John's Witness - Day 2 Christ on the Scene

Well take your Bible this morning and and turn with me to the Gospel of John. John chapter 1. We are back in our series Christ the Son of God Believe and Live. And I think those of you who know me well realize that it takes something pretty strong to get me to get out of our series that we are in. I did enjoy Mother's Day. I enjoyed spending some time with my wife and my family and I enjoy teaching from the book of Ruth. Very relevant and there's so much more that we could learn from the book of Ruth. But we are back in our series in John and if you remember the week before last we started a new section of Scripture.

I have a habit and it's a good habit and it's part of biblical teaching and preaching and that is to break down the Scripture according to the manner in which it should be broken down. It's section by section not just chapter by chapter and it's important for us to do that properly because it helps us get our mind and heart around not just a verse or a sermon but sections of Scripture, chapters and an entire book. But the week before last we started a new section of Scripture that was from verse 19 to verse 37 and I said that it was a three-day event in the ministry of John the Baptist.

We looked at week before last John's ministry in his first day. I called it John's Witness Day 1. Now we're going to see that day 2 leaves off or picks up, excuse me, at the end of verse 28 starting with verse 29 and then day 3 starts at verse 35. What are we seeing? John is fleshing out more of this witness that he was. We already know previously that John the Apostle gives us John the Baptist as a witness. It's just becoming a more fleshed out witness in these verses. Now I've already told you the title of last week so the previous week's message was John's Witness Day 1 and what we did was we saw Christ's opinion of John.

I referred you back to Matthew. Matthew 11 verse 11 where Christ Jesus says, "Truly I say to you among those born of women there is not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist." What I wanted to do was is establish the importance of John and Christ teaches that John is greater than all of the Old Testament saints that there ever were. If you know your Scripture you know that John the Baptist was the last of the prophets, was he not? But what Jesus is saying in Matthew is he's greater than all of those men that are found in Hebrews 11. I don't know if you're familiar with Hebrews 11.

It's the great hall of fame of the faith and Jesus is saying he's greater than all of the heroes of the Old Testament. He's greater than Elijah. He's greater than the major prophets, the minor prophets. He's greater than Moses, even King David, even Abraham the father of the faith. Now we know that John burst on the scene in a very tumultuous time. The Jews were anticipating, when I say the Jews the populace, they were anticipating the coming Messiah and of course there was there was a lot of misunderstanding about what that Messiah would look like and what he would do.

There had been a 400-year silence between Malachi and when John the Baptist and Jesus came on the scene. So that added to the anticipation from the Jews, from the religious leaders and of course there was the Roman occupation and then it was even made worse when Pilate was appointed governor because Pilate was not a politician, he was a soldier by trade and so he was a ruthless governor and that in that added to the difficulty of the day and of course I went over the fact that they had a puppet Jewish king named Herod. He was so ruthless that he murdered many of his own family to hold on to the power. What do we see?

A difficult day, a time of great eruption really ready to happen at any day and John burst on the scene, baptizing on the Jordan Riverbank. Now on day one of John's account the religious leaders came to see John but now we're going to see that on day two Christ comes on the scene. Now up to these verses, the verses that we have previously been in, Jesus has been taught about. Now think about that. Up until now there have been teaching about Jesus from John the Apostle but now we see that Christ comes onto the scene publicly and he comes onto the scene right in the heart of John's ministry, that is John's baptism and that is on the second day.

So I'll go ahead and I'll give us the title of the message this morning, you'll see that on the screen. That is John's Witness day two. Now I want to add to that title by saying Christ on the scene. Christ on the scene. John's Witness day two. We're going to be in verses 29 through 34. Let's look together at the Scriptures verse 29 through 34. What do we see? The next day, that's the second day, he, that's Jesus, what does it say? He saw Jesus coming to him, John did and he said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Verse 30.

"This is he on behalf of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.' And I did not recognize him but in order that he might be manifested to Israel," that's the Jews, "I came baptizing in water or with water." And John bore witness saying, "I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and he remained upon him." And I did not recognize him, "but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'" And then verse 34.

"And I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God." We're going to see three truths out of these verses this morning. We're going to see first Christ the Lamb of God out of verse 29. Second, Christ greater than John out of verse 30. And then the remaining verses, verse 31 through 34, we're going to see Christ revealed to John. So I hope that you're taking notes for your personal study. Christ the Lamb of God, Christ greater than John, Christ revealed to John. So let's look into our verses this morning. Let's look at number one, Christ the Lamb of God. Go back with me to the verses, verse 29. What does it say?

"And the next day he," that's John the Baptist, "saw Jesus coming to him and he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'" This is a very famous verse from many people who are Bible literate. Now I always make reference to the different translations that we have. And all of the translations that we study together basically say the same thing. Now I like what the Amplified says. It's in very modern language but it's very accurate. It says, "Look, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John is basically saying that. Behold, or look, there he is. He's calling the crowd's attention to who?

To Jesus as he steps on to the scene. Now there's some very interesting language here and we must study this to understand the impact of the teaching out of verse 29. So I hope you write these down. First, I want you to notice the title for Christ. What is he called? The Lamb of God. That is a title. Now interestingly, this title for Christ is used only in John's writings. The other gospel accounts, the synoptics, do not give us this title. But this is the first of several titles given to Jesus in chapter 1. I never noticed this before but chapter 1 is packed full of different titles for Jesus. I want to give you these.

First, he is the elect one in verse 34. He is rabbi in verse 38 and verse 49. He is Messiah or Christ in verse 41. He is the Son of God in verse 49. He's the King of Israel in verse 49. He's the Son of Man in verse 51. And he is the one Moses and the prophets wrote about in verse 45. Now depending upon what translation you have, the wording could be a little different but what am I showing you? There are so many titles that John the Apostle gives to Jesus. And right now we see John the Baptist give him a title and it is the Lamb of God. Now question, what is the significance of these titles?

These titles are a revelation from God through John as to who Christ truly is. Let me say that again. These titles, all of the different titles here, we're not going to get to them today. These titles are a revelation from God through John the Apostle who writes as to who Christ truly is. Now remember I've taught you that there is such a thing as progressive revelation. Those who were in the audience as John was baptizing, they did not have a full revelation. The father of the faith did not have a full revelation, that being Abraham. And we're going to understand that a little more. But we have progressive revelation.

We live in the day in the time where we have the complete and the total Word of God. All that we need to know about God in humanity and the world can be found here. But in their day the Word of God was being written. This is part of that revelation of God. John is revealing, John is revealing from God who Christ truly is and that's what the titles communicate who Christ was. So this morning before us we have this title, The Lamb of God. Now this title would have been very significant to the Jews. I've already told you that there is both Jew and Gentile in the audience.

But a great number of the audience before John, John the Baptist would have been Jewish. And for the Jews this is a significant title because the concept of the sacrificial lamb and the sacrificial system itself was woven all through Israel's history and their worship. It was central to their worship. Let me give you just a few examples. We mentioned Abraham the father of the faith. I hope you know but in Genesis chapter 22 what happened with Abraham? God tested Abraham, did he not? And he said Abraham I want you to sacrifice your one and your only son Isaac. He was the child of promise and what did Abraham do?

He took the wood for the sacrifice. He took the fire. He took the knife for the sacrifice and he journeyed three days into the wilderness and he had his son Isaac and his son Isaac said, "Daddy, we've got the wood and we've got the fire and we've got the knife but where is the sacrifice?" And Abraham said, "Son, God will provide." And Abraham was obedient and he built the altar and he put the wood on the altar to consume that sacrifice and he bound his son and he put his son on the altar and he raised the knife to sacrifice his own son but yet God stopped him as he was about to plunge that knife in his only son's body and he turned and what did he see?

He saw a ram caught in the thicket. That's nothing more than a picture of Christ, a sacrifice. What do we see? Also in the Old Testament scriptures in Exodus chapter 12 we see the story of the Passover lamb. Remember as God called Israel out of Egyptian captivity and as they came through that they were getting ready to journey through the Red Sea and take the promised land. What happened? Right before they were set free God told Moses what to tell the people to do. The deaf angel was going to come to execute judgment on Egypt and on Pharaoh's house and what did Moses do? God told him and said, "Look, take a innocent little lamb.

You sacrifice the lamb. You put it over the door post and put your family behind the door post, behind the blood and when the death angel comes the death angel will pass over those who are behind the blood." That's a picture of Christ. That is a sacrificial lamb. When you look at the total sacrificial system in the book of Exodus, the sacrificial system with the tabernacle and then later with the temple, what is it about? About sacrificing innocent lambs and innocent animals. Then what about the prophecies? Isaiah chapter 53 gives us the prophecy of the coming Christ and in verse 7 it talks about a lamb that will be led to the slaughter.

That's Christ. See, we must understand that the Old Testament is full of shadows and types that point us to Christ. Christ was the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament was. So for the Jews, when John said, "Look, the Lamb of God, it would have brought their minds all the way back to the very center of their worship, that sacrificial system." I like what John MacArthur says. He says, "Although Israel sought a Messiah who would be a prophet, king and a conqueror, God sent them a lamb because that's just what they needed." And see, what we must understand is John the Baptist is really caught. Now listen to this.

He's caught between two times. He's caught between the Old Testament, the time of the sacrifices when blood flowed freely and then he's caught between the time of the New Covenant, the blood of Jesus that would be spilt as he would be that sacrificial lamb slain and slaughtered on Calvary. And he's caught between those times and so John says to all that is there, all that we saw in the Old Testament points to Christ and there he is, the Lamb of God. And the title was a revelation of who Christ was and was to be. Just those words, what did they do? They pointed to Calvary. Second, I want you to notice the task of Christ.

Go back to the verse, verse 29. "The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God.'" That's the title and here's the task, "Who takes away the sin of the world." Now in being obedient to the Father, Christ had a task here on earth and John reveals it just in this phrase. Now there are two key words here. I'm in the habit of trying to give you the key words and key phrases that help us understand the Scriptures and there are two key words. The first key word is the word world. Most of you would understand what this word world means. This word world, it refers to humanity. It refers to all peoples.

It is indiscriminate. It does not discriminate between races or classes or people groups. You could substitute the word humanity for world and you would not violate the meaning of the text. So that's what the word world means. It means peoples. It means humanity. But the second word or the second key word is the word sin. Now the word sin here is a noun and it describes man's, now listen, collective sin. All of humanity's collective sin and so the world or humanity is guilty of sin and we see that right there in the Scriptures. But I we must ask ourselves a question. I must ask you a question.

Does this verse mean that all of the world, all of humanity will be saved? Go back to the text. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and he said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Is John saying that all of humanity will be saved? No. Remember to understand Scripture we always understand Scripture in light of other Scripture. That's called the laws of hermeneutics. If you interpret one Scripture and it violates other Scripture you are incorrect. And that's not what John is saying. That's not what God is teaching. We must understand that all of humanity will not be saved. Now what is John saying? Let me explain.

Christ's sacrifice was sufficient for all. That's why we have many different Scriptures like this. For God so loved the world. What is God saying there? Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for all. I'll tell you a very good one that communicates this is found in 1st Timothy. You might remember this from our study in 1st Timothy but in chapter 2 Paul is talking about prayer and he's talking about prayer on behalf of the leaders that we might have over us but then he goes on to say that this is good and this is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior talking about prayer.

But then he goes on to say he says God who desires that all men might be saved and to come to a knowledge of truth and he goes on in verse 5 and 6. For there is one God, one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all. What is he saying? What is Paul saying? What is John saying? What does the Scripture say? Christ's sacrifice was sufficient for all but there is a but. Christ's sacrifice is only effective for those who believe. We've already learned that previously in John. John chapter 1 starting in verse 12 and verse 13. What does John say?

But as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but they were born of God. So what is John saying? That the sacrifice of Christ is effective only for those who trust, who believe, who repent, who surrender. That is the act of conversion that comes from God and it encompasses the will of man. So we must understand that because if we're not careful we will have a universalistic view of the atonement.

All mankind is not going to be saved but Christ's sacrifice was sufficient for all but it was only and is only effective for those who truly believe and we're understanding from John what that really means because there are so many people in our culture who have an intellectual belief but it's not a life-changing converting belief that comes from above. And I'm gonna tell you church there is so much wrapped up in verse 29. It cuts against the grain of the erroneous ideas that the Jews had for the promised Messiah and it also cuts against the grain of a lot of erroneous teaching that is out there even today.

See the Jews weren't looking for a Messiah like this. They wanted a prophet yes but they wanted an earthly king. They had their minds and their hearts in yesterday. They wanted another King David but yet Jesus was a spiritual Messiah not a physically physical Messiah. Now this is terribly important for us and I want you to listen close. There are some who get confused here and it affects, now listen, their evangelism. See the Jews were confused here. They had a hard time understanding, listen, that Christ's sacrifice was for the Gentiles.

That's why in John chapter 4 the disciples had such a hard time when Jesus was dealing with the woman at the well. First of all he's talking with a woman. He's breaking all types of social rules and he's talking to a Samaritan, a half Jew and a half Gentile. So in two areas Jesus is breaking all the rules but what is Jesus saying? My sacrifice is for the Jew, for the Gentile, for the Samaritan, for all. And so it affected the Jewish mindset when it comes to evangelism and what is John saying? John saying the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's all encompassing. But what about for us?

We must understand that there was enough blood spilled on Calvary to save all of mankind yet all mankind will not believe only those who receive, only those who trust, only those who were born from above and those who were not do die without Christ. Remember those two words, sufficient and effective. And listen, Christ the Son of God who became a sacrificial lamb in our place, there was enough blood spilled far and you can just put a blank right out there. You know that's why our friend Luke goes to India. He believes in every cell in his body that there was enough blood spilled for those individuals in a foreign country.

That's why he goes to India. You know why we pray fervently for your lost loved ones? Because in my heart I believe there was enough blood spilled to save your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your son, your daughter, your husband, your wife. It does not matter how far they get away from God and the things of God. Listen, we know the story of the prodigal. The prodigal was not saved, he was lost, he was away from the father's house and it does not matter how far the pigpen is, God can come and get them. And when God saves them, he brings them home and evidence that the young son in the pigpen was lost because what did he do?

He put a ring and a robe and sandals on his son. Servits never were those things. What am I showing you? There is enough blood spilled for all and I don't understand who they are. I like what the old American evangelist Dio Moody said. He said Lord save the elect and elect more to be saved. What is he saying? God I don't know who the elect are, you do. I'm just gonna go out and witness and love people and I'm gonna trust you to do what only you can do but I believe there was enough blood spilled to reach them all. And that's what John is saying. Christ the Lamb of God and I listen church we need to understand and really digest that blank.

Christ the Son of God who became a sacrificial lamb in our place, there is enough blood spilled for even... fit it in because John did. Let's move on. I want us to see truth number two. Truth number two. Christ greater than John. Now those of you who've been hanging in with me in our journey through John, you will know that this is a repeat. John's already stated this information. Look at verse 30. This is he on behalf of whom I said after me comes a man who has a higher rank than I for he existed before me. This is the third time John has taught that John the Baptist was subordinate to Christ.

Remember I taught you that John gave us that information, gave them that information because he wanted to stop any people that would follow John the Baptist and not Christ. John the Apostle was heading off a John the Baptist cult and it appeared to be that there were some who did do that and he taught that in verse 15 and in verse 27. So briefly I want to touch on what he says. First John says that Christ is higher. That's what that phrase higher rank means. The King James says preferred before me. John is simply stating Christ is deity. I am not. Second I want you to see he says Christ was before me.

This speaks of the pre-existence of Christ that was taught in verses 1 through 5. We should be familiar with that. If we are not familiar with that we understand that that will affect our Christology because what do we see that Christ was in the beginning. He was in the beginning with God that pre-existed Christ was there in the beginning before the creation. What is John saying? John is saying that John the Baptist simply knew his place and you know what that is? That's humility. That's simplistic Bible humility. That's all John had. He knew his place.

He knew his place in relation to who Christ was and look if you see Christ as having higher rank over all things about you then you will be humble. I think that's the problem with a lot of people in the life of the church today. They are not humble because they've not had a fresh understanding of who Christ is. John never lost that and that's why he stayed humble. That's why later he went on to say he must increase and I must decrease. Why? Because he was in right relationship with Christ. He knew Christ was therefore he knew who he was. Now let's move on to truth number three. I want us to see Christ revealed in John. To John excuse me.

Christ revealed to John. Now we're going to cover a longer portion of Scripture verses 31 through 34. Listen with the Scripture to me as I read the Scripture. John says, "And I did not recognize him but in order that he might be manifested to Israel I came baptizing with water or in water." Different translations say it differently.

"And John," verse 32, "bore witness saying, 'I have beheld the Spirit descending as they dove out of heaven and he remained upon him.' And I did not recognize him but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.'" What do we see in these verses? Christ is revealed to John. Now notice that in these verses it says that John the Baptist did not recognize him. I don't know if you've ever noticed that. Two times, verse 31 and verse 33. Why would that be the case?

Why would John the Baptist say that he did not recognize Jesus? Jesus and John were related physically. We know that. Luke chapter 1 tells us that Mary, Jesus' mother, and Elizabeth, John's mother, they were related. So in that we could say that Jesus and John should have known each other from their childhood. John is showing us that although Jesus and John physically knew each other, he did not know him as the coming Messiah until this day by the Jordan. All John knew was that he was to baptize with water to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. He was acting in obedience to what God had told him.

He was performing the task in faith until Christ the Messiah was revealed at that time to him. If you think about it you'll see what I'm saying. Christ was revealed to John. Now let's dive into the verse and I want you to see some things. First, John saw the Spirit. Look at verse 32. John saw the Spirit and John bore witness. That is an accurate testimony. I have beheld the Spirit, capital S, descending as a dove out of heaven and he, that's a capital H, remained upon him. John saw the Spirit. The English Standard Version says I saw the Spirit. The New American that I'm reading from says I beheld. Now this phrase is in the perfect tense.

This communicates that John was fully convinced of what he saw. Now what did he see? He saw the Spirit, capital S, that is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. He saw the Spirit descending as a dove. All the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have the same account but with Jesus being baptized. John does not record Jesus being baptized but he does record the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, descending on Jesus. Now what is the significance of this? This symbol identifies the promised Messiah to John and this was proof to all who were there that Jesus was the chosen one.

Go back to John and John bore witness saying I have beheld the Spirit descending. God had told him that this would take place. So what do we see? John saw the Spirit. Second, I want you to see that John heard his voice. Look at verse 33. Again, what does he say? "And I did not recognize him but," now listen to what it says, "he who sent me to baptize in water or with water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'" What do we see? Here in this verse John clearly hears the voice of God.

God calls John the baptized and then he tells him that that what would take place would identify the promised Messiah. He says, "Baptize, do what I tell you to do, prepare the way," and he spoke to John and said, "When you see the Spirit descend, that is the Messiah." You see the revelation of God? That's what John says and I did not recognize him twice. It's not that he didn't know who he was. He knew he was Jesus but he did not understand him as Messiah until God revealed it and through that revelation God spoke to John and what God said what happened did happen. The Spirit descended on Christ as a dove.

This is God revealing Jesus as Messiah to John the Baptist. I've said this before, John is obedient to God in baptizing and in preparation for Christ. The voice of God tells him that he will know who the Messiah is when he sees the Spirit descend. Now listen, that progressive revelation of God for and in John the Baptist. You see that? Prior to this day he did not know who Messiah was but at this particular time God brings all things together to reveal to John who Christ was. This is progressive revelation for John, in John and through John because what do we have? We have John's testimony, isn't that right?

Now you got to remember he's acting by faith and through that act of faith and through that obedience we see God do this work. He was acting on what he knew. Now I want you to notice three things about this progressive revelation. Three things about this progressive revelation. First, there's the voice of God. You might say preacher you've already said that. It needs to be noted because what did it say? Verse 33, "I did not recognize him but he," that's God, "said to me." God spoke to John. So there is the voice of God within this revelation. Second, there is the Spirit descending. We saw that earlier because what did it say?

"I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove." That is part of that revelation. But also third, I want you to see there is the Spirit remaining. Go back to the verse, "And I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and he remained upon him." There is the Spirit that is remaining and this is part of that revelation, that progressive revelation. I like what the Amplified says. It reads, "Never to depart." Never to depart. So John could say this, "I know this is the Messiah," and he could say it emphatically because he could say, "I heard the voice of God.

I saw the Spirit descend and I'm seeing the Spirit on him now." You see the revelation of God? See, I've tried to teach you about progressive revelation and I want you to see progressive revelation is connected with experiential Christianity. Now I want to give you a warning. There are some that come along and they will tell you they have revelation and they have words from God that come outside of this book. That's not the revelation of God. That's heresy.

But as we walk with God and the truth of the Word of God come to our hearts, come to our minds, they come into our lives, God takes the Word of God and applies it to our lives and we experience fleshing out that Word of God. Lots of times it is experienced as how we walk through trials, tribulations and difficulties. We finished up a while back going through James and we learned about trials, did we not? We learned that we must approach trials with joy knowing that they will come our way, knowing that trials benefit us because God wants to work about perseverance, He wants to work about consistency in us.

So as we see trials come our way, we look at what James teaches, therefore God can work in us and to teach us that trials come for a purpose. We learn what God is trying to teach us, we see God change us and we see God bring us to a new level of usefulness. That is experiential Christianity and when we get through that trial we can look back and we can see God in a new way because of how God fleshed himself out in us through that time. That is experiential Christianity and that is progressive. What I'm trying to say is if you walk with God for 25 years you ought to know God in a new and a fresh way like you never have 10 years before.

If you say you've been a Christian for 25 years and you don't know God any more than you did when you first came to Christ, I've got to wonder if you've ever been converted. And we see this exemplified in John. We see it exemplified in all of these men and women of the faith in the Scriptures. What do we see? Christ is revealed and I can look back in my life and I can tell you about good times, difficult times, high marks, low marks, trials and tribulations when the waters were smooth and I can tell you about how God brought the Word into my life and he fleshed it out and he taught me the meaning and how it applied to different things in my life and how I heard the voice of God leading me and teaching me and I can tell you how I experienced God and I've grown and I know him in a new way.

And you know what? There are some of you who understand it because you're experiencing it but those who are outside of this do not understand it because they don't know him. So what I want you to see is Christ is revealed to John. Now look how good this is. Christ is revealed to John, Christ is revealed in John and now Christ is revealed through John. See, God never does that work in you just for you. He does that work in you. Listen, to change you and to work through you. God desires to use you. It's not just for you. This wasn't just for John.

At the end of this three-day event, he could, I mean John could raise his hands to heaven and say, "Lord, I know now. I know who the Messiah is." But see, it wasn't just for him to bask in what he knew. It was for him to receive the work through him and that's what we have here. This is that progressive revelation, that experiential Christianity and we learn about it through John. Now as I begin to conclude, I said in the introduction that John really burst on the scene in verse 19. Now previously we had had some introduction to John being a witness, had we not?

But now we see John's witness being fleshed out and we're not through with it yet. John burst on the scene in verse 19 and in verse 19 the religious leaders came in on the scene as well, did they not? But now as John is on the scene, Jesus burst onto the scene in verse 29 and you will notice that that you will notice that message has been all about Christ. Now listen, this message has been all about Christ but yet it's still John's witness, second day. And what we need to see, I want us to observe John, not just Christ, because we must see what Christ is, who Christ is, what Christ came to do, but we cannot miss out on John's witness.

I want you to see three things about John's witness. John was obedient, he was obedient. God said I want you to baptize, you're the prophesied one, the one I prophesied about, I want you to baptize and prepare the way for the Christ. You don't know who he is but you will. When he comes the Spirit will descend. So what did John have to do? He had to be obedient. Second, I want you to see that John did have a definite experience. Now you might say why do you keep mentioning that? When you walk with God you will experience God. Third, I want you to see that he was a witness.

Look back at verse 34 with me and I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God. What do we see in that language? It's kind of repetitive. I like what a commentator that I ran across said, it's an old commentary I had from my seminary days, and it said this, this work, it enabled him to point to Jesus with clarity and conviction and declare that this is the Son of God. Why? Because in verse 34 there are two verbs in the perfect tense. What do we see? I have seen, I have borne witness that this is the Son of God. What is John saying? John in the language, it's in the perfect tense, he is fully convinced.

He is fully convinced and therefore John was a witness. You see? You see? So as I close I want to ask you two questions. Have you experienced this type of work in your life? I'm not talking about being another John the Baptist, no. The voice of God, the leading of God, the workings of God, through questions and trials, difficulties, times when you can't get answers. Have you walk with God and can you relate to an experience of having walked with God through the years? Do you have this type of work in your life? And the second question is this, are you a convinced witness? John was. Matter of fact, both John's were.

John the Baptist and John the Apostle. Why? They saw him, they beheld him, they experienced him, he changed him and that's why they could stand up in the perfect tense and they could say, "I am fully convinced that this is the Son of God." And let me tell you, the only men and women, the only young people who can stand up in this day and in any other day and be a fully convinced witness of those who know him and walk with him, they experience him, they hear his voice, they understand the truth, it's applied to their life, they journey with Christ.

That's all John the Baptist did, that's all John the Apostle did and that's why we have, now listen, John's witness day two. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for both John's. I love the story of John the Baptist, Lord, it's been one of my...