Who Are We?
Text: John 1:19-28
Introduction
1. Illustration: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." - G.K. Chesterton”
2. We live in a world that is increasingly anti-Christian.
3. Our world is wallowing in relativism.
A. Our world is attacking Christians and everything that we stand for.
B. There have been more martyred for the Christian faith in the 20th and first part of the 21st Centuries than at any other time in the history of the Church.
4. In our text today John the Baptist is repeatedly asked, "Who Are You?"
5. We should ask ourselves "Who Are We?" What do we stand for and what do we believe?
6. Here at New Life...
A. We Believe That Jesus Is The Only Way To Heaven.
B. We Believe That Jesus Is More Than A Holy Man
C. We Believe That We Are Called To Proclaim Jesus
D. We Know That People Will Criticize Us For What We Believe.
Proposition: As Christians we believe that the only way to salvation is through Jesus.
Let's stand together as we read from John 1:19-28
Transition: First...
I. We Believe That Jesus Is The Only Way (19-20).
A. I Am Not The Messiah
1. After his discussion of the Word becoming flesh, John the Evangelist now returns his attention to John the Baptist.
2. He begins this section by saying, "This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?”
A. John the Baptist’s calling in life was described to his father even before John was conceived (Luke 1:13-17).
B. John’s mission was to give testimony to Jesus Christ. He was Christ’s first and most important witness.
C. John disavowed any personal status; he constantly pointed men to Christ (Barton, Life Application New Testament Commentary, 375).
D. We do not read in the other Gospels of these messengers who were sent to John from "the Jews."
E. But it is plain enough that John's preaching attracted a good deal of attention.
F. It is accordingly not only natural, but to be expected, that the authorities would make diligent inquiry about the new religious movement.
G. They could not ignore a man with such a following. Jews in high places were very sensitive to movements that might culminate in disorders and lead to trouble with the Romans.
H. John frequently uses the term Jewish leaders in reference to Jewish people hostile to Jesus.
I. We should probably deduce from this and from the composition of the delegation mentioned here that it came from the Sanhedrin.
J. It is not certain whether we are to understand verse 24 to indicate that the whole delegation were Pharisees.
K. But it is plain that Pharisees were prominent in connection with the inquiry, and it is equally clear that the Pharisees were the real religious leaders of the nation (Morris, The New International Commentary on the New Testament – The Gospel According to John, 115-116).
3. It is pretty obvious that the Baptist knew what there intentions were as v. 20 indicates, "He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah.”
A. No one in the delegation is reported to have said anything about the Messiah. But John discerned the drift of the inquiry.
B. Messianic speculations were in the air, and he framed his reply accordingly.
C. He vigorously repudiated any suggestion that he might be the Messiah.
D. The impression conveyed by the solemn way of introducing his reply to the question is strengthened by his use of the emphatic pronoun "I": "I am not the Messiah."
E. This emphatic pronoun is a marked feature of John's speech in this chapter. He uses it constantly, and each time he contrasts himself with Jesus and takes the lower place.
F. In this verse the point is that, whatever John was, he was certainly not the Christ.
G. There was a Christ, but it was not he.
H. With us "Christ" has become little more than a personal name for Jesus, but properly it is a title, "the Christ," which means "the anointed" (as does "the Messiah").
I. In the Old Testament various people were anointed, but notably priests and kings.
J. When in due course the expectation grew up that one day God would send into the world an exceptionally great Person, a mighty Deliverer,
K. One who would represent him in a very special sense, this coming great One was thought of not as "an anointed one," but as "the anointed one," "the Messiah."
L. Among those set apart by God for special functions he stood out. So the title was applied by believers to Jesus, and it remains to remind us of this public and official aspect of his ministry (Morris, 117).
B. Only Name Given
1. Illustration: Christian Apologist William Lane Craig wrote, "I recently spoke at a major Canadian university on the existence of God. After my talk, one slightly irate co-ed wrote on her comment card, "I was with you until you got to the stuff about Jesus. God is not the Christian God!" This attitude is pervasive in Western culture today. Most people are happy to agree that God exists; but in our pluralistic society it has become politically incorrect to claim that God has revealed Himself decisively in Jesus.
2. We live in a society that doesn't want to hear that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
A. Acts 4:12 (NLT)
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
B. They want to hear about his love, his mercy, and his grace.
C. They want accept all of Jesus' teachings that are easy to deal with, but they don't want to accept that he is the only way to salvation.
D. Our society wants to believe in an all-inclusive world were no one gets left out.
E. But Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
F. It clearly teaches that salvation is found in Jesus alone.
G. We believe that if you want to be saved it can only be by Jesus.
H. We believe that if you want to go to heaven that it can only be through Jesus.
I. Jesus is the only way to salvation and we will stand firm and rock solid on that belief!
Transition: Secondly...
II. We Believe That Jesus Is More Than A Holy Man (21).
A. Are You The Prophet
1. Now for the second time the Baptist is asked, "Who are you?"
2. Not content with his answer about the Messiah they ask him, “Well then, who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?” “No,” he replied.
A. It had been foretold by the prophet Malachi that before "that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes"
B. God would send Elijah the prophet (Mal. 4:5).
C. Malachi 4:5 (NLT)
“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the LORD arrives.
D. This was understood to mean that Elijah would precede the Messiah.
E. Accordingly when John made it so clear that he was not the Christ his interrogators were reminded of this prophecy and inquired whether then he was Elijah.
F. It is somewhat confusing that in John's Gospel the Baptist denies that he is Elijah because in Matthew Jesus proclaims that the Baptist is Elijah.
G. The solution to the difficulty is probably that there was a sense in which John was Elijah and a sense in which he was not.
H. He fulfilled all the preliminary ministry that Malachi had foretold (cf. Luke 1:17), and thus in a very real sense Jesus could say that he was Elijah.
I. But the Jews remembered that Elijah had left the earth in a chariot of fire without passing through death, and they expected that in due course the identical figure would reappear.
J. John was not Elijah in this sense, and he had no option but to deny that he was (Morris, 118-119).
3. The inquisition continues with “Are you the Prophet we are expecting?” “No.”
A. John's denial provoked a third question, "Are you the Prophet?"
B. The Jews appear to have expected all sorts of prophets to appear before the coming of the Messiah.
C. More particularly they thought of the prophet like Moses.
D. But John was not that prophet either, so he answered briefly, "No."
E. It is not without its interest that from the days of the very earliest Christian preaching it was held that "the prophet" was identical with the Christ, whereas the Jews distinguished between the two, as we see from this passage.
F. The increasing curtness of John's successive answers should not be missed.
G. It appears to stem from a dislike for answering questions about himself. He had come to bear witness about Another (Morris, 119).
B. Jesus More Than A Man
1. Illustration: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a "lunatic on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg ” or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
2. Our society doesn't want to accept that Jesus was more than a man.
A. John 14:6 (NLT)
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
B. People today are willing to accept Jesus as a great person.
C. People today are willing to accept Jesus as a great teacher.
D. They are even willing to accept Jesus as a prophet.
E. But as C.S. Lewis states Jesus doesn't give us that option.
F. Jesus is either what he said he was, the Son of God, or his a liar or a lunatic.
G. We believe that Jesus is what he claimed to be, the Son of God and the savior of the world.
H. And upon that great truth we will take our stand.
I. In words of Martin Luther, "I cannot, I will not recant, here I stand!”
Transition: Thirdly...
III. We Believe That We Are Called To Proclaim Jesus (22-23).
A. I am A Voice Shouting In The Wilderness
1. Like a man under interrogation, these men continued to grill the Baptist.
2. They continue saying, “Then who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?”
A. The leaders kept pressing John to say who he was because people were expecting the Messiah to come.
B. But John emphasized only why he had come—to prepare the way for the Messiah.
C. Those sent by the religious leaders of Jerusalem confronted a man sent by God; they had run out of stereotypes and were ready to listen.
D. Although their attentiveness was hostile, John gave them an answer (Barton,376).
E. The questioners were in a difficult position. So far all they had elicited from John had been a string of denials; they had no positive statement to put in their report.
F. Yet John was preaching, drawing crowds in the wilderness, and baptizing.
G. They must have something to say about him. So they turn the matter over to John.
H. Instead of making another suggestion they ask him what he thinks about himself.
I. They must have some answer to take back to those who had sent them (Morris, 120).
3. Now after giving them short answers, the Baptist gives them his identity and purpose. "John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way for the LORD’s coming!’”
A. John's reply is given in words from Isaiah 40:3 that are applied to him in each of the four Gospels.
B. In each of the others the words are applied to John by the Evangelist; here John uses them himself.
C. The point of the quotation is that it gives no prominence to the preacher whatever.
D. He is not an important person, like a prophet or the Messiah. He is no more than a voice (contrast the reference to Jesus as "the Word").
E. Shouting: “to cry aloud,” “to shout,” “to call to someone,” “to command in a loud voice,”(The Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary – Alpha-Gamma, 987).
F. He is a voice, moreover, with but one thing to say. John's ethical teaching is not large in amount, nor striking in content .
G. John's real function was not to teach ethics, but to point people to Jesus.
H. "Make straight the way for the Lord" is a call to be ready, for the coming of the Messiah is near.
I. The imagery is that of preparing a roadway by clearing away the obstacles. This was an important process in ancient times, especially for roads in the wilderness country (Morris, 120).
J. Just as John came to point others to Jesus, so our purpose is to point people towards Jesus.
B. Shouting It Out Loud
1. Illustration: Many years ago in St. Louis, a lawyer visited a Christian to transact some business. Before the two parted, his client said to him, "I've often wanted to ask you a question, but I've been afraid to do so." "What do you want to know?" asked the lawyer. The man replied, "I've wondered why you're not a Christian." The man hung his head, "I know enough about the Bible to realize that it says no drunkard can enter the kingdom of God; and you know my weakness!" "You're avoiding my questions," continued the believer. "Well, truthfully, I can't recall anyone ever explaining how to become a Christian." Picking up a Bible, the client read some passages showing that all are under condemnation, but that Christ came to save the lost by dying on the cross for their sins. "By receiving Him as your Substitute and Redeemer," he said, "you can be forgiven. If you're willing to receive Jesus, let's pray together." The lawyer agreed, and when it was his turn he exclaimed, "O Jesus, I am a slave to drink. One of your servants has shown me how to be saved. O God, forgive my sins and help me overcome the power of this terrible habit in my life." Right there he was converted. That lawyer was C.I. Scofield, who later edited the reference Bible that bears his name.
2. Our mission is to proclaim the Gospel to a world in desperate need of a savior.
A. Acts 1:8 (NLT)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
B. Our mission begins with this neighborhood.
C. Our mission grows from this neighborhood to his town.
D. Our mission extends from this town to the world.
E. We are all missionaries and this neighborhood is our mission field, but we are called to take the Gospel to the entire world.
F. Everything we do must be with that mission in mind.
Transition: Because of these beliefs...
IV. We Know That People Will Criticize Us For What We Believe (24-28).
A. What Right Do You Have
1. Since they didn't like the answers he had given these interrogators began to attack John's authority.
2. In vv. 24-25 we read, "Then the Pharisees who had been sent 25 asked him, “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?”
A. John had given them an answer as to his view of his activities. But it could not have satisfied them.
B. What had they really discovered of a positive nature? Nothing.
C. So they try a new tack. Since John does not claim to be either the Messiah or a messianic person, why does he baptize?
D. Baptism was not a new practice in Judaism. It was the regular rite in the admission of converts from other religions.
E. When such a conversion took place, the males of the family were circumcised and all, of both sexes, were baptized.
F. This was seen as the ceremonial removal of all the pollutions contracted in the Gentile world.
G. 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.
H. 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.
I. The Jews were God's people already. It is true that on the basis of certain Old Testament passages some people expected that there would be baptizing when the messianic age dawned.
J. But John had denied being the Messiah. It was all very perplexing and the Pharisees wanted to know more about it (Morris, 123).
3. So John replied, “I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognize. 27 Though his ministry follows mine, I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandal.”
A. John's reply points them to Jesus in accordance with his characteristic role. "I" is emphatic (as is "you"); all that he does is to baptize in water.
B. After this we expect a reference to another kind of baptism, like the baptism in the Holy Spirit to which in fact the three other Gospel's refer in a corresponding statement.
C. But instead our Evangelist passes on to the greatness of Jesus and drops the subject of baptism.
D. This should not be taken as indicating that he does not regard his baptism as important. He does.
E. He does not depreciate it. But his baptism is not an end in itself. Its purpose is to point people to Christ.
F. John's interest is in the Christ and in nothing less. So he proceeds to tell his inquisitors that the Great One stands among them, though they do not know him.
G. Then he repeats the words about his coming after him.
H. Finally he brings out the greatness of the one who was to come by referring to his own personal unworthiness.
I. He was not worthy to loose the thongs of the great one's sandal.
J. Loosing the sandal was the task of a slave; a disciple could not be expected to perform it (Morris, 123).
K. John knew that he was nothing in comparison to Jesus.
B. Because Of Me
1. Illustration: Hitler imprisoned a German pastor, Martin Niemoeller, for eight years. He spent some time in prisons and concentration camps, including Dachau. Hitler realized that if Niemoeller, a First World War hero, could be persuaded to join his cause then much opposition would collapse, so he sent a former friend of Niemoeller to visit him, a friend who now supported the Nazis. Seeing Niemoeller in his cell, the one time friend is reported as saying, "Martin, Martin! Why are you here?" To which he received from Niemoeller the response, "My friend! Why are you not here?"
2. People will oppose us because they opposed Jesus.
A. Matthew 5:11-12 (NLT)
“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
B. People will oppose us because we say that Jesus is the only way.
C. People will oppose us because we believe that Jesus was more than just a man.
D. People will oppose us because we boldly proclaim the name of Jesus.
E. But must continue to follow Jesus.
F. We must continue hold firmly to our beliefs.
G. We must continue to proclaim the name of Jesus.
H. We must continue to preach the word.
I. If we do many will hear, understand and believe.
J. If we proclaim him before people he will proclaim us before the Father.
Conclusion
1. We live in a world that is increasingly anti-Christian.
A. Our world is wallowing in relativism.
B. Our world is attacking Christians and everything that we stand for.
C. There have been more martyred for the Christian faith in the 20th and first part of the 21st Centuries than at any other time in the history of the Church.
2. But here at New Life...
A. We will continue to believe that Jesus is the only way.
B. We will continue to believe he is the Son of God.
C. We will continue to proclaim him to the world
