John 1-19-34 The Glory of Christ and Our Mission pt. 1

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John 1:19-34 “The Glory of Christ and Our Mission pt. 1”

 

Preached @ Harambee Church by Pastor Michael Gunn on November 5, 2006

 

 

“Mission is the people of God giving witness to the reality of God through the church as the sign, foretaste and presence of the kingdom. Mission must therefore, be preoccupied with the nature of the one to whom it witnesses. We must speak of, announce, and witness to the God who is revealed as Father, Son and Spirit. This revelation is only known through Jesus Christ.”

 

Alan Roxburgh

 

 

Intro

 

John is a book about “belief” and mission. We saw last week that the creator of the universe has revealed Himself in the God-Man Jesus Christ. God is incarnate; He is “sent,” thus He is missional. We too are called to be missional. John the Baptist did what the apostles and the later followers of Jesus did. They became the witness to Him and His kingdom (Acts 1:8). John is an ordinary guy called by God to do an extraordinary work. He moved out into the wilderness to live an ascetic life and preach the good news of the coming Messiah. Like John, we’re called to be His witness. Like Christ, we are a “Child of God”[1] sent into the world to proclaim His kingdom. We are witnesses to the Christ event that made it possible for us to “know” God and become part of His purposed plan in the world.

 

 

From the Head…

 

John 1:1-18 was a missional song or poem describing the rest of the book’s content, introducing Jesus Christ as the “Word,” the one that reveals the Father (see verse 18). Twice in that song the author stops to remind us of the historical witness of John the Baptist (1:6-8 and ). These were short stops in the midst of this beautiful song about the incarnation of Christ, to bring us back to our world and to cement Christ into a real flesh and blood existence while testifying that He is a lot more than a flesh and blood being confined to the constraints of time forever. He represents God in His fullness, as verse one lays out for us, and though He is not the totality of the godhead, He is one with the Father. The author tells us that John testified that the Word was the “Light,” and in verse fifteen he testifies to the fact that the Word existed “before me” (pre-existent).

 

 

            Now John departs from the poetic musings of the “prologue” (John 1:1-18), and moves into a narrative stretch telling the author’s version of the story of Jesus and His public ministry.  Starting with the first two days, he reminds us what he was sent to do, and who is it that he was sent to be a witness of.

 

 

The Witness to the Presence of the Christ (John -28)

 

John has been a witness to the fact that Christ is the “Light” (John 1: 6-8) and the fact that Christ is pre-existent (John 1:15), but in these verses, he makes it quite clear that not only is Jesus God, but He is our good news. He is the one by whom we are forgiven for our sins and able to participate in the kingdom of God .

 

 

Who John Isn’t

 

The “Jews” here are not Jews in general, but some of the Jewish leaders defined here as “Priests and Levites” (v. 19) and some Pharisees most likely sent from the Sanhedrin (v. 24).

 

 

  1. He’s not the Christ (Isaiah 11:1-5)

     

  2. He’s not Elijah (Malachi 4:5 cf. Matthew ; Mark )

     

  3. He’s not the Prophet (Deuteronomy -18 cf. Matthew 11:9)

     

 

Who John Is

 

He is “A voice of one crying in the desert, making straight the way for the Lord” (See Isaiah 40:3). This quote, which comes from Isaiah 40:3, brings us to another time in the history of God’s people when they were in bondage (Babylonian captivity). God saved them from that bondage and the Isaiah verse is the announcement of the good news that the King is coming and the sins of His people have been paid for. While this was true, they were only released temporarily from physical bondage and were still judged for their sins.  Once again, we have a real event in the Old Testament acting as a projected type explaining how God would one day come and save the people from their sins. “Making straight the way,” refers to a process that would be done to the city’s roads to make them smooth for a dignitary or King. John is saying that he is the preparer. He is a herald preparing the way for a new king who would take away the sins of the world. He is a herald of a new kingdom, the one that is from God (see Mark , 15), a kingdom that usher’s humanity into another reality. It is that act (atonement) and that kingdom that we are to live and be a witness to. There was a song sung by the band Jethro Tull in the seventies that unfortunately highlights the “Christian” experience for far too many people in the 21st century. “If Jesus saves, well He better save Himself, from the gory, glory seekers who use His name in death.”  We are called to be a voice of compassion, love and truth to a world that only hears a cacophony from a confused and often self-righteous church in America .

 

 

John’s Baptism

 

John’s baptism, like any baptism that we do, does not save anyone. John’s baptism is a water baptism, which represents cleansing (John , 31 cf. Titus 3:5) and repentance (Acts 19:4). His baptism is symbolic, but it points to the baptism of Christ, which is done by the Holy Spirit (John ; Matthew ; Mark 1:8 cf. Acts 1:5, 1 Corinthians ). The authorities were confused because John, who claimed to have no authority, was baptizing Jews who would have no need to be baptized, because baptism was for converts. John’s baptism did not lead anyone to a new religion, but to a person who is a fulfillment of the symbols of the Jewish religion.

 

 

The Witness to the Nature and Work of Christ (John -34)

 

John’s witness is not innate, but revealed. Two times in verses 31-33 he says that John the Baptist did not know Christ until he baptized Him (“I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel”), and until he was told by God (“I would not have known Him except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me”).

 

 

  1. Jesus is the pre-existent “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

     

The word John chooses for “Lamb (Amnos)” is not the usual Passover sacrifice (Pascha, see Exodus ), but it could either refer to it, or refer to the sacrificial lamb of Isaiah 53:7 or Genesis 22:8. Either way it is a clear reference to the fact that Jesus is the end of the sacrificial system, which pointed to Him as the final sacrifice for our sins.

 

 

  1. Jesus is eternally anointed

     

Christ’s baptism was not so that He could be cleansed, but that He could be revealed as the anointed one of God (John -33), which was expected of the messiah as prophesied through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 11:2; 42:1). While it is true that the Spirit of God empowered other men and women of God, it did not “remain” on them as it does in Christ (John 1:33). Only Jesus is anointed to empower others to carry out His mission here on earth after He leaves (see Acts 1:5-8).

 

 

  1. Jesus is uniquely the “Son of God” (Chosen One)

     

Some manuscripts read “Chosen one of God” instead of “Son of God,” which appears to be in concert with the emphasis of John’s testimony about Jesus as the messiah and uniquely anointed of God (Isaiah 42:1). Either way, Christ is unique, even as the “Only begotten of God” (John , NASB).

 

 

… to the Heart

 

God uses John the Baptist to reveal His Son, and to prepare their hearts for Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit of God, so that they too could become heralds/witnesses of the power of God in the world (Acts 1:8). John humbled himself, and pointed to his savior. He pointed to the one that was promised from ancient times. He pointed to the one who would be the world’s savior and usher in a different kingdom. We are called to the same ministry as John.

 

 


[1] Jesus is the father’s  “Only begotten” (Monogenes), as opposed to being a “Child of God” which is the usual designation for His elect in the book of John.

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