For the past 80 years of so Time magazine has named a particularly influential person “MAN of the Year.” Not too long ago they expanded it to include women and now they call their award “PERSON of the Year.” You may remember that in 2009 that title went to Bert Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve. The year before it went to Barack Obama. Other “Person’s of the Year” have been Bill Clinton, Pope John Paul II, George W. Bush, and Mohandas Gandi.
Well, about ten years ago in an attempt to sell even more magazines TIME took their award a step further and named a “Person of the CENTURY.” They developed a list of who they thought were the 100 most significant people of the last hundred years, and then they chose the one they considered to be the absolute GREATEST…the GREATEST PERSON OF THE CENTURY. I don’t guess we’ll be around when TIME does this again…but does anyone remember who their first choice for this award was? I’ll give you a hint. He invented the concept of “a bad hair day.” Right! It was Albert Einstein.
I wonder—if we were to take an impromptu Redland poll—and ask everyone, “OTHER THAN JESUS—who would you choose as the greatest person of not just the century, but OF ALL TIME?” If I asked that, what kind of responses do you think we’d get?
- Perhaps some of you would say your grandfather—because of his great wisdom.
- Others might name their favorite president…or a Christian leader like Billy Graham.
- If we asked them next Sunday, Children who were might name their dad
Well, do you know who Jesus would name? And we don’t have to ask because He’s already given us His answer. In Matthew 11:11 Jesus—Who by the way is quite an authority on people—Jesus said, “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women, there has not risen anyone GREATER than John the Baptist.” I mention all this because today we will leave the prologue to John’s gospel and move into verse 19 of chapter 1, where he records His testimony of the FIRST WEEK of Jesus’ earthly ministry. And the FIRST person we encounter on that FIRST day is this John the Baptist—the Greatest Person of All Time—according to Jesus.
If you were here last week then you know we’ve already read a little about John the Baptist but in our text for this morning, we’ll focus on his life in more detail. You may remember that God chose John for the special privilege of INTRODUCING Jesus to the nation of Israel which meant he also had the difficult task of PREPARING that nation to receive the Messiah. We see the importance of both John and his special calling in the fact that he is mentioned at least 89 times in the New Testament.
Now—if you’ve ever read about John then I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that he was a very different kind of person. In his gospel account Mark tells us he came striding out of the desert wearing a coat made of camel hair with a home-made leather belt around his waist, eating locusts and wild honey—definitely not the kind of guy you would want your daughter to bring home one day. I think with his desert survival skills John would have done well on one of the SURVIVOR reality shows—but he would probably have been one of the first voted off the island because of the things he said. I mean, John definitely wasn’t a people pleaser. He didn’t hesitate to step on people’s toes if need be. He shot from the hip. In fact, his no-holes-barred truth telling is what got John beheaded. Remember, when he preached against the sexual immorality of King Herod? I mean, John wasn’t a salesman, who would try to sweet talk you into something. Nor was he a politician, who would try to match his words to the popular opinion of the day. No John didn’t care what PEOPLE said or thought about him. All he cared about was pleasing God, so His sole focus was on delivering God’s message.
But—in spite of his non-PC mode of preaching and his radical diet and dress, John became immensely popular. In his gospel, Luke tells us that “multitudes” went out to hear him preach. Matthew says that people came to hear him from “Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.” (Matthew 3:5) And these multitudes included all segments of the population—Pharisees, Sadducees, tax collectors, soldiers, the rich, and the poor.
Why do you think John had such broad appeal? I mean, why did the multitudes come? I believe it was because, like Nicodemus, that hungry-hearted Pharisee we talked about two weeks ago—like him the people of that day longed to hear from God. Remember, it had been 400 years since a prophet had appeared in Israel and that shouldn’t have been a surprise because the prophet Amos had foretold these centuries of “spiritual famine.” Listen as I read Amos 8:11:“The days are coming, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.” The literature written in those “famine years” between the Old and New Testaments…it reveals the yearning in men’s hearts to hear some word from their Creator.
Word spread that God’s voice could be heard in John’s bold, no-compromise preaching, so like thirsty animals being drawn by the smell of water, people came from everywhere. Everyone sensed that with John’s message, the years of silence had finally ended. Well, when word of this phenomenon reached the ears of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, they sent a deputation to check this guy out—and that leads us to this morning’s text. So, take your Bibles and follow along as I read, beginning with verses 19-34 of chapter 1 which includes the Apostle John’s account of the first two days of Jesus’ ministry. Then we’ll skip ahead to chapter 3 verses 22-30 and read some of the last words spoken by the Baptist.
19 – Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.
20 – He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.”
21 – They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
22 – Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 – John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’
24 – Now some Pharisees who had been sent
25 – questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 – “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands One you do not know.
27 – He is the One Who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 – This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!
30 – This is the One I meant when I said, ‘A man Who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’
31 – I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.”
32 – Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him.
33 – I would not have known Him, except that the One Who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The Man on Whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He Who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
34 – I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
3:22 – After this, Jesus and His disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them, and baptized.
23 – Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized.
24 – (This was before John was put in prison.)
25 – An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing.
26 – They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that Man Who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the One you testified about—well, He is baptizing, and everyone is going to Him.”
27 – To this John replied,“A man can receive only what is given him from Heaven.
28 – You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of Him.’
29 – The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
30 – He must become greater; I must become less.
Okay—this morning as we look at the life and ministry of John the Baptist, I want us to try and understand what it is that made him such an amazing person. I want us to do this because if Jesus said John was the greatest man ever born…then wouldn’t you agree that he’s the kind of guy we should emulate? So—what makes John a prototype of the kind of person we should strive to be? I want to mention two things and the first is…
(1) … John’s ATTITUDE.
You see, in spite of his great popularity, John remained a HUMBLE man and the clearest indication of this was the way he always put Jesus first. I’m reminded of the stone wall at the entrance to my daughter’s alma mater, Messiah College, that says, “Christ pre-eminent” because that was John’s attitude. Jesus Christ was always first.
Usually when I preach and have a point to make I have to search books or the Internet or think of an incident from my own life to illustrate what I’m trying to say…but not today. You see, John the Baptist was a preacher too—so he’s already included two wonderful illustrations right here in the text—two word pictures that God inspired him to use.
A. The first is found in the interview that took place when the emissaries from the Sanhedrin arrived and asked him who he was.
John knew what they were getting at so when they asked about his identity, he gave them a very forceful reply. He said, “I am not the Christ!”
Now—in John’s day there had already been several messianic pretenders. Historians like Josephus tell us this—and in Acts 5:36-37, Gamaliel talked about some of these false Christs as well when he said, “Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.” In Acts 21:38 some people even asked Paul if he were the Messiah saying, “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?” I mention this so that you’ll understand that with John’s great popularity it would have been very easy for him to announce that yes, he was the Messiah. If he had done so, I’m certain that the multitudes would have followed much more eagerly than they had followed the others who claimed to be the Christ. But not only did John refuse to give in to that temptation, he also implied that the One Who was actually the Messiah had come and was already on the ground—already in Israel. You see, by this time he had baptized Jesus and when he did God revealed to him that his cousin was the Messiah. We see how firmly John believed this in the forcefulness of his reply. Look at verse 20 where it says that John, “…did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.” And, in the Greek the personal pronoun is emphasized so it could be translated, “I am not the Messiah—but the One Who is stands among you. He’s already come.” But, instead of asking for more information about the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah, this one-track-minded delegation pressed on in their interrogation and asked, “Well, if you’re not the Messiah, then, are you Elijah?”
They asked this because they knew it had been prophesied that Elijah would return. In the very last verses of the Old Testament book of Malachi, God had said, “I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.” But they misunderstood the prophecy. Elijah would come—but not in the flesh—at least not yet. As the angel had said to his father prior to his birth, John would, “…go on before the Lord, in the SPIRIT and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” In any case, when asked if he was Elijah in the flesh John said, “I am not.” Well, with two “no responses” under their belt, these guys asked John if he was “the prophet,” a reference to something Moses said in Deuteronomy 18: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”But John denied being “the prophet” as well. So in essence they said, “Well you have exhausted our checklist. If you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet…then who or what are you? Give us an answer to take back to the other priests and Levites.” And in his response John gives us our first word picture—our first SERMON ILLUSTRATION as he said, “I am the VOICE of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
Note how John HUMBLED himself here in the things he did NOT say.
- He did NOT say, “I am John, the son of Zacharias the priest.”
- He did not say… “An angel foretold my birth….God made it possible for me to be born to elderly parents.”
- He did not say… “The Holy Spirit entered my body when I was still in my mother’s womb.”
- He did not say, “I am God’s greatest prophet and the Messiah is my cousin.”
- He didn’t even say he was a man!
He simply said, “I am but a VOICE.” No claims for himself…just a voice crying out,“Make straight the way of the Lord.” Now, in John’s day, the roads of Israel were not surfaced. They were mere tracks and when it rained the tracks made by carts would harden into ruts. When a king was about to visit a province—or when a conqueror was about to travel through his domains—the roads he would use were repaired—smoothed and straightened out and put in order. So, what John was saying then was this, “I am a nobody; I’m just the road repairman; I am only a voice telling you to get ready for the coming of the King…He is on the way.” In short, John was what every preacher, teacher—every CHRISTIAN—ought to be…a VOICE pointing to the King.
Listen friends, anytime people see US instead of Jesus, anytime WE grab the spotlight—anytime we get in the way of people hearing of God’s great love…we are straying from the standard that John the Baptist has set. To be great in God’s eyes we must remember that we are NOT great. We are to be just a voice—pointing people to Jesus. We must always remember that if we do anything good—God must get the praise for as John said in verse 27, “A man can receive only what is given him from Heaven.”
B. The second word picture is in John’s third chapter.
Jesus was baptizing up river from John and every day more of John’s multitude were leaving John and going to hear Jesus. When John’s followers asked him how he felt about the dwindling of his multitude, he once again showed his humility. Listen again to verses 28-30 where John says, “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of Him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
Now, you may remember that in the Old Testament the nation of Israel is repeatedly pictured as the bride and God as the Bridegroom. For example, when Israel left to follow false idols, God used this word picture and charged them with spiritual ADULTERY. This is the picture John had in mind here. He knew that Jesus was God in the flesh which made Israel His rightful bride. So John drew on that word picture said he was the FRIEND of the bridegroom…the “shoshben” in Hebrew. Now—the shoshben had a unique place at a Jewish wedding. He was like a combination best man/wedding director. He arranged the wedding. He delivered the invitations and set everything up for the wedding feast. And—when all this was done he had one more VERY SPECIAL duty. You see, after the ceremony, it was his job to be the liaison between the bride and the bridegroom. It was his task to guard the bedchamber where the bride waited and let no false lover in. He would only open the door when he heard and recognized the bridegroom’s voice. When he did, he let the groom in and then went away rejoicing for his task was completed. He did not begrudge the bridegroom and the bride their joy. He knew that his only task had been to bring them together and when that was done, he willingly and gladly faded out of the picture.
Do you see the connection? John’s task was to bring me Messiah and Israel together. Once that was done he was happy to fade into obscurity…like the echo of a voice that eventually becomes inaudible. So it was not with ENVY that he said Jesus must increase and he must decrease. It was with the JOYFUL AWARENESS that he had done the job God entrusted him with.
Well, as I said, this is one way we should emulate John. We should do everything we can to point people to Jesus. That should be our joy. Anytime people start focusing on US and praising US for what we do…anytime we find ourselves wanting to make sure people notice what WE do for God…we are treading on dangerous territory…because our job is like John’s. We are to point people to Jesus. It’s not about us—EVER. I like what the great missionary William Carey said,“When I am gone, don’t talk about William Carey; talk about William Carey’s Savior.”
Listen, until we come to the place in our lives where all we care about is promoting Jesus, then we’ll continue to try to steal the show. We need to embrace the kind of self-denial that John practiced. Jesus must increase. We must decrease. Our lives are to be about Jesus, but so often we make it about us. Someone has said that this is a struggle of E.G.O.’s. When your ego is too big, then you’re stealing attention that belongs to Christ. When your ego is involved, think of this word as an acronym because you are Edging God Out. When God gets edged out, you’ll lift yourself up in pride and start to think you deserve credit for what is accomplished in your life. And of course you don’t. Anything good that sinners like you and me accomplish is because of God’s power.
Well, let me ask, are you guilty of doing that? Is there any way that you are pridefully trying to grab some of God’s glory? Are you pointing people to Jesus—or to self? If you honestly see some ways that you are INCREASING when you should be DECREASING, focus on Jesus and what He has done for you. As Romans 12:3 says,“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
Arthur W. Pink once said,“Humility is not the product of direct cultivation, rather it is a by-product. The more I try to be humble, the less shall I attain unto humility. But if I am truly occupied with the One Who was ‘meek and lowly in heart,’ if I am constantly beholding HIS glory in the mirror of God’s Word, then shall I be ‘changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord’ (2 Cor. 3:18)”
The second thing that makes John great—someone we should emulate—is this:
(2) …His ACTIONS.
I mean, John didn’t just sit around being humble. He ACTED. He did the good work that God had prepared in advance for him to do…specifically—he was faithful to proclaim the message God had given him. I mean his was a VOICE was always crying out in ways that helped people understand Who Jesus was…and what He came to do.
For example, look back at verse 25 where John’s interrogators asked, “If you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, why do you BAPTIZE?” He answered their question by saying, “The reason I came baptizing with water was so that He—the Christ—the One Whose sandals I am not worthy to untie—I came baptizing with water that HE might be revealed to Israel.” (Vs 25, 31)
Now—these religious leaders asked this question because in their minds water baptism was something Gentiles did….Gentiles converting to Judaism. Being immersed was a way for these non-Jews—these pagans to admit and repent of their sins. But John was baptizing everyone—even the JEWS! He was saying that they were just as bad as the pagans in the world. And we have to understand how shocking this would have been to them. It would be like criticizing a nun to her face or ranting at a Salvation Army officer. John was challenging the Jewish concept that every descendant of Abraham was already in God’s kingdom. Listen to what he said to them in Luke 3:7ff, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” So John’s actions were shocking to the Jewish establishment. His message raised eyebrows for he was saying as Paul would later, that “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
But that’s not all John did. He didn’t just tell his listeners that they were sinners. No—he also told them that our Loving God had come in the flesh—come to do something about our sin. When our Lord walked by, John said, “Look, there He is! That Man is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. This is the One I was talking about. I baptize with water but He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”
Now—this delegation would have understood the phrase “lamb of God” Back then, every Jew would have understood the concept of a SACRIFICIAL LAMB. They had learned about it first from the story of Abraham going up the mountain to sacrifice his son. Do you remember when Bobby told us of that day a few weeks back? As they hiked up that mountain Abraham told Isaac that God would provide Himself a lamb to die in his son’s place and God did. Israel had also known about the sacrificial lamb as a result of the institution of the Passover—when the blood of an innocent lamb was put on the doorpost of their homes to keep the death angel away. And—they knew that every day in the services of the temple lambs and goats were sacrificed for sins. They knew that in every instance those sacrifices meant the death of an innocent substitute in place for the one who had sinned. So—they would have understood that John was proclaiming the shocking message that the Messiah would be the Lamb of God—come to die for our sins. After all, he was echoing Isaiah’s prophesy, saying that the temple sacrifices were to be fulfilled in the Messiah—Jesus—Who would bear our sin. Do you remember Isaiah’s words?
“Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed.” (Is 53:4-5)
I like to think that as John said this about Jesus…as he identified Him as the sin-bearing Lamb…I like to think that the flocks of lambs that were driven up to the walls of Jerusalem each year to serve a sacrificial lambs for the Passover were passing by. This is not far-fetched because the Passover feast was not far off (John 2:12-13) so perhaps John was led to refer to Jesus in this fashion…because those lambs walking by showed vividly that Jesus was able to deliver from death those who believed in Him.
I read an illustration that I really struggled with whether or not to use. It is graphic but it really gripped my heart. A young man worked in a slaughter house, putting to death cattle, hogs, chickens, turkeys; you name it he did it. One day he was told to slaughter a lamb. The young man said,
“Usually I would just slit the throat of the beast and it would fall to the ground. I’ve never killed a lamb. And, I would usually have to chase down the animal to be killed. They were all very skittish; probably because of the smell of death and blood. But you know, this little lamb just walked right up to me and nudged my hand with his head. I gritted my teeth and stuck to my routine. Grabbing under the chin of the lamb, I put the knife to his throat, and pulled hard and swift. The cut was deep, severing it’s throat, and blood sprayed everywhere. I let go of the animal and it staggered as if it were drunk. With it’s blood all over my hands, I dropped the knife in disbelief, and what happened next changed my life completely as a Christian. The lamb did not fall to it’s knees gasping for breath. The little lamb staggered back to me and nudged my bloody hand for the second time with his nose, and started to lick the blood from my hands! I could not believe what I was experiencing! It made me think of how Christ endured His suffering and painful death for me on Calvary, washing my sins away with His precious blood. Something wet started splashing on the ground, and it was coming from my face. I was weeping. I quit that job, that day.”
That day this young man understood what John was saying—that Jesus, the Messiah, is the Lamb of God—Who because of His great love for you and me…allowed Himself to be crucified, dying so we wouldn’t have to.
Well, do you see the faithfulness of John’s ACTIONS here? Whenever he had the chance he told people the basic Gospel message, that they were sinners who needed to repent…and that the Messiah had come…come to die so their sins could be washed away.
I wonder—what would happen in Derwood if more Redlanders patterned their lives after the man Jesus called the Greatest man of all time? What would change if we strove to be as humble as John….always pointing people toward Jesus? What difference would it make in our community if we were as faithful as he was to call people to repentance and tell them of what Jesus did on the cross? I wonder!
As I told you when I began, Jesus said that no one was better than John the Baptist—that in essence he was the Greatest Man of All Time. But did you ALSO know that in a very real sense the “contest” for this title is not over? In Matthew 11:11 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not been anyone greater than John the Baptist… and then Jesus said, “…yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” If we embrace John’s attitude and actions….if we humble ourselves and do all we can to help people understand Who Jesus is…and What He has done….God can do even greater things through us!
Let us pray.