Good morning. Please open your Bibles to John 1.
A few years ago I started seeing this symbol on the backs of cars around town. I had no idea what it meant. At first I thought it was a new model of car— like the BMW HeVi or something. Then I thought, well, maybe they wanted to brag that they had a HEMI, but they just misspelled it.
It wasn’t until someone pointed out to me that the little arrow symbol was a “greater than” symbol that the light came on for me. Now, this is the only time you’ll see me do math in public because I barely got beyond Schoolhouse Rock when it comes to math, but I do remember Mrs. Greene teaching us in fourth grade that “the sign always points to the lesser number.”
So the way this reads is He is greater than I.
• Not He equals I.
• Not I am greater than He.
• He is greater than I. I am less than He.
The logo comes from a couple of Christian surfers in Hawaii who wanted to come up with a distinct brand for their surfwear company. One of the guys had claimed John 3:30 as his life verse: He must increase, I must decrease. Or as the New International Version words it, “He must become greater; I must become less.”
Now, y’all know who this was said about, right? Right— Jesus. But how many of you know who said it? That’s right. John the Baptist, or John the Baptizer.
So as we begin our series called “Greater Love,” which will take us all the way to Easter, we are going to look at the forerunner of Jesus, his cousin John the Baptist. Because if there was ever someone who understood the assignment, it was John the Baptist. John was born for only two things:
• to prepare the way for Jesus,
• and to point the way to Jesus.
When it comes down to it, isn’t that supposed to be our assignment too? Every Christian needs to understand the assignment. So this morning, we want to talk about how to prepare the way for Jesus and to point the way to Jesus. Let’s go to God’s Word. This is John 1:19-23
READ John 1:19–23
Now skip down to verse 29
READ John 1:29–37
This is God’s Word. Let’s pray.
[pray]
How did John prepare the way for Jesus? How do we? John knew Jesus was coming the first time, we know Jesus is coming again. So our assignment is the same. How do we do it? The first step is to
1. Don’t think more of yourself than you should (John 1:19-22)
Picture the scene. This is probably around six months before Jesus began his public ministry. Matthew and Mark tell how large crowds came to the Jordan River in order to be baptized for the forgiveness of sin. Mark specifically says “The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him (Mark 1:4-5).
Now, that could give anyone a big head, couldn’t it? Everybody in the area is talking about you and your ministry. Today we would call it going viral.
And remember that this was a time in Israel’s history where expectations of the Messiah (“Christ” in Greek) coming were at an all time high. The Jewish people were tired of being subjugated to Rome. They were tired of high taxes and corrupt government officials.
And so the religious officials went out and asked John, “Are you the Christ?” And John answered point blank. No.
The Jews knew their Scripture. They knew that Malachi prophesied that Elijah would come before “the great and terrible day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5-6). So they asked him, “Are you Elijah.” And once again, John denied it. “I am not.”
Now its worth chasing a rabbit for a little bit here, because you might remember that before John was born, the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he would go before the Messiah “in the Spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). And that’s just it— John was born in the spirit and power of Elijah. Not as the reincarnation of Elijah. Even if reincarnation was true, which it isn’t, Elijah never died, so he couldn’t be reincarnated, and he couldn’t be born as a different person.
So finally the religious leaders asked John if he was the Prophet. This was related to yet another Messianic prophecy, this one from Deuteronomy 18, where God promised he would send another prophet like Moses.
And once again, John said no. John had every opportunity to doctor up his resume, inflate his credentials. He was given three chances to make himself sound more impressive than he was. And notice the implication of verse 25. The religious leaders are saying, look, if you aren’t the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet, then you have no authority to be baptizing. We could shut down your entire ministry.
Maybe I’m preaching to myself here, but the temptation for ministers to make more of themselves than they ought is pretty huge. When we see results in our ministry, attendance, tithes going up, invitations to preach at evangelism conferences, larger churches asking for our resumes, there’s too things that are going on in our heads at the same time: “Wow, I must be pretty special,” and “Wow, what if they find out I’m not special at all?” Man, if my church knew I dealt with the same challenges, struggles, the same temptations, the same sin, as they did, they might stop coming. They might stop giving. They might start going somewhere else.
But it isn’t just ministers. You do it too. You do it with your kids when you never admit you’re wrong or never say you’re sorry. You do it with your wife when you think being the spiritual authority means “my way or the highway.” You even do it with the people you are trying to win to Christ, because you think they won’t take the gospel seriously if they see you struggle like everyone else.
Or, you go in the opposite direction, and you never tell people about Jesus in the first place because they know how much you struggle and you think they wouldn’t take the gospel seriously coming from you. And that brings us to our second point. First, don’t think more of yourself than you should, but second,
2. Don’t think less of yourself than you should.
Look at verse 22. Finally, the religious leaders ask JB again, look, who are you? We need to report back to headquarters. What do you say about yourself? And John said “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
John was bold and confident in his proclamation of the gospel. He wasn’t timid. This was the guy who, when he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism (this is in Matthew), he pointed his finger and said, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to escape from the coming wrath?”
This is the same guy who called out King Herod for his adulterous relationship with his brother’s wife. Talk about speaking truth to power!
Don’t think for a moment that John was like, “No, no, I’m not anyone special, no, just a little old voice out here in the desert… saying “prepare ye the way of the Lord…”
You know, I believe we’ve gotten the punctuation wrong on this verse for hundreds of years, mainly because of where John was when he said it. Both Matthew and Mark describe him as baptizing in the wilderness, and he is associated with the Essene community, which lived on the edge of the Dead Sea. So its logical that we would think he was saying, “I am a voice calling in the wilderness,” But look at the way the ESV punctuates this:
Isaiah 40:3 ESV
3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
The Christian Standard Bible makes it even more clear. It translates this verse as “A voice crying, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness.’”
Christian, this is what you are called to do! Your purpose is to tell people who are living in the wilderness to get ready, because Jesus is coming. And every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low— the crooked straight, and the rough places made smooth. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
Don’t think so little of yourself that you reject whom God has called you to be.
• Tell those who are living in hard places with heavy burdens, “His yoke is easy and his burden is light.”
• Tell those who live in dark places, “Jesus is the light of the world.”
• Tell those who have never heard God’s Word, Jesus IS God’s word.”
• Tell those who live in a dry and weary land, Jesus is the living water. And all who now hunger and thirst, come, eat his bread. Drink His wine.
Tell the world that there are no godforsaken places. There are only church forsaken places. And God has called us to go to them. Beloved, God has chosen you to be that voice!
3. Don’t think of yourself at all
Go back and look at verses 6-9:
John 1:6–9 ESV
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
Illustration: The Washington Monument at night. No one comes to DC and says, “Look at those lights!” They say, “Look at that monument.”
So we’ve talked about how we prepare the way for Jesus, but that’s only the first part of our mission. So let’s talk about How we point the way to Jesus?
1. Get them curious about Jesus (Jn. 1:26-27).
Notice how John kind of whets their appetite. Look at John 1:26-27
John 1:26–27 ESV
26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
He’s like, “You came out to see my show? This is nothing! I’m the undercard! I’m the warm up act! Wait till you see the headliner! He whet their appetite
There’s an old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” However, I recently found out there’s a second part to that old saying: “But you can feed him salt.” What does salt do? (Which will make him thirsty.) What did Jesus call us? “You are the ….. of the…..
Colossians 4:6 says…
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person. Colossians 4:6
As John is saying this, people begin wondering, “Who is guy he’s talking about? I’d like to meet him.”
John whets their appetites, so that people want to know a little more. Once they’re ready, then, (step two),
2. Teach them about Jesus (Jn. 1:29b).
Look at verse 29:
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29
John calls Jesus “The Lamb of God.” That’s an image every Jew understood. Every year they celebrated Passover remembering how God delivered them from bondage. They sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood over the doorposts of their houses, and were protected from God’s wrath against the Egyptians.
And John points to Jesus and says, “This is the guy that does that!” Jesus is THE LAMB, who takes away the sin of every person in the world. And he can take away your sin too. Then John goes on to say that Jesus existed before him (verse 30). He continues to keep their attention with this new detail. He tells them more about Jesus, and he is making them want to know even more.
3. Tell them about your own experience with Him
Notice the “I” pronouns in John 1:32–34
“32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.””
People can argue about facts and dates and whether something you say is true or right or not. But they can’t don’t argue with your experience.
And notice that John never stops teaching about Jesus. Here he adds something new: “He will baptize with the
Holy Spirit.”
[talk about the two benefits— forgiveness of sin, filling with the Holy spirit. To be baptized with means immersing in— in the OT the spirit of God would come on someone temporarily to equip them to do something. But this wasn’t that. This was about constantly having the Holy Spirit, God Himself, dwelling with you.
Don’t you want that? Don’t you want your sins to be forgiven, fully and completely? Don’t you want to know God’s presence is with you, always and continually?
Psalm 103 says bless the Lord O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. When you are teaching about Jesus and telling about your personal experience with Jesus, make sure you are describing the benefits of following Jesus.
5. Invite others to follow Jesus. Let’s finish up by looking at what happened the next day John 1:35-37
John 1:35–37 ESV
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
Now, I can imagine there might have been some conversation at this point. We don’t know how long these two had been following John the Baptist. I’m guessing John had spent a lot of time with them, teaching them, telling them, explaining to them, discipling them. But this was the point where John says, “Class dismissed. Learning more and more about Jesus is never a substitute for following Jesus. It’s time to follow Jesus.
Some of you may be at that point.
[
invitation]
