The Witness of John

Well, take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the Gospel of John, John Chapter 1. We are in our series Christ the Son of God, Believe and Live. Now when we started this series, I told you my quandary with the title of the series. I know it's about Christ and I wanted it to be, yes, about Christ, the deity of Christ, Christ the Son of God. But in my study, it just, belief and live, belief and live just kept coming up. And I stumbled upon what Warren Wiersby called this book, the title of the book, the theme of the book, and I loved it because he took both and he put them together. Christ the Son of God, believe and live.

And we are getting into Chapter 1 and I think we're finally starting to get our feet onto the ground or getting going, if I can say it like that, in our verses. Now, we have finished up verses 1 through 5 in Chapter 1 and John has helped us establish what I have been telling you is proper Christology. Now you know proper Christology is understanding, doctrinally and theologically, who Christ is accurately and what Christ did and that's so very important. And this is vital. This is vital to be able to receive all that John wants to give us, all that God wants to give us through what John taught.

For see, without a proper understanding of who Christ is, for without a proper understanding of who Christ is, we cannot accept Christ and what he did as authoritative nor what he said. Let me kind of repeat that. On the basis of understanding who Christ is, everything we see Christ do in the book and everything we hear Christ say, it has authority because he's God. Isn't that right? We learn in verses 1 through 5, he is preexistent. Christ is God. Christ is the Creator. All things came into being because of him and through him and for him. And we also see that he is the light, the light that brings life to the dark world.

So we understand who Christ is in verses 1 through 5 and again that's vital because we're going to begin to see the things that Christ said and did and we're going to see that he did them with authority. Now we transition from teaching about who Christ is to a witness for Christ this morning. I've already taught you that part of John's purpose was apologetic or he was making a case for Christ, who the proper biblical Christ was and is. Now remember in the area of apologetics, one uses a systematic argument. That's key. This is a systematic argument.

Now part of John's systematic argument is to establish, now listen, credible witnesses as to who Christ was and John uses various witnesses and he uses the word witness all throughout his gospel. As a matter of fact, if you want to be specific, John uses various forms of the word witness nearly 50 times in his gospel and to even be more specific than that, John uses the noun form of the word witness 14 times and the verb form of the word witness 33 times. Now what are we seeing in this? John is making his case. John is beginning to establish witnesses for Christ, for who he is and what he said and what he did.

Now a big portion of my study this week was dealing with these witnesses, learning about these witnesses. Now I don't want you to write these down because of time, but I took what I saw in the scripture and some of the resources that I use. They give different forms of the witnesses and what I want you to see is there are many witnesses that John brings to the table. I'm going to provide you a handout. I won't do it this morning because of time, but we see on the screen, we see the witness of John the Baptist. We see the witness of God the Father. We see the witness of the Old Testament scriptures.

We see the witness of Christ himself, his words and his deeds. We see the witness of the people all throughout the Gospel of John and we see the witness of the disciples. Now what am I trying to show you? What am I trying to get into your mind? I'm trying to show you that John is making his case and in making his case, he's going to provide numerous witnesses all throughout the book and I was telling Brother Keith yesterday, this is going to be something we will come back to because from time to time we will see a witness.

We will stumble upon a witness and I will stand up and say, now listen, this is a witness for the case of Christ and that's what John is doing this morning. He is moving away from who Christ is, verses one through five, to providing the first witness who is to come on the scene and that is none other than John the Baptist. That brings us to the title of the message this morning, the witness of John and we are going to be in verses six through eight. The witness of John, verses six through eight. So let's go to the scripture together. Notice what John gives us. "There came a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light but he came that he might bear witness of the light." Now I want to stop there because verse nine transitions, there's a natural transition there. I want us to take the time in verses six through eight to examine John the Baptist, the witness of John. So our first main truth this morning is going to come out of verse six and then our second main truth will come out of verse seven and eight. So let's look at the scripture together and I trust that you're taking notes and I want you to write down number one, John came from God.

God John came from God. Go back to the verse, "There came a man sent from God whose name was John." Now you know my habit is to always look at the different translations that we have before us and basically all of the translations say the same. Now I have made it my habit to look at the old amplified version and I'm going to read it for you because the amplified version gives us something very interesting. The amplified says, "There came a man sent from God whose name is John." And at the end of the verse they give the Old Testament reference, the Old Testament prophecy Malachi 3.1.

You don't have to turn there but listen to what the prophet Malachi said some 400 years prior to this. "Behold, I am going to send my messenger and he will clear or prepare the way before me." Now why do I read that to you? I like how the amplified does that. The amplified gives us what verse six says and goes all the way back to Malachi to what that Old Testament prophet said. John came from God. Now let's notice a couple of things out of this verse that is important. First the question, "Who was John?" The question, "Who was John?" Is this John the Apostle? Is this John the Baptist? Well let me tell you the Apostle John's habit.

All throughout his gospel account John never names himself in the gospel. The only time he will refer to himself will be when he says something like this. The Apostle whom Jesus loved, the disciple whom Jesus loved. He's talking about himself. So all throughout the gospel of John when we run across the name John if it's mentioned John is never referring to himself. That's his habit. So here we see that John is writing about the one Malachi spoke of and that is none other than John the Baptist. Now let me show you some things about this John the Baptist. To do that we must turn from John. You don't have to do this.

You can write down the scripture to one of the synoptic gospels, the gospel of Luke. In Luke chapter 1 we see that Luke gives us a lot of detailed information about the birth of John the Baptist. And what we see out of Luke chapter 1 is two things. First John was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. If you look at the scripture specifically you see beginning in verse 5 that Zechariah was one of the priests. Zechariah had a wife named Elizabeth. They were godly people, righteous people. But verse 7 says that they had no children because Elizabeth was barren. As a matter of fact it says that they were both advanced on in their years.

What that means is they were childless, unable to conceive and yet they were old. But if we progress through the story we see that God did honor their prayer and God did give them a son named John. So we see that this John was the son, Luke says, of Zechariah and Elizabeth. But another thing I want you to see out of Luke is that John was born for a specific purpose. If you know the story it came Zechariah's time to serve and to go in the presence of the Lord. And what does Luke tell us? Luke tells us that he had an angelic visitor. The angel Gabriel came to tell him that they were going to have a son.

But in verse 13 of chapter 1 of the Gospel of Luke what do we see? The angel says, "Do not be afraid for your petition has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will give him the name John." And he goes on to say what John's purpose would be. Now what am I showing you? John was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth but John was born for a specific purpose. As a matter of fact when it came time to name the son all of the people were amazed because no one in Zechariah or Elizabeth's family was named John. Why did they name him John? Because he had a specific purpose.

So I want you to see, I want to answer the question, who was John? I don't want there to be any confusion here because this was none other than John the Baptist, the one that Luke gives us a lot of detail about and the one that Malachi prophesied about some 400 years earlier. Second I want you to notice out of verse 6 that John was sent. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. Now this can be read as there appeared a man or it can be read there came a man. Either one is accurate with the original language. This speaks of John's earthly birth. This speaks of him being born and he was born as an earthly messenger or a verse.

This word that we see here in verse 6 sent, this word speaks of sending a representative or an ambassador with a special or unique job. We should be familiar with that because don't we have ambassadors in our government? Don't we have ambassadors that go and represent our country, represent our president, represent us as a nation to a foreign land? Yes, we understand that. That ambassador is a representative and they have a unique job to go and speak on behalf of our government. That is exactly what this word means. John was sent. John appeared. John came from God and he came with a unique and a special job.

I want to give you a little bit more and I want to give you a little bit more by giving you some more detail out of the book of Luke and I want you to listen close because this is good. I want to give you some proofs, miraculous supernatural proofs that John came from God. I'd like you to write these down because this will help you see the great work of God in sending John. Let's look at Luke 1.11, we see that he was born in a miraculous manner. He was born in a very miraculous manner. What does it say in verse 7? And they had no children, that's Elizabeth and Zechariah, because Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years.

In other words, they were old. But what do we see in verse 11? We see that an angel of the Lord came and appeared to Zechariah. As a matter of fact, he was gripped with fear, but verse 17 says, "But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid.'" And then a little later on through the verses there, we see that the angel identifies himself as Gabriel. Listen to verse 19. "And the angel answered him and said, 'I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God.'" What is that? John, he was born in a miraculous manner. His mom and dad were too old. They were barren. She was barren.

"But yet an angel of the Lord, not just an angel, but the angel Gabriel comes to John and says, 'You're going to have a son.'" Second, I want you to see that he was spoken of by Gabriel who came from the presence of God. I've already read that in verse 19. Now what's the importance of the specifics here? I think that the specifics are important. This is not vague. This is a very specific account of the work of God. He was born in a miraculous manner. He was spoken of by an angel who literally came from the presence of God. What do we see in the story? John is a little skeptical, is he not? John reveals his humanity.

He says, "How can this be?" And what does Gabriel say? Let me tell you something. "I have come from the presence of God." Third, I want you to see that he was prophesied about hundreds of years prior. I've already mentioned Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. You don't have to turn there. I would like you to write it down for your own study later. But notice what Malachi says also in chapter 4 verse 5. The prophet says, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day." In verse 6, "And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

Least I come and smite the land with a curse." Go back to verse 1 of chapter 3. "Behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me, and the Lord whom you will seek will suddenly come to his temple." What are these prophesies talking about? They are talking about the coming of the forerunner, the one that would prepare the way, John the Baptist. But another one I want you to see is also found in Luke, and that is that he, that's John, he was sent out by God. I want you to notice or write this down in Luke chapter 1 verse 80. This one verse gives us a very important summarization of John's life.

Verse 80 says, "And the child," that's John, "continued to grow, and he became strong in the spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel." Now what's the importance of that verse? This tells us that John, as he was growing up, lived in seclusion. He lived out of the public eye, and what does it say? He grew strong in the spirit. He grew strong in the Lord. And then I want you to notice if we turn over to chapter 3 verse 2.

Judges 1 and the beginning of verse 2 gives us a timeline, but notice what verse 2 says, "And the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness." Now what's the importance of that? John stayed in a desert. John grew in the Lord. John grew in the spirit until the word of God came to John, and basically God said, "Now John is your time." Verse 3, "And then he came into all of the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance." Now what am I trying to show you? John did not step into the public arena until God said, "Son, go." These are all proofs, miraculous supernatural proofs that John did come from God.

He was born in a miraculous manner. They were old and beyond their years. He was spoken of by Gabriel, who came from the very presence of God. He was prophesied about hundreds of years prior, and he was sent by God, proofs that John came from God. John was none other than John the Baptist. Some call him John the Baptizer. He came from God. And notice the contrast. Previously starting in verse 1, Jesus, the divine logos, the divine word, was from the beginning. Jesus, God, had no beginning. He has no end. He is eternal. I guess if we could say it in a childlike manner, if someone were to ever ask us how Jesus is, you can just say eternal.

He always has, and he always will be. Amen? And isn't that what John gives us? He gives us the divine word. He was in the beginning, and now he gives us John who came. He appeared. He was born. He was sent by God for a specific purpose. You know, the Bible is full of men just like this. I went back and I did some study this week about different people who were sent by God, and I thought about a very, very similar set of circumstances, and that is when God sent Moses. Y'all know the story of Moses. He was born in Hebrew. He was born in Egyptian captivity, and because his mother and father saw that he was no ordinary child, what did they do?

His mother put him in that little raft in that little basket and put him in the river, and what happened? It was Pharaoh's daughter who picked up Moses out of the water and raised him in Pharaoh's house, and he was raised in the house of Pharaoh, and he could have had everything that Pharaoh would offer. But he turned his back on the world, and he chose to side with God's people. Of course, he took matters into his own hands, and he ended up on the backside of the desert working tending sheep.

But the story goes like this, that God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush, and God spoke to Moses, and God called Moses, and God called Moses to go set his people free. What does God say in that story? God says to Moses, "I have heard the cries of my people. I have heard them cry out to be delivered out of Egyptian bondage." And what does it say? God said, "Moses, go. I am sending you." Moses said, "I'm not able to speak well." Moses says, "I can't do this alone." Moses says, "This is Pharaoh." Moses just makes excuse after excuse, but what did God do? God said, "Go.

I am sending you." And the Word of God is full of people who are sent by God. Now what does that mean for us today? You know me, I like to answer the question, "So what?" I'll tell you what it means for us today. We desperately need men who are sent by God. We need ministers today who will do like John. We need men of God who will find Luke chapter 1 verse 80, and they will shut themselves out. They will become a man who lives in the desert.

We need men who will dwell with God, walk with God, listen to God, be engrossed with God himself, and not step out onto the public scene, not step out into ministry until the Word of God comes and says, "Son, go." So many people are out doing things on their own. So many ministers are doing their own ideas, doing what they feel good about, and doing what other people are doing. And we have a great need of men who will step out, and when they step out, it is obvious that they are sent by God. I'll tell you why I'm here. I was sent by God. This wasn't first choice, second choice, third choice.

This was me praying and fasting and seeking God until I was sent by God. Brother Keith and I can both attest to that and testify to that. And those of you who were here in the beginnings of me coming, you'll know that you have heard me speak of that often. And why am I here? Why do I do what I do? It's because I was sent by God. And I can sit you down if you have the time, and I can tell you how God called me and how God has led me. I can even sit you down and tell you scriptures and experiences and trials, good times and bad times about how God led me each step of the way in the ministry that I have been involved in for years.

What am I trying to show you? I am a nobody. I have nothing. I'm not talented enough or good enough. All I have is that God has sent me. John came from God. The second thing I want you to see out of verses seven through eight is that John came as a witness. Go back to the text. John came as a witness. What does it say? He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came that he might bear witness of the light. Now again, all of the translations say basically the same thing.

I want you to notice three things out of this verse or these verses, and I trust you would write them down for your own study. First, John was a witness. You might say, "Pastor, that's obvious." He says it numerous times. He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came that he might bear witness three times he uses the word witness. Now we have established that John uses the writer John, uses many witnesses, and he uses the word witness very much in his gospel, nearly 50 times in various forms. There are three right there that I've just read to you.

Now it is important for us to see that John the writer purposely gives John the Baptist as a witness. Increasingly, John is the only gospel writer. Now listen, interestingly, he's the only gospel writer who uses the word witness just like this. Why? Because he is making his case. I ran across some interesting information that a couple of commentators gave me, and I want you to listen. One commentator said, "The courtroom language of witness and testimony is common to the New Testament, but especially to the gospel of John." We're not the only ones to notice that John has this habit.

Also MacArthur says, "The legal terms witness and testify are words related to fact, not opinion as in a courtroom setting." Now what's the point of all this? John is a valid witness. John is a valid witness as one being in a courtroom setting. Now what I want you to see is that John is establishing John the Baptist as a witness. These are courtroom words that are used to establish that witness. Second, I want you to see that John, he bore witness. Go back to the text. He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light. John was nothing more than a witness. Now these are legal terms relating to factual information.

He did not represent himself but Christ. One commentator that I did read said that he could be called John the witness rather than John the Baptist because he is seen as a witness so much. Three times right there in verses 7 and 8, the word witness is used. You get that? I like that. One commentator said he's called a witness so much, why not just call him John the witness instead of John the baptizer? But what do we see? I want you to notice two things about John bearing witness. What's John's goal? What is John's goal? The text answers that. What does it say?

He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all might believe through him. John's goal was that all might believe. Only that all who hear his credible witness might believe that Christ, believe in the Christ that he is presenting. So John's goal is to evangelize John the Baptist's goal was that all who would hear would believe in what he is saying. Another question, how? How would they believe? I want you to notice that the text says through him. Go back to the verse. He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all might believe. Now notice through him. Now who is this him in the text?

This is John the Baptist. Now are people believe, are people born again because they believe in John the Baptist? No. What do we need to see here? We need to see that the witness is the agent of belief. John is the agent who testifies to the object of belief. John is the agent. He is the one that declares he is the credible witness, but the object of belief is Christ. And what John is saying is, the writer John, he's saying that all who hear the gospel of Christ through John might believe. He is bearing witness. His goal is that all would believe and his goal is that people would believe through his credible witness.

The third thing I want us to see is that John was not the light. I want you to see something different in verse 8. There has a negative tone. There is a negative tone to verse 8. What does John say? He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. Let me go back and read verse 7. He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all who all might believe through him. He was positive. Now he turns negative. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. And what I want you to see is John was not the light.

There were those who thought that John might have been the promised Messiah. Were they not? There were some that thought that he was the one they had been waiting on. John the apostle is correcting any error in that manner. This is in the emphatic in the original construction, meaning John is making a strong statement concerning John. And this was extremely important because John was trying to stop the John the Baptist cult before it ever got started. Isn't that good? But some didn't hear it. If you study the exploits of Paul and you see where he gets the Corinth, you remember the story.

When he got the Corinth, he met some wonderful, fine Christian people named Priscilla and Aquila, did he not? But as he is ministering in Acts chapter 18 and Acts chapter 19, what happens? He comes across individuals who had, now listen, partial information. They were preaching in the synagogue, but they were preaching the baptism of John. Now what does Paul do? Does Paul say, oh man, that's wonderful. That's found in the scripture? No. What does he do? He takes that incomplete information and he does what John wanted to do. And what does he do? He moves on from John's baptism to Christ. So what do we see in verse eight?

John is saying that John the Baptist is not the light. He is a witness. He has come to bear witness of the light. John was a witness to tell people about the object of their faith, that the object of their faith should be Christ. And John was establishing John the Baptist as a credible witness. His testimony was a serious, serious testimony, like in a courtroom setting. But he is also making a definitive statement that John the Baptist was not the Christ. You know, the scriptures are full of people who are credible witnesses. We've been studying Paul a lot on Sunday night because we've been dealing with 1 and 2 Timothy for so long.

We have gotten to know so much about Paul and how he has poured into Timothy in the life of the Ephesian church. But Paul was a witness. He didn't want people to believe in him. He wanted to bear witness of Christ. He wanted to tell of Christ. And he wanted people to believe through his testimony in Christ. And Paul was none other than a witness. What did he say? He said, "I was called of God to be the apostle to the Gentiles." Isn't it amazing the apostle to the Gentiles always started in the synagogue? Isn't that good? I like the story of Acts chapter 18. He goes to the synagogue and he was rejected.

And the scripture says he went next door to the house of Titus Justice and then the synagogue ruler believed. That's kind of ironic, is it not? It's kind of strange. But what do we see? Paul is a witness. John is a witness. Now I want you to see a couple of things of application here. First, this is a warning to Christian leaders. This is a warning to Christian leaders. Now what's that warning? We're not the light. We're only to be witnesses. And you know, actually if we're to be accurate witnesses, we are to be nameless and faceless. Are we not? We are to be servants. It's not about me. It's not about how I feel. It's not about what I want.

It's about me being a witness. A witness in a courtroom setting is actually nameless and faceless. The judge does not care about how you feel. He cares about your accurate testimony of the truth. And that is exactly what John was to be. And that is exactly what we are to be as Christian leaders. I was reading last night in some devotional material by A.W. Tozer and he was talking about greatness in the faith. And he said that desiring to be great is actually a good thing if the greatness that you desire is scriptural. As a matter of fact, it was the little book called Born After Midnight.

But he goes on to say that the greatness that we should desire, the greatness that we see in the New Testament is none other than being a servant. Than being great in Christ, we are to be a servant and we are to endure a life of self-denial. And that's exactly what Christian leaders are supposed to do. We are to serve. We are to deny self so that we would be witnesses of the light. And I guess I can say it like this. It just ain't about us. It's not about John. Remember I fast forward the story. All of his disciples were running and following Christ and some of John's disciples came back and they said, "Well, wait a minute.

They're following after this guy from Nazareth." And what does John say? "A man can only have what's given to him from heaven." It wasn't about him. So there's a warning here. We are just witnesses. We are not the light. And the second thing I want us to see, an application to this, John came as a witness. Partial information about the gospel is not sufficient. John's baptism was not the same as belief in Christ. You need to hear this. John's baptism was not sufficient. That's why when Ananias and Sapphira came along these followers of John and Paul came to these followers of John, he completed the revelation.

Because listen, they were holding on to the witness, but they did not see and hear and understand what the witness was telling them about. They stopped at John. Now was what they believed true? Yes, but it was just partial information. And so what did Paul do in Acts 18 and verse 19? He goes on to say, "Now look, you've got the information of John, but let me tell you about John's purpose. He came to tell you about Christ. And what did he do? He went on to evangelize them and they went on to place their faith and trust in Christ, but in what John said. Now what does that mean to you and to me today?

There are a lot of people in the life of the church and they're out there trying to do the work of God with partial information. Now I'm going to speak for a minute and application about evangelism. You have heard me moan and groan about some of the horrific practices that they're out there today, but one of them is this. In the life of the convention, we have adopted, I have not, they have adopted the practice of what's called the ABCs. A means admit, B means believe, C means confess. All of those things are biblically accurate, but that's only partial information.

If you take someone young or old and you say, "Do you want to go to heaven?" And they are going to say, "Yes," you say, "Do you want to have eternal life in heaven?" Yes. You can get them to A, admit, B, believe, and C, confess all outside of the work of the Spirit. But what did we sing about earlier? We sang about the work of the Spirit. No man, no boy, no girl, no young person, no adult, no senior adult can ever come to Christ without the work of the Spirit.

And if the Spirit of God is not working, if they do not fully understand their condition, and I'm so thankful that later on in the book, I just wish we could get there sooner, John's going to tell us about the work of the Spirit in conversion and what do we see when we get the totality of the message of the gospel? It's far more than just A, B, and C, admit, believe, and confess.

But if the Spirit does its work, if the Spirit can convict someone of their sin, God's righteousness and the judgment to come, if the Spirit of God exposes them for who they are, if the Spirit of God brings them to the point where they see that they're a rebel against God, and then God grants them the ability to admit and believe and confess, then they can be saved. But what we have today is so many people running around and unlisten with partial information. And partial information does not save. We must take the full workings of God.

Now in conclusion of the message this morning, I want you to see that in this, now remember, we're still in the introduction. Verses 1 through 18 is still the introduction. We see John is giving us his first credible witness, John the Baptist, John the witness. Now what did John do in summary? He was a witness that all might believe, now listen, through him. Isn't that good? Not in him, but through him. He was a witness. He stepped out when God called. He had a specific design purpose. He was an ambassador for Christ. He stepped out into the public arena when God called, and he was nothing more than a witness. It wasn't about his name.

It wasn't about his prestige. It wasn't about how big the crowds were. It was about him being true to what God called him to do, to be the voice crying out into the wilderness. A witness that all might believe through him in Christ. Now I close with a question. Could this be our heart for evangelism? Should this be our heart for evangelism? Should this open up our eyes to the way that we should go out and evangelize? But I want to say to you, to me, to us this morning, I believe that we need to do what John did in Luke, the Gospel of Luke. We need to do what John did in Luke chapter 1 verse 80. We need to grow up in the faith.

We need to grow strong in the faith. We need to grow in grace and knowledge and the workings of God and knowing and walking with God. And then in the proper time, we can step out. And I think this should be our heart for evangelism. And our hearts cry would be this. Lord, I'm a nobody, but it doesn't matter. I don't know all the answers, but you do. I just need your heart. I need your mind. I need to be under your control. And Lord, as you send me, I will be a witness to the living Christ. And listen, that should be our heart for evangelism. And what do we see in John? The witness, the witness of John, the first one of many to come.

John's making his case, is he not? He's getting us ready for the unfolding of his gospel starting in verse 19. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you for how relevant. Lord, how timeless these truths are. Lord, I pray that you would give us hearts to understand fully how this could be applied to us. Lord, not just accurate information.