John The Baptist

John the Baptist: Leading the Way

John 1:6-13

As always, it is my pleasure to be here at Calvary Christian Center sharing God’s Word. I pray that the Lord will bless our study in His Word tonight, and not let me get in the way too much. I’m working my way through the book of John, if you’ll remember, and last time I shared, we covered John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.

So as an introduction, we’ll look at what was covered previously. This included some background to the book and the man who was moved by God to write it. We looked at John’s calling by the Lord, by the sea of Galilee, along with his brother James. We also examined John’s special relationship with Christ. We know that he was in the “inner circle” of the Lord that saw Jesus transfigured on the mountainside. Scripture also tells us that he was the only one of the Apostles at Jesus’ crucifixion, and was charged by the Lord to care for His mother at his death on the cross.

We looked at John’s later ministry as the pastor of the church at Ephesus, where it is widely believed that he wrote the book of John. We also looked at his trials and tribulations, how he was dunked in boiling oil, and lived, and later banished to the small, barren island of Patmos, where he wrote the book of Revelation somewhere around 95 AD.

We looked at John chapter 1; verse 1, which speaks of the deity, or divine nature of Christ. We examined similarities in the original language between John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1, that tended to tie the Old and New Testaments together, not that they needed any more tying together. We learned that Christ was with God in the beginning and instrumental to the creation of our world, and universe. Finally, we saw that Christ was the light of all men, and was misunderstood by the world, but ultimately will overcome the world. This brings us to our study tonight.

John Engstrom writes – Solid, dependable, loyal, strong leadership is one of the most desperate needs in America and our world today. We see the tragedy of weak men in important places - little men in big jobs. Business, industry, government, labor, education, and the church are all starving for effective leadership. So today, perhaps more than ever before, there is such a need for leadership and teamwork to cope with the needs.

Today, we are going to look at a leader – John the Baptist.

The text of our message comes from John chapter 1, verses 6 through 14. First, we will examine the identity and message of John the Baptist; we’ll look at the True Light, which is Jesus Christ, and finally our opportunity to be born again as sons of God.

*SOMEONE READS JOHN 1:6

Here we are introduced to John. So, who is this John? Let’s look at what scripture tells us in Luke chapter 3, verses 1-6. <<LUKE 3:1-6>> This is the son of Zechariah, John the Baptist, who received a message from God. Not to be confused with the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, the fisherman. John is our English translation of Zechariah’s son’s name. In the original Greek his name is Johaness, which is derived from the Hebrew name Johanan – A common name in Israel at that time. It means – “Jehovah has graced”. What is interesting to note is that his name is very fitting. In two ways, God graced John, choosing him as a prophet and forerunner of Christ, and God also graced us through John, as the forerunner of Christ.

John Gill, and 18th century theologian write this about John the Baptist - “his dress and his diet were both out of the common way; and his temper and spirit were that of Elias the prophet; and as for his work and office, it was very peculiar; he was the forerunner of Christ, and the first administrator of the new ordinance of baptism, and the greatest of all the prophets: this person had his mission from God, both to preach and baptize.” Let’s look at John’s mission next.

*SOMEONE READS JOHN 1:7

We read here that John’s mission was to testify, or bear witness about the Light. We read in John 9:5 where Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” So we see that Jesus is the light John was sent to bear witness to. What’s interesting to note is that the Greek words used for witness in this passage of scripture, Martureo and marturea are legal terms used to describe testimony before a judge. These words are most used the writings of the Apostle John, and testify to it’s authenticity. John’s witness was so that men might believe in Christ.