I have you going to John, but would you also go to look at Luke? We'll go back to John in just a second. Luke chapter 1 also, would you head there for just a moment? I'm glad the high school is in with us this morning. I want to look at just a few verses with you out of this chapter also. This series might be a little bit unusual, but the connections that Jesus had with people, let me ask you this, do you believe Jesus did anything by accident? Because He was God, He would know exactly who He would come in contact with, exactly what would happen. before and after. And I want to tell you, these people that Jesus had contact with, there's definitely, definitely things for us to learn from. Things like faith, all right? Love. I mean, you think about James and John, how they said, hey, can I sit on the right hand and my brother sit on the left hand and we get to heaven? You talk about humility. There's just several key things that can be taught and learned from these stories. And again, help us have a better knowledge of the Word of God also as we look at these this morning. So let's go ahead and pray and we'll look at this this morning. Father, thank You again for Your Word. I ask for Your help this morning. Bless Your people. Lord, help these that are sick, especially these teachers that couldn't be here this morning. Thank You for their classes being in with us. Lord, the college and career, the high school fellows, I just ask You to please now speak to our hearts, every adult this morning, and every person that might be listening at home because of sickness, whatever. Lord, help us, Lord, to be in tune with You, understanding the Word of God and applying it to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Zach, I'm going to use you, if you could take your jacket off there. We'll use you for just a second here. Now, look at Luke, not yet, you sit down there. Luke chapter 1, You can stand if you want. No, I'm just joking, all right? He doesn't know what he's doing. All right, Luke chapter 1, I want you to look at your Bible now, and let me just point out just a couple things real quickly with you. Verse number 5, there was in the days of Herod, Luke 1, 5, there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named what? Zacharias, in the course of Abba and his wife, was of the daughter of Aaron, and her name was what? All right, and we have a description of Zacharias and Elizabeth. These are the parents of John the Baptist. They were both righteous before God, walking on all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. Now, church, I'm going to say a couple things here. We want to produce children like John the Baptist but we're not willing to be parents like Zacharias and Elizabeth. We want to blame our children for not doing right. Listen, I'm one of those people that I think that sometimes we use scripture out of context. For instance, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older not depart from it. And it's almost like if that child is not an angel, then it's the parent's fault. And what we've done is we've done away with individual responsibility of a person's choices in life, all right? And so our young people, but I will say this, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Our training of our children is the determination whether or not they do right or not, to a great degree. So we as parents need to be what we should be so these children can be what they need to be. It's interesting that the Bible tells that Zacharias had his prayers answered. Elizabeth was barren had no children but because Zacharias the father or the husband praised the God said God would you please let my he did not realize that he was not just praying for a child he was praying for John the Baptist all right very very interesting story but look at your Bible now again here's what happens next let's pick it up and see verse number 11 and there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right hand of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. What prayer? His wife to have a child. And thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John, and thou shalt have joy and gladness. and many shall rejoice at his birth." Now what I really want you to see next is verse 15, 16, and 17, because this is the prophecy concerning John the Baptist. So the angel is talking to Zacharias and saying, Zacharias, this is the kind of child you're going to have. Look at verse number 15. for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." All right, so church family, think for a second here. The angel tells Zacharias, now we call him the forerunner of Christ. We call John the Baptist the forerunner of Christ. And the reason we call him the forerunner of Christ is because he was born six months prior to Jesus' birth. So here John the Baptist is born by Elizabeth. Mary is going to bear Jesus Christ six months later. He's called the forerunner of Christ, all right? Church family, John the Baptist and Jesus never met each other until John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the River Jordan. And the reason I know that is because at the River Jordan when Jesus came up, John the Baptist said, I knew him not. Now I just want you to understand that you talk about a faith thing. Here's somebody. I'm going to use you as John the Baptist if you don't mind. Go ahead and come up here. You get to be Jesus, Zach, so you're OK. I just want you to know you're going to be better than this guy. That's the wrong person. This is John the Baptist. The only way this would be better, if we could put him in camel's hair and have him eat wild honey and locust, all right? That's the only way we could do this typecasting a little bit better. But, you know, I picture John the Baptist as this mountaineer, Daniel Boone, all right? I mean, that's how I picture him, because John the Baptist was in the wilderness. I mean, until the day of his showing, and of course, he's six months prior. Here this guy, he's meeting with God these, I think, years. And when he comes into play, he's wearing this camel hair, this leather girdle. He's got a locust hanging out his cheek over here and honey dripping from his other side of his cheek over here. And I mean, just this guy that you look at him like, OK, who's this? All right. Now, all that God had for him is to make sure that he prepared a people for Jesus Christ. You don't have to stand just yet, but he was preparing a people for Jesus Christ six months prior. Now, let's look a little farther here. There's some more prophecy mentioned in Luke chapter 1. Jump farther down in your Bible. John the Baptist is born. Luke chapter 1, look at verse number 76. Now, this prophecy came from Zacharias. God put this in his heart. This is what he said, verse 76, Luke 1, 76. John the Baptist was just born. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people, by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet unto the way of peace." Verse 80, that was the prophecy, verse 80, and the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts to the day of his showing unto Israel. Now, just let me think for a second here. Remember all these people asking John the Baptist, are you the one? Are you the one? What they were saying, are you the Messiah? Everything in the Old Testament pointed to this Messiah coming, and all of a sudden, this guy's in the desert, and he shows back up, and they say, hey, are you the one? And he says, no, I'm not the one. I'm not even worthy to tie the shoelatch of the one. He says, all I am is to tell you that he's coming, all right? Now, look what he says next here. I want you to now go over to John chapter number one with me, if you don't mind. John chapter number one. John chapter number one, I want you to see as far as there's three interactions of Christ with John the Baptist. There's only three, all right? And I want to look at these quickly together with you, all right? John chapter one is where we're going to pick it up and let me get to verse here for you. John chapter one, let's just pick it up in verse number 15 if you don't mind. John chapter one, verse number 15. It says, John bear witness of Him, that was Jesus Christ, and cried saying, this was of I spake, he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. All right, talking about Jesus. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by. What's the name? All right, so he's talking about Jesus Christ. He says in verse number 19, and this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? And he confessed and denied, not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. All righty? then of course they are going to ask him several different questions here. Now look at, jump down to verse number 27, John 1.27, He it is who cometh after me, is preferred before me, whose shoes latched I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethbara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing. Verse 29, The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is befurred before me, for he was before me, and I knew him not. But that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John Barry records saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him." Now before I read verse 33, here's what I want you to see this morning. John the Baptist is born. It's prophetically that he would be the one that would prepare the way of Jesus Christ. He goes out into the wilderness and he comes back after years later, he comes back, turn back around, he comes back and he starts to preach. He says, hey, listen, there's one coming after me that's preferred before me. He's the Messiah. He's the Christ child. People started coming into the river Jordan. He's baptizing them, all right? Now, not to wash away their sins, but to identify that they believed in the Messiah, and he was baptizing. Now, Jesus would baptize with the power of the Holy Ghost, the baptism of the Spirit, which is salvation. So here, John the Baptist is baptizing. Jesus is baptizing. The Pharisees and others are trying to cause contradiction, okay? So is John the Baptist the Messiah, or are you the Messiah? And John the Baptist is voicing very loudly, he's the Messiah. He had never met the Messiah, but he knew the Messiah was Jesus Christ by name, and sometime, whether it was in the wilderness, God revealed unto him that you would know who it was by a dove descending upon him, the Spirit of God descending upon him. And that's how he knew that Jesus was the one. So he baptizes Jesus Christ, and that's when he says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now Jesus, you go ahead and stand where you are, you're not Jesus, but go ahead and stand, and I want you to see. So here comes Jesus along next. Now, here's the three instances, okay? Step over here, you step this direction. John the Baptist's first instance of interaction, he baptizes Jesus Christ. Look at verse number 33, and I knew him not, verse 33, but he that sent me Now Church, hear me think for a second here. So John the Baptist does not know who Jesus is as far as the Messiah. But when he goes to baptize him, the Spirit of God descends upon him, and that was the indication, or I should say the proof, that that was the Messiah. So his first interaction with Christ was when he baptized him. Now do me a favor, I want you to go to the next verse here, verse 35. It says, again, the next day, the next day. Again, the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he, John the Baptist, he saith, behold the Lamb of God. Second interaction. All right, first interaction between Jesus and John the Baptist. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, okay? Second interaction, the day following John the Baptist sees Jesus, two of his disciples are with him, one of them being Andrew, but two of his disciples are with him. He says, hey, behold, the Lamb of God. So he points a second time to Jesus Christ. All right, there's one other interaction of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that was when John the Baptist was in prison. Turn over to Matthew chapter number 11, all right? All the Gospels talk about this. Give me a little more time to lay the groundwork here. Matthew chapter number 11, and I want you to look at verse number one with me, all right? He came to pass when Jesus was made and at the end of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in their cities. Verse 2, Matthew 11, 2, Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Now just let me think for a second here. This is John the Baptist. And we're going to look at it in just a second. But this is the John the Baptist that Jesus said, there's not a greater man born among women. I mean, this was a great Christian. Out of however many years he spent with God in the desert. And here he baptizes Jesus Christ. The next day he says, behold the Lamb of God. And here now he's in prison. Why is he in prison? He's in prison because he said, Herod, you're not doing right. You shouldn't have your brother's wife. Herod puts him in prison. Herodias convinces her daughter, when you're done dancing for Herod the king, asked for John the Baptist's head. Now, so John the Baptist is gonna be killed while he's in prison, but while he is in prison, he sends his disciples, hey, listen, go ask Jesus, are you really the one? Think about it for a second here. You think you've got problems? You think you have doubts? You think you have fears? You think you have discouragements? You can't figure out how you give your tithes and offerings and try to tell people about Jesus Christ, try to have a walk with God, and it seems like sometimes things go haywire? John the Baptist. he even doubted. John the Baptist said, hey, are you sure you're the one? Now it's interesting what takes place next after his question. Look at verse number 4. It says, And Jesus answered and said unto them, Now this is John's disciples that came and asked the question, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? This is what Jesus said, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitude concerning John." Now, here's my message this morning. Here's what I want you to think about. The interaction between John the Baptist and Jesus was very limited. Baptizing him, the next day saying, Behold the Lamb of God. And the third interaction, he wasn't even with Christ, but he sends word to Christ, saying, Hey, listen, are you truly the one? All right? Now, when you look at the interaction between Jesus and John the Baptist, and it's very, very limited, You would think to yourself that John the Baptist would not be a very important person, but what Jesus is about to say next about John would be a wonderful thing he'd say about us. Now I want you to look at what Jesus is about to say. Fellows, you can go and have a seat. Thank you so much. Appreciate your help there. Look what happens next. Now Matthew chapter 11, look at verse number 7. And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitude concerning John. First question. Now he's going to ask three questions. First question. What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? What is Jesus trying to say about John the Baptist? Jesus said about John the Baptist, he's talking to the people. John's in prison. He's talking to the people. He says, hey listen, they went to the wilderness to find out if John was the Messiah. He says, what went you out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind. Now, what Jesus was saying in an un-invert way is He was trying to say that what you went out to see is somebody that was movable. He's not movable. He's not shaken in His message. He's not shaken as far as what He preached. He's not shaken in what He said. He had stability to him. Now we look at the doubting question, but Jesus knew that John the Baptist's heart was the right direction. In other words, he was one that was stable in what he said and what he believed. By the way, we ought to be stable in what we believe. So the first question Jesus is making about John the Baptist is the stability of his spirit. Look what else he says next. He goes on to say in verse number 8, but what went ye out for to see a man clothed in soft raiment? Question. Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. All right? Now, first he says John the Baptist is not easily shaken. He says John the Baptist was not comfortably dressed. In other words, John the Baptist, here he is in his camel's hair, leather and girdle, wild honey and locust. He says, John the Baptist did not come to enjoy the pleasures of life and the gratification of the flesh. John the Baptist was one who was a spiritual person. He was a person who looked for the things of God, not the things of the world. Hey, by the way, we as Christians ought to do the same thing. So he's making these statements about John the Baptist. Look at the next statement he's making. Verse number nine. He says, but what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yeah, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. All right? So what was John the Baptist? He was prophesying. comes after me, Jesus Christ." Now, for us, we can't prophesy the future, but we've got the Word of God. We've got the revealed Word of God. What kind of person are you? John the Baptist knew what God's Word was. Now, he knew it prophetically, and, of course, we knew it by the revealed Word of God. He's saying, hey, listen, we can do what John the Baptist did. In other words, we can stand for what's right. We can do what John the Baptist did. We don't have to have our gratification of the flesh for this world. We can do what John the Baptist did. We can have a knowledge of the Word of God and be able to speak what the Word of God says. God is making the comparison. Now look what Jesus says next about John the Baptist. Verse number 10, For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, There hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." Now think for a second here. God singles out this one person as one of the greatest people that have ever been born, all right? Now, it's just simply because John the Baptist was completely sold out for God, and he gave his life for the ministry of pointing people to Jesus Christ. Now, I want to tell you, that's the interaction we ought to have with Christ. It ought to be able to set about us, hey, they're not a reed shaken in the wind. They're not living for the gratification of the flesh. They have a knowledge of the Word of God. John the Baptist, by the witness of Jesus Christ, was exactly what we as Christians ought to be. Now, this morning, I want to try to wrap this together now, and I want to just point out something about John the Baptist as far as what he was and why he did what he did in just three thoughts this morning, all right? Now, I'm going to stay in the book of Matthew. You can go ahead and stay there for just a second there. I want you to see what is said next here about John the Baptist, okay? And look at the next verse, and verse number 12 is where we're at, verse number 12. Verse number 12 says this, it says, and from John, and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and violence taketh it by force for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it, this is Elias, talk about Jesus Christ, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. He goes on to say, he says in verse number 16, The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of her children." Now, church family, the reason Jesus said wisdom is justified of her children is because John the Baptist was justified of his message. How was he justified of his message? Because Jesus Christ came along. So, now, this morning, you guys come here one more time if you don't mind, grab your signs there. Here's what I want you to see this morning as far as the parallel with John the Baptist. John the Baptist, his interaction with Jesus Christ, as far as the application for us, okay? I want you to notice about John the Baptist that first of all, he bare witness of Jesus Christ. Hey, the interaction that he had of Christ, there one cometh after me whose shoes I'm not willing to latch it. He prepared the way of the Lord. You know what we're supposed to do? We're supposed to do the same thing John the Baptist did. We're supposed to bear witness of Jesus Christ. That's exactly what we're supposed to do. Yesterday I was talking, Brother Mize and I were out doing some door knocking in Topeka and a girl, a lady came to the door. She was 31 years old. She came to the door. And kind of a happy-go-lucky type of girl. And I said, hello, my name's Pastor Scott Hanks. This is Mark Mize. And I said, we're from Heritage Baptist Church. And I was talking to her a little bit. She says, I came to your church in 19... Brother Mize, are you in here? 1995, six? About that. So when the church had just gotten started, 1995, 96, she says, I had come to your church. So she was a little girl back then. And I said, well, I'm still there. I said, so we got to talking a little bit. And I said, hey, listen, I don't know if it happened when you were at church or not, if anybody ever asked you this, but I said, do you know for sure you're on your way to heaven if you died today? She just laughed at us. No, I don't know that. I said, can I take a moment to show you? She said, sure. And so at the door there, we opened up the gospel and walked through the plan of salvation with her on the Romans road. And at 31 years of age, she bowed her head and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her savior. Hey, you know what that is? That's a John the Baptist thing. You know what John the Baptist did? He bare witness of Jesus Christ. Hey, the track that you give, the person that you talk to, every time you ask somebody, hey, do you know for sure you're on your way to heaven? Every time you say, hey, listen, when you get a chance, would you read this gospel track? Hey, listen, do you know Jesus Christ is your personal savior? You know what you're doing? That's a John the Baptist thing. John the Baptist, his interaction with Christ was all about being the light. Remember what he said? He says, I'm not the light, I'm just pointing to the light. Everything about John the Baptist was to point people to Jesus Christ. That's exactly what we're supposed to do. You say, Pastor, I don't have the gift of gab, or I don't have the ability as far as speech, as far as being able to tell people about Jesus Christ. Church, I want to tell you something. Stop using that for an excuse. I mean, how hard is it to take a little smiley face and say, hey, I just want to give you a smile? You say, well, that's an inadvertent way of doing it. Hey, listen, it's still the gospel any way you look at it. Hey, if you don't think that you have the ability to be able to say, you know, Brother Baker's with us this morning, but Brother Baker, you know, he went and purchased a bunch of coins last time I saw him. He had a bunch of these coins. and had John 3.16 on it and on one side and something else on the other, he was handing those coins out to children. You know why? Because he's trying to find a way to get the gospel to people. And all I'm trying to say is this, it doesn't matter if you're a teenager here or if you're the oldest person in here, there's ways that you can do what John the Baptist did. And by the way, we're supposed to do what John the Baptist did. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, that's us. So we need to make sure we point people to Jesus Christ. John the Baptist, Whole ministry was pointing somebody to somebody he had never seen. Sounds like what we're supposed to do. We've never seen Jesus Christ, but we're supposed to point people to Jesus Christ. I see something else here. Not only was John the Baptist, as far as his interaction, was to bear witness of Christ. The second thing I think is interesting to me, and I won't take you back to John chapter 1, but in verse 31 and verse 33, it's very interesting. Twice he said, I knew him not. Twice. The whole idea of John the Baptist was not just pointing people to Jesus Christ, but his interaction was one of faith. He had to live by faith. A person he had never seen before that he was going to point people to, a person he'd never seen before, and the indication that it was the right one was that this Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove was going to come over the top of him. His whole life was a life of faith. Here he is in the wilderness in these years of spending time with God, and when he comes back and people start to come to him, he says, he must increase, I must decrease, but I want you to know Jesus Christ is coming. I can't even tie his shoes together. You know what it was? It was all faith. You know the Christian life, isn't that what we're supposed to do? John the Baptist pointed people to Christ. John the Baptist lived by faith. That's exactly what we're supposed to do. And it's a faith thing. And I know sometimes you get hassled by coworkers and sometimes you get hassled by family that are not saved or maybe backslidden Christians, but you get hassled. Hey, can I tell you something? It's because it's a life of faith. I mean, we take God at his word, the just shall live by faith, four times in scripture. And so what we do is we do what we do because God's word says it, and one day we're gonna stand and our faith will become sight. It's not sight yet, but it will become sight. So the second thing I see about John the Baptist as far as interaction with Christ is again, he lived by faith. And last of all, I want you to think about this, and I want you to turn to this one if you don't mind, John chapter three. Flip over to John chapter three real quick, you're not too far from there. Look at verse, at the end of the chapter there, look at verse 21. John chapter 3 verse number 21. I'll just pick it up, verse 22. And after these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John was also baptizing Anan near to Salem, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. Let's read verse 30 together. Ready, together? He must, but I must, Hey, you know as far as John the Baptist's interaction with Christ, number one, it was always pointing people to Christ, he bare witness to Christ. Number two, it was a life of faith, he had to believe what he was doing before he ever saw Jesus Christ in person. And last of all, his whole life was he must increase, I must decrease. Hey, I don't know if you've ever noticed before but we have a tendency because of human flesh and our human nature, we have a tendency to make sure we put ourselves first. As far as how much sleep we get, as far as how much food we eat, as far as what time we want to do something, as far as where we want to go, we have a tendency of what do I want, what do I want, what do I want. John the Baptist didn't live that way. John the Baptist lived what does he want, what does he want, what does he want. Hey, we as Christians, he, Jesus, he must increase but I must decrease. You know a lot of our times our problems and sometimes even our offenses with others has everything to do with putting me first instead of Christ first. You know, I'd go soul winning, but Saturday is my only day off. I would run a bus route or work on a bus route, but Sunday is my only day to sleep in. And I know it's not God's will for everybody to be on a bus route. And I know it's not God's will for everybody to teach a Sunday school class. I know it's not God's will for everybody to go to the jail. You know, but I want to tell you something. If we could just put God and Christ first, we'd probably do a whole lot more than what we're doing right now. He must increase, but I must decrease. That was John's life. So as far as your interaction with Christ, what's your interaction like? Do you bear witness of Christ? Do you tell people about Jesus Christ? Oh, that's for others, that's not for me. You're a Christian. That's what we're supposed to do. Are you living by faith? Are you trying to figure everything out instead of trusting the Lord? And then do you live a life of he must increase, I must decrease. My schedule is not my own. Father, what do you want from my life? Would you go ahead and close your eyes for just a moment. Thank you fellas for your help.