A Voice, a Lamb, and a Dove (John pt. 4)
Text: John 1:19 – 34
Let’s go ahead and open our Bibles to the Gospel of John… And we’re going to be looking at verses 19 – 34 this morning. But before we get to it, let me just say this: This is talking about John the Baptist… Remember, John the Beloved is writing this, and he’s writing about John the Baptist. The reason we call John the Baptist, what we call him IS NOT because he was the originator of the Baptist Denomination. The word “Baptist” here is the Greek word, “baptistes” and it literally means “one who baptizes”, or “baptizer”. So if we were going to say it literally, we’d say, “John… the baptizer.” And like I said, the reason he’s given this title isn’t because he’s one who baptizes… other disciples did that as well… we don’t call Paul, Paul the baptizer, or Peter, Peter the Baptizer… but we call John this in order to distinguish him from the writer of this Gospel… There’s John the baptizer, and John the beloved. And the whole reason I’m even saying this is because I remember; about 27 years ago, listening to a conversation between an elderly Baptist woman and an elderly Lutheran woman. The Lutheran woman said that their denomination started with Martin Luther… and the Baptist woman, said that her… our denomination started with John the Baptist. Well needless to say, she was totally wrong.
So… for the record, the Baptist denomination began around 1616 when a pastor named Henry Jacob led a group of Puritans in England to form a congregational church and they called themselves “Particular Baptists.” They came to America in the late 1600’s… and dropped the “Particular” from their name… from that group several groups splintered off such as the Mennonites, and the 7th Day Baptists, who would later change their name to 7th Day Adventists… That was the early 1700’s. Then in the Mid 1800’s during the Civil War, the Baptists denomination split, and you had the Northern Baptists, and the Southern Baptists… that’s where we came from. The Northern Baptists would change their name to American Baptists, but we kept the name Southern Baptist. After the Civil War, there would be more splintering and more denominations created... over foolish issues and man centered things, that men (not God) felt were important. It's sad actually... So there’s the brief history of our denomination. So if anyone tries to tell you that we can trace our denominational lineage back to John the Baptist, you can set them straight.
Alright… let’s go to our text - (READ TEXT)
Now sometimes, John the Baptist gets a bad rap… it’s easy to imagine him as some wild-eyed, disheveled, crazy man walking around out in the desert. And I say it’s easy to imagine him like that, because of the descriptions we get of him from the Bible… we know he wore animal skins, he ate locusts and honey, and he did his ministry in the wilderness… the desolate places… the less than civilized places. But we can take a couple of things from that. First – man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. We place too much value on outward appearance. You know; there are some pulpits that a pastor isn’t allowed to preach in unless he’s wearing a suit… can you imagine someone saying that to John? “Ok, so you’re Jesus’ cousin, and you’re the forerunner of Christ, and you want to give our congregation a message… where’s your suit? What? No suit? I’m sorry John, we can’t let you get up in-front of the congregation wearing animal skins.” We are so quick to judge people by what they look like and what they wear, but that’s not what God does. The second thing I think we can take from this, is that God’s calling of John to do ministry in the wilderness is just as important and just as valuable as God’s calling of Paul to go places like Ephesus, and Corinth, and Rome.
So John the Baptist’s ministry is incredibly important, and amazing, and valuable. #1 – Because God has called him to it… but also because he gets to point sinners to Christ. Just like He’s called all of us to.
So what I want all of you to go home with this afternoon is: Who’s pointing you to Christ, and whose pointing you away from Him?
That’s what John has been called to do… and it is interesting to me how John the Beloved shifts gears here. He started out from the perspective of heaven in eternity past. But now he brings it right down to earth… to the present time, and he starts telling us about John the Baptist, and just like a preacher would… he’s going to break this passage down into three points.
The first point that he’s going to make is that John the Baptist was a voice crying in the wilderness, warning people to repent while there is still time. Let’s look at it… John’s out at the Jordan River… he’s baptizing folks, and it’s almost like a revival breaks out. A real, genuine, true revival… Something we desperately need in the United States today. Sinners are being convicted of their sin, and they’re coming to this unconventional preacher who wears animal skins, and they’re seeing their need for forgiveness. But as this is taking place… the religious leaders in Jerusalem start to get a little worried. They’ve got a good racket, and they don’t want anyone messing things up. And they sure don’t want anyone ruffling the feathers of the Roman governor or proconsul. And so they send a group of priests and Levites out to see what’s going on. And they come out and they hear John preaching and saying that sinners need to repent… and he’s baptizing them as a symbolic representation of that repentance.
Now the priests and Levites don’t care much for this… like I said, they had a pretty good racket going. Think about that for a second… if there was only one doctor in Woodward country… he or she would be making bank. If there was only one place to buy groceries in Woodward, or only one place to buy gas for your car, that place would be rolling in the dough. But if all of a sudden another Dr. showed up in town… or another grocery store or gas station opened, it would be seen as competition, and they would cut into the other places business. Well that’s what these priests and Levites think John is doing here. They’re like, “Dude, you’re cutting into our business.” And they want to know by whose authority he’s doing these things. They listen to his message, and can’t find fault with it, so they come at him from the authority angle. Who do you think you are?
And that’s what they ask him, “Are you the Christ”? John says, “No.” “Ok, then, are you Elijah?” “No.” “Well then, are you the prophet?” And again John says, “Nope.” Now the reason they asked him if he was Elijah is because in the last parts of the Book of Malachi a promise is given that in the last days Elijah the prophet would come again. And John is saying, “No, I’m not Elijah, but I am warning people to repent before it’s too late.” And the reason they ask him if he’s the prophet is because Deuteronomy 18 says that in the last days a prophet who is like Moses would come. But again John tells them that’s not him.
So naturally; they ask him, “Well then who are you?” (Whooooo are you? Doo doo, doo da doo – a little Who humor)
And John says, “I am the voice of one, crying out in the wilderness.” Now that word – “Wilderness” has a lot of meaning, especially to the Jewish people. Remember in the Book of Exodus, the people had to wander in the wilderness… And it reminds us today of where we all currently are. We’re in the wilderness. I hope you get what I mean by that. We’ve come out of Egypt, and we’re on our way to the Promised Land… but for right now, we’re in the wilderness. But John doesn’t just leave it at that. He goes on and says, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
So he’s not Elijah, and he’s not the prophet who’s going to be like Moses… but he is fulling prophecy. Turn with me to Isaiah 40:3 – 5 (READ).
Now if you remember from last Sunday, we talked about the glory of the Lord. And Jesus is the glory of God made manifest. And so John is saying, “Listen, my job is to show you your need for Him. My job is to get people ready, because He’s coming.”
And it’s almost like that’s all that Jesus was waiting for… John realizes and proclaims that he’s the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and the very next day, Jesus shows up. And that brings us to the second point – Jesus is the Lamb! John is the voice… Jesus is the Lamb. And not just any lamb… He’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Look at verses 29 – 31 (READ).
Now I don’t know about ya’ll, but when I read this, it’s almost like Jesus was just waiting for John the Baptist to say what he said to the Pharisees, because the very next day, Jesus shows up. And I love what John says to them. “BEHOLD the LAMB OF GOD, who takes away the sin of the world!” Now John couldn’t have said anything more profound and more impactful than this. Especially to the Levites – the priests. Their tribe has spent generations… generation after generation, after generation, sacrificing lambs on the altar. Year, after year, hundreds of lambs. But now John says to them. “All of that is done! It’s over! There will be no more need for that soon. Because this man who you see – HE IS THE LAMB OF GOD! He takes away the sin of the world! Those lambs that you sacrifice year after year, they were just a substitute… a picture. They were pointing to Jesus!”
So John is pointing them to Christ. And it doesn’t matter that they’re priests… he’s still pointing them to Christ. Church; I think we all understand that it’s possible for a person to sit in a congregation and still be lost. It’s possible for a person to put on their Sunday morning mask, and speak the Christian lingo, and still be lost. These Levites, despite all their religious tradition, and despite all their religious activity… they didn’t know Jesus. And they didn’t want Jesus. Religious activity isn’t the only mark of a Christian… if you really want to gauge someone’s heart, listen to them talk. Slandering, back-biting, gossip, speaking ill of their neighbor, and of their fellow church members, lying, spreading rumors, cussing like a sailor, spewing out hatred… all of those things are indicators of a heart that’s not right with Christ… out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You see; people are pretty good at hiding their sin and keeping it under wraps, but ultimately their speech will reveal the condition of their heart.
So again… John is pointing the priests to Christ… and what’s interesting is that the priests were supposed to be the ones who were doing that, but they actually end up pointing people away from Christ. They end up letting their tradition supersede the Word of God, and their political affiliation with Rome cloud their ability to discern the truth.
Ok… Let’s look at Verses 31 – 34 (READ).
John says, “Here’s how I know… God told me. God told me that as I’m being this voice who’s crying in the wilderness, and as I’m baptizing people, someone will come to me, and I’ll baptize them, and I’ll see the Holy Spirit descend upon them like a dove… when I see that, I’ll know.”
In other words, God Himself is going to bear witness and make absolutely sure that John knows who the Messiah is. There’s not going to be any mistaken identity, or false identifications.
The Holy Spirit descending like a dove proves that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, and the voice in the wilderness cries out to anyone and everyone who will listen. Saying, “You had better get ready! Today is the day of salvation! Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” And we know that’s what He did. He did what those millions of lambs that were slain century after century could never do. He gave His life, and satisfied God’s wrath against sin, once and for all. And now He’s seated at the right hand of God.
We can hide our sins from one another, but we can never hide them from God. But God has made a way, through the shed blood of Jesus, to wash our sins away and remember them no more.
CLOSING
