The Dilemma Of No Knowledge
By Woodrow Kroll
The Gospel of John
Ignorance may be bliss, but not if you need a Savior. Today we'll see what it means for people who have absolutely no knowledge of Jesus. I personally can't imagine being completely unaware of Him, who He is, and what He did for us on the cross. But, perhaps you do, you remember what it was to live without any knowledge that you had a Savior and that His name was Jesus Christ.
John is a great Book, the Gospel of John. So are the Epistles of John. In John's Gospel and in his Epistles, John is very, very concerned that we have some knowledge. Let me just read a verse to you. This comes from the next to the last chapter of John; it's verse 30 and 31 of John 20. It says this:
"And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."
John, the disciple, the apostle, was interested in people knowing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. And by the way, the last two verses of the Gospel of John, verse 24 and 25 of chapter 21, "This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony...." Look at the know, K-N-O-W, "and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen."
See, from the beginning chapter of John, John chapter 1, to the ending chapter of John, John the apostle is very much interested in you and I knowing something about the Lord Jesus. That's why he writes his Book. And that's why you find the word K-N-O-W so frequently in John's writings. Now here in John, chapter 1, he is interested in telling us the story of John the Baptist standing there answering questions by the Scribes and the Pharisees, by the religious leaders of his day, and answering the question that he is not the Messiah, that he is simply there as a voice crying in the wilderness. He is there only to introduce the whole crowd to the Savior of the world.
Now here's the problem. Jesus was among this crowd; He was actually in the crowd that day when John introduced Him to this group. He says in verse 26, "John answered them, saying, 'I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.'" Now, I want to camp on those words for a few minutes now.
I want you to think with me what it means for people who do not know that Jesus stands in our midst. If you are here today and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, what does it mean for you? If back home you have a spouse, or neighbors, or friends, or family, or children, or someone, somebody you work with, who does not know Jesus Christ as Savior, what does that mean?
See, the same situation that applies here for John the Baptist applies for you and me as we face the 21st century. "There stands One among you whom you do not know." These people were lost, not because Jesus was not present, they were lost because they had never recognized who Jesus is. And the most important Person to know in all the world, is to know the Lord Jesus. And John is there specifically to introduce to the world this Person Jesus Christ.
Now, what happens if you don't know Jesus? What is the dilemma of having no knowledge about Jesus? Let me suggest to you today several things.
First of all, for these people who did not know Jesus was in their midst; and for people today who do not know Jesus is alive, Jesus is the Savior, Jesus is the coming King of kings--for people who do not know Jesus, no knowledge of Jesus leads to a belief in no Savior at all.
Now I've seen this, and I think you probably have as well. When people say, "There is no Jesus to save me," that "Jesus is just a historical figure, he is not the Savior of the world," sometimes that leads people to believe that if Jesus is not the Savior, there is no Savior at all. If they do not know the One that is their midst, then they're not looking for anyone to be in their midst. Isn't that true? You have people at the office right now who do not know Jesus as Savior, and they're not looking for another Savior because they just don't believe there is a Savior.
Now, what does it mean for people who believe that there is no Savior? They don't believe Jesus is that Savior; they don't believe anybody is that Savior--what does it mean for them? Let me suggest to you that it means a total loss of identity for them. Isn't it interesting what we do today to become recognized? I mean, there are people who will do just about anything to get in the Guinness book of records. Isn't that true? They'll walk on hot coals, they'll kiss with hot lips, they'll do all kinds of weird and crazy things just to get recognized, just to provide identity for themselves.
And then you know what happens? Somebody comes along and does it two seconds longer than they did it, and they're out. And what happens to them? Their identity is gone. You and I live in a world filled with heroes. But heroes get old and decrepit, and the first thing you know, somebody will hit more homeruns than our hero will hit. Somebody will have a higher percentage. Somebody will shoot a lower score than our hero will. And the first thing you know, the hero loses his identity.
Now, I enjoy sports a lot. I live in Nebraska and we don't have any pro teams at all in Nebraska. Now, why do you laugh at that? A big state like us--we have a million and a half residents--why would we not have a pro team! But we do have college football, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers have been known to win a game now and then. And I live in a town in which they are absolutely nuts...I mean, they go crazy during the fall of the year because it's football season.
If you don't wear red on Friday before a Saturday game, you can walk into a bank in Lincoln, Nebraska, and not get served. I mean, they'll just tell you to "Get out of here." It's serious business, friends, it really is! And yet, some of those athletes who have great, great potential, and some of those athletes who get great identity around the city of Lincoln, in fact around the nation, around the world, end up not making it in the NFL.
I've always been amused at the fact that the great identity of some people comes from the great ability they have to take a round ball and drop it through a round steel rim and get paid zillions of dollars to do it. Or they can take a stick...and they can hit a ball! And they can go out on strike, and "We'll be back." Because they're identity is wrapped up in their athletic ability. But you know what happens? As soon as they don't have the ability anymore, they don't have the identity anymore.
But I want you to know if your identity comes through Jesus Christ as your Savior, if He repairs the relationship between you and the Father, your identity is restored--the identity with which God created you, being the crown of His creation. That identity comes through your knowledge of Jesus Christ as Savior. And when people believe there is no Savior, then they say, "There is no way for me to have identity," as well.
One of the things that happens when there is a belief that there cannot be a Savior, is that there is a belief that "there cannot be an identity for me," "there could be no eternal identity for me." Or, "there could be no eternal purpose for me." If you watch people go through life having no idea what they're doing...and they go from this job to that job, they go from this place to that place, sometimes they go from this spouse to that spouse, looking for purpose--for without a Savior, friends, there is no purpose.
That's why suicide in the United States of America has a higher number of fatalities every year than homicide does. We kill ourselves at a higher rate than we kill other people because we have no purpose in life. If you believe there is no Savior, it's going to rob you of identity and it will rob you of purpose.
Do you know what else it will do? It will rob you of hope. It will rob you of the belief that there is hope beyond this life. You will just kind of go through life thinking like Macbeth did, saying that "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." And if you haven't spent any time out in the world, you probably don't know, but that's pretty much the way the world views life.
When there is a Savior in your midst and you do not recognize that He is there, it will lead you to believe there is no Savior at all. But there is a second thing I've noticed in my excursion through life, and that is this. John the Baptist said, "there stands One among you whom you do not know." And when people do not know the Savior, no knowledge of Jesus leads to a belief in self-saviors.
And this is on the rise in the world today. Self-saviors. "No, Jesus is not the Savior. I am the savior. I am my own savior." This is what the whole New Age movement is about. "I don't need a Savior. All I need to do is think more positively about myself. I don't need a Savior. Everything I have, everything I need, is already found within me." In our New Age day, in our post-modern day in which we don't believe in anything, we believe there are no absolutes, there are no standards, there are no rules, "I'll make up my own rules, thank you," suddenly we find ourselves saying, "All right, if there stands a Savior in my midst, I can recognize him because I am he."
It's no wonder we're so messed up, friends. If we think we can be our own Savior, this world is in bigger trouble than most of us realize. And there are lots of people today that are so sucked into materialism, that they see themselves as their own Savior--they can buy their way out of anything. Now, in the United States, at least, you may be from other countries and your economy may be different from ours, but we have been riding a high in this country. And I'm afraid that most Americans are in for a rude awakening at some point. And, not that the stock market will crash, but that we will crash because we have spent everything and saved nothing.
Materialism. We've got to have it, and we've got to have it now. And the reason we've got to have it is because our neighbor has it. Somebody else at the office has it. I have to have a bigger one. I have to have a better one, a faster one, a newer one, a prettier one, and I'll get rid of the old one to get that bigger, better, faster, prettier one. See, it's a whole mindset in which the Savior stands among us, but we do not know Him. And because we do not know Him, we think we are the Savior. What we can do for ourselves is more than sufficient to be our savior.
Finally, let me just suggest that there's a third response when people see the Savior standing in their midst and don't recognize Him. Sometimes people say, "There is no Savior." Sometimes people say, "I'm the savior." But sometimes people say, "No, no knowledge of Jesus leads to a belief in multiple Saviors. There are many, many Saviors."
Now, I've preached the Gospel in over 50 countries in the world, and in the process of doing that, I have encountered Buddhists who believe Buddha is a way to God, Muslims who believe that Mohammed is a way to God, Moonies who believe Sun Myung Moon; or the people who followed David Koresh, or Marshall Applewhite, or Jim Jones, or somebody. All these roads lead to God. There are multiple Saviors. Now, I have to tell you, friends, that is the DUMBEST thing I've ever heard of.
Some of you are familiar with Interstate 95 going up the East Coast of the United States. You get on Interstate 95 somewhere near Richmond and you want to go to Florida. So you get on 95 and you go north! And you see Washington and Philadelphia and right up the East Coast, and you wonder why it's getting colder every minute. And there are no palm trees. And the answer, friends, is 95 North doesn't go to Florida. You can get on 95 South, if you want to go to San Francisco you'll never get there. That is the dumbest thing I ever heard of--all roads lead to God. Listen, all roads don't ever lead to the same place.
If you want to go to God's heaven, my friend, you have to go in God's way. And Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). And I have a lot of people tell me, "You Christians, you're a pretty exclusivistic bunch." And I say, "You're right, friend. You are absolutely right. Because the Bible says, "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Not one, not a multiplicity of names, not a multiplicity of religions, and not a multiplicity of roads.
John the Baptist did not say to these people, "I am not the Messiah, I am not the Prophet, I am not Elijah, but there are lots of people here who could be." John the Baptist said, "there is One among you whom you do not know." And that One, my friend, is Jesus Christ.
The dilemma of not knowing the Savior means, not that the Savior did not come--He did come--the dilemma of not knowing the Savior does not mean that God has not met with us in His love. Listen to this. Just three chapters later:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:16-18).
You see, Jesus is in our midst. God sent His Son to this world to die for us. John the Baptist introduced this crowd to the Lord Jesus, and the problem with the crowd was they did not know who He was. And I want you to know, friends, that facing the 21st century, facing the years ahead of us in a new millennium, the problem is exactly the same as it was in the first century. Jesus is here; the world just doesn't recognize Him.
And, you and I have the opportunity simply to say one little thing--that He is here, and I am not worthy, but He is the Messiah. It's not hard. In fact, it's pretty easy. And we don't have to be theologically trained, and we don't have to be dapper in our dress, all we have to do is to recognize that the One who came to save the world is already here and we have to tell the world about Him. Are you willing to do that today?
When you go back home, or even before you go back home, are you willing just to say to someone that you know and someone you appreciate, or perhaps someone you don't appreciate, "There was One who stands among you whom you do not know, I want to introduce you to Him"? It's the greatest joy of the Christian life, simply to say, "Here He is. He's the One."
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