Thank you for having me. For those who didn't know, I'm Andrew Strickland from Potter Valley Bible, and I'm just happy to be back here to share this message with you. Well, today we're going to be looking at a qualified messenger for God. Who here has had a job interview? Most of us, probably not all of us, have interviewed one way or another. And in those interviews, usually we got to look at, you know, what the job, if it meets our needs or desires, and we have to see if we are qualified for that job, or at least mostly qualified. Well, in my job, I come across a lot of different, you know, job applications, and our HR department will send me tips and information on how to suss out, you know, those who are qualified for the position or not. And sometimes they will send me some humorous examples of things of how to find someone who's not qualified. Here are a couple that my HR department sent me from examples of people around the nation who may not have been qualified for their job. In one case, they said, we asked prospective job applicants at our business to fill out a questionnaire. For the line, choose one word to summarize your strongest professional attribute, one person wrote, I'm very good at following instructions. That one word went over their head. A second one. An individual applied for a customer service job and when asked what he might not like about the job, this is for customer service, he said, dealing with people. That could be a red flag there. And lastly, there was a candidate who told the interviewer that he was fired from his last job for beating up his boss. So, these are people that we could probably, you know, easily say maybe we're not qualified for the job that they were applying for. But today we're going to be looking at the Gospel of John. If you want to turn with me, the Gospel of John chapter 1. We're going to be starting in verse 19, actually 19 through 37. And this is about the testimony of John the Baptist. We're going to get an introduction as to what his ministry was all about and how he was interrogated by a group of Jews. All wanted to know his qualifications for the job, for the ministry that he was bringing. And they want to know, so today we're going to look at what qualifies someone to be a messenger for God. John the Baptist, we can all agree that he's known to be the messenger for the coming of Jesus Christ. But we're going to see how he was qualified for the job and how he was interrogated on that. So I'm going to begin here in John chapter one, verse starting at 19. This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And he confessed, and he did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. They asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Then they said to him, who are you, so we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him and said to him, 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 thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 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 verse 30, This is he on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a man whom has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he remained upon him. I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, he upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Let's pray. Gracious Father, Lord, I just ask that today you just clear my words that they don't distract or interrupt from the message that you are bringing here, Lord. I'm just a messenger and I want to convey this truth that you've given to all of us, Lord. And as we look at qualifications to be a servant for you, Lord, and how we can prepare ourselves and what our call is to do in serving you, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. So just kind of setting the stage here, the Apostle John, when he's writing this book here, he started off just talking about the deity of Jesus Christ. That's the big focus that happens throughout all of his Gospels, really focusing on the deity of Jesus. In verse one, the meaning was the Word, Word was with God, Word was God. So actually then we get more descriptions of Jesus not only just being deity, but also part of the Trinity. And the Trinity is just the God in three forms. You have God the Father, God the Son, Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. There's three different roles between all of them, and they're all being the same person. And the Apostle John had this amazing privilege that he actually got to see in the flesh, he saw God incarnate. He saw Jesus walking amongst the people. Thousands of people got to see Jesus and hear him speak, they got to watch him eat. You know, they saw him among them. And in verse 14 of John, it says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory. Glory is the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So the Apostle John goes on, after describing different aspects of the deity of Jesus, to now going on to proving it, and how he's going to prove the deity of Jesus is through different witnesses. people who actually saw him. And these are going to be credible witnesses. He's not going to say, well, Frank over there, he heard that this guy Jesus really is God. And everyone kind of thinks, well, Frank's kind of got an iffy background. They don't really believe what he's saying. No, he brings up witnesses that they are very credible. And he starts off the first one being John the Baptist, as we know to be a credible person, but looking what his qualifications were. What gave him the authority to baptize both Jew and Gentile before all the crowds? And that's what the Jews wanted to know. They asked him, in verse 19, who are you? They wanted his credentials. So first, before we look at John, let's look at this group, these Jews that were asking these questions. That general term, more specifically, it was talking about, in verse 19, you had the priest and the Levites, and then later on, in verse 24, the Pharisees. These are all very notable people, respected scholars, and they were not interested in the actual message that John the Baptist was bringing. And what is that message we hear? Repentance. We know that John the Baptist, he was preaching repentance in his preparation for Jesus. And they questioned him with these cross-examination, like what a lawyer might do, how they ask him questions. It's very much like a cross-examination, which we'll see later on here. So that first group, the priest, these were the religious leaders. They were descendants of Aaron. And they were tasked with the responsibilities of the temple. And they officiated all the religious ceremonies. And they were the experts of religion. And John the Baptist, his own father was a priest. So he had that background. And actually, the fact that John has that relationship of his father being a priest brought him to a higher level of scrutiny. If people were going to come and question him for his qualifications, it was more fitting and appropriate that it would be other priests that would come question someone who was a direct descendant or who was involved with the priestly line. So it wasn't unheard of or people thinking, well, why would the priest come and talk to him? Why not just send the lay people out from the church to talk to him? It was because John was already esteemed as being within the priestly lineage here. And then the Levites, mentions here, the Levites were the same tribe from which Aaron came, but not from the same lineage. So they were more, they assisted the priests and sometimes worked as like their guard detail, you know, the security for them. Later on, we get the mention as far as the Pharisees. We know the Pharisees and the other group of the Sadducees at this time, that these were the governing leaders, the religious leaders at the time. And they got more involved with some of the religious politics of the day there. The Pharisees were more of the conservative group, much more devoted to the law. And the Sadducees, they were considered a little more liberal when it came to, compared to the Pharisees. But they controlled the temple operations and had a direct connection with the Roman Empire. And overall, between the Pharisees and Sadducees, they came together and they made up the Jewish Sanhedrin, which was 70 men who served as the highest official body. But they would report directly to the Roman government. But it was their job to check the qualifications and everybody who was preaching and talking about, saying that they were speaking for God. In Deuteronomy chapter 13, there's actually that directive told everyone that they are to test everyone, to make sure everyone was speaking the Word of God and not their own message. So that's a really important part that we're going to circle back to later on, is make sure that this messenger had to be speaking the message, the Word of God, and that they themselves did not become the message. They were the messenger, not the message. They had this maybe that jealousy, this envied popularity that John the Baptist was having at the time, right? In Matthew chapter three, verse five, it actually says, then Jerusalem was going out to him, that's John the Baptist, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan. And they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River and they confessed their sins. So these religious leaders, and they see like, wow, they're getting a lot of people are coming out here to see John the Baptist. And he's, you know, they're really believing what he's saying. And they start feeling a little bit challenged because they have such this big group coming out to them. So instead of them, they could have summoned for John the Baptist to come to them and say, hey, we want to find out who you are. But the threat, if they had summoned him to come to them, he might have brought the big following. There might have been a big crowd who might have come there. And they didn't want to have that. They didn't want to have this big group of following of John the Baptist show up at their doorstep. And they're all in support of him, because that would give credence to his message. And they would be like, OK, these people might now overthrow what our religious seniority is. We're the people. So instead, they went more discreetly and visited him directly. When they get into questioning him, it's like I said, that cross-examination style. Have you seen a lot of different lawyer-ly type shows, crime dramas? I like watching a lot of those. You see where the attorney is going to be there, and they're talking to the witness on the stand. And they ask them all these questions. It's like, oh, these are easy questions, right? I can answer all these ones, really basic. What's your name? Where were you here? What did you do then, right? Easy stuff. But what they're really trying to do is they're trying to trip you up. They're trying to get you to say something that could incriminate yourself, might catch you in a lie, or maybe something to the truth where you didn't remember it quite the right way. And based off of what you might answer, They might be able to throw out your entire testimony or actually incriminate you. And they did this all the time. This type of cross-examination style, they did that with Jesus Christ. They were always asking him, trying to get him to prove, to come out and make a statement saying, I am God. In which case, then they could come out and say, hey, all right, you hear what he said? Let's arrest this guy and let's crucify him. That's what they ended up doing by all the questions that they brought to him. So they were doing the same thing with John the Baptist. They're just asking these easy questions, trying to get him to say something that would give them grounds that they could then, all right, let's stop this ministry he has going on, all these people following him. But they had to be careful because the people, the multitudes, they already regarded John the Baptist as a prophet. In fact, in Matthew chapter 14, it says, although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they regarded John as a prophet. So they had to, and there hadn't been a prophet for more than 400 years at this time, and they regarded him as speaking for God. So they couldn't just haul him in like that. They had to tread carefully here. You might remember John the Baptist, he had a miraculous birth, right? His parents, Zacharias and Elizabeth, they were old. They were beyond childbearing years. And so when the angel, Gabriel, came down and said that they're going to have this son, John, and what his ministry is gonna be, You know, they laughed at that. They didn't believe him. In fact, Zacharias, the priest, his lack of faith actually caused the angel to silence him. Remember, they removed all his ability to speak for the entire duration of the pregnancy. He was silent. But when John was born, like that, he regained his speech. And people were amazed, like, wow, just as it was said, you know, now we have his speech back. And so then in Luke, it says, the people responded saying, what then will this child turn out to be? For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. So they were already, from the beginning, he already had, people had some high hopes for him, like this is not a normal birth. And they said he's going to have a mission. We better keep our eye on this guy, right? And he did. John had a very singular purpose in his life. He did not go off and decide what kind of trade he wanted to do. He left, he went into his ministry and went into the wilderness, right? And he was going, he had a rough appearance. Remember he had the camel's hair on him and he ate the locust or just whatever his hands, whatever he could find. Really nomadic lifestyle out there. But his mission, his ministry was foretold over 700 years before in the book of Isaiah, by the prophet Isaiah. of what he was going to be doing. And John knew what his mission was going to be, what his ministry, and he was not distracted and waiting for a certain day when he was going to start thinking, all right, I'm ready. I've got my affairs in order. I'll start preaching the word. He was solely focused on preparing people for the arrival of Jesus Christ. Now, not all of us are called to that pneumatic lifestyle, right? And to be the preaching as far as repentance is the way that he did. But all of us are Christians are called To the same ministry as far as that we are all to be able to preach Jesus Christ to this world to everyone And we are not to wait till it's convenient for us. We should all be ready We should know our Bible and be you know have that ready at all times to be let them preach us to people John He was a he was the cousin of Jesus right and you know he started his ministry about age 30 and But he did not approach religion as the other leaders did. He didn't get caught up in all the different ceremonies and maybe pretentious acts of public display. He was, he'd be rough around the edges, right? If you live as a nomad out there, you know, all the time by yourself, you might not have the social graces that you'd expect, you know, if you kind of know what and when to say to certain people. He wouldn't hold back. He came right out. And he would call, it didn't matter if it was, you know, the poor or the rich person. You know, a public official like that, he called out everyone and he called them to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Didn't care how they would respond to that because he knew he had to get his mission out. One of the other areas where we're introduced to John, I think about how my, personally, when I've been introduced to people, you know, whether it's been here at the church or in my professional life, I mean at my work, and I have someone say that, this is Andrew, he works here, He does such and such. And then I have a business card. It says the same thing. I've got my name, contact info, job title. This is what I do. Well, how was John introduced? We get introduced from him by, not only from Jesus Christ, God incarnate, introduces John in Matthew 11 as the greatest person ever born. Who wouldn't want that on their business card, right? So, all right, yes, I am, you know, the greatest person ever born. And this is coming from Jesus, that he esteemed John as the greatest person ever born. And that's comparing him to, you know, Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, everyone out there. And John, he gets singled out as the greatest person ever born. That really says something as far as like, wow, why would Jesus single him out that way in Matthew 11? But that's his resume. And the Jews coming to talk to him, they had really two main questions for him. And they're two questions that I want us to walk away with today as far as application, as far as questions that all of us, that everyone who is a Christian should be able to answer. And they need to be ready to answer these things. First, they asked him, who are you? Secondly, they asked him, why are you here? Who are you? Why are you here? Well, we're going to be looking at this today, and we need to be able to have the proper answer to really explain that in detail. People might think about, oh, what is the meaning of life? Who are you? Why are you here on this planet like that? Well, it's going to come down to this, right? Why are we here? Who are we? What is our role? So when they asked in that verse 19, who are you, John actually responds. It is a two-part answer. First, he responds in the negative. He says, And he confessed, and he did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. So it's kind of worded differently, right? He could have just said, I'm not the Christ, but it says, no, he confessed, he did not deny, but confessed. He was not going, I mean, this was a very adamant statement. He wanted to know, it's like, all right, I'm just, no, no, I'm not that guy. It's like, no, no, no, listen carefully here. I am not the Christ. So stop all the other questions that are going to come with after that. or whatever you think my ministry is, I am not that guy. The one that I'm preaching about coming, I'm not him. He was not going to allow these rumors or people to kind of assume, well, he is kind of doing that role of what this coming Christ was going to be, right? He says, that's not me. He was not going to be the savior that they were looking for. He specifically says he's not the Christ. That term, the Christ, it's funny, how many people, when they hear of like, Jesus, they always think that his last name was Christ. You come across that. It's like, no, no, no. Christ is just the Greek word for Messiah from the Hebrew text, which is the anointed one. Christ is the Messiah. And when he uses that word versus Christ to them, he knew that they would understand what he was referring to, that he's referring back to Old Testament prophecies. So he had a very specific person that he was saying who he was not. And there were many prophecies that talked about a coming Messiah. In Jeremiah 23, there was talks about this, you know, this king that was going to come in verses 5 through 6. Actually, in Isaiah chapter 9, I'm going to read that. 6 and 7 is one that you probably hear usually around Christmas time, right? It says for Isaiah 9, 6 and 7, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this." So he was not You know, they were all expecting, they knew the prophecies, they knew that there was going to be a Messiah coming, and he wanted to know that this was not who he was. So then they thought, well, maybe it's the next best thing. What's the next best thing for the Messiah? Maybe he's going to be an end time sign of someone right before the Christ was going to come. And in Malachi chapter 4, there's actually a prophecy. Verse 5, there's a prophecy which says, will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord." So what is this Elijah prophecy? Who is he saying? That's why I say no, I'm not Elijah. Why would you even have to say that? Was anyone questioning that he was? People were expecting, they were waiting for Elijah to come before the Messiah. And since John was coming right before Jesus that he was saying, and they go, okay, well, maybe you're Elijah. He says, nope, that's not me. If you remember Elijah, he was the prophet that he stood up to the prophets of Baal. And he never died. He was raptured, and so he was on that chariot, up with fire, and brought up in heaven. And actually, Elijah, there's a lot of physical attributes of him that was very similar to John the Baptist. As far as both being out like nomadic lifestyles, they both had rough clothing and this rough appearance. And so, you know, it stands to reason people think, oh, you look a lot like him. And you are this guy coming before what we say the Messiah is coming. But he was denying that. Actually, even to this day and at this point here during Passover, people would set out a chair, you know, an empty chair that's left there for Elijah. They're still waiting for him, right? the Jews following Judaism who have not accepted that Jesus Christ has come as their Messiah. So they're still waiting for Elijah. But he's saying, that's not me. And later on, Jesus Christ would actually say that he came, that he was going to be this fulfillment, that he would fulfill the prophecy that was said in Malachi. And in Luke 117 it says, that the angel foretold John's birth, that he would come in the spirit and power of Elijah. So he was fulfilling that part of prophecy of Elijah, but he was not the fulfillment of the physical return of Elijah. That's not who John was. He says that he was not the prophet. He was a prophet, but they were expecting him to be the prophet that was talked about actually back in Deuteronomy 18, where it says, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him." This was another person that they were kind of waiting on. So they thought maybe he's this prophet that was talked about coming. And John has to say no to this too, right? He said nine, he's not the Christ, he's not Elijah, he's not this prophet. And he wanted them to know, like, all right, don't lift me up. Because they were going to lavish him, like, these would be great titles to have, like, you know, this great person. He said, that's not me at all. I am the messenger. How many times do we know like today between maybe televangelist, false leaders, even cult leaders, right? They have their congregation, they're following Torrelson. They laud praise to like their leader and they accept it. It's like, yeah, yeah, you know, I am pretty good, right? And they're like, I do have, I am great at preaching, you know, this message. And they accept a lot of the praise that comes on. and they get in the way of what the actual message is. And they say, I'm doing the work of Jesus here. Well, how, I mean, can you do the work of Jesus? I mean, can you save people? Can you forgive people of their sins? Doing the work of Jesus. You and I are not the savior that people need. No, that is not our role. John was not the savior that they needed. He had a message. We are not the message. We're messengers. John was a messenger and wanted them to understand that. Don't get distracted with who he was. Listen to what he was saying, because they were not listening when he kept shouting to them, repent for the real savior, the Messiah is coming. So then they're saying, well, fine. Who are you then? Kept pushing him on that phone in verse 22. So now he answers in the positive. First was in the negative. This is who I'm not. Now who am I? And he says in verse 23, look there with me, he says, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord as Isaiah the prophet said. So John was, you know, he was the voice calling attention to the one who was coming. The apostle John had already set up Jesus as being the word, right, he's the word And he is God. And now John the Baptist, he's the voice. He's the one that's going to spread news about that word out there. And he references back to Isaiah 43, which it says, a voice is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. This was a prophecy 700 years before John the Baptist came, saying that it was about John the Baptist coming, that about someone who's going to be preparing the way. And he's saying, yes, now I am that voice. I am the fulfillment of that prophecy, which is saying a lot now for these people to say, whoa, so you're saying that you are the fulfillment of this prophecy, which we understand that that prophecy is about the coming of the Messiah that we're all waiting for. So you're saying that the Messiah is here or immediately coming? And that's what he's trying to get across. Like, this is important. Listen to me. I'm not just spouting my own message. He is preaching the message, the one and only message, that they should all know, and that they would have been raised, and that they were teaching others from the Old Testament. And actually, in all four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the phrase crying in the wilderness is used. That crying word actually is the Greek word for that. They call it, how do you pronounce it, ba-a-o. It's to raise a cry of joy or pain. and to implore help or aid. So it's a really, it's this earnest cry that he used, actually a lot of battle warriors would use this when they're going to attack. They said they would cry out and shout. When you're shouting out like that, you're trying to get the attention of the people that you're attacking, right? You want them to hear, and this is urgent news, you're about to attack them. And it's also used in terms when you want people to respond to your message. You're not just saying something out there And you're like, OK, whether you hear it or not, take it or leave it. No, it's like, this is important. I need you to hear this message, and I need you to respond to it. And that's why it was repeated in all four of those Gospels in the same way. These people here, the Jews, they were looking for deliverance from the Roman oppressors at this time. That's what they'd been for many, many years. They were under the oppression of them. Before that, it was the Babylonians. They've been held captive. And they're always trying to get out from this authority over them. And so when they had this prophecy that they're going to have a messiah come and rescue them, they were thinking, good, they're going to deliver us from being in this bondage of the Romans at this time. That was never what the prophecy was about. God was never saying, I'm going to free you from the bondage as far as the oppressors, the Romans. He's saying, you need to be freed from the sins that are separating you from me. And you need this salvation. They didn't think that they need to be saved. They thought, well, we're already God's people. We are the chosen people. They don't need that salvation. And that's why they are still, people practicing as far as Judaism, they're still waiting for the Messiah. They don't think that they need to be saved. They're waiting for someone who's going to come and deliver their kingdom as far as just the Jewish kingdom. And they are not listening, thinking that they need to actually repent from any sins, which is what they repeat later on here, we'll get to. So what is our mission? What's your mission? You and I, we're the needed voice for people to be prepared to meet their Savior. That's who we are. We are a voice. We are not a message. We are here. We are called. We have to preach the word to this lost world here. We need to be doing that at all the times. We need to point to Jesus, direct people to Jesus, really simple that way not get too confused in the different terms of you know within Christianity you read too many books you know about isms and whatever else as far as like well this is the type of Christianity I believe in and well this type of doctrine there's a whole bunch of acronyms that go with it like no no the gospel is simple right we need to preach Jesus and why we need Jesus as we're kind of to as well you've heard So why are you here? That question they're asking, why are you baptizing these people then? So John was called to prepare the way. In Isaiah 40, it says that he was to make straight the way. So making straight the way, this is actually a term that was used back whenever a king was going to come visit a town, they'd have people, their job was to go out ahead of him, And they would clear the roads. They'd pick up the rocks, the sticks, the branches. They'd clear it all off. So as far as when the king's coming through, people aren't tripping it over, the carriages, or if they're holding them wherever it was. It wasn't a bumpy road. It was supposed to be a smooth road for them. So these people would prepare the way. And that's what John was doing. He was preparing the way. At my own job, that's what we just did recently, we reconstructed a road. And by doing that, you rip out the old road, and you're taking out all the unsuitable rocks and soil, and you're making it now smooth. And you pave it all, the black asphalt. and you make it nice for him. You're preparing the way for people to come, and it's smooth. So how he was preparing that way is John used baptism to prepare the way. So John, in verse 26, John says, I baptize in water. I mean, that seems pretty obvious. They could see him out there baptizing in water. Like, why would you have to even say that? He was trying to make a very clear distinction of what he was doing from within what the Messiah, what the Christ, what Jesus was going to be doing afterwards as far as that He was going to baptize in the Holy Spirit. So when they're saying what He was doing, they're saying, well, He's like, don't confuse me with the Savior, what He's going to be doing. We just had a baptism at our church actually just last week. We had four people. It was just a wonderful time. We all gathered together. Because people were called, you know, they were saying it's a commandment. We say whenever you are saved, then we were called to be baptized. It's just to show as far as the public, you know, the church body, that you are now, you've given your life to Christ, and you want, and you identify with the church, and you're with the church body, and you want everyone to see that you are now, just that symbolism that you've now cast away that old, the dead self, you know, part of yourself, and that you are now born again with Jesus. And that's what people are doing. And that's your call to do that. But do you know that baptism was around before Jesus? Before that was happening, people were getting baptized, but in a much different way. At that time, it was the Gentiles, the people who were not Jews. Everyone who was not a Jew, whenever they would start studying Judaism, and they'd say, hey, I'm going to start following the ways of the Jews, the Judaism. What they would do is they would now do it themselves. They'd get water and make a big public display and they would wash themselves because the Gentiles were thought unclean people. These are sinners. They were not one of the chosen people like Jews. So they would say, I'm washing myself. And basically, essentially, they're repenting for not being a Jew is what they would be doing. Say, all right, I'm going to now identify and make myself as far as being a follower of Judaism and I'm washing myself in that way. That was done in a common practice. John the Baptist, so he was now baptizing his people, all the Gentiles, but he was also baptizing the Jews. And that angered the Jewish leaders quite a bit. They're like, wait, why are you baptizing these Jews? These people are already Jews. They're already God's people. You should not be baptizing them. And they were very offended by what he was doing. That's probably the biggest thing that got them to come question him of what he was doing. In Matthew chapter 3, he actually calls the Pharisees and Sadducees, calls them when they came to get baptized, called them a brood of vipers because they were coming to get baptized. This big show display for everyone saying, oh yes, I'm clean and I want everyone to see what I'm doing. I've now, I am definitely, you know, I'm one of God's children and I've always been one of God's children because he called me chosen, you know, one of his chosen children as the nation. But he calls them a brood of vipers, saying that they were to bear fruits worthy of repentance. They were not repenting for their sins. They were just putting on this show for everyone. They didn't actually listen to what his message was about that they need to repent from their sins, that they had a sin problem. They didn't think they had a sin problem. There's a lot of people in our world today who claim the same. They think, I'm good enough, I'm fine, right? I don't have a problem with sin. I make mistakes every now and then, maybe, like that, but overall I'm good. They don't really understand that, no, you're lost, and you need to repent from your sins. And John says, as for me, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. That's in Matthew 3.11, it says that. saying they were in need for spiritual repair and the baptism was just a way for preparing these people they need to prepare their hearts say all right recognize that you are a sinner first recognize that and then Christ is coming that's what Jesus John was doing preparing him for Jesus that he was going to come and be the actual Savior in verse 29 John says behold the Lamb of God. So this is a prophecy that was from 700 years before his birth in Isaiah 53 where they say, like a lamb that is led to slaughter. So John is pointing to Jesus Christ and he's calling him a lamb. Now we take that for granted right now because we've heard many of his sermons or the daily devotions. Why was Jesus called the lamb at that time? What's so special about this lamb? John wanted them to look at him. He was focusing their attention on him. During this time of when this was written, at the time this was close to Passover, which is what they're going to get into the next chapter of John. So during Passover's coming up, and at this time a lot of people would be bringing their sacrifices to Jerusalem. There'd be a lot of sheep coming in, a lot of lambs. You would have been visible. You would have seen it all over. So whenever he's calling out the lamb, people knew exactly when he's calling somebody a lamb, like, you mean for sacrifice, right? That's what you're saying, that you're calling Jesus a sacrifice? Passover would have been on these people's mind. And everyone brings their own sheep. So you say, all right, hey, this is Frank's sheep. This is John's sheep. This is David's sheep. Whatever else, they're going to bring it, and they're going to now offer that as a sacrifice to God. But the difference here is that he says, he didn't say that this is the lamb, behold, the lamb for God. He didn't say this is the lamb that you're supposed to give for him, that Jesus isn't the one that we're going to give to God. This is the lamb of God. This lamb was coming from God. He was providing this lamb. This one belonged to him. Jesus belonged to God. He was now giving it to us as far as being a sacrifice, a propitiation on our behalf. so we'd be made right with him. Going back in the Exodus at the original Passover, you remember that there were the slaves with the land of Egypt. Moses was there and was asking the Pharaoh to let my people go. And he said no, he wouldn't do that. So he had all the plagues come. Remember the nine plagues just devastated the whole land, just how terrible they were. And still the Pharaoh was like, no, you're not going to let them go. until finally, remember that 10th plague? When he said the 10th plague is that there's going to be the death of the firstborn. Of all firstborns, we're going to be killed. And that was the strongest of all of them. In Exodus chapter 12, I'm going to read here in verses 5. It says, this is then what God, and he said what you should do as far as, all right, here comes this 10th plague. This is what you need to do, prepare. He says, Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it." So they would take this blood and put it on the doorposts, on the outside. And this was going to be, so there's a sacrifice that was required to kill this lamb. Secondly, the sacrifice had to be unblemished, had to be a perfect one. This couldn't just be like the runt, you know, or the one with the broken leg or whatever that you're going to get rid of anyways, or he had disease. This had to be a perfect lamb. And then this blood was literally going to be a sign, a public display for everyone. You put it on your doorpost saying, I believe what God is saying. I understand what the consequences are if I don't obey him. If I don't have this sacrifice here, I know it's going to happen, that there's going to be the death of the firstborn here. And so that night, God passes through the land, and he passed over each of the houses that had that on display, had the blood there, Passover, which is why we have the term Passover. And it was from the blood of that lamb that saved the people. This was a sacrifice. This is what God, he provided them a way of salvation. He told them what to do. The difference here, God didn't provide the lamb. These are the lambs people had to provide on their own. They had to go get these lambs and put them out there. God told them what to do. And this would continue on for many years after for all the nation that they would have to continually offer these sacrifices for the sins to make this propitiation. These people had, they actually did daily sacrifices. They were killing lambs in the morning and they'd kill them at night. There was a lot of blood going on during the times for just many hundreds of years. because they keep doing sacrifices, because they kept on sinning, right? So you had to keep on doing it. There was a need for holiness. God commanded people to be holy. In the Old Testament, Leviticus, it says, For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. Direct commandment, you need to be holy. That's repeated in the New Testament, 1 Peter 1.16. You shall be holy. For I am holy. All right, so he has this direct command. People have to be holy. That's not an option type of thing that you could just, you know, be like good enough. No, you need to be holy. That means perfect. But, seems simple enough. But in Samuel, 1 Samuel 2, 2, there is no one holy like the Lord. Huh, that's a problem, right? You gotta be holy, but you're not holy. Be holy, but you can't be holy. But you gotta be holy. So people are thinking, Okay, well, how do we do this, right? You have to do it. He's given us an impossible task to do. He knows it's impossible, but he's telling them they need to do this. But it's because the needs at the end, so he tells them, all right, you're gonna make these sacrifices and they do that stuff. But those were imperfect sacrifices that they did, but it was their obedience that they were, as long as they kept, you know, obeying and they had, they believed what it was for, God was saving people in the Old Testament before Christ. Now, We have, going all the way back as far as God providing this sacrifice for us. Look back as far as in Genesis 22. If you look at the time with Abraham and Isaac. Remember that one, right? Where they'd have, God tells Abraham to kill his son as a sacrifice. And this is his son. This is going to be a sacrifice that hurts. And he says, all right, I want you to go kill him. So in 22, they go up together and Isaac, his son, says, all right, dad. I've got the wood. We've got the fire. We're all ready. Just, hey, where's the lamb? Where's the sacrifice for here? Abraham, he tells him, the God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. He tells him, God's going to provide it. And he knows this whole time. He knows it's going to be you. It's going to be you. And so he's like, oh, OK. So then they finally go out there. And Abraham is like, all right. He lays him down. And he's going to now sacrifice his son. He's right about to do it, and God tells him to stop. And he knows, all right, you've obeyed me. I know that you're going to do this. Don't kill him. And God then provided him, he had a ram that was in the thicket there. He said, all right, here's the sacrifice. And he offered now the sacrifice in place on his behalf. And so this was another message. This was a symbol of something that was going to come where God was going to be the one offering the sacrifice, not Abraham offering the sacrifice, not us offering the sacrifice. That's why today we are not still offering sacrifices today doing that, because God already offered the sacrifice. So, behold the Lamb of God. So always remember that very specific thing, that Jesus, and when John was pointing him out, he was letting these people know, alright, this, this is the final sacrifice here. This is going to change everything for everyone here. And it says that he's going to take away the sins of the world. At this point, they used to have, in the old covenant, they'd have two goats at the time. And they would kill one, and then they would let one go. And that was a scapegoat. And that goat would go free. And so that was, as far as, it was the picture of the removal of sins from people. So there's a lot of that symbolism, these acts of obedience people would do, that was all leading up to what the message, of this true and final sacrifice was going to be. Now who needs salvation and who knows they need it? Do we need to prove to people that they're sinners? Do we need to tell everyone, say, all right, yes, you are a sinner because you did this and did this and this. Do we need to tell them like that? People already know. People are already convicted. People know that they are sinners. Actually, in 1 John 1.8, it says that, If someone says that they don't have sin, they're deceiving themselves. People know they have sin. It's in their conscience, even if they've never even read the Bible. They know that they are a sinner. And they're suppressing the truth if they deny it. So for us to say, let me first convince you that you're a sinner, they already know that. What we're doing is we're calling them like, no, you need to repent from your sins. And just as John the Baptist was doing, he went straight to the action, not to what the cause of the problem was. So in verse 29 says, the next day saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So when he goes, it's not like he's saying, you know, the sin happened. It's not like these people could go back in time, go back like in a DeLorean, right, back in time and erase the sin. Like, OK, it never happened. No, the sin happened there. But Christ, what he does is that his sacrifice, Jesus actually takes away that sin. He justifies us before God. He says, all right, you know they did this here. These people, the sacrifice that he's done for us, we're justified. We're now, the punishment does not apply to us. It has been removed from us. So we're justified before him. And then he also removes the power of sin over us. This is an ongoing thing. This is what we'd call sanctification. Remember we had the first part? Justification saying, all right, you are now clean and justified before God, sanctification is like, well, we keep on sinning though, right? Even after you become a Christian, it's like, and it's something to where like, well, we sin, but it's not controlling our lives as a true Christian. It's something that we are constantly then putting that up behind us to where we're asking for forgiveness and we're being sanctified through Christ. You've probably, I'm sure you've probably heard this another like message before, right? When Jesus died on the cross and said, it is finished. At the very end, he said, it is finished. The Greek word was tetelestai. If it was just telestai, as the Greek word is saying, something is done, completed it. But when you had the full word, the tetelestai, that's a perfect tense of the word, it has a lot of meaning in that word. Whenever they use it, that form, it's something that has happened, but it keeps on happening. The effects continue today. This happened in the past. in the past, but the effects are still happening. So when Jesus says that it is finished, back then, using that term, they're, alright, I've made the sacrifice, washed away people's sins. The people who are Christians like that, their sins have been forgiven of them like that. And this sanctification now, this sacrifice, it keeps on going. So even now, the people, you sin, like, oh, I've been saved, but I sinned. Am I unsaved again now? Do I have to start over? He's like, no. when you are true to become a Christian, when you accept Jesus as your Savior, He keeps on washing that, as far as those sins away with His blood. It keeps on being finished, continues on. That's what that word, that's what tetelestai means. And in Romans 6, it says, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. So whenever that, wherever we still may have sin, it is not the controlling factor in our lives, because now Jesus is our Savior and we are, He is our goal that we are now trying to live and walk closer and closer to Him until the day that we finally lose these imperfect bodies and move beyond that. So Jesus baptizes with water, I mean John baptizes in water, and that was just the symbol, but it was Jesus that was going to come and be the final sacrifice for them. Jesus being the final sacrifice, we need to be the voice of this message. So looking at kind of rounding this all up, wrapping it up then. John was called to be the messenger for Jesus. When asked for his resume, John's response was, don't look at me, don't question me, don't ask what have I done that makes me qualified. You're looking at the wrong person. You need to ask Jesus. Ask what Jesus did that takes away your sins. Don't be looking, don't put the message on the messenger like that. You need to be like, don't get, you need to be focused on what the message is. Look to Jesus. John was constantly pointing people to look to him and see what the sacrifice that he did and kept referring to him as the Passover lamb, as the sacrifice, the final one that they needed. When I was studying for this, another related message, a little study that I had, I was in Isaiah a lot. Isaiah is great. If you look through Isaiah 53, it is the fifth gospel, you know, the Bible. And it's one that I like to read over and over. But it is, I mean, it's like you condense all the gospels down and so as you get down to that chapter, as far as Isaiah 53. And I just, and then I can't, one of the cross-references brought me over to Acts. If you want to turn with me over to actually Acts chapter 8, verse 30, this was a time when Philip, this was almost 2,000 years ago, right? Philip's now came across a eunuch that was reading the same passage that I was reading of Isaiah 53. He was reading through this thing and he's trying to understand what this is all about. I'm like, wow, this is so cool. He's studying the same thing I'm studying now. Here's what it says. Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you understand what you're reading? And he said, well, how could I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture, which he was reading, was this. He was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth. In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will relate his generation, for his life is removed from the earth? The eunuch answered Philip and said, please, Tell me, of whom does this prophet say this? Of himself or someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. Just, it's that simple. I mean, how, you can't tee it up any better than that, right? Someone's saying, as far as, please teach me, what is this Bible saying? What is going on here? I want to understand what this prophecy is talking about, this lamb, as far as it's led to slaughter, it's going to be taken away his sins. And Philip's just saying, no, This is about Jesus. Guess what? Jesus already came. He did the sacrifice for you like that. This is not a prophecy that you have to kind of wait to play out for the next 700 years, as far as whenever he wrote this time. This is something that had happened. They had proof of it. And now he just has to break it down, just preach Jesus to him. That's what we are to do. We are to preach Jesus. Jesus is the Passover for us. He is the final sacrifice. So as we know who we are, that we are messengers, right? We are not the message. Why are we here? Preach Jesus to people, right? It's really simple as far as that. We don't have other calls, but whatever else we do in our life, it comes down to that, that we need to just don't make the gospel, don't make the Bible complicated for people. It's very simple right there. This whole passage that we read as far as in John has occurred over a period of three days. You know, it was actually different moments. It wasn't just one conversation. It was like John Baptist was talking with, as far as the Levites, the priests, and then they go away. And then later on, maybe some Pharisees come talk to him. It's broken up over three days. I was coming through actually one of the commentaries from that John MacArthur, when he was talking about like an outline of this passage here. If you wanted to break it up in verses 19 through 28, because that's day one, 19 through 28 is day one. And the message here, John's message, was Jesus is here. So if you knew an outline for that section, Jesus is here, day one. Day two, verses 29 through 34, is John's message, was look at him. So we know first, Jesus is here. It's happened like that. Look at him. That's the next one. Look at him. Day three, verse 35, 37, this final message, after saying he's here and look at him, he says follow him. And that's what he did. Whenever the disciples that were with John the Baptist, they were following him around. They were learning from him. And now he says, and then they left John the Baptist and they started following Jesus. And that's what John wanted. That's what he was here for. He was not here to gather people to come follow me, come join the church of John the Baptist. That was not his message at all. It needs to be about, you know, just point everyone to Jesus and get them to follow him. So those two questions. You need to answer correctly, who are you, why are you here? John understood that he spoke publicly, and he spoke publicly that he was not the Christ, but he was just a messenger. And he had a job to do, by going to the world and preaching Jesus to everyone, without discrimination. So we are not to preach ourselves, what we think people ought to be doing, good morals, or what they ought to be doing. We need to be like Philip and just preach Jesus. And the conviction, the words, the commandments, they are in the Bible here for them already. Secondly, John was also told people about the work of Christ. He explained in terminology and references that people would clearly understand. Jesus is our Passover lamb. He is perfect and only through his atonement are we made right before God. We must be the voice that calls people to repentance. and point them to Christ. So who are you? Why are you here? Are you a believer that is a voice for our Lord? Or are you silent and comfortable, you know, with other Christians taking that role? Okay, we just, well, let the missionaries handle it. Let the pastor handle it. You know, they can do it. Well, if you're a Christian, you are here to be the voice. And you're here to preach Jesus to the world. Let's pray. Gracious Father, Lord, I just think this opportunity I had just to go over this passage that moved me so much, just about the qualifications of John the Baptist, how singular and simple his mission, his ministry was, Lord, that can be modeled to us, Lord, that we are to preach repentance and preach you as our sacrifice, final propitiation for us, Lord, and the urgency, Lord, There's one crying in the wilderness that is not something that we can passively hear or we could ignore. This rambling is something we need to respond to and we need others to hear and respond to as well. Lord, I just pray that these are challenging to all of us, that we would not hesitate in opportunities. You've convicted everyone. You know, you've made people know that they that there is a purpose in this life, that they are missing and that they are not meeting the goals that their conscience convicts them, Lord, and that they need you. Help us find the courage and the opportunities, Lord, to be able to share this gospel with them. In Jesus' name, amen.