Episode Transcript
Welcome to Living Hope Church. Glad that you're here today. John chapter 1 verse 19 is where we will start. If you have your Bibles, hopefully it's open there. I've entitled the time here. This message today is an unworthy witness. And last week, we looked at verses 1 through 9 and then 10 through 18. And we saw John, the author of this book, as the book is entitled as well, writing a letter to both Jews and Gentiles, making the case, as we had said the last few weeks, that Jesus is someone not only to believe that he's the Son of God, but he's the one that you can stake your life on. He is the true and accurate representation of God, one that the Jews wanted to know and someone that the Gentiles also wanted to know. And through the book of John, we're gonna see over and over again John making a claim about Jesus, and then he backs it up with evidence. And so in verses 19 through 28, he begins to lay out his first piece of evidence in you, if you will, in this book, in this case that he's presenting, and he's gonna talk about it, as we're gonna see today. There was somebody significant that was leading the way for Jesus to come, again pointing to the significance of the one coming behind. And so this person, John the Baptist, that we'll see today, is what's called the forerunner. And that's a term that they would have all known, they would have all expected to hear. When someone significant was coming, a forerunner would have gone before the significant individual, oftentimes a king or a significant leader, to make way for this leader that's coming behind them, because they are significant. And so appropriately, John starts off this case saying, "Jesus is significant, and I'm gonna make the, make the, show you the evidence by saying that he had a forerunner." And if somebody has a forerunner before they arrive, it's evident to everybody else, "Wow, the person coming must be someone that we should pay attention to." You with me? Alright, verse 19 through verse 28, in your Bibles in John chapter 1, it says this, "And this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from 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?' And he said, 'I am not.' Are you the prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' So helpful, isn't he? Verse 22, so they said, 'So who are you? We need to 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 way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees." Verse 25, "And they asked him, 'Then why are you baptizing? If you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?' John answered, 'I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. Even he who comes after me, the strap of whom sandal, I am not worthy to untie.'" In closes in verse 28, "These things took place in Bethany across from Jordan where John the Baptist was baptizing." Well Lord, as we look at this passage this morning as we gather together, we reminded in the midst of the songs that we've sung that we need you. We need your help even as we look at this passage to change us, not just to inform us of what happened a long time ago, but also to change us to be more like you and the person that you have called us to be, the person that you designed us to be. So for all those listening Lord, for myself included, I pray that you would help us to be sensitive to your spirit and what you want to say to us this morning, the things that I say would be from you and as we look at your word, both this passage and others, Lord, that you would reveal to us your power, your authority, and your design for us as your people. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. The children and youth are often asked what they want to be when they grow up. Have you ever asked the child that? What do you want to be when you grow up? When you were young being a firefighter or a ballerina or a police officer, even perhaps an astronaut or regularly on the top of the list that you might hear. As children, as the child gets older or maybe more consistent with today's youth, the answer might be I'm not really sure or I like playing video games, maybe I could do something with that? No, probably not, but also maybe it's all I'm only 16, I'm too young to be thinking about that and as the years go by for many of us, the time comes to finish high school and college is the big question on people's minds, whether they're asking you or you're thinking about it, but picking a direction, whether it's college or not, can be hard for many. How does one decide, especially when you were never able to answer the first question that we asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? College can turn into a hunting and pecking game trying to figure out which major you should pick only to realize that you still don't know what you want to do and sometimes it's after four years and many, many dollars. Some people are sure what they want and then they chase it and it's great, but others it's confusing and in the end they maybe are just more focused on how to figure how to get out of mom and dad's house and mom and dad are also more focused on that as well. Then adulthood finally becomes a reality and we realize that we blinked and the phrase what do you want to do or the question, what do you want to do when you grow up is really happening right now. I'm already grown up. There's a bit of a shock for some and perhaps frustration. You still don't know what you want to be or who you are or what's your purpose and as Christians we could say and we often do that there's a bigger purpose in who we are and what that looks like, but fleshing that out in day-to-day activity. Yes I know I'm a child of God and there's other things that we hear, but what does that actually look like for me? Fleshing that out can be a bit challenging. Now I'll be quite honest this is the point where I'm supposed to say something along the lines of yes the person in the scriptures that we're gonna look at today had a similar problem, but that's not what I'm gonna say because the person in the passage here that we're reading, the person of John the Baptist did not have that problem right now. He was quite the opposite. He knew exactly who he was and what he was supposed to do. Now why is the question? And that's more so what we're gonna answer today. Because he had clarity, contentment, and thus he had courage in his identity and in his mission. And as we unpack this account I know we'll find helpful truths for you and for me to help us figure out how is God directing us? What purpose does God have laid out for us in our life? Putting flesh if you will on the concept on the feeling of I know I have a purpose but what does that look like? I think we'll find that out today. So our journey is on the screen here, our journey in our journey today. We'll see that John the Baptist's identity and mission is a model to us of our identity and mission. We'll see that because John knew his personal identity he knew his personal mission and because he knew his personal mission he lived it out courageously in the face of opposition. If he was unsure of who he was I'm sure and we'll see this a little later on that he'd be a lot less confident in how to live out his life. And so our goal today even for us today here as we look at this is that we would find clarity, contentment, and courage in our personal role as God's ambassadors as we act as forerunners to the King's second coming. John was the primary, the first forerunner Jesus's first coming and we are really forerunners aren't we? To Jesus' second coming. So in your outline you have some blanks you can look on the back of your bulletin. We'll look at just the first here, first point. You can write this in the setting and the situation, the setting and the situation. So we're just kind of we need to get a picture of what's going on, why is this happening, where are we going with this, what's just kind of a picture of the message when points two and three that we'll get into in greater detail. So the setting and the situation, first off we see in verse 19 verse 24 and verse 28. These three verses really help us get a picture of the setting and the situation of what's going on. Verse 19 says this, it's on the screen and this is the testimony of John when the Jews and the priests and Levites came from Jerusalem and to ask who are you? We saw later on verse 24 they've been sent from the Pharisees and this takes place in Bethany across from the Jordan. Well first off let's just identify some of these people. First it says this, the priests and the Levites, the priests are these people. So the priests are Levites whose forefather was Aaron and only people who are descendants of Aaron could be priests. And then it says, and the role of the priests are to be the mediators between God and man, even today as we consider what a priest is, they're a mediator between God and man. So it says the priests and the Levites and so who are the Levites? The Levites are like the priests, people from the tribe of Levi, but not direct descendants of Aaron and their job was all of the support things, if you will, all the support roles in the temple or the tabernacle that were not priestly roles. And so we go on a little bit further, we see that the Pharisees sent them and the Pharisees were really the rulers, if you will, of the religious people of the, or the religions of the day. They were supposed to be the authority. Jesus had lots to say to the Pharisees later on, didn't he? So you are the spiritual leaders and you have no idea what's going on, he calls them at some point in time. Later on he says, you are white washed tombs. On the outside you look really pretty, but I know your heart and it is ugly. So Luke chapter 3 verses 1 through 3 speaks a little bit more about the setting and situation. I'll look at some other passages because both Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all speak about John the Baptist. So we'll bounce around to the beginnings of those books, the references are in your bulletin. It says this in Luke chapter 3 that John the Baptist was sent, he's the son of Zachariah, this says in Luke 3, 2, you can flip there if you'd like to, he's the son of Zachariah and he was sent into the wilderness and he went after he was sent into the wilderness, he went into all the region around the Jordan proclaiming baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So I put a map on the screen because pictures are worth a thousand words and so here you see on the map there's a dead sea further down at the bottom on the south, the sea of Galilee, in between the sea of Galilee up higher in the north and the dead sea is the Jordan River and so we know that they were the Levites and the priests were sent from Jerusalem and it says to Bethany beyond the Jordan. Now here quite honestly on the map there they have an idea, it says Bethany beyond the Jordan. There was another Bethany that John's not talking about here but in this passage honestly we aren't really sure where this Bethany beyond the Jordan is but it's not uncommon for there to be two places named a similar name or the same name. So we see that it's someplace beyond the Jordan, there's also a picture of the Sacramento River, of the Jordan, of the Jordan River and so here we see that John in Mark chapter 1 it says John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sin and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins and so John's doing this he's baptizing people people are confessing sin Luke says this as the people were in expectation and all were questioning listen to this in their hearts concerning John that is John the Baptist is he the Christ is he the Christ we know this Matthew says this in one verse in chapter 3 that John wore some unique outfit didn't he he wore garments of camels hair and a leather belt around his waist and then for food he had locusts and and honey what a scrumptious meal there and it says also in Matthew that people were going out to him to be baptized and he was baptizing in the Jordan and they were and they were confessing their sins and so clearly the religious leaders are hearing over and over from various people hey there's this guy out at the Jordan River and he's baptizing people and they're confessing sins and the Jewish leaders are saying wow praise God not at all they're hearing this and saying I'm sorry what we are supposed to be the religious leaders where the people that they're supposed to come to to confess confess their sins and you're saying they're going somewhere else to some other random guy we need to figure out who this person is so they begin to ask more people and they're like yeah they're confessing sin and he's baptizing people and they're like wait a minute baptizing baptizing is what we do for Gentiles who would like to be Jews it's a it's a for proselytes is what they're called people who have convert converted from Judaism from gent being a Gentile to Judaism and so it's their way of saying I want to be a part of this new religion if you will and so Gentiles might be baptized and say yep I'm gonna leave my way of life as a Gentile and I'm gonna become a Jew and then they're hearing wait a minute this guy's baptizing Jews this doesn't make any sense because you should they should be baptizing people who are Gentiles that would make sense but baptizing Jews and then they hear he's they're confessing their sins to him as well this is strange who is this person so understandable question that John was being asked here in their sending so concluding question here before we go on to point to is this we not only read this question who are you here but we ask ourselves this question at times don't we who am I who are you if we if we can not just generally answer that question like I'm a child of God or something I'm a human being I'm a father I'm a son but specifically that answer that question it would help us live out our life with purpose if I knew who I truly was specifically for me I would know what I am supposed to do what I am supposed to live for every day what is your personal mission or calling as some might say John knew what his mission was and so that informed his actions and for us that's an important question for us to spend time asking God about who have you created me to be what have you called me to be not as what as everyone else called me to be or what other whole is everyone else trying to put me in but God who have you made me to be and when we can know who we are we also know who were not don't we which is why John answers the questions in the way he does we'll see that in just a minute he said they he says who are you he says well I'm not this person I'm not this person I'm not this person because he knew who he was he knew who he wasn't now this is really true for us as well when we desire let's say I want to be a firefighter and if somebody says as I'm journeying to be a firefighter or practicing as a firefighter if someone says hey I have a great idea for you I think you'd be a great volunteer at the food bank full-time that's what you should do well if I knew that God's called me to be a firefighter what would I probably say to that person no now is being a volunteer at the food bank a bad idea no but is that what God has called me to do so because I know what God has called me to do I know what I can say no to and what I can then live in with courage the second point on your outline is this the questions and the answer the questions and the answer so he gets asked these questions and then verse 20 goes on look in your Bibles there it says this he confessed and did not deny but confessed whenever you see in Scripture two words back to back or two words in a similar place repeating itself it means it is important he's making the point I am confessing something I am not the Christ is what he is saying here John is emphatic about this truth he does not want people to confuse him with someone who's more significant than he is John is very good at making sure people look to Jesus not himself so in them saying who are you he's not saying well I'm special and chosen by God to lead people to him he says no no just just look to him just look to Jesus look what he says I am not the Christ and he answers that very clearly now to be clear and maybe you know this Christ is not Jesus's last name okay so we say Jesus Christ all the time Christ is not his last name he says I am not the Christ but what that means I am not the Messiah I'm not the Messiah or the anointed one a title reserved for a king or for a deliverer Christ as the messianic messianic title reserved for this one person he came as the Savior the anointed one that all have been pointing to as the spiritual Savior of the world so he's very clear I am not the Christ and then they go okay well maybe somebody else and they say well are you who's the next person Elijah right who are you are you Elijah and why are they asking this question because in Malachi chapter 4 it says that someone is going to come in the spirit and power of Elijah or Elijah is going to come as someone before Jesus we know John the Baptist Jesus says this that John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah and so they're thinking wait we know from scripture that there's supposed to be Elijah coming and then Jesus coming so if this is not the Christ because you already clarified I am not the Christ a reasonable next question is we know the scriptures so then if you're not the Christ are you then Elijah and he says no I'm I'm not Elijah either but rather we know that he comes in the spirit and power of Elijah as the forerunner to Jesus and then he says they ask I'm not on this are you the prophet in Deuteronomy we won't read the passage of a Deuteronomy 18 that speaking about this prophet there's gonna be a prophet coming God speaking to Moses about this who's going to lead people's heart points people's heart back to the Lord it says this in Deuteronomy 18 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command and so the they're thinking wait so he's not the Christ he's not Elijah he's not the prophet who are you then and here's what he says I am the voice I'm a voice I'm not a person even I'm not related to a righteous priest Zachariah I'm not he doesn't start naming off his qualifications in any way he simply says I'm a voice I'm not a person to pay attention to is almost what we get here John identifies himself as someone crying out in the wilderness Isaiah 40 is his reference so he sees the religious leaders are going okay so we know the scriptures we're gonna ask you the Christ no are you Elijah no are you the prophet they're referencing all these scriptural references and then he says well I can throw one back at you too I am the voice I am a voice crying in the desert one one commentator says this the voice is simply the vehicle or median by which the person by which the word is expressed or made known such was John you can see a voice you cannot see a voice you can only hear it no one looks much at a workman who is only preparing the road for the coming of the king yet this was what John the Baptist declared himself to be a voice and a workman the last thing in the world that he wanted was for men to look at him later he says this and you may remember this he says I am a he Jesus must become a greater and I must become less John wanted people to look towards the king and he says this I'm voice crying out you see the passion there and then he says where is he living is he in Jerusalem John the Baptist no he's out in the he's out first in the wilderness a voice crying in the wilderness three things to think about before we move on to point a is this the wilderness there's significance there first it fulfills scripture from Isaiah 40 so it's significant that he's in the wilderness we see he fulfills scripture secondly it's symbolic of the state of Israel their hearts are a wilderness they may look good on the outside but when you step into them they are dry and barren and it's also a sign of the judgment of God that God has removed himself from the softness the soft hearts of the people you have a you're a wilderness your heart is we have to ask this question as well as we think about these questions and this answer scriptures clear about this right first Peter 3 15 says that we should always be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us for the hope that we have and we should do this with gentleness and respect I think we should ask the question of ourselves if somebody came to you and said who are you what would you say it's like I'm a child of Christ I know who I am and then they might say why do you believe in Christ do you have an answer for the questions that people might ask and this is a call really to be biblically literate for everybody that is to know God's word for men and for women for children as well for young and for old it's for us to know I know who God is and who God made me to be and the calling that I have on my life is from the one who is real and authoritative it's not something that I just made up it's not someone in church told me you should do this and you should do that it's rather because of a relationship that I have with the king of kings I know who I am and so we see John's message he says I am a voice calling in the wilderness and here's what he says the second part of verse 23 is the message you could write that in point a the message make straight the way of the Lord make straight make straight if you have your Bibles open to John already flipped at Luke chapter 3 here's here's what he's saying Luke chapter 3 gives us some clarity and we'll get to that in just a minute you can flip there right now though here's what he's saying to all of those listening he's saying I am a forerunner right so we talked about that before a forerunner is somebody who goes before someone who's more significant and what he's telling them to do we see this on Isaiah 40 when it says make straight the desert of a highway for the Lord he says every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain shall be made low even the uneven ground shall be made level rough places should be smoothed out or made plain here's what he's saying as the forerunner as someone coming before the king my job is to see where all the things are that are out of place that when the king comes he needs to be able to be walking on a smooth road and my job is to clear the logs out of the way to make sure I fix up the road a little bit to make sure I hey that's that's really low you know if he rides on that with his wagon it's gonna be really bumpy for him my job here as the forerunner is not just to be a voice but also to be a laborer my job is to walk in front of people in front of the king and say I want to make this even for him and smooth for him I want to make a clear path for the king as he comes and so the question that we have to ask them is this what does that even look like like what does that mean it sounds nice we imagine a person going ahead ahead of the king on a road and he's clearing a path he's making sure everyone's paying attention well what does that actually look like in Luke chapter 3 we see what this looks like for John when he's actually living out this hey everybody clear your hearts out because we know a physical forerunner clears out a road a spiritual forerunner clears out people's hearts it's saying hey get your heart ready for God and here's what it says look at Matthew Luke chapter 3 read what you could just read in your Bibles or listen in he says this to the crowds he said therefore to the crowds that came to out to him to be baptized you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree every tree therefore that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire wow he's speaking about judgment isn't he verse 10 and the crowds asked him what do we do right that's the that's the question we're all wondering so what does this mean to be laid bare to to get ready for the king to come what do we do and here's what he says verse 11 of Luke 3 and he said to them whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none and whoever has food is do likewise tax collectors as he looks over at the tax collectors also came to be baptized and he said teacher what shall we do and he said collect no more than you are authorized to in other words stop stealing soldier the soldiers came to him and says what are we supposed to do and he said don't exhort money from anyone by threats or false accusation and be content with your wages he's giving clear example to people he says this is what it looks like you know what God wants you to do do that and here's even more pointedly what he's saying it's a call to repentance it's a call for you to turn your life around to say I'm doing things my way and now it's time for me to do things God's way get your heart ready because Jesus is coming and this is the primary message throughout the gospel isn't it repent and believe repent and believe over and over again I would encourage you even for a moment to spend a second either now or at some point in time today pause and say God is my heart cleared out and ready for you to work am I daily thinking God I'm ready for you to move or ready for you to say something to me whatever that might be or is there a bunch of boulders all over the place and I'm kind of doing whatever I want to do am I ready for the voice of God to impact and change my life as we think about calling as we think about purpose as we think about our personal mission that is real we have to be willing to say God I'm ready to lay everything aside to listen to your voice alone because as soon as I hold on to everybody else's words or an influence is more important than God's God's gonna say you know I had a mission for you but you're unwilling to listen here's what he's saying to everybody lay bare your hearts be ready for God to work and then they ask him this question why are you baptizing point three on your outline who gives you the authority to about to do this ministry that's point three the authority for ministry authority for ministry so they asked him why are you baptizing which is again a reasonable question they're seeing what he's doing first off people are going to him in droves they're confessing sin the Jews are confessing sin he's not converting people to Judaism he's just telling the Jews do things the right way and they're going okay so you're a voice you reference scripture okay so now why are you baptizing why are you doing this a reasonable question he says if neither you're you're not the Christ you're not Elijah you're not the prophet in other words what authority do you have to do this and John answers this them and says this verse 26 he says I baptize with water but among you stands one you do not know you do not know this baptism of water is something that people who want to be part of the Jewish nation would do but for others it just didn't make sense so John here is baptizing people who are already Jews because he knew and he realized this heritage doesn't save you ancestry doesn't save you a right heart before God saves you as one person said I don't know who said it God does not have grandchildren only there are only children of God it's only people who have said I am choosing for myself to trust in you I recognize my heart is dirty and it needs cleaning and I can't do it by myself and so I'm gonna trust in you Jesus to do that my mom's not gonna make me a Christian my dad's not my my great great-grandfather isn't we have a big old Bible that's always been sitting on the coffee table at home that doesn't make me a believer that doesn't get me in to heaven it's only those who've chosen to say my heart is a wilderness and I need sustenance and Jesus is the only one who can do that because without him I'm going to die so why does John have authority to call people back to God to call people to repent of their sin and live in a different way because of this because he was a forerunner for Christ he wasn't a Christ he wasn't a Messiah he wasn't even a great prophet but he rather he was humble as he says an unworthy man who was simply here's his authority he was being obedient to God so why do you have authority and I have authority to tell someone you are a sinner and need Jesus right isn't the question people ask well who are you to judge me who gives us authority to say you're a sinner and you need Jesus God does God does we've been called by him to do just that in verse 18 or verse 17 of Luke 3 it says this his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear a threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn but the shaft he will burn with unquenchable fire friends there's an unpleasant ending to those who haven't trusted in Jesus and John realizes that I want people to know the king is coming and you all better get ready he's coming and his authority he knew he had because he's like I'm a child of God and as an ambassador of God I'm gonna move through this world as someone who speaks with authority because I know God's word gives me that same authority sometimes people look at us preaching Christ and think we might be all high and mighty because of that but truly we can say I'm unworthy even to ask you to call you to trust in Jesus I'm not a significant high and mighty person I'm just someone who was saved I was a sinner I still struggle I still have problems but I am holding to a savior his authority came from his identity and here's the thing for all of us in all places of life you might write this down when you're unsure of your identity you will struggle to practice authority when you're unsure of your identity you're struggle to practice authority yesterday I had the opportunity interaction with a young man and we were talking about life and faith he'd ask some questions about what it looked like to to be a Christian and as we're talking I asked him this question do you know what the gospel is and after some brief conversation he just said no I don't know and I was like so the gospel is the word means good news I didn't know that mind you he's gone to church not here elsewhere for two years so that was also concerning to me and so we begin to talk and I begin to explain what the gospel is there's bad news God is perfect we are sinners you want to be in relationship with God that's bad news because God can't be in relationship with a sinner he can't be in that kind of relationship do you want to be in relationship with God yes he said yes I do well God can't do that like that's bad news isn't it so yeah that's bad news and I said but there's good news so Jesus came and he said you know what I died in his place I'm gonna take the payment he deserves right the wages of sin is death I'm gonna take the payment that he deserves and take it upon myself Jesus died so that you can have a relationship with God it's like yeah that's good news like yeah it's really good news isn't it it literally this is kind of how the conversation went and as we're walking through this he said man no one has explained the gospel to me like that before and so like does that doesn't make sense do you have any questions he said no so that's great and and so I I will be honest I was tempted to go okay cool let's move on but was deeply convicted and said I need to ask the question that all of us should ask after we've clearly explained the gospel to someone is there anything holding you back from trusting in Jesus right now and I asked him that question yesterday he said I'm just not ready yet and we can have the belief inside of us to say well I failed but here's the reality I did what I was called to do I was called to be a voice I cannot change somebody's heart and make them ready and so I said alright when you are ready do you know what to do he said yes and I was clear about what life looks like and the end of life and facing God and all of that but I can't make him ready but I can be a voice someone who can speak with authority about what's gonna happen be after life after our life here not because I have cornered the market on reading the future but because I have the word of God that gives me authority to speak with authority and so Jesus here is one who is coming and he says I've given you authority and you can know that my word is true and John recognizes I'm not some significant person I'm simply being called by God to be a voice and he says that verse 27 concludes point A there under number three an unworthy servant even he who comes after me the strap of whom sandals I am not worthy to untie John says that he isn't worthy to untie his sandals which you might know this the untie of somebody's sandals and then the possibly afterwards the washing of their feet is reserved for the lowest servant or the lowest slave in the household at the time and so what John is saying here is you think I'm a high and mighty person he says no no I'm not I am not even worthy to be called the lowest slave in the house of Jesus that's what they all would have heard when he says I'm not even worthy to untie a sandal you're like wait a minute that's reserved for the lowest person's job in the house the lowest slave present and John said I'm not even worthy of that role wow an unworthy servant I'm not sufficient is the rendering there in Matthew Mark and Luke I have no merit or I'm not deserving I'm not suitable is the rendering for John's word of not worthy that's pretty significant Jonathan Edwards says this about the Christian and a humility speaking to this point here as well we must view humility as one of the most essential things that characterizes true Christianity we see that in John in the book in the in the person of John the Baptist I am not worthy but I'm gonna step up with boldness because I know who has called me to this role in life so what does this mean for you and I personally what does this mean for us as we go on parent kids as we interact with our spouse as we do life at work all of those things first and foremost it means I'm gonna pause and I'm gonna ask God what is my life supposed to be according to you not me I want to get real clear with God about who I am supposed to be my identity and then God what do you want me to do mission and when I can get clear on that I can move into a place of authority or confidence courage in the choices that I make every day and that might mean leaving something and starting something new I don't know what it means but God does I want to give you five similarities between John the Baptist and you and I and then we'll close today John knew who he wasn't and knew who he was because of this he knew what his life should look like do you know who you are have you sought God's direction or sought God's people for advice about that about who you are and who God has called you to specifically secondly John was obedient to fulfill God's calling in his life even in the midst of hardship he had courage not for his own glory but for God's our courage to obey God grows and we choose to trust God's way is better than our way in what place question in what place of your life do you need to surrender your will to God's way it's hard but it's better thirdly John called people out John called people out clearly on their sin when they asked how to be right with God we see that in Luke chapter 3 verse 10 when you see the harvest is right people's hearts are ready will you have the courage to ask the hard questions or to point people towards what it looks like to walk in repentance rather than sin and fourthly John publicly and regularly announced to his followers that Jesus was better than he was he didn't compromise the standards or his mission in order to keep himself popular and a question for us are you and I compromising our holiness in any part of our life so that we can be comfortable John was unwilling to compromise his calling even though it meant people saying and we know later on he was thrown in jail and then later on he was beheaded because he was saying I know who God has called me to be and I'm gonna call out sin as it is and that's ultimately why he died because he didn't compromise and so we have to ask ourselves that same question am I willing to stand up and not compromise even if it means I lose comfortability and lastly fifthly John was a forerunner and witness to Jesus you and I are also called to be forerunners I said this at the beginning and a witness to Jesus John was the forerunner to Jesus's first coming and as Christians you and I are called to be forerunners to Jesus's second coming or you and I are we as a church being obedient as forerunners to Jesus's second coming and would anyone else in our life in your life would they look at you and say he is on a mission she is on a mission there's clearly something going on in their life that is bigger than themselves that's what they saw when they saw John the Baptist didn't they what is he doing what authority do you have to do what you're doing are we on mission for Jesus in that way we're saying hey there is a king who is coming and he's gonna come in every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord are you ready and that was John's purpose as a forerunner and for us we also are unworthy forerunners aren't we like John the Baptist I said at the beginning our goal that we would find clarity contentment and courage in our personal role as God's ambassadors as we act as forerunners in God's second coming I hope that we can see that we find that in Jesus Christ and if you've never trusted in Jesus Christ like I'm wavering in that I don't know who I am I've never actually thought to myself what is holding me back from trusting in Jesus God's first very clear calling is this repent and believe in Jesus Christ and do that today for those of you who have it's asking ourselves how can I trust in Jesus as his way is that is better than my way do people see me as a forerunner to Jesus's second coming and what can we do to help make that clear for them Lord we thank you that we're able to be called a servant of you help us as we go through life there's so many distractions and things that pull us one way or another help us to remember our role as your servants as people that you have privileged with the opportunity to announce your coming your second coming you truly will come and there are people whose hearts are not ready give us courage to be a people to announce your second coming and to help people know how to prepare their hearts to be ready for you whether it's conversion at the beginning or it's making sure day in and day out that we're walking in step with your spirit so that we can confidently proclaim you in every part of our life and maybe it's being prepared to give an answer to anyone asked about the hope that we have in you whatever that might be Lord you'd work in our hearts to help us to be a ready prepared people and courageously declaring your coming again in Jesus name amen.
