(John 1:20)
�And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.�
I was stunned. I had watched this young boy break the door at a local convenience store. There was no one but him within twenty yards of the store when he pulled the door out of its frame. I had driven nearly two hundred miles to appear in court as a witness.
The judge said, �Not guilty.�
I looked at the judge in disbelief as the room emptied. The judge came by and said, �You and I both know he did it. We�ll get him next time.� What! Next time? We had him this time.
Another local judge reduced the charges against another young man in another trial. The judge said, �I can find no evidence that the actions caused great physical harm.� Since the man assaulted had died as the results of the actions of the accused, and convicted, man, I was pretty well certain that this was a very obvious case of great physical harm.
All too often our judicial system has very little resemblance to a reasonable search for truth. All too often our judicial system more resembles a sporting event where the rules of the game are more important than the outcome of the proceedings. Truth, if it is found, is secondary to the rules of engagement.
It sort of makes one half afraid to put himself in the position of being a witness. I don�t know all the arcane rules of the game. I may find myself in the penalty box of this hockey game because I didn�t wear the proper equipment.
It is hard to be a confident witness - even of events about which we have a clear and concise recollection.
In our text verse today, John the Baptist had no such problem in his testimony.
John gave a very commendable answer when he was questioned. �And he confessed...�
John the Baptist was a enormously popular preacher among the people of the region. He was seen as a prophet in the mode of the Old Testament prophets of God. This was something for which the people of the day longed.
It was a time of expectation as the people waited for the Messiah to come and rescue them from the bondage of the Roman occupation. John could have inserted himself into the equation of their expectations. There were others who had gained great notoriety by making the claim. Surely John, with his popular preaching, could have stepped into a very favored positions with the simple answer, �Yes. I am he.�
But, John knew better than this. John spoke explicitly in answering the questions of these leaders who had come to question him. He didn�t �hem and haw� about the matter. He just forthrightly answered that he was not the promised Messiah. �But,� he continued, �I am one who has the mission of speaking of him.�
That is our mission, as well, in this day. We are to speak of the Messiah Who has already come. We even have an advantage over John in this duty. Whereas John had to speak of the coming Savior, we can look back and say, �This is He Who came to save the world from their sins.� We can even access the pages of the inspired Scripture of the New Testament to give a picture of this Jesus.
John the Baptist spoke eloquently about this coming Savior. John said, �He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe�s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.� (John 1:27) Here again we have an advantage which John did not have. We can speak of the Savior Who has saved our souls and given us a purpose in life. We can speak of the Savior Who rose from the dead and is alive today.
We may not have the eloquence of John, but we have the experience of having the risen Lord within our lives. We may speak of His leading, His convicting power, His sweet forgiveness of our sins of omission and commission which energizes us to live even better and more spiritually powerful than we could without His presence.
John also spoke from experience. He had the experience of a study of the Scripture. So can we. He had the experience of a life of prayer with the Father. So can we.
What he did not have was the experience of the indwelling Spirit and the full forgiveness of his sins which is our inheritance from the risen Savior.
But, John did have an experience that most of us, sadly, lack. He had the experience of complete trust in the God of eternity. John�s general operating procedure was to say, �O. K. God, you said to do it. I might not understand all the reasons for this; but I certainly can just move out in Your will.�
Too often the operating procedure of the Christian is to find God�s leading and then head out for a boat just like Jonah. We are too often only ready to move when we find ourselves in the sanctuary of the sea creature�s belly.
Even then, too many of us just can�t be bothered to be the type of witness God has called us to be!
John, however, had a courageous answer. �...and denied not; but confessed...�
His answer was a courageous answer because he knew what this meant for his own ministry and life. �He must increase, but I must decrease.� (John 3:30)
There is something about the preacher as a human being. He wants to be important. I think that is just part of the makeup of one who would accept a position speaking forth the Words of Life in front of a crowd every week. This type of person must have a confidence in himself. He should be humble, and most are, in his spiritual life. But, there must be something that is self-assured about him if he is to stand in the pulpit of the Lord.
Amazingly enough, this was not a problem for John the Baptist. He was very clear in his denial of his own importance and in the inestimateable importance of his Lord.
I was watching a football game a few days ago. A runner made a large gain. The announcer said, �He ran flawlessly upfield. He didn�t waste time going left and right; he just went straight toward the goal.�
That�s what John the Baptist did here. He answered flawlessly. He didn�t spent time trying to explain what the meaning of �is� is. He just answered the question without a moments hesitation. He said, �No. I am not the Messiah. There is Another coming after me Who is better than I. It is He that is of importance. Not me!�
He didn�t leave room for anyone to misunderstand his meaning. He didn�t parse his testimony to suggest any importance of his own person. He gave a witness to the Lord Who would come. That was his job. He completed that for the Lord as he had been commissioned.
Sometimes that is hard to do. But, John answered fearlessly.
Sometimes we are afraid to witness for our Lord. I don�t know why this is so; but it is! We are afraid of rejection. We are afraid that we are not competent to give the witness. We are afraid that we might not have enough knowledge of the Scripture to speak of Christ.
When I was a witness in the court case above, I was not consulted about all the intricacies of the law. That wasn�t my purpose. I didn�t have to give a background on the life of the accused. That wasn�t my purpose. What I did have to do was to explain simply that which I had seen. That was my purpose.
Our purpose in a witness for the Lord is not to explain every single nuance of the eschatological ramification of the dispensational readings of the promises given to Abraham in the Old Testament. Our purpose is not to convict one of sin in his life. Our purpose, often, is not even to lead one to the Lord. We are to simply tell that which we have experienced through the salvation offered by Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary.
When we are simply obedient to do that to which we are called, and to add the power of God through the medium of prayer, we need have no fear of man or failure. We simply are doing our job for God.
When I was ready to leave the Republic of South Vietnam back in 1969, I missed the airplane coming home. The army got real upset with me. My duty was to be where they told me to be when they told me to be there. I didn�t have to win a war. I just had to do what I was told.
It is the same with us in the Army of the Redeemed. We are just to perform our duty. The results are in God�s hands.
John also answered factually. He didn�t try to make any great arguments about the coming Savior. He just told that which he knew.
Do you know that the best argument we could possibly make is nothing against the power of Satan? Satan can overcome our best argument with a flick of his wrist.
But, when we tell the true Story of Jesus Christ, and back that story with prayer to the Spirit, we are undefeatable. Satan can not overcome the power of God.
When my son was about seven years old we used to go out into the back yard and play basketball. Our game was �horse.� To make it even, I had to shoot from thirty feet or further while Ethan could shoot from five feet in. Needless to say, Ethan won most of the games. That, really, was my purpose. I was trying to build his confidence.
One day Ethan wanted to play �real� basketball. I explained that would not be fair since I would get every single rebound. He didn�t believe me - for a while. That is sort of like Satan trying to overcome the argument and leading of God. Satan ain�t got a chance. There wouldn�t even be a �fluke� rebound. Satan is without the possibility of any success. God will win every single time!
Count on it because that is the simple truth.
Most importantly, though, John gave the correct answer. �...I am not the Christ.�
John simply confessed his condition. He was a sinner. He may have been made a partaker of the promises of God through faith. But, he was a sinner.
I hear many preachers speaking about many other people being engaged in sinful activities. Those preachers are relentless in their attacks on others. But, they seem to have forgotten that they, too, have the taint of sin within their past. They may now be born again. But, they were born again by the Blood of Jesus Christ shed on the Cross of Calvary. It was not their own goodness or merit that saved their souls!
We have no right to attack anyone over their sin. We have the obligation to point out the obvious fact that God does not honor sin. Sin is anathema to God. Sin separates people from the love of God. Sin is an abomination.
But, the purpose of Jesus coming into this world was to save people from their sin. We are right to point out the sinfulness of sin. But we are not right to berate the sinner. Jesus never let anyone think that they were righteous in their sin. But, He never attacked people. He simply attracted them to adopt a new life in Him.
John also confessed his conviction. His conviction was that the coming Savior would lead people from their sin.
John was convinced that his job was to lead people to righteousness in preparation for the coming Messiah.
That is our job - of a sort. Our conviction must be that �...There is none righteous, no, not one.� (Romans 3:10) We must understand that, �...all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.� (Romans 3:23)
We, in our personal work, must understand that no one can be truly righteous in and of themselves. We must lead them to accept the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
True Christianity is not a �self help� plan to make people better. True Christianity is a rescue effort to lead those who cannot help themselves into the salvation which can only come by faith in Jesus Christ!
To this ultimate end, we see that John confessed his Christ.
John didn�t spend his preaching career leading people into simple �good works.� John spent his preaching time to lead people toward the coming Messiah.
That, alone, was his purpose. John wasn�t out to make a �name,� or a �reputation� for himself. John came to be a witness that there was a coming Savior.
�Prepare to meet the Lord,� was the purpose of the message and preaching of John the Baptist.
What about you? Are you prepared to meet the Lord?
I can very confidently say that you are ready to meet the Lord! He doesn�t ask that you �clean up your act,� or learn any sort of catechism. Jesus only asks that you accept Him on the basis of what He has already done on the cross.
Why not simply do that right now?
Just accept Jesus as your Savior. That is the purpose of our preaching. It is for that purpose that God has spoken to you today. He desires to be your Savior.
Accept Him today!