(John 1:31)
�And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.�
This passage reminds me of a person who has just become a Christian. Actually, it reminds me of the history of the Christian churches. I have heard it said that the Christian religion, humanly speaking, is always just one generation from extinction.
That is true! Form the naturalistic standpoint, if we do not see souls born into the Kingdom of God, there will be no Christianity on the earth within the space of a single generation. Don�t worry. We are not on the verge of extinction! God has a little to say about the future of His relationship with humankind.
This verse gives a picture of what must be done by the Christians who make up the membership of the Body of Christ on this earth. This verse shows what is needed to be done by the churches of Jesus in this, and every, day. in a military analogy, this verse shows what is the battle plan of God in the prosecution of the Spiritual War which rages for the souls of humanity!
Look at John in this verse. We first see the wandering of John. �And I knew him not...�
Most people on this earth are searching for peace in their lives. If there is one thing I have seen in my life it is that there is always an itch that needs to be scratched.
I have often wondered why it is that we seem to get those little itches much more often on our backs, where we can�t reach them, than on our fronts, where we can reach them easily!
I think that the reason for this is that we just apply the cure to the front without even, really, considering what we are doing. �Zap!;� and it�s done. But, on the back... Well, we have to agonize about it for a while. It is a problem that needs a thoughtful solution.
So it is with the God consciousness of which we all feel the lack until we come to the Savior.
When God created that first human, a man named �Adam,� He placed within Him a nature which would be prone to seek a relationship with the Creator. Since Adam first sinned, and broke that relationship, men have searched for what they know not. Most men do not understand that they need this relationship. They can�t. They are born with a sin nature which has separated them from God. What they need, and fail to understand, is that they need this relationship with God. It is in their nature.
Physically speaking, a salmon could easily procreate in the ocean where he lives his life. But, there is something in his makeup that dictates that he return to the stream where he was first spawned, to give birth to young? Why? I�m sure that if you were to question a salmon, he would not say anything. He couldn�t give you an answer. Why? Silly; salmon can�t talk?
If he could talk, he would just say, �I don�t know. It�s just something I need to do.�
The old musical, Porgy and Bess, contained these lines in a song: �Fish gotta swim, Birds gotta fly. I gotta love one man �till I die.� Well, fish �gotta swim.� That is true. Birds �gotta fly.� Not all of them. The penguin and the ostrich are birds, they don�t fly. But, we - humanity - are so constructed that we �gotta� love God. It is part of our nature. We can never find real contentment until we do this.
Did you ever notice that most atheists have a missionary zeal to spread their unbelief? They just have to keep scratching that itch. But, it won�t go away. Intellectualism will never eradicate the spiritual truth that we - humanity - need to find God to worship. It is part of our nature. We may use other �faith systems,� or even other intellectual systems, to spread a calming salve over this nature. But, the nature returns.
Paul said it in Romans 3:11, �These is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.�
The only way to cure a chronic itch is to find what is causing it, and then to treat the cause. There is no way to cure the chronic itch of a need to worship the Living God, without finding Him.
Too few have bothered, or even understood the need, to find Him.
That is where we, as Christians witnesses come in. Mankind may have been seeking peace. Our responsibility, as Christian witnesses, is to show them that they need to seek pardon.
Far too many Christians are far too busy pointing out the effects of scratching at that itch. �You�ve caused this ugly scab of (fill in your favorite sin in this blank.)� �You are vile and unclean because (another blank to fill in.)� �You are an immoral and horrible person because (another blank.)�
This does very little good in almost all cases. This may do more harm than good as it causes the unsaved to put their back to the ropes and fight.
We are not looking for a way to �knock out� someone because of their sins. We are, should be!, looking for a way to offer them a cure.
The Cure is a relationship with God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But, if we are so busy attacking people over the cause that they are unable to see the Cure as a reasonable choice, we gain nothing.
Yes, we do need to point out the fact of sin. Yes, we do need to point out the reality of immoral life choices in relationship to a life of piety. Yes, we do need to point out the fact of the illness of the sin nature as a reason for the restlessness. But, most importantly, we need to do this in an attitude of love so that men might be persuaded to accept the Cure.
Accepting the Cure means seeking a Person.
There are many ways to approach God. So we have all been told. Even many preachers and other religious �professionals� have told us this. Another line from �Porgy and Bess� is, �The things that your preacher, is �lauble to teach ye, they ain�t necessarily so.�
Remember, people - including religious people in most cases - do not naturally look for God. They may offer a back scratcher of works of some kind. They may offer a salve to hide the itch for a while. They may even find a way to take your mind off the problem so you�ll not notice it as much. But, will they offer the Biblical cure of Jesus Christ, and faith in Him?
Sadly, often they do not!
If you have �athlete�s foot,� you can scratch it. You can cover it with a numbing agent. You can even get so involved in a task that you�ll ignore it for a while. But, when you lay down to rest at night, there it is! It ain�t going to go away! You need to take the �anti-fungal� ingredient and place it on the affected area so it can be cured.
�Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.� (Acts 4:12)
Men need salvation in Jesus Christ. That is all that will work!
After a person has obtained this salvation through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, should come the witnessing to this fact. �...but that he should be made manifest to Israel...�
The first thing that is a witness in regards to this new convert is the witness of the Word.
A new convert may have already read the Bible �from cover to cover.� That is fine; but, to have read the Bible without the participation of the Writer of that Bible, is to fail to completely understand the Scripture.
This is one of the reasons that so many of the unsaved may read the Scripture and yet fail to be touched by the message contained therein. Also, many cultist�s have made appeal to the words of the Scripture but have not been able to understand the meaning of this Book. From such as these has come great error which has led many far from the shores of that �spiritual Jordan� wherein lies the Life Giving Water of the Christ of the Bible.
It is only through a contact, via salvation, with the Living Word that a person may begin to understand the Written Word. At the point of salvation, the new �babe in Christ� is given an empowerment that he may not understand. He has the witness of the Holy Spirit upon his life as he reads the Words of the Scripture.
As he approaches this Book, with an attitude of prayer, he will see the Holy Spirit open his eyes to the message which God has for him.
This will give an opportunity to witness to the world.
But, a witness of what to the world?
There have been three fires in the downtown section of our community in the past three weeks. Police, and many others, have said that they suspect arson to be involved.
I have yet to be asked to be a witness in any of these cases. Do you know why? It is because I have no information. I have no knowledge about any of the fires past the point that I read in the newspaper that they happened.
However, a few years ago I saw an act of vandalism. In this case I was called back to town, I was about two hundred miles away in Chicago at the time, to be a witness at the trial.
What was the difference? I had seen this act and I knew what had happened and who had committed the crime.
That is all about which we are called to give witness. We are called to be witnesses of the great work of conviction. We have felt the convicting power of the Spirit of God as He has called us to salvation. We know that He is real because we have had that relationship with Him. We can tell others that God is, in a truth, seeking for them to accept the free gift of salvation. We know. We�ve been there!
We can also give witness to the glorious and gracious work of salvation. Again, we are only speaking of that which we know. We�ve experienced this salvation. We want only to share that experience with others because we know it works in our lives.
We are also witness to the grand work of prophecy. Now, this does not mean that we are to pull out our charts and give a timeline of the events of the Tribulation period. Most of us are not ready to teach. But, we are ready to preach.
We need to understand those words. Prophecy is simply the giving forth of the message that God has for humankind. Preaching is simply the vocalization of those facts.
We can preach. We can prophecy. We can tell others of the Good News that Jesus Christ died in time so that we might live in eternity!
Finally, John talks about the walking of the Christian life. �...therefore am I come baptizing with water.�
We are not saved through the medium of baptism. If you�ve never accepted Jesus as your own Savior - on your own personal level - you are not a Christian. All baptism will get you is wet. It will not save your soul?
Don�t misunderstand the importance of Baptism. It is a command of God to His children. That is, it is an ordinance that He has given to those who are already believers. It is not for those who are unbelievers, to make them into Christians.
It is a Christian ordinance for Christian persons.
My grandchildren�s mother and I share the same birthday - although quite a few years apart. We tend to have birthday parties together as a family. This does not mean that we are the same person, or even that we were born on exactly the same day. We were born on the same calendar day; the years were different.
What is being celebrated in these birthday parties is the fact that something happened in the (for my part!) distant past!
This is a picture of baptism. We are giving personal witness to the fact that we have been born again.
Baptism is a little more than this. It is also a public uniting of a person with the local congregation of believers.
The early Christians had baptisms very soon after conversion. They understood that they had made a radical decision to follow God. They knew that they were different from the world in this decision. Baptism was a sign that they would follow Jesus.
Part of the purpose of the church is to teach doctrine. Baptism is one of these doctrines.
As we walk through our Christian experience we should learn the Truths contained in the Word. The pastor is a facilitator in the journey. But, we ought to be spending time, walking through, this Word on our own. This is part of the Christian walk.
We also need to walk in the Spirit.
I don�t mean to make this sound too mystical. A simple explanation of �walking in the Spirit� is to walk in closeness with Him. It is to understand His closeness with us. Part of this is accomplished by reading and studying His preserved Word.
But, simply reading the Word is not the complete task. We are also expected to spend time in prayer to the Author of that Word.
I just read an article in our local newspaper where the movie, �Brokeback Mountain,� was defended as �not propaganda.�
It is wasn�t propaganda it was not art. Each piece of art has the purpose of telling a story which the author wished to tell. My old high school literature teacher would always say, �What was the author trying to say?� That is embedded in every piece of literature. Even this sermon has a point to make. Are you walking the Christian path? Would you like to become a Christian? These are questions I am asking.
The best way to find out what the message is of any piece of literature is to ask the writer what point he was trying to make.
We approach God, through the medium of prayer, with the same sort of request. �God, what would you have me to know, or do, or be?
Prayer is often asking for something. In this it is an exercise in faith. That is also God teaching us to trust Him.
�Walking in the Spirit� requires a knowledge, as much as is possible, of the meaning of Scripture - and a consistent conversational life with God in prayer.
The culmination of our Christian walk is a walk in the Heavenlies. Going to Heaven shouldn�t be the ultimate aim of anyone. Living as close to Him as we possibly can, and doing His will, should be our aim. But, Heaven is the ultimate destination of the Christian.
That ain�t a bad thing to know! And, remember, God keeps His promises!
What about you? Have you accepted Jesus as your own Savior? Has He taken away your sin? If you were to die tonight, would you be in Heaven?
Why not settle this right now? Accept Jesus as your Savior! Begin that Christian walk. Don�t just scratch that itch; treat that itch with the Cure.
Jesus calls you now!