The perfect testimony

If you have a copy of God’s word please open with me to John chapter 1. Have you ever heard a truly powerful testimony. One that when you hear it makes you burn to know the Lord in a deeper way. One that sends you into thankfulness for all that he has done for you. One that convicts you of your sin, and makes you crawl back to the cross, where you first experienced his grace. Maybe everytime you think about your own story you can’t help but think about your old life, and praise him for the new one.

Today’s text puts us in the midst of a powerful testimony. One could even argue the perfect testimony. The testimony of John the Baptist. Let us read the word today. John 1:19-34.

If you are taking notes, or following along in our bulletin. I want you take note of the main point and its this. John the Baptist testimony was to point others to the one true savior of the world.

Let us look at two sub points that help us unpack this very truth this morning the first is this.

The perfect testimony is personal

John the Baptist testimony was powerful. As we have already discussed in own study of John so far John the Baptist was brought into this world to tell people about Jesus Christ. And his ministry had a unique story as we have seen, and scholars believe that his ministry began in the Jordan Valley when he was 29 or 30 years old.

As he began his ministry others were beginning to notice him, and wondering why he was doing what he was doing. A group of Jews as we see in the text were wondering who in fact John the Baptist was.

The Jews that were questioning him were of high authority. They were Sanhedrins. A governing body. But they themselves didn't come they sent priests and levities to inquire about John the Baptist. Wanting to know who exactly is this man. They wanted to personally know what he was up to. And how they got to know him was by asking him a series of questions. You can see in the text that there is in fact 5 questions that they ask.

The first is who are? There had been speculation that John the Baptist could have been a number of different people. In Lukes gospel many even thought that John the Baptist was in fact Christ. Listen to Luke 3:15-17 “15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 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. 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.””

But in John’s gospel we see that he is not the Christ. He reiterated that point didn’t he confessed. He declared that he was not the Christ. He was not the messiah. He was not the one who would rescue them.

And so when he didn’t give them the answer they thought it might be they asked him another question. What then are you Elijah? John the Baptist had many of the same traits of Elijah. 2 Kings 1:8 says “8 , “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.””

In the gospel of Matthew 3:4 says “4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.”

Definite similarities. Yet John the Baptist said he was not Elijah.

This question had to come to mind because of a Prophecy found in Malachi. That Elijah would come back one day.

IN Malachi 4:5 it says, “5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

Most people believe even though John the Baptist was not Elijah he full-filled the prophecy coming, yet John the Baptist was not Elijah.

Yet they keep asking him more questions. They then asked him are you the prophet. Notice not a prophet, but the prophet. The prophet whom they think John the Baptist may be is in fact Jesus Christ.

The prophet they are referring to is brought up in scripture in the book of Deut 18:15-18 and I want to read a little about this man who think think John the Baptist may be. “15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

See John the Baptist came not silent, but proclaiming and this no doubt got the people thinking is this the prophet, but he answered no.

Since they could not get an answer they flat our asked him. Who are you? Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself. Listen to his response....

I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

I love what one man said, “John the Baptist was more concerned about the message than himself”

Notice he doesn’t focus on who he is as a person, but only that he is a voice. He is more concerned about the message than his own identify, and his life testified to that very point.

The questions didn’t end there though, They asked him, Why are you baptizing?

Listen to how one scholar saw this event, “Baptism was not a new practice in Judaism. It was the regular rite in the admission of converts from other religions.When such a conversion took place, the males of the family were circumcised and all, of both sexes, were baptized. This was seen as the ceremonial removal of all the pollutions contracted in the Gentile world. The novelty in John’s case and the sting in his practice was that he applied to Jews the ceremony that was held to be appropriate in the case of Gentiles coming newly into the faith. All Jews were prepared to accept the view that Gentiles were defiled and needed cleansing. But to put Jews in the same class was horrifying. The Jews were God’s people already.”

John was doing something unheard of at the time baptizing not only gentiles, but mostly Jews. Jews who traditionally did not have to partake in this cleansing. Jews never thought they needed to be cleansed, however this is clearly not the case, because Jews had the same problem everyone else does, and that is sin, and John’s baptism symbolized repentance.

You could sum it up as repent and wait. Wait for the one who would in fact come to cleanse you forever.

His baptism didn’t save, but it pointed to the one who could save.

He is telling these people of the greatness of this man who is coming after him. A man they dont even know, a man that John says he himself is not worthy to untie his own sandal.

I love this encounter, because every opportunity the Jews gave to make much of himself, he made much of Christ. John played a significant role in the coming of Christ, yet knew in his heart that the coming of Christ was so much more than he could ever offer.

I love what John MacArthur said about this encounter, “Each time John had opportunity to focus on himself in these encounters, he instead shifted the focus onto Messiah. John went so far as to state that he, unlike a slave that was required to remove his master’s shoes, was not even worthy of performing this action in relationship to Christ.”

John’s own testimony was centered around Jesus, focused on the mission. Making sure that as great as his own story was , and looking back we can see it was a powerful testimony, that at the end of the day, after every exchange his work always pointed back to Christ.

Which is the second thing I want you to write down or take note of is this.

The perfect testimony points to Christ

In the text we move forward a day, and the power of this message only picks up. As John continued doing what he was suppose to do. He saw Jesus coming towards him.

And notice the words that he spoke, some of the most powerful in all of scripture.. Pause…

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

For the large Jewish audience this statement would cause them to really think about what John had just said. It was around the passover, and the lamb had a significant role in that event, but all throughout the Old testament the lamb symbolized a variety of different things. Only giving them temporal forgiveness of there sins. Some Jews may have thought the lamb of some apocalyptic nature coming to judge the people. But the reality is we know Christ the Lamb of God would come to take away the sin of the world.

Jesus Christ wipes away sin for believers, he gets rid of it. He does something no one else could do thats why John faithfully preached that message to all those around him.

But John says this specifically, because of what Christ came to do here on this earth. He came to die for sinners, he had to. Hebrews 9:22 says “22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

He came to be the sacrifice. Sacrifice for what? For sin. Notice the language in your bible it doesn’t say sins it says sin.

I like how one man said it, “He uses the word sin in the singular, for any kind of iniquity, as if he said that every sort of unrighteousness which alienates God from men is taken away by Christ. And when he says the sin of the world he extends this kindness indiscriminately to the whole human race, so that the Jews might not think the Redeemer had been sent to them alone. From this we infer that the whole world is bound in the same condemnation, and that since all men without exception are guilty of unrighteousness before God, they have need of reconciliation. John the Baptist, therefore, by speaking about the sin of the world in general wanted to make us feel our own misery and exhort us to seek the remedy. Now it is for us to embrace the blessing offered to all, that each may make up his mind that there is nothing to hinder him from finding reconciliation in Christ if only, led by faith, he comes to him.”

It doesn’t matter what kind of sin you may struggle with, or you could be like me and have many sins that Jesus needed to die for, the problem what we all have is what we sin against our creator, and as a result need someone to rescue you us from that sin, and we have someone in Christ that can take away the sin of the world.

No sin is to great for the savior and no sin is to small where you dont need rescuing from. Jesus fixed the disconnect that we have with God, by dying on the cross for sin.

Verse 30 connects the idea that John the Baptist has been proclaiming.. Jesus Christ is the man I have been trying to tell you about. I can’t take away your sin, only Christ can, and this man has authority to do so.

John only came to proclaim, Jesus came to save!!! Jesus eternally God as we have already discussed in our study, who was always with God, and was God came into the flesh to save. And John the baptist made it known to everyone.

John was the forerunner for Christ, and as he says in the text he was only there to point to the coming of Jesus Christ. And with his own eyes he seen that Jesus was the Christ. How did he know? Well the bible says that he knew because of what he saw. But what did he see?

He saw the Spirit of God descend from heaven like a dove and remained on him. This is different yet, simular from other gospels where you see this happen at Jesus own baptism for example. In Mark 1:10 “10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.” and Luke 3:22 “22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”” and Even Matt 3:16 “16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;”

The Spirit comes and rests on him, and for John the validation of that event was enough for him to proclaim who Jesus truly was.

Though John came baptizing with water, Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. A promise that came all the way back in Ezk 36:25-26 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

John was truly convinced convinced that Jesus is the Son of God. He seen him first hand, and testified to that true.

I want to apply this text to us today. And I want you to know something, John had the perfect testimony, but if you are a believer in Christ so do you.

Let me explain… John’s testimony was personal, only he could only do what God called him to do. John the Baptist testimony was to point others to the one true savior of the world.

Did you know if you are a born again believer thats yours as well? See for sometime I wanted John the Baptist testimony. I wanted to be called out by God to point people to the savior, and guess what because I have been born again, I share in Johns testimony proclaiming Jesus Christ as the savior of the world. It doesn’t look like his testimony to very detail, but its still the perfect testimony, because of who both John and I are proclaiming…

Now follow me, dont miss this.. I have said this before, and I will continue to say it. Only God has called you to the life you live. x2

What’s important about that is you all have a different testimony, if you are in Christ you all came to the same savior, but with different backgrounds. Some of you may have come from a line of godly parents who set the example for you at an early age, and the Lord opened your heart to see his grace early in your life.

Some may have spent all your life in church until one day the Lord by the power of his spirit turned your life upside down and convicted you of your sin, and you ran do him.

Some may have been invited by a friend or our boyfriend, girlfriend, and the Lord changed your heart by the hearing of his word.

Some may have been ministered to by someone over and over and over again, and then one day something was different.

Some people have these amazing testimonies where the Lord brought them out of the darkest places and provided them a peace that they never have know.

Some come through heartbreak, heartache, or tragedy to the Lord, but the one common thing is that Jesus Christ met you were you were revealed himself to you, and saved you from your sin.

And so the natural result of that is to be like John proclaiming about Christ.

but the unfortunate thing for many of us is that we often think for one reason or another we dont need to share our own story. Or Christ on a regular basis. I have focused a-lot on evangelism since I have been here, because if we are going to reach people we are going to have to be a people who evangelizes those who dont know Christ. And an amazing personal way to share Christ is to tell people about your testimony to the Lord, because its perfect. Because it points to a perfect savior.

You may be ashamed of your past, but because of Christ you can be certain of your future, and as I studied for this text I couldn’t help but think about my own testimony, and how so often I wish it was different, so often I wish I didn’t struggle with so much in the past, but the beauty about all my own testimony is its not finished, but because of Christ its different. I had sin in my life that I could not carry on my own, and sometimes I still try to carry it, but Christ came to take away my sin, because I am in him. I am different, and I love that I get to pastor this church, but I would not be standing up here today if not for him coming, and dying for my sin. But even though Christ did a work in me, he used people just like you church to show me him, to point me to a savior who could take away my sin.

I love Christmas time, because its a reminder to me why he came, and I as read in the announcements this morning Matthew 1:21 “21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.””

Jesus Christ the Lamb of God can take away your sins. If you dont know him this morning, and you feel led by the power of The Holy Spirit to confessed that Jesus can do that very thing respond. Dont leave here today without him being the focus of your own testimony.

Church family know your own testimony, share it with others, point people to Jesus. Your testimony is perfect, because you have a perfect savior. Your testimony as you grow in Christ will always change, but what remains the same is Jesus Christ the lamb of God took away your sin. Let us pray…