(John 1:32)
�And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.�
Some, especially adherents of the New Age philosophy, would argue that this verse teaches that the human Jesus was endued with the �Christ Spirit� at the point of His baptism. Extrapolating this doctrine they are able to argue that there have been many with the �Christ Spirit� throughout human history.
They would allege that each of the religious teachers of history was somehow filled with the same �Divine Energy� as was Jesus. This view makes Jesus just another mere man who was no different in type and ability than were any of the other �enlightened master�s� of the various religious traditions. Therefore, all religions are equally valid and Jesus is not the unique Savior of the World as is taught in the Biblically based churches.
This is but one of the dangers of attempting to take a Bible verse out of context and use it to make a point that it does not make.
The first three verses of this first chapter of the Gospel of John declare that Jesus is God in human form. In opposition to the pantheist who might agree with this in character by asserting that all are part of the �great God consciousness� of the entirety of creation, verse three instructs us that Jesus is the Great First Cause. �All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.�
The point made by John is that Jesus is the Creator God. He is the fountainhead of everything that was created. As such, He is then placed outside of the creation of the physical universe since this entire phenomena is of His handiwork. Therefore, Jesus predates (to use a time centric phrase) all of the created beings. This being true, Jesus is shown to be God in the narrow sense of that One Supreme Being.
He is not �a god,� as some would suppose. He is THE GOD, as the Scriptures declare. It is the unity of the Godhead which is illustrated in this passage, as the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus. This is a picture not intended to �empower� Jesus. This is a picture which is given to John and the others of the fact that Jesus is the Creator God. The picture is of Jesus as the God of the Universe, not as being temporarily empowered as a mere human instrument.
The first thing we should notice in this passage is the record of the sight. �And John bare record��
I was outside a few minutes ago. I carried some trash cans into the back yard so that they would not be just laying around loose in our front yard. The act of carrying those trash cans is illustrative of what John did with this truth about Jesus. He carried, or bore, this fact with him in all of his life.
John bore the message of Jesus in his work. John is often called �The Baptist.� His �work,� or mission, in the world was to lead people toward repentance from their sins. But, also part of his message was that of a forerunner. He was tasked with preparing the world for the entrance of the Savior.
Several years ago I worked in Country/Western music as an employee of a promotion company. My job was in publicity. I was to get out the word that an artist, or group, was coming to a town to entertain the populace. That is how we sold our tickets!
The �job� of John was as an �advance man� for the coming Savior of the World. John was to warn people about the sin in their lives. John was also to point to the coming Savior.
John also did this same thing in his walk in the world.
I, to use a very poor illustration as it pertains to me, carry my Bible with me everywhere I go. I have this Bible in a carrying case with a small cross stitched into it. People know that it is a Bible. In that carrying case I also keep change for the bus, some reading material, medicine, and a few other things. Whenever I reach for something from this Bible case I will mention that, �I�ve nearly made this Bible book bag into a purse!�
The purpose of saying this is not simply to make a humorous remark. I am drawing attention to the fact that I have a Bible in my possession. This simple little act will open doors (Well, the Lord opens the doors. He uses what little I�ve given Him!) to opportunities to share the Gospel message that Jesus died in time so that others might live in eternity.
The point is that since people know I have the Bible with me, I am constrained to keep a purer testimony that I might do if I were to hide the fact that I am a Christian. Do you see the point? This is an aid, to me, to keep the witness of Christ in the forefront of everything I might do during the day.
I don�t know what John did. But I do know that John kept the fact of the message of the coming Savior in his life as he walked among men. It wasn�t just a job, or avocation of John to be the forerunner of the Savior. This was his manner of life.
I like to �talk� with birds. When I hear a bird calling out, I try to imitate the sound and get a �conversation� going with that bird. Now, I know that this is not a conversation. The bird will often chirp so as to claim his territory. We aren�t talking with one another. The bird is warning me to keep out of his way.
John also �warbled� the message of the coming Christ. He was a voice of warning. People need to repent. People need to prepare to accept and follow the promised Messiah.
John also laid this record bare in the sense that he didn�t hide it under a bushel.
When my daughter was about three years old we set up one of those little wading pools in the back yard. We sent her out in her bathing suit to splash about in the three inches of water available. When we checked on her in a few minutes, Amy was nowhere to be found in the back yard. But, her bathing suit was in the pool.
We ran around the house and found her playing in the yard completely naked. �Amy, what are you doing?� She told us that she had to take off her swim suit because it had gotten wet. After all, she reminded us, we had made her come into the house and get out of her wet clothes when it had rained just a day or two earlier.
That is what John did. He took off the wet bathing suit of religious traditions and exposed the naked truth that Jesus was the Messiah Who was promised in the Scripture. John didn�t cover his message; he simply said, �Follow Jesus.�
The fact is that John was a barrister of that record and message.
A barrister is, of course, a lawyer. Even as the lawyer will plead the case for his client in a court of law, so did John make a plea for the case that Jesus was the Savior Who was to come. John pointed to the facts of Scripture even as he pointed to the Person of Jesus.
John made a prophecy of the Christ Who was entering the world. To prophesy, in the Biblical sense, is to give forth the record of the Word of God. We normally consider this term to be an advance peek at what the future may hold. That it can be. But this is only so when that prophecy comes from the revealed Word of God.
John made a prophecy of Christ when he said that Jesus was coming into the scene of the world�s stage. That was forth telling. But, John also made a prophecy by fulfilling his God given mandate to point others toward this Jesus.
While we consider the baptism of John, may we also consider that the pronouncement of the Coming Savior was the primary focus of the ministry of John. Everything else was part of that message that Jesus would come to die in time so that others might live in eternity.
John also spoke of the reality of the sight. ��saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove��
A familiar witnessing position is that one knows salvation because they remember the event when it happened in their life. Some take issue at this, calling it an anecdotal incident rather than a proof of anything.
I take issue with those who would seek to discredit the retelling of the incident of an individual�s story of salvation.
We can search out the Scripture and find ample evidence of the fact that Jesus does, indeed, save from our sins. This is based on a faith in the revealed and preserved Word of God. But, each individual who has experienced that salvation is a witness at the fact of the coming of the Grace of God into their lives.
I was telling a young friend about the former ice cream store about four blocks from where I now live. When I was a child this store, on the last day of the �ice cream season� each year, would give away all of the ice cream they had left in the store. Kids would line up for blocks to get their free ice cream cone. Then they�d get back in line in hopes of getting another.
Younger people have trouble believing that such a thing could have happened. �Couldn�t they have just kept the store open? Or, could they have frozen the ice cream and stored it for the next summer?�
What those who would argue this do not understand is that we lived in a different age those fifty years ago. Mostly there were one car families. Dad needed the car to drive to work. Mom wasn�t going to walk down to the ice cream store in the dead of winter to get some ice cream. Dad wasn�t going to stop off on is way home to get ice cream when the snow was blowing and the homes were heated by coal. There was no �inside seating� at the store to lure in customers. This was a summer business! It just wasn�t feasible for the store to stay open. There would have been a dearth of customers.
As for storing the ice cream� That would have meant keeping the place heated and electrified for the winter when no one was there. It made better business sense to build the good will for the coming season by giving away the excess stock.
Good reasons. But, I know it happened because I was there. I experience the fact.
John was there when the Dove of the Spirit descended. He wasn�t just repeating a story. John was relating an event!
John was also a witness to the fact.
I could have talked about the five cents a scoop ice cream sold at this establishment. This was in the day before �soft serve.� I could have talked about the �triple header.� This was a cone with three separate tops for ice cream. I could have talked about the people parking three feet in front of the windows where the ice cream was dispensed. I could have talked about the little pint boxes which were filled while one waited. The ice cream came out of buckets in the coolers and was repackaged into the pint box. We would watch to make sure these pint boxes were packed tightly so we�d get more for our money.
But, none of this would have been talking about the free ice cream days.
Folks, we can get in some serious theological discussions about many things in relation to today�s society. But, we need to keep our focus on the fact which is important: Jesus Christ died in time so that others could live in eternity.
A good theological understanding will do no one any good unless they have accepted Christ as their Savior. It is good to learn the things of God. It is of paramount importance that one receive the salvation offered by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
John also had some wonder about the fact. He didn�t doubt the incident. He had, after all, experienced the sight for himself. But, John must have wondered about the power and glory of God to which he had been witness.
It is good for us, as well, to stand in awe at the great love of God which He has shown to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
John also saw the resting of the sight. ��and it abode upon him.�
We see first that the Spirit witnessed about Christ. The Spirit descended upon Jesus as had not happened, nor would happen, to anyone else. The fact of this Visitation is a testimony that Jesus is not simply another person. He is altogether another Person. Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son.
This picture of the unification of the Godhead is seen to be an affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ. The Son was baptized. The Spirit came in visible form. The Father spoke from the Heavenlies.
We see, also, the picture of the Spirit working with Christ. This is a picture for the Christian to understand. Even as we are quickened into our spiritual lives by the sacrifice of the Son on the Cross, we are energized and empowered in our Christian work and witness by the Spirit.
Even as the baptism of the Christian is symbolic of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, so also is the fact of the Spirit resting upon the Son symbolic of the power which has been rested in the churches, and the people of those churches, of Jesus in spreading the Words of God into the world of men.
At this point it is important that you respond to this Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is the Savior of the World. But, is He your Savior? Have you, personally, accepted Him as your Lord and Savior?
Not only did John testify about the power of Jesus to be the prophesied Redeemer, not only did the prophets of the Old Testament prophesy about the power of the coming Messiah, Jesus, to turn the hearts of men toward God, not only have individual Christians down through the ages spoken of the power of Jesus to set them free from their sin, the very Holy Spirit has testified to the authenticity of this God / man, Jesus, to perform the supernatural act of reconciling man to God.
Accept Him as your Savior. Do it today!