It's a good thing we don't have to sing the second, third, and fourth verses of many
of our Christmas carols by memory, isn't it?
Most of us know the first verse, but we get beyond that, at least I'm lost.
The author of a novel carefully introduces his main characters, and after he has done
that he begins to weave in the secondary characters who surround the main character in the novel.
As John writes in our text today in John chapter 1, verses 6, 7, and 8, he introduces to us
a secondary character, but nonetheless a prime mover in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through
him.
He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light.
In writing his account of Jesus' life, John introduces to us his main character, not by
name but by title first of all.
And that title is the word we've been looking at now for a couple of weeks, logos, or word.
Regarding the nature of the word, John tells us that he was eternal, for in the beginning
he was already existing.
He says the word was with God, and thus was distinct from God, yet being equal with God.
And he tells us that in fact the word was God himself.
As to his work, John tells us the work of the logos is the work of revelation, revealing
God to mankind.
He was the agent of creation by which we see the glory of God displayed night by night,
day by day, hour by hour.
And his work in the incarnation fully reveals the glory of God.
The life of the Lord Jesus Christ is the life of God himself, so that we can see it and
understand something of the divine nature.
Now the second person in John's account is introduced to us in our text.
It is not the same John who wrote the Gospel, I'm sure most of you know that.
The John that is here is the one that is called John the Baptist.
The details surrounding John's birth are found actually in Luke chapter 1.
We'll not read that today, but for your own study you may want to go back and review the
interesting details concerning his birth.
John the Baptist sets before us a model of how God's servants should see themselves.
There are three statements that seem to summarize the matter as they arise from our text.
The first statement is this, God's servants are humans with a divine mission.
There was a man sent from God.
John was given a special appointment for service.
In fact I'd like to go to Luke chapter 1 and just look briefly at some words that were
spoken to his father whose name was Zacharias.
John was yet to be conceived, but to Zacharias the angel says beginning in verse 13 of Luke
1, do not be afraid Zacharias for your petition has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will
bear you a son and you will give him the name John and you will have joy and gladness and
many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord and he will
drink no wine or liquor and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's
womb and he will turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God and it is
he who will go as a forerunner before him, capital H on him, before him in the spirit
and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient
to the attitude of the righteous so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Notice that the appointment given to John involved being a forerunner that is he was
the one who was to go before the Christ and announce him to the people of Israel.
Going back now to John chapter 1 we see John the apostle recording for us the fact that
John the Baptist accomplished this mission.
In verse 19 this is the witness of John when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from
Jerusalem to ask him who are you?
You see John just appeared out there in the wilderness he had no pedigree he had not gone
to their schools he was this rather strange individual who was out there in the wilderness
preaching and the people were responding to him in droves and so the priest sent the delegation
out from Jerusalem to find out who are you and they asked him several questions and then
down in verse 25 they said why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ nor Elijah
nor the prophet?
John answered them saying I baptize in water but among you stands one whom you do not know
it is he who comes after me the throng of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.
In verse 29 the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.
In response to the delegation sent from the Jews John quoted from Isaiah the prophet saying
I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord.
John understood that he was not the Christ he was not Elijah nor was he that prophet
spoken of by Moses but in fact he was one come in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
He was the one that Isaiah had predicted would come and would cry in the wilderness calling
upon the people to make a way straight for the Lord.
He was a forerunner and he came to prepare the people's hearts that they might be prepared
to receive their Messiah.
This preparation was symbolized by his baptism of repentance.
John did not invent baptism it was practiced broadly in religions including the Jewish
religion in that day.
Others who were not Jewish for example when converting and identifying with the Jewish
religion would be immersed to symbolize the fact that they were converts.
John took that form of baptism and gave to it a spiritual meaning not merely an external
meaning that one had converted religions but a meaning of the heart for he called it a
baptism of repentance.
An outward act that symbolized to those being baptized that they were changing their minds
about their ways in sin.
As a result of their baptism John called upon them to bring forth the works of repentance.
You see this was an acknowledgement on their part of sin and their desire for a change.
John's purpose was to prepare to stir up the people to awaken them spiritually from their
years of spiritual sleep and lethargy so that when the Messiah would come there would be
a people prepared to hear his words.
Oh what a mission this was.
No one would ever have this mission besides John unique in all of the annals of history
as John the Baptist and the greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament.
He was divinely commissioned by God.
But I want you to keep in mind that John was only human.
In fact you notice the word used of him in verse 6, there came a man.
There came a man.
It doesn't say that there always had been a man as the word had always been but here
is a man.
In contrast to the word he was a man who came, who was conceived, who was born, who arrived
on the scene.
He became.
It is true that he was close to God.
In fact the very preposition used there, sent from God, means sent from the side of God.
You have the picture perhaps of a coach who prepares the player for the game and then
with a swat sends him into the game.
Or a parent who puts the arm around the child to prepare, to console, or to encourage and
then sends the child on to school or out to play.
It's that position of closeness and intimacy that is in view when it says there came a
man sent from the side of God.
But though he was close to God he was also a human.
For example John recognized his own sinfulness.
When Jesus came to him to be baptized John tried to prevent him and his words to Jesus
were on that occasion, I have need to be baptized by you.
John recognized his own unworthiness.
He recognized his sinfulness.
Further illustrating his humanness we see him later in his life, not much later than
this but a little later when he was put in prison by Herod.
Being unsure about Jesus, in fact he sent some of his followers to ask Jesus some questions
it says in Matthew 11 to try to confirm if in fact Jesus was the Messiah.
You see he was human.
He came to a point of doubt in his life.
Why?
Well because he was in prison and during those months that he preached and prepared for the
coming of the Lord he predicted blessing from the Lord and judgment.
But now instead of judgment upon the sinful people he finds himself imprisoned.
Undoubtedly as day after day followed there in the prison, most likely on the east side
of the Jordan River, a very desolate area, as he was there imprisoned doubts began to
bubble in his heart.
And he needed reassurance to settle the second thoughts he was having.
Jesus sent a message back to John saying, John you hear what is happening.
The lame are made to walk, the blind are able to see and so on.
This was a message that John would understand to mean that in fact Jesus was the Messiah
even though he wasn't doing everything that John expected him to do at that time.
There was a man sent from God.
He was not superhuman any more than you or me.
From this I observe that God uses ordinary people.
That would make a nice song wouldn't it?
God uses ordinary people to do his work, to achieve his purposes.
People like you, people like me.
And though there are times of second thoughts or doubts that arise within us that only reveals
the fact that we too are human like John the Baptist.
For we are humans with a divine mission.
I observe that every Christian has a mission in the world.
There are no exceptions to that.
We are not precisely like John the Baptist for he was unique as the forerunner of Messiah.
But can we not say that all of us are afterrunners?
All of us are bearers of his good news.
We are all commissioned by our Lord with a task in life.
There is no Christian whose life is to be wasted.
God has gifted us.
God has given us a mission to accomplish in this world.
It's best that we be about that faithfully.
I would observe this too, that we should not be overwhelmed with discouragement when realizing
that we're human.
There are times that we seek with all of our hearts to serve God and we put out everything
that we have only in the end to find that somewhere we have failed.
That we have come short of our own expectations and therefore we become discouraged.
Let me encourage you today.
You are a human being.
Expect yourself to fail.
God knows that you're dust.
He remembers that.
We forget it, don't we?
And we think that somehow we're going to perfectly achieve all of our dreams or all of the things
we want to do for God.
That we're going to fulfill that witness.
We're going to do that project.
Or we're going to read the Bible every day and pray every day.
Whatever that goal is, God knows that we're human.
And when we fail, just as he did with John, he sends encouraging words to us.
Being a Christian is a little bit like living in Kansas.
Now why do I say that?
Because the state song of Kansas says, where never is heard a discouraging word.
You know our Lord never comes to us to discourage us.
He comes occasionally to convict us because we need it.
But our Lord is the comforter.
He has sent the Holy Spirit to be our encourager.
So if you find today that you are a little bit low because you have failed in your Christian
walk, remember you're a human.
And our Lord's desire is for you not to grovel there in your failure, but to acknowledge
it and to get up and go on.
He has a divine mission for you to accomplish.
Be about your Lord's business.
Now there's a second statement that I think is important for us to see as we see the model
that John sets before us.
And that is that the divine mission involves being a herald of the light.
Now you understand when it says here, he came for a witness, that he might bear witness
of the light.
It's talking about the light that is described to us in verses four and five.
It is the light of the logos.
In him was life and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness and John came to bear witness of the light.
The divine mission that God has given you and me is that we might be a herald of the
light that is in Jesus Christ.
God wants us to spread the knowledge of him which he gave in his son, the Lord Jesus.
Jesus said, light is come into the world.
About himself a couple of times in the Gospel of John he makes the statement, I am the light
of the world.
And then listen to these words near the end of his earthly ministry when he says, I have
come as light into the world that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world and those who will believe in him will
not remain any longer in moral and spiritual darkness.
He is the light and you and I who have trusted him like John are privileged to be witnesses
to point to Christ.
Now it says clearly regarding John that he was a witness that all might believe through
him, that is through John.
John was the agent, he was the one who was the proclamer of Christ, he was the herald
who went before the Lord.
Now you and I come after him and we herald to the darkened world today regarding the
light that is in Jesus Christ calling men to be reconciled to God through him.
John witnessed faithfully regarding the Savior.
When the Savior came to be baptized that day at the Jordan River, what did John say regarding
him?
To the people.
He said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
I would submit to you that there is no message that is more needy in our world today than
that same message.
To call upon those people that live and work around us who know us and say to them, Behold
the Lamb of God who takes away your sin and the sin of the world.
Is that not the mission that Jesus Christ has given to us?
Isn't it what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 20?
We are ambassadors for Christ as though God were entreating through us.
Think of yourself as that.
As one who has sent on a mission through whom God entreats others.
He speaks to others calling upon them to be reconciled to himself.
And isn't there a sense that as John went before him that we also go before him into
the lives of people to prepare his way?
Isn't that a beautiful picture of a Christian who touches the life of an individual so that
that person is never the same again?
And because of that loving touch, that gentleness, that compassion, that person's heart is a
bit more opened and prepared for the Savior.
Think of yourself that way.
This week, though like John the Baptist, you are a herald of the light.
You are sent on a mission by God.
You go before the Lord to prepare the hearts of people.
It is sad, isn't it, that often the further we get away from our conversion, the less
we concern ourselves with our commission.
Somehow that becomes old stuff to us.
Oh, that God would rekindle in our hearts and renew in our hearts a sense that I am
here with something to do for God.
And in that office or in that factory, in that school room, in that neighborhood where
I live, with those people that I have contact with, God wants to use me to prepare the way
for the coming of Christ, that they might see Him, see the light that is in Him.
We said last week a little bit of light punches a big hole in the darkness.
You may feel that you are just a little light.
Let me tell you, that little light makes a lot of difference.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
who is in heaven.
Prepare the way for the coming of Christ into the hearts of people that know you.
I see a third statement arising out of John's ministry as a model for us.
In the first place, we are God's servants with a divine mission, but we are human.
Our mission involves being heralds of the light.
Heralds of the light must remain humble servants of God.
Would you agree with me that there is no arrogance that is more odious than that which is in
the name of God?
I feel that way.
There is no arrogance in the world that is more odious than that which is in the name
of God and religion.
Pride of position or pride of privilege will destroy a servant of God.
The attitude of a servant must be carefully cultivated in the heart of one who is a herald
of light.
We must understand as we carry that message and herald Jesus Christ to a darkened world
that we are not the source of the light.
In fact, Paul uses a beautiful figure of this in Philippians, doesn't he?
When he says that we are illuminaries, that means that we are reflectors of the light.
Like the moon reflects the light of the sun.
So we are really reflectors.
Oh, that our inner man may be like a mirror that has no cracks in it, no smudges on it
so that that mirror might reflect him out of us.
Heralds of the light must remain humble servants of God.
I think that's why John says twice regarding John the Baptist, he was not the light.
He was not the light but came to bear witness of the light.
Why would John the Apostle say that twice about John the Baptist?
I would submit that it's probably because that was really the attitude of John the Baptist.
I think that can be proven in Scripture.
Look over in chapter 3 verse 22 where John really comes to a test.
After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea and there he was
spending time with them and baptizing.
John also was baptizing in Neon near Salem because there was much water there and they
were coming and were being baptized for John had not yet been thrown into prison.
There arose therefore discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification
and they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to
whom you have borne witness, behold he is baptizing and all are coming to him.
You see what his disciples are saying to John?
They're saying, Master, this one that you bore witness to, that you baptize, is now
baptizing himself and there are more people going to his meetings than coming to yours.
Now if John were a typical televangelist today, he would be pretty upset about that and there
might be a mass mailing to try to get his audience back.
But John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from
heaven.
Isn't that a great statement?
You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent
before him.
He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom.
That's how John sees himself.
Who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice and so
this joy of mine has been made full.
He must increase, but I, I must decrease.
Do you see the humility of this servant of God who has been given such a unique mission
in all of history?
He sees now that his role is coming to an end, that he has accomplished the mission
for which he has sent.
And part of that mission involves his own diminishing.
He says, I must decrease.
He must increase.
John was not interested in building a kingdom of his own followers.
For that we must admire him.
And yet that must have happened because in Acts chapter 19, in the city of Ephesus, we
come to understand that there was at that time, even a quarter of a century after Jesus'
death and resurrection, there was even at that time a people who were called the disciples
of John.
Now they came to faith in Christ when the gospel was fully explained to them, but up
to that point they were followers or disciples of John the Baptist.
It may be that they were part of a heretical group.
Even yet today in Iraq there is a sect that is hostile to Christianity that claims direct
ties to John the Baptist.
They do not have the spirit of the founder of their sect, their so-called founder.
For his attitude was the light that I came to bear witness of.
He must increase and I must get off the scene.
John was willing to leave center stage and then exit altogether.
He understood that he was sent to introduce, not to interfere.
His sole concern was to repair the way for Christ.
What an example John sets for you and me in our service for the Lord.
John and Jesus, cousins through their mothers, humanly speaking.
And yet an infinite contrast exists between the two of them.
Dr. William Hendrickson in his Commentary on John outlines the contrast in just five
simple thoughts.
Regarding Christ, it says he was from all of eternity.
In the beginning, was and always had been the Word.
But regarding John, it says in our text, there came a man.
He had a beginning.
Regarding Christ, it says he is the logos, the Word of God.
Regarding John, the Bible says that he was a man sent from God.
Regarding Christ, it says that he himself is God.
But regarding John, it says he was sent by God.
Of Jesus, it says that he is the true, the real, the genuine light.
But John said that he came to bear witness of the light.
Jesus is the object of our faith.
But John saw himself as merely the agent through whose testimony others would come to faith
in Christ.
An infinite distinction between them.
The distinction between God and man.
And yet it was the purpose of the eternal to use the mortal.
Just as it is today.
It is the purpose of the eternal to use the mortal that other mortals might come to believe.
In this case, one is the sovereign, the other is the servant.
And all of God's servants should follow the model of this servant.
We should see ourselves as humans.
Mere humans.
But with a divine mission.
A mission to be heralds of the light.
To see ourselves fulfilling that mission with a humble spirit.
How does this apply to us?
Well I think there are several questions that we can ask ourselves with profit.
The first one might be this, how do I view myself?
Do I see myself as a star or as a servant?
If someone else comes along who begins to get more attention than I do, do I resent
that?
If someone else is promoted over me, how do I feel about that?
If another gets the nod instead of me, or another is chosen for that position that I've
worked for, what is my response to that?
May I remind you of the Lord Jesus?
He says regarding him in Philippians chapter 2, he emptied himself.
That is, he laid aside his outward glory as God, became a man, and he humbled himself.
That does not come natural to our human nature, does it?
We are much better at resisting that one who has given the promotion over us.
We feel a lot more comfortable being in center stage than in some secondary role on the side.
But the fact is that God has called us to be servants, not stars.
Then I think we can ask ourselves this question with the prophet if we think about it, how
do I respond to my disappointments with God?
Oh, you say we're never supposed to have disappointments with God.
Ideally, that is true.
But in our humanness, do we not occasionally find ourselves disappointed with God like
John did?
John sent a delegation of his disciples to find out from Jesus, are you truly the one?
He was disappointed with what had happened, though he was later reassured.
Are you disappointed with God this morning?
Not that God has failed, I don't mean that, but God has not come through like you expected
him to.
Can I be content with what the word of God promises me even though I don't understand
what God is doing?
Oh, this morning I would hope that all of us could say truly to God, Father, I don't
understand.
I do not understand, but I trust.
The third question we might consider asking ourselves is this, how am I doing on my mission?
Someone says, well you mean that I'm supposed to be like John the Baptist?
Absolutely.
Can you think of a more eternally important purpose in life than going before Jesus in
the power of the Holy Spirit, preparing others to receive him?
Can you think of something that is more significant than that?
Whether you're a doctor or a businessman or an attorney or a teacher or a factory worker,
a homemaker, a student, whatever you are, can you think of some mission that is more
exciting and fulfilling than going before Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit to prepare
others for him?
How are you doing on that mission?
God has called us to be channels.
That's becoming kind of a negative word these days because of the New Age movement, but
I'm going to use it anyway, not in the sense in which they use it.
But it's a wonderful word that describes what we are to be in our mission, channels
for the Lord to use, channels.
I look back in my life upon some of those men and women who were channels of God for
me.
I remember a pastor when I was nine years of age who was a man in his 40s at that time
who had been in business for those years of his life until he sensed God's call to go
into ministry.
He then resigned from his business, sold his business, and went to a seminary in Kansas
City and lived in our little town about 50 miles out of Kansas City.
In those days, that was close to an hour and a half or two hours drive by the roads.
He went to seminary, pastored that little church with 80 people on a good Sunday.
But the kind of a man who was a beautiful testimony of Jesus Christ, carried himself
with such dignity and yet warmth so that he had time to talk to little boys.
He would stand in the pulpit and preach from the Bible.
As a result of that, the little boy came to faith in Christ.
Many boys and girls and moms and dads did.
I thank God for those channels that God used in my life.
I saw that man about five years ago in a meeting.
It was wonderful to be able to relate to him as a fellow pastor.
He was retired by that time.
Now he's with the Lord.
Can you think back upon those that God used in your life?
It may have been a business partner, not a pastor.
Maybe it was a friend in school or a parent.
But don't you thank God for those channels that opened the way of your heart for Jesus.
Maybe not a word was spoken by some of those people, but by the love, the compassion, the
fullness, the goodness.
Your heart was opened up a little bit and the seed was planted.
Then someone else came along and planted a little more and watered it.
Over the process of time, the Holy Spirit caused that seed to germinate.
Now you have life because you believed.
You see, that's what God's called us to be, folks.
Not stars, not famous, not successful as the world measures it, but channels.
So that wherever we are, whatever the relationship is, we're just continuing planting the seed,
sowing, opening hearts, preparing the way for the coming of Christ, whether it be by
word or merely by a life in a given instance, preparing the way for Him.
God's servants should see themselves as humans with a divine mission, that we might be heralds
of the light with a humble servant spirit.
Let's pray.
How do you view yourself?
I mean really, really down in your heart.
Do you see yourself as a servant?
Do you see yourself as a servant with a mission?
If you're a Christian, let me tell you, you've got a mission.
It is that you also might be a herald of the light.
Will you say something to the Lord today about that?
Just tell Him to help you get back on track perhaps with that mission, to get on with
it in the power of the Holy Spirit, to be faithful.
What are the words you want to use?
Talk to the Lord right now about your mission.
It may be that you're disappointed with God today.
And again I say not because God has failed, but because it hasn't worked out the way
you thought it would or should.
Can you say to the Lord, I don't understand, but Lord I do trust.
Father today, may each one of us see something in the model that John set before us that
we can apply to our lives and may we go forward from this time of study and worship benefited
because of what the Holy Spirit has said to us today.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I'd like for us to sing number 92, the first and the second verses please, number 92.
How I praise thee, precious Savior, that thy love laid hold of me.
Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me, that I might thy channel weep.
Thy channels only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous power, flowing through us,
thou canst use us every day and every hour.
Empty that thou shouldest fill me, our clean vessel in thy hand,
with no power but hast thou grievous, graciously with each command,
thy channels only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous power, flowing through us,
thou canst use us every day and every hour.