(John 1:34)
�And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.�
Several years ago I was driving home from work when my vehicle decided that it wanted to rest. It just shut down and quit moving. I have a cell phone; but, I didn�t have it with me. As the car stopped, I let momentum carry me into a parking space on the street.
I turned on my emergency blinkers in the hope that someone would pass by and ask what was my problem. Didn�t happen. As over an hour passed I realized that the only thing that I was accomplishing by having those flashing lights on, was that I was running down what was left of my battery.
I saw a police car go past. I waved at him. He waved back and kept on going. Finally I got out of the car and stopped another police car as it went past. I explained my situation. I asked that he use his radio to call my son to bring me some gas for the car.
That solved my problems.
I had a perfectly good cell phone. But, it wasn�t with me. I had a very good, nearly new car. But, it had no fuel.
In living our Christian lives we need to, first of all, have Christ in our lives. This is the salvation experience. Without Him, we have no Christian life. It just doesn�t exist. That is somewhat like my cell phone. If we do not possess Jesus in our lives we do not have salvation. We need to go to that place where He may be found.
I suppose I could have walked home to get my cell phone. Of course, at that point I wouldn�t have really needed to call anyone! But, I could have done it. The really good thing about going to find Christ is that we don�t have to walk a long way. He is right beside us, waiting for us to make that commitment to accept Him as Savior.
As for my car being out of gas. Well, that�s like most of us in our Christian lives. We have a pretty good idea of what we should be doing in our Christian lives. We just aren�t able to get started.
Shortly before His ascension into Heaven, Jesus gave this instruction to His fledgling church. He said, �And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.� (Luke 24:49)
If you�ll look in the first few chapters of the Book of Acts, you will see that the promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled upon that church. The promised Power came upon the church and she began to evangelize those about her. Missionaries made visits to foreign lands, and to well known friends, with the message that Jesus Christ died in time so that we might live in eternity.
Folks, we are no longer a fledgling church. The Power to proceed in our individual spiritual lives, and in our corporate spiritual lives as members of local assemblies of called out Christians, has already been given.
The problems that plague us in our Christian lives is not a lack of fuel in the car. It�s a lack of fire in the lives of us Christians. The Battery of the Spirit is charged up. Too often we are simply not �prayed up� to the point where we are willing to flip the switch of our lives and allow the power of the Spirit to flow through our lives.
The product which is the churches of Jesus Christ, is good. It has the potential to be the best that the Blood of Jesus has bought. It isn�t the apparatus which holds us back, it is the application of our souls, minds, and bodies to the holy task appointed.
We are made, remade through redemption in Christ Jesus, to live victoriously. We are made, remade through the infusing of the power of the Holy Spirit, to win the lost to salvation in Jesus Christ. We are made, remade in His image, to fellowship with the eternal God of the Universe.
And, yet, here sit most of us, pulled over to the curb of inaction. We are afraid to let our light shine (Matthew 5:16) because we suspect the battery of His power and love might not be enough to confront the world.
John the Baptist didn�t have those problems. Let�s take a look at our text verse and see what John had that we also have. But, let us notice that John used what we tend to just sit back and look at in our Sunday School Quarterlies and devotional books. �and even that far few of us are willing to travel!
First, in this verse, we see the vision of John. �And I saw��
�I�ll believe it when I see it!� That is a good credo, normally. But, in matters of faith, we need to believe it because God has said it is so. Sometimes this is hard. It just seems so unnatural. Well, it is unnatural. Faith is a dynamic of the Spiritual realms. God doesn�t get all worried and excited when we seek to prove Him, as did Thomas in the Upper Room. But, God delights in us when we simply trust Him because He is worthy of our trust.
I am sitting on an office chair as I type out this sermon. I believed that it would hold my weight. It worked! That is an illustration of a reward of faith in the natural. We turn on a water faucet and see the water come out. Why do we do this? Because we believe that water will come out.
It is the same in the spiritual realms. We trust God. He rewards our trust. He doesn�t reward our trust because we were �good� and trusted Him. He rewards our trust because He is ALWAYS! true to His Word.
John trusted the promise of God because John trusted God.
Many years ago I was in one of the small, old time, �corner groceries� which are no longer in our city. A man came in and bought some groceries for his family. As he prepared to pay, the grocer said, �I know you are on strike. You don�t have the extra money right now. You are going to have to pay your rent and heat bills. Why don�t you just catch me up when you get back to work?�
The man began to protest, but the grocer continued, �I�ve known you for years. If I can�t trust you, I can�t trust anyone. Let me do this as a friend.�
That grocer trusted a man who he knew to be trustworthy. I don�t suppose he could have done the same for everyone. It would have been beyond his means. But, his friend, him he could trust.
We dare not trust every spiritual advisor which comes down the pike. Satan would love to give us advice about our spiritual conditions! But, we know that we can trust what God has preserved in His Book to us.
In trusting the promise of God, John was allowed to see the Person of God. John saw the Lord Jesus Christ. John was even given the great privilege and honor of baptizing the Son of God.
We, too, see Jesus with our spiritual eyes. We have been given the great honor of being able to speak with Him in prayer. We are allowed to read His letters to us in that preserved Word we know as the Bible.
What glory, what joy, what great privilege to know that these things are true. This should energize us to carry out our mission of spreading the Love of God into the world of man.
John also saw the performance of God.
God said, �I�m going to send a Savior into the world.� He did.
God said, �I�m going to send the Spirit to the church.� He did.
God said, �I�m going to save your soul from sin and into a new life.� He did.
We have accepted the first part; He has saved our souls. But, have we acted upon the second part; are we walking in a newness of life?
We also make note of the vocation of John. ��and bare record��
When the Roman Church speaks of �vocation,� they speak of one who has felt a desire to enter into a life of ministry. It carries much the same meaning as it does when we speak of someone responding to a �call� from God.
Except� When the person in the Roman Church accepts his �vocation,� it becomes the major focus of his life. He places himself completely under the authority of his church. He goes where they would send him and carries out the duties which are assigned. There are exceptions, of course.
Each Christian has been issued a �call� from the Throne of Grace. He has been given a duty to perform for the Master. God allows us great freedom in our performance of this mission. Some take this freedom and turn it into license to walk away from their duty station. He doesn�t ask all of us to serve on foreign fields. Very few, actually. He doesn�t ask all of us to serve in a �church� type of profession. Very few, actually. He just asks that we all spread His Love to the world.
Most of us will take His great gift of salvation and ignore spreading His Great Commission of the Love of His salvation to others. There are exceptions, of course.
May we each be one of those holy, sanctified, exceptions!
John gave witness to the record of God.
A witness is simply someone who tells what he has seen. If he embellishes the story of what he has seen, or if he leaves out some part of what he has seem, then he is not a competent witness. He is a story teller.
If I see an accident on the street, and am called to court to testify as a witness, I am only expected to know what it is that I have seen. I don�t have to have a scientist�s understanding of motion and inertia. I don�t have to be a mechanic to explain the rational of the moving vehicles. I am not expected to be a traffic flow expert.
I am only expected to describe, as best as I can, what it is that I have seen.
As a witness for Christ, we are not expected to be a theologian - although we should study our Scripture. We do not have to be a pastor - although pastors are not exempt from the duty to witness. Neither do we need to be trained in psychiatry.
We do need to explain that Jesus died in time so that we might live in eternity. We do need to be born again ourselves so that we can witness to that which we do know. We do need to be in prayer for the person to whom we speak. We do need to have an understanding of Scripture, gained from our daily reading therein. And, most importantly, we need to be cognizant of the Spirit in our lives so that we may allow Him to work through us.
John also gave work to the record of God. I have a Bible that I carry with me wherever I go. It is in a �Bible Cover.� I don�t bash people over the head with it. I just carry it with me, and read from it while I am waiting for the bus, or whatever else I need to wait on. I don�t really try to bring attention to it.
That is God�s job. He�s pretty good at it!
Yesterday, as I got off the bus, I dropped my Bible. The driver, a person I don�t really know all that well, said, �That�s no way to treat your Bible.�
I never told him I was carrying a Bible with me. How did he know? The Spirit of God told him.
That is how most of our best witnessing opportunities will come about. We don�t have to �force� ourselves upon people. We just have to spend some time in the Word so we�ll be conversant with the Message therein. We need to be �prayed up.� This makes us ready. God will do the rest if we are yielded to His leading!
I think this is one reason why John gave wonder to the record of God. Because God works. The old proverb is that, �God works mysterious ways.�
To the world at large, I suppose that is true. To the Christian who is sensitive to the Spirit, that is just what we expect.
The old song says, �Wonder, of wonders, that Jesus loves me.� That is true. But, more of a wonder is that He not only wants to, but is willing to, use me for the furtherance of His Gospel Message.
I have a card back home that thanks me for working in �The Galesburg White House.� It is signed by President Clinton. I was one of the workers in the advance party when he came to town in 1995. Not really a big deal, is it? I should have said ex-President Clinton. That is part of the flow of life. The �big deal� today is little more than the memory of tomorrow.
But I am allowed to work in the work of eternity, for the Ruler of the entire Universe. Now, that�s a �BIG DEAL.�
The Wonder of it all!
Also, in this text verse, we see the victory of John. ��that this is the Son of God.�
Many people worked hard for the election of President Bush. Many people worked just as hard for the election of his opponents. One side won. One side lost.
But, John was on the winning side. He worked hard to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. Jesus came. Jesus fulfilled His prophesied task. John�s ministry was vindicated as true.
I like the fact that John said, ��this is the Son of God.�
We often, when we speak of Jesus, will say, �Jesus was�� Well, Jesus wasn�t. He is.
It is amazing how swiftly runs the course of our lifetimes. When I was born there were still people alive who had voted for President Abraham Lincoln. Not many; but they were alive. Conversely, when these people were born there were people alive who had fought in our Revolutionary War. Three generations of humans and well over two hundred years of history.
I remember my Grandfather sitting on his front porch reading the Scriptures. I hope my grandson will remember me sitting at this keyboard writing about, and reading, those same Scriptures.
The truth, the victorious truth, is that God was. �and is. �and will be! Jesus is the Constant Contemporary of each and every representative of humanity. I read an article in the newspaper today about two men who are very certain of the march of their atheistic theology. They believe that God does not exist. They believe that religion will die out as man accepts this concept.
The truth? In a few short years these men will go the way of all flesh. They will stand before the God they denied. You see? The truth is that God is. Jesus is. We have the opportunity to fellowship, in this life!, with the God of eternity, through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary.
We have the assurance that we will spend eternity, not simply as special guests, but as adopted members of the Royal Family of Eternity!
I don�t know if John the Baptist understood the fact of the coming cross. But, I do know that he understood the fact of the coming Savior. He knew that God had promised a redeemer for mankind. He may have not understood all the �nuts and bolts� of the redemption. He may have.
But, he did have a vision of the importance of the Messiah to Whom he was bearing witness. He knew this was of God. He knew that his trust was settled in God. He may not have understood it all. But, what he might not have understood he trusted to the Goodness of the God of Love.
John had vindication from God in this faith.
Some have argued that the Old Testament sacrificial system was a �different� type of salvation. Not so! Salvation, in the Old Testament and in the New, is a matter of responding, in faith, to the leading of God.
The Old Testament saints were told to have faith in the offering of sacrifice. Some may have offered sacrifice as a civic duty. This was not a saving faith. Saving faith is trusting God. Sacrifice without faith is merely barbecue.
The Old Testament saints who were truly spiritual had a faith in the spiritual reality of their worship of God. They weren�t offering to merely �pay a debt� to a far off deity. They were offering worship as God had decreed that they should. While others might simply �do their duty,� these responded in love and adoration, and most importantly - in faith, to the God of Love.
In these New Testament times, we place our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. As in the Old Testament, this is a sacrifice of the Just for the unjust. He, Who did not sin, was offered as the Perfect Sacrifice for our sin.
There are those who will stumble over this fact. They want to do something, themselves. They feel that they have an oblation to offer. But, in doing so they are being disobedient to the dictates of God. He honors our obedience in accepting that perfect sacrifice of Jesus.
The fact that Jesus came, and has redeemed those who�ve accepted Him as Savior, is a vindication from God of the ministry of John the Baptist.
In this John has gained the victory of eternal proportions. His work for God, as a representative to man, was part of his worship of God. In this he has earned the reward of God�s comment, �Well done, thou good and faithful servant.� (Matthew 25:21)
Christian, what about your work for God? What is it? How faithfully have you accomplished it? Does your work for God even exist?
You have the promise of the Spirit of Power to assist. Step out for God. Step up to the task!
To those of you who are not yet Christian, what is your work for God? There are no works which are acceptable! You must accept the work which Jesus did on the Cross of Calvary. You must first become a Christian through acceptance of His sacrifice. Then you can begin to work for Him even as you are privileged to work with Him.
Accept Him today!