with the Holy Spirit bear witness to Jesus Christ alone!
We don’t live to exalt ourselves! We live to exalt Christ!
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
We don’t live to be praised! We live so that Christ would be praised!
We don’t live to point to ourselves! We live to point to Christ!
That’s what the baptism of the Holy Spirit does in us and through us!
But John didn’t just say that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit; he also said that Jesus would baptize with fire.
What did John mean when he said that Jesus would baptize with fire?
The Christ would baptize with fire.
[TS] That brings us to the third WAY that John described the Christ as mightier - John the Baptist described Christ as mightier in his judgment.
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 3
Whether being baptized “with the Holy Spirit and with fire” will be positive (involving the coming of the purifying fire of the Spirit at Pentecost; Acts 1:8; 2:3) or negative (involving the divine judgment of fire; Luke 9:54; 12:49; 17:29) depends on the response of the individual person.
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 3
Those who repent and trust in him will receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit (cf. Joel 2:28–29; Acts 2:16–21), while the unrepentant will receive the judgment of eternal fire, and even the repentant may undergo a purifying fire.
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
3:11 Three types of baptism are referred to here: 1) with water for repentance. John’s baptism symbolized cleansing (see note on v. 6); 2) with the Holy Spirit. All believers in Christ are Spirit-baptized (1Co 12:13); and 3) with … fire. Because fire is used throughout this context as a means of judgment (vv. 10, 12), this must speak of a baptism of judgment upon the unrepentant.
Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2082). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Way #3: John the Baptist described Christ as mightier in his judgment (v. 17).
Way #3: John the Baptist described Christ as mightier in his judgment (v. 17).
[] His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder);
His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Mark 3:17
[Exp] Some have said that the fire that John said Jesus would baptize with referred to the those flaming tongues of fire that settled on the Apostles just before they began to preach on The Day of Pentecost.
It could be, but that seems unlikely given that John just spoke of judgment in v. 9, saying...
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
And then John spoke of the kinds of good fruit that should be produced in the lives of the repentant in vv. 10-14 - the good fruit without which they would be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matt
So it seems to me that the fire John spoke of here is not those flaming tongues of fire in , but the fire of God’s wrath on all those who refuse to repentant and believe. Again, as John says...
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
There are specific things we should notice about this judgment - this baptism of fire - that John said belonged to Christ...
One, the winnowing fork is in his hand.
The winnowing fork was an all-wooden pitch fork that used after the harvest to separate wheat from chaff. The grain would be tossed so the wind could blow the chaff (the light straw) away from the wheat (the heavier grain).
So the idea is separation, but notice how near this separation is - the winnowing fork is in Christ’s hand.
The baptism of fire that come with Christ is at hand for all those who have yet to repent and bow the knee to the exalted Christ.
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
3:12 winnowing fork. A tool for tossing grain into the wind so that the chaff is blown away.
Notice also that the threshing floor will be cleared; the wheat gathered safely into Christ’s barn; the chaff burned with fire.
In Jesus told the parable of the weeds. An enemy sowed weeds among the wheat in a farmer’s field and when the wheat grew so did the weeds.
Those that worked for the farmer asked, “Do you want us to gather the weeds from among the wheat?” But the farmer knew that gathering the weeds would also damage the wheat so he said, “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn,’” (Matthew 13:29-30).
Jesus explained the parable in this way...
He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Matthew 13:
For the moment believers and unbelievers, the repentant and unrepentant, those who have received Christ and those who have rejected Christ live side-by-side.
But don’t let the current state of things fool you! It will not always be so! There is a separation coming!
For those who have trusted Christ, there will be a gathering unto the eternal glories of Heaven forever in the presence of Christ!
For those who have rejected Christ, there will be a gathering unto the eternal horrors of hell where the smoke of torment goes up forever and ever!
That’s the third thing we should notice - the fire of this baptism of judgment will be unquenchable.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
Some people are so repulsed by the reality of Hell that they claim it can’t last forever. They claim that it will only be temporary before God either annihilates everyone in Hell or lets them into Heaven.
Other people are so repulsed by Hell that they dismiss it all together. They claim there is no Hell.
Hell is real, and the right response to any repulsion toward Hell is to repent of sin and turn to God through faith in Jesus Christ!
If we do not, the fire of God’s wrath will never cease to consume us once we are sent to Hell.
[Illus] People no doubt feared John because of what they would’ve described as his harsh preaching. He called sin ‘sin’ and spoke of the reality of God’s wrath to nobodies and to somebodies.
One somebody was Herod who as says was “reproved by (John) for Herodias, his brother’s wife.”
Herod Antipas had stolen his brother, Philip’s, wife and the two had been living in adultery ever since.
As says, Herod locked John up in prison because he dared to tell Herod the truth about his sin and God’s judgment.
You know, how the story ends: Herodias used her to daughter to seduce Herod and ask for John’s head on a platter, and Herod gave it to her.
John was dead. Herod and Herodias may have escaped John’s judgmental words, but they had not escaped the judgment that John had spoke of.
It wasn’t John’s judgment that they should’ve been concerned about.
It was was the judgment of Christ that they should’ve been concerned with, because the judgment of Christ is mightier than the judgment of John the Baptist or that of any other man!
A man can only kill the body, but Christ can destroy both body and soul in Hell forever!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Christ is mightier in his person; mightier in His baptism; and mightier in his judgement that anyone or anything else that he might be compared to.
That’s why someone as great as John the Baptist would say, “He must increase; I must decrease.”
What’s the point of your life?
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 3
3:16 In the two phrases (1) he who is mightier than I is coming and (2) He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, the Greek word order emphasizes the pronoun “he,” pointing to Jesus (cf. John 3:30).
For John the Baptist there was no doubt - the point of his life was Christ.
He pointed to Christ even as, at this point in , he was still looking forward to his coming.
In the same way, the point of our lives should be pointing people to Jesus even as we look forward to his second coming.
And this is what we do not only in a sermon or in a gospel conversation, but in the Lord’s Supper, which is, as Paul said, the proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes.
As we partake of the Lord’s Supper this morning meditate on the might of Christ Jesus who is God in human flesh, our anointed redeemer and rescuer who gave his life so that we could live.
Think about Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, who teaches us all things and enables us to bear witness to others.
Meditate on the baptism of fire, the wrath of God that Jesus endured on the cross so that we might be saved.
Think on how he is coming soon and how you can point others to him!
{Lord’s Supper}
Preparation -
Preparation -
Bread -
Prayer - “He is mighty.”
He is mighty.
Wine -
Prayer - “He is mighty.”
End -
{Hymn of Response}