We'll certainly is great to be here.
I can I can tell you with my whole heart.
There's no place. I'd rather be than to be here
this morning. I'm thankful for you guys and
it's It's almost unbelievable that it's been a year since last
time I've been here and so much has changed in the world but
it's amazing that we have a consistent God who does not
change and this morning we want to just talk about him and to
focus on him and cast her aside all the cares of this life.
And I pray that our lesson for this morning, it will be both
encouraging and edifying, but most importantly, that'll be
done in spirit and in truth. So just to open us up with the
opening passage. I'd like for us to read from
John chapter 1 verses 6 through 9 John chapter 1 verse 6.
Says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.
This man came for a witness to Bear witness of the light that
all through him might believe he was not that light but was sent
to Bear witness of that light. That was the light, which gives
light to every man coming into the world.
So it's often said that we know who the Savior sent from God is
we know that God came down in the form of man to die for our
sins who excuse me, one concept that were not as familiar with
is the pave your sent from God. And I was told this a couple
weeks back when I was talking to you brother and his sister about
this topic about this title that the word pave, your it's not
really something we use today. but that term pave, your all it
means is someone who paves the way and when we say the pave
yourself from God, we're talking about John the Baptist because
he is the connecting link between the Old Testament and
the New Testament. He is the first one to speak or
the first preacher if you will after the 400 years of
revelatory Silence, So for this morning, we want to focus on the
pave, your sent from God because if we can understand the pave,
your, in his role, we can better understand.
And appreciate. Jesus Christ.
And what he did for us in the scheme of redemption.
So, our study for this morning, we'll go over three points.
Number one, will look at John as a person.
Will look at him from his birth to his upbringing before his
manifestation to Israel. Then we'll look to John's
preparation his role in the scheme of redemption and
preparing the way for Christ. And lastly, we'll look at John's
perspective. The perspective he had of
himself in God's plan, how he carried himself.
But as we begin, we start with John as a person, it's natural
that when we learn about somebody we start first with
their parents. So we want to turn to Luke
chapter 1 and read verses 5 through 7.
They're the Bible says, there was in the days of Herod, the
King of Judea a certain priest named, Zacharias of the division
of abijah, his wife was of the daughters of Aaron.
And her name was Elizabeth and they were both righteous before
God walking in all the Commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child because
Elizabeth was barren. And they were both well advanced
in years. So we see that just from this
one, passage that both of John, the Baptist parents Zacharias
and Elizabeth there. There a Priestly family on both
sides and they weren't just any Priestly family.
They were devout to use how devout day followed God and all
the command, all the Commandments and ordinances,
they were blameless. These were not just lukewarm
followers of God by any means. and with that being said, the
only problem was they had no child and back in this day and
age or back in that time if you had no child.
Everybody used to think that there was something wrong with
you. You guys must have been
unrighteous You guys, these people, they may have appeared
to be good, but behind the scenes, they had something wrong
with them. But that's not the case at all,
because their Fortune with change and Luke chapter 1 and
verse 11. And Luke chapter 1 and verse 11.
The Bible says then an angel of the Lord appeared to him.
Being Zacharias, standing on the right side of the altar of
incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said to him, do not be afraid Zechariah.
For your prayer is heard and your wife, Elizabeth will bear
you a son, and you shall call his name, John.
And you will have joy and gladness and many Will Rejoice
at his birth for. He will be great in the sight of
the Lord and shall drink. Neither wine nor strong drink,
he will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his
mother's womb, Zacharias is visit with the angel.
Gabriel Mark the end of the 400 years of revelatory silence and
the angel spoke, the very first words of prophetic nature since
the last Old Testament prophet and the angel he reveals a
three-fold reception of this boy, according to the parents,
he the parents would Rejoice with gladness.
They would be filled with gladness but in the eyes of the
public, everybody would Rejoice at his birth, but in the sight
of God God. He'd be great.
He would be great and concerning his lifestyle.
The Bible says that he was going to abstain from wine and strong
drink which indicates that he was going to be under a Nazarite
vow. We're not too familiar with
that, but that's when someone would be dedicated to God.
They would be told to abstain, from any great products.
You couldn't touch a dead body. You could not be unclean
ceremonially. And some people that we know
that are that we better know that our nazirites, our Samson
and Samuel but unlike those men who for a time of their life
were dedicated to God, John the Baptist whole life will be
dedicated to God in service. And we've read one final verse
concerning, the upbringing of upbringing of John, the Baptist
and Luke chapter, 1 and verse 18.
The Bible says, so the child grew and became strong in spirit
and was in a desert, still the day of his manifestation to
Israel. We have some other passages but
pretty much. That's all we know about him and
you might think or we might think that there's no way that
that's just too broad, we don't know a whole lot but I can
assure you this morning. We know exactly what we need to
truly understand how he was raised.
And what I mean by that is these three points.
He had the proper parents, he had this proper Spiritual Living
place which allowed him to be prepared for his work in
Ministry. And with John having the proper
pants. Remember, we just talked about
how he's his parents were devout Jews.
They follow God. And always, and no doubt, if
they were devout Jews, they would have followed this Old
Testament, scripture Deuteronomy chapter 11 and verse 18 says
this, therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your
heart and in your soul and bind them as a sign on your hand and
they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall teach them to your children.
Speaking of them when you sit in your house House when you walk,
by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up and you
shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on
your Gates, that your days in the days of your children, may
be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your
father's, to give them like the days of the heavens above the
Earth. So, no doubt it.
They were devout Jews. They would have followed this
commandment. So we see that John the Baptist,
he was raised knowing the scriptures, he was taught the
scriptures but not only that he was raised in the desert.
And the reason why that's important is because he was not
raised in the in the city, surrounded by saying and
worldliness, but he had the best place to grow up where he was
unhindered, not influenced by the World.
By any means where he just had a hyperbolic Time Chamber of
spiritual growth. Totally unhindered and I can
only just say here in amazement and I wish we all had that the
only way we could probably have that is if we lived in West
Texas, but besides that it's probably not the best or it's
not going to work out for us in that having that situation.
But keeping on with this, he had Godly Parents.
He had a spiritual environment environment which allowed him to
be prepared for his life's work. And like I said, just a minute
ago, it's unlikely. We could do the same thing but
we have to ask ourselves this question.
If we're doing the best we can, to raise our families in his
spiritual home, does our home reflect worldliness or does it
teach godliness? And the Bible teaches this in a
couple verses, we want to look at the first verse is Proverbs
22:6 train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old,
he will not depart from it. Ephesians chapter 4, excuse me,
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4. And you fathers, do not provoke
your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and
admonition of the Lord. And lastly, Joshua preach a
similar message and Joshua 24:15.
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord choose for
yourselves this day, whom you will serve whether the gods
which your father's served that were on the other side of the
river or the gods of the amorites in whose land you
dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. And each of us this morning we
have a decision to make. What's it going to be for our
family? What about your family?
Are we going to choose to serve the Lord or to choose a live?
A worldly life? Because our children were either
reap the consequences or see me. They'll pay the consequences or
reap the benefits of this decision.
Ultimately. But as we transition, she's
mean, working still working through this PowerPoint.
But as we transition, this boy in the wilderness would go on to
become a man. And now we turn from John's
person or the person of John, his personal life.
We now turn to is preparation for the work and this rule of a
prepared. If finds great historical
significance, Robert Milligan in the scheme of redemption, he Is
this about this role of being a paver?
We are told by ancient historians that when Eastern
monarchs were about to set out on an important Expedition.
It was their custom to say harbingers or Harold's in
advance of their armies with orders to provide supplies.
Make bridges, find the best fording places over streams.
Level Hills construct, causeways, cut down forest, and
in a word, to do whatever. Might be necessary to prepare
the way before them. And one example of this
customer, this practice is recorded by a Ryan's history of
Alexander. The Great, a Ryan says that he
being Alexander now proceeded to the river Indus a company going
before, which made a way for him for otherwise, there would have
been no motive passing through that region.
So in the same way that these Earthly Kings would send a
messenger a Harbinger, but for them to prepare the way, God
Saint John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ.
And we see that Isaiah prophesied in this and Isaiah
chapter 40 and verses 3 through 5.
Isaiah, Chapter 14. Verse 3, says the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord make
straight in the desert. A highway for our God, every
Valley shall be exalted and every mountain and Hill brought
low, the Crooked places shall be made straight.
And the rough places smooth, the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed and All Flesh, shall see it together for the mouth of
the Lord has spoken, and we can see that this prophecy is
fulfilled in John the Baptist and all the Balls in Matthew
chapter 3 verses 1 through 3, Mark 13, Luke 1 and John 1.
So we know that this is talking about John the Baptist and the
same language of preparing the way that those Earthly
Messengers did is applied to John the Baptist, but the way
that he prepared the world was completely different to the way
that the Earthly Messengers prepared the world for their
King. And we see that unlike the
worldly kings that commanded their harbingers to prepare the
way physically, John the Baptist prepared, the way spiritually
going to look at this, for example, these worldly
Messengers they made Bridges, they leveled Hills, they cut
down forests, but John the Baptist, he caught he told the
people to repent. He told them to confess their
sins and to turn back to God and He Was preparing them
spiritually. He's preparing them spiritually,
and Luke chapter 3, and verse 11 through 14.
We get an example of this where John the Baptist, He commands
the people look. You have two tunics give to
someone who doesn't have any and you guys don't lie and steal the
military. Don't lie and steal be content
with your wages. And what he was doing was he was
trying to change the hearts of men.
He was trying to prepare the hearts of men.
For the Christ to come. and this makes all the more, all the more
sense when we realize that, Christ's kingdom is not a
worldly Kingdom or a physical Kingdom.
Therefore, it's not prepared like the world, like the
kingdoms of the world, hates his spiritual Kingdom.
John chapter 18, verses, 36, and 37.
But as we hasten on, we could see that in John.
The Baptist Mission, he was successful.
What I mean by that is because first off, he prepared, many of
the Jews for the Messiah and for his kingdom, Mark chapter 1
verse 4 says, John came, baptizing in the wilderness and
preaching, a baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins, then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem, went
out to him and we're all baptized by him in the Jordan
River confessing their sins. So unlike Jeremiah the war we
were talking about earlier where he had some for Years of
preaching do not convert one person.
That's not a reflection on Jeremiah being a bad preacher
but it's a reflection of the hearts of the people.
At that time, what? We see here completely
completely opposite John, the Baptist went about preaching
almost an entire region. And they were prepared for the
Messiah, but on top of that, it did not stop there.
Because John, the Baptist pointed, his own disciples in
the right direction. Because in John chapter 1, the
Bible teaches us that one of John, the Baptist's disciples,
John told him, that's the Messiah, that's the Christ, he
went home. He went home and he told his
brother, we found the Messiah, we found him, finally, and those
two men, they went on to become Disciples of Christ and
apostles, that's Andrew and Simon Peter.
And it's interesting that Andrew who's not the preacher, is the
one who brought his brother along.
Which is goes to show that not only the preacher has to
evangelize, or not only the teacher but it's it's a job that
everybody can do behind the scenes.
But lastly, probably without a doubt, the most important thing
John, the Baptist did was that he baptized Jesus and Matthew
chapter 3 and verse 13 will read about this.
Then Jesus Came From Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be
baptized by him and John tried to prevent him saying, I need to
be baptized by you and you are coming to me.
But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to permit it to
be. So now for thus, it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness, then he allowed
him. And when he had been baptized,
Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold?
The heavens were opened to him, and he saw the spirit of God
descending, like a dove, and alighting upon him.
And suddenly a voice Came From Heaven saying, this is my
beloved Son in whom I am well, Pleased.
In whom I am. Well pleased, and we right here.
We see. John's humility is on Full
display He recognizes that he is unworthy to baptize Jesus.
He says I have sinned, I need to be baptized by you.
You were sinless. But here's what we see the
difference between, why were baptized, and why, Jesus was
baptized were baptized for the Forgiveness of our sins, but
Jesus was baptized to remain sinless.
And I know that's a pretty loaded statement, but we're
going to prove that inscriptions in just a second, but as soon as
Jesus was immersed, the heavens opened and the spirit of God,
descended upon Christ and the form of a dove and God declared
that this was his son. But all this happened for a
reason and that's because God had promised John the Baptist a
sign. And this sign is recorded in
John chapter 1 and verse 29. The Bible says, the next day.
John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who is preferred
before me for? He was before me, I did not know
him, but that he should be revealed to Israel.
Therefore, I came baptizing with water.
And John bore witness saying, I saw the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove. And he remained upon him.
I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water,
said, to me, upon whom you see the spirit descending and
remaining on him. This is he who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified
that this is the Son of God. So, the reason why Jesus had to
be baptized, so that John the Baptist would be able to witness
it and say, that's the one right there.
That's the Messiah, and be able to point everybody to him. so we
get from this passage that, if Jesus had not have fulfilled,
that he would have sinned Because it was a promise by God
that he would do so. So that's we see that we are
baptized for the Forgiveness of our sins.
Jesus was baptized to remain sinless, perfectly obedient to
God, and every way, but as we transition in this study, As we
study important figures of History, we study their Origins
and their life work. But perhaps the greatest and
most important thing is not only what someone did but it's How
They Carried themselves in their life. where they haughty where
they humble and we see that with John, the Baptist We see that
Not only was his personal upbringing and his preparation
for Christ impressive. But so was his perspective of
himself in God's plan. So lastly, this morning, we get
to our third Point, John's perspective and we'll go over
three passages. And looking at this point,
John's perspective of himself and John chapter 1 and verse 19.
The Bible says, now this is the testimony of John when the Jews
sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem.
Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?
He confessed and did not deny but confessed.
I am not the Christ and they asked him.
What then are you Elijah? He said, I am not.
Are you the prophet? And he answered.
No. Then they said to him, who are
you? That we may give an answer to
those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?
And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the make straight the way of the Lord, as the
prophet Isaiah said, so we see that we can really see that.
John the Baptist influence because the region is in an
uproar. This guy he's going around
convert and everybody getting people to repent and to focus
back on God. So the Pharisee, they sent
people this guy's on our turf. Let's go see.
What's he is what he's all about.
Who does he who does he think he is?
So they asked him. Are you in the Messiah?
He says, now are you the prophet?
No, are you Elijah know? So we see that, John the
Baptist, no matter how big his role was, he never lost sight of
who he was. And what we can see today is
that some preachers and teachers, they look at
themselves, like they are the Messiah, instead of them being
just a messenger, but we see that John the Baptist he never
looked at himself and he bigger or greater than what he truly
was. He was simply a messenger, an
Earthen vessel. Nathan vessel of the Lord.
But we have to ask ourselves, how do we view ourselves in
God's plan? Do we make ourselves more than
we ought to be or do we realize that we're just messengers of
God? But John the Baptist, he humbled
himself further and John chapter 1 and verse 26 and 27.
The Bible says, John answered them saying I baptize with water
but there stands one among you, whom you do not know it is, He
Who coming after me is preferred before me whose Sandal strap, I
am not worthy to loose. And here when John speaks of the
Christ, he shows the greatest humility.
You know, the lowliest of roles that a servant would do is they
take off your shoes, they put them on, they fasten them, they
tighten them. John here.
He says the lowliest of roles with the Christ.
I'm unworthy. I don't even belong or I don't
even deserve to touch him to come near him.
And we have to ask ourselves how do we view?
God, how do we view Christ? Do we approach him?
Like he is something common like he is a common man or do we
realize he is above us. are we humbled when we acknowledge his
Holiness that we don't deserve a relationship with him, but he
allows it Do we view ourselves as side by side and equal?
Or do we look up at him and recognize that he is powerful?
But our last point in showing John's perspective, Is in John
chapter 3 and verse 30. And to give you some context
here, John the Baptist, his disciples.
They're saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this Jesus
over here. This guy, he's coming on our
turf now and he's stealing some of our disciples are convert.
He's taken over our mission here and John says, I know, I know,
but he says, he must increase, but I must decrease, he says
this whole entire time. I've been preparing the road for
the Messiah. To come, but now he's here, it's
time for me to get off the road and let him go through.
He must increase in, I must decrease. and what we have to
ask ourselves is In Our Lives, who do we reflect?
And I'll kind of give you an example.
This studying the past eight or nine months with brothers and
sisters on the phone. We have since we're studying the
Bible, we have a lot of introspective conversations and
I can't tell you how many times I hear someone say Isaac, that's
not me. I'm not, I'm not gentle, I'm
not, I can't do that. I can't, I'm not nice.
I'm not soft spoken. and I don't encourage people, well, and I'm
not really wise, but I'm wise enough to know what I can't say
back to that, because they're not ready to hear it.
Or listen to it. But whenever someone says
something like that, I'm thinking myself, we're not
supposed to be. You you're not supposed to be
you at all. The whole point, is, he must
increase. And I must decrease, it's not
about us everyday. We're not supposed to be
ourselves until that one day being ourselves as being Jesus,
or Being like Jesus and a couple verses to prove this point Paul
preaches, something similar, Philippians, 1 and 21 for me to
live is Christ. And to die is gain.
Another verse Galatians 4:19. My little children for whom I
labor and birth again until Christ is formed in you.
It's a continuous process. That's a day-by-day process.
That we must enter in each and every day should be used to be
more like Christ and less like ourselves ourselves until that
day, when being ourselves is being like Jesus, do we reflect
Christ, or do you hurt or do we reflect ourselves?
Because he must increase in our lives.
And we must decrease but lastly, in our study for this morning
after covering John, the Baptist perspective of himself, I want
us to close with looking at Jesus's perspective of John the
Baptist the Bible says, in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 11,
Jesus speaking assuredly, I say to you among those born of
women, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist,
but he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater
than he, And Jesus said that there has not been a greater man
than John the Baptist ever. And that's quite the quite the
compliment to say the least. When we talk about people
Alexander, the Great Plato has Socrates George Washington.
Whoever we want to talk about, I think about Jesus says, this man
is the greatest man who's ever lived.
But if you're like me, I'm thinking myself.
How could you say that? What makes him so great.
What makes him special or different?
And that's because John had the single most important life work
any mortal man has ever had. To prepare the world for the
Messiah. It does not get any bigger than
that, does. It's a lot bigger than the
Coliseum. Nothing competes with that by
any mortal man which that would be enough right there to hang
our hats on and we just we just end the sermon right there, but
in a different account, Jesus repeats, the same thing but
gives us another angle to the diamond.
So let's look at Luke's account. Luke chapter 7, and verse 28 for
I say to you. Among those born of women, there
is not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is
least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
So Luke record something similar, but different.
He says, where Matthew said there's never been a greater
man. Luke says, there's not been a
greater profit, but we had to call a timeout again.
How is that possible? We think a Daniel in the Lion's
Den, we think of Jeremiah the weeping prophet, we think of the
Messianic Prophet himself, Isaiah but Jesus says, John the
Baptist is greater Was it? Because John the Baptist was a
greater moral teacher? No same moral standard.
Was it? Because John the Baptist, he had
great Miracles. Now he actually did not perform
any miracles. well, then how And that's because John the Baptist
was greatest in his privilege because the message that all the
other prophets wanted to preach, he got to preach, he got to be
able to say that man right there.
That's the Lamb of God. That's the Messiah and those
other men would have wished. They would have pray that they
had that opportunity. And John the Baptist got to say
the Messiah is here. And the Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
So the two ways that John the Baptist was was great.
Among many John was the greatest man because he had the greatest
life work and preparing the way for the Messiah.
John was the was the greatest Prophet because he had a greater
message and privilege than all of the prophets beforehand.
But still after this the Bible Jesus connects this back to us.
He says here, he gets like a, some of us remember from school
when we learn greater than or less than you get the alligator
arms to prove the point, here's Mankind.
And anyone everyone who's ever been born, he says, John the
Baptist is the greatest. But then he makes it about us.
He says the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than all of
them. But again, how is that possible?
Well, that's because all of us in our way are supposed to be
like John the Baptist but greater because the same way
John the Baptist, his whole life was dedicated to God in service.
That's the same for us. We had to live dedicated to God
in service our whole lives. And then another step is that we
preach a greater message than John the Baptist.
We preach that Jesus. He came.
He saw, he conquered, he died. He was buried.
He was resurrected and he's coming again.
John the Baptist simply said he's here but we get to tell the
world. What he did, what the Messiah,
what the king did. But not only do we preach a
greater message. We also have a very important
mission to prepare the world because he is coming back again.
But what's greater than what John the Baptist did for our
King is actually what our King did for us and that he died for
us. The last passage, we want to
look at this morning, John 15 verses 13 and 14.
Greater love has no one than this.
Then I lay down one's life for his friends.
You are my friends. If you do whatever I command
you, Everything that we just covered John.
The Baptist was the great man. Bible says, he was one of the
greatest men if not the greatest.
But was greater than everything. We talked about this morning is
not what he did for the king. It's what the king did for us in
dying for us. And the world has never seen a
greater love, but as we conclude our lesson, we have a couple
questions. But what will you do for the
king? What will you do for the king?
Will you be righteous parents teaching your children?
The way of God? Will you help prepare the world
for Christ's second coming? And lastly will you have the
proper perspective of yourself and God's plan?
These are those points I just read, but lastly.
Lastly, we don't want to conclude our service this
morning without offering the gospel Planet invitation, the
first part about preparing other people and helping other people
is to First prepare ourselves. And maybe you're here today and
you're not a Christian. Now you came because as the
Bible, teaches faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of
God, Romans chapter 10, and verse 17.
And then we're commanded to believe that Jesus Christ is who
he is the Son of God. He says, unless you believe in
me you will die in your sins. John 8 verse 24, we're committed
commanded to repent, to turn from a life of sin to turn to
God in service Acts 2:38. Then we confess with our mouth
that Jesus Christ is Is the Son of God and were baptized for the
remission of our sins, but it does not stop there.
That's not the end-all be-all. That's just the beginning of our
spiritual walk, as we're commanded to continue a faithful
life. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
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