The Clarity of John the Baptist's Record John 1:19-34

Text:  “And this is the record of John (the Baptist), when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?  And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.”

John 1:19-20.

          “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him (the Lord Jesus).”

John 1:32.

Good morning, clear Christian witness!  Your witness for Christ is a most powerful witness indeed.  Why?  Because you bear clear record of historical facts; you set forth the irrefutable Biblical evidence for your Christian belief; you give a resounding account of the ‘…faith once delivered unto the saints…’  More power to you, beloved Christian friend!  (Jude 3)

“But sanctify the Lord in your hearts; and be ready ALWAYS to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”  (1 Peter 3:15)

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me (Christ Jesus) both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)

When a regenerate, ‘born from Above’, Christian is forthright in declaring God’s truth in the spirit of God’s heart-melting love - wondrous things happen:  Souls ‘dead in sin and trespasses…’ receive God’s gift of faith; they believe the Gospel message of Salvation in Christ alone; they are granted God’s gift of repentance; they confess their sins to God; and they are gloriously SAVED for time and for Eternity.  Wow!  Now, that’s what I call exciting activity! (John 3:3-8)

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

“Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine…do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”  (2 Timothy 4:1-5)  

Precious souls will respond!

‘But I have no special talents, or handsome looks, or extra resources with which to make any impact on the countless unsaved souls around me!’, I hear some readers cry. 

‘Nonsense!’ I reply to such defeatist bleating.  Use the truth that you have, wherever you can use it, to whomever you find opportunity to use it! Trust me, you shall prevail in the power of God the Spirit, and win souls for the Master!  (Proverbs 11:30)

Precious souls are perishing because of the inactivity of Christians!

Take a look for a moment at this man we call John the Baptist.  What had he that made him such a powerful instrument of the Living Lord God?

John the Baptist was not some well groomed, nattily dressed, TV evangelist.  John was not in the business of building a ministry like many we see today.  John was being truly faithful as he was, with what he stood up in, to whomsoever had ears to hear his message of the coming Messiah Jesus.

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”  (Mark 1:3)

John had a God-given message to preach, and he preached that message with all his heart, with all his might, to whomsoever he possibly could.  That’s faithfulness!  Praise God for clear and faithful Christian witnesses!

“I am the Lord (Jehovah) thy God, which brought ye out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”  (Psalm 81:10)

God’s strong assurance to Moses at the commencement of his ministry to lead the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, is exactly the same assurance to Christian witnesses today in the 21^st Century .

“And the Lord said unto him (Moses), Who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord?  Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”  (Exodus 4:11-12)

John’s message could be bottom-lined in these words, “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” - Jesus Christ has come to suffer and die on a cruel Cross to save all sinners that repent.  That’s our message, dear friends.  Let us go forth and preach it with all our might.

Thought:  The Record is straight - Jesus saves repentant sinners!

The Miracle of Incarnation! John 1:14-18

Text:  “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

John 1:14.

          “Wherefore when He (Christ Jesus) cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice (bulls and goats) and offering Thou (God the Father) wouldest not, but a Body hast Thou prepared Me.”

Hebrews 10:5.

Good morning, faithful Christian!  Being granted God’s gift of faith - that untouchable, untastable, unseeable, and humanly illogical, gift God gives to His chosen children - you are enabled by God to truly believe the truth of His Word.  Praise God for the gift of immovable faith!  Hallelujah!

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is (exists), and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”  (Hebrews 11:1;6)

(See the doctrine of Faith on our website www.ulsterchristians.org)

The humble dictionary defines the act of incarnation thus:  Incarnate  (vt):- to embody in flesh, give human form to; to personify in human flesh. (The Chambers Dictionary, page 811)

Therefore, in theological terms, an act of incarnation is the act of embodying Deity in human flesh; clothing God, as it were, in the form of His Creation by giving Him a human body of flesh and blood.  (Hebrews 10:5)

“I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.  Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.”  (Psalm 2:7-8)

Jesus Himself declared: “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him/her that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.  For I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him (God the Father) that sent Me.”  (John 6:37-38)

This is the miraculous act to which our text above is referring - the Eternal Word of God, or God the Son, was incarnated into a Body of flesh and blood, and dwelt among us in the form of the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. 

Thus, the apostle John, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, leaves us in no doubt of this miracle of incarnation by adding the fact that ‘…we beheld His glory (as eye-witnesses), the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ (V.14)

As Theologian Alan Cairns states in his Dictionary of Theological Terms, page 190: “In writing to Timothy, Paul lays this down as the first fundamental doctrine of Christianity: ‘Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh.’ (1 Timothy 3:16)”

John clearly stated the fact that although the natural, fully human, Jesus was actually and physically born after John‘s birth - the Supernatural Christ, the Eternal Son of God, existed in Eternity before him.  (V.15)

“To the question, Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?, The Shorter Catechism answers: The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, being the Eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one Person forever.’”  (Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan Cairns, Page 137; published by Emerald House Group Inc, Greenville, U.S.A.)

Jesus Himself declared His Eternal existence as God the Christ openly: “Jesus said unto them (the Jews), Verily, verily (truly, truly), I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”  (John 8:58)  Hallelujah!  Praise be the Lord God incarnate!

The Law given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai, The Ten Commandments, were given to show sinful mankind that we, with the greatest of human will, cannot keep them!  ‘…But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’  (V.17) (Exodus 20:)

The incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ, manifested all the Divine attributes of Jehovah Almighty God by His sinless life, His miraculous public ministry; His matchless love; His Sacrificial death on the Cross to Redeem us; and His victorious resurrection from the dead!  Hallelujah!  He is risen indeed!  Only God Himself could defeat Death.

Let us continue to grow to be more like Him day by day, and continue to declare the beauty of God Almighty in the Person of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  The Lord God bless your day.

Thought:  “…Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given…the Prince of Peace…” - God the Son, Christ Jesus.

Jesus: Light, Life; Eternal Salvation John 1:9-13

Text:  “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great Light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the Light shined.”

                                                                                                             Isaiah 9:2.

          “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

                                                                                                            John 8:12. 

Good morning enlightened Christian!  Like the author, you were once sat in the prison house of Spiritual darkness, Spiritually blind, ignorant of true freedom, devoid of the glow of God’s Light.  But now, we who once stumbled in the gloom of sin and utter darkness have seen a Great Light - the Light of Christ Jesus has shone into our souls and blessed us with life indeed.  Let us lift up our very souls in thanksgiving and praise unto God Almighty, for His truly amazing grace!  Glory…glory…glory to God on High!  Amen.

“For He (Christ Jesus) satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.  Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelled against the Words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High.”  (Psalm 107:9-10)

John the Baptist was raised up of the Lord God to be a witness for Christ Jesus, the Son of the Living God.  His very existence came about by a wondrous act of God, clearly evidenced in his mother, Elisabeth’s, conception of him after a life time of infertility.

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.”  (Luke 1:37)

John the Baptist’s appearing at that particular time in the history of the Jewish Nation was, in itself, a fulfillment of Bible prophecy that the Lord would send forth a ‘messenger’ to prepare the hearts of His people to receive their true Messiah. 

What God says in His Word, God always faithfully does.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all (all the Elect, of course!) should come to repentance.”  (2 Peter 3:9)

“Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”  (Malachi 3:1)  (Written by Malachi in Judah c. 433-420 B.C.  There followed a silence - of Spiritual inspiration from Heaven - of some 400 years before the Godly silence was broken by the voice of John the Baptist, God’s promised, Messianic, messenger.)

Suddenly, after such a 400 years long absence of Spiritual revelation, Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, the Light of the world, and the only Saviour of sinful mankind; the Creator Lord of all life - came to His own chosen Nation and walked among them.  (Vs. 9-10)

God’s Word to mankind was again proven to be faithful and true - Christ came unto His own people, the Jewish Nation, but the Jewish Nation, apart from a small remnant, rejected Him and Crucified Him as a criminal upon a cruel Cross.

Yet, praise the Lord, that is what God the Father had determined in His Divine foreknowledge to do in order to make the required Holy Sacrifice for our black dastardly sins.  God is an Eternal Being, and He alone knows the end from the beginning.  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour we have, in Christ Jesus!  (Acts 2:22-24) (Isaiah 53:1-12) (Acts 4:12)

Yet, listen to the blessing that was given, and continues in this day of grace to be given, to all those who believe and trust Christ for Salvation:

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His Name; which were born, NOT of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”  (V.12-13)

“…Salvation is of the Lord!”  (Jonah 2:9)  Mankind has no hand in it!

Since the Fall of Adam and Eve in Eden’s Garden - all mankind are smitten with the blight of sin; we ‘…fall short…’ of the righteousness of God, and must be condemned by God as a consequence of our sinfulness.

Yet, God the Father sent us Christ Jesus, His Holy Son, to suffer in our place, and provide the way of Eternal Salvation by our trusting in Him.

Thought:  ‘Thank You, oh my Father, for giving us Your Son’ - Christ Jesus - all Light, all life Eternal is found in Him.

John the Baptist John 1:6-8

Text:  “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”

                                                                                                          Malachi 3:1.   

          “The voice of him (John the Baptist) that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God…and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” 

Isaiah 40:3-5.

Good morning, believing Christian!  You have, by the grace of God and His gracious gift of faith, believed the Gospel account of Salvation through Christ’s Sacrifice at the Cross for us.  You have believed without seeing all things for yourself.  You have been enabled to trust in the unseen Lord God, and His Son, Christ Jesus by grace through faith.  Blessed with blessings are you indeed.

“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me (the resurrected Christ Jesus), thou hast believed; blessed are they that have NOT seen, and yet have believed.”  (John 20:29)

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

God sends men and women into our lives as His witnesses, His messengers, to testify that God’s grace has been poured out; that Christ Jesus has come to save us by His full and Holy Atonement Sacrifice on the Cross; and that Eternal Salvation is offered to us, if we put our full trust by faith in Him.  What a privilege it is to carry God’s message!

However, how will precious souls ever hear of this great deliverance if God does not send someone to bear witness to us for Him?  Thus, God sent us John the Baptist, His messenger, to proclaim that the Messiah, the long-awaited Lamb of God’ had indeed come to take away the sins of the world. 

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light (Jesus), that all men through Him might believe.”  (Vs. 6-7)

The wonderful man we know as John the Baptist was the gift of God to the faithful, ageing, yet childless priest of God, Zacharias (Zachariah) and his barren wife Elisabeth of the tribe of Aaron.  (Luke 1:5-7)

An angel of the Lord appeared unto Zacharias as he was fulfilling his priestly duty by burning incense in the Temple.  The angel told Zacharias that his prayers for a son had been heard and were about to be miraculously answered; that his wife Elisabeth, in spite of her barrenness and age, would bear him a son, whose name must be called John.  He would be filled with the Holy Ghost from the very time of being in his mother’s womb; and he would turn many of the tribe of Israel to ‘…the Lord their God…’  (Luke 1:13-17)

Yet, most important of all, he would be sent as the prophesied ‘messenger’, “…in the spirit and power of Elias (Elijah)…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  (Luke 1:17)  What a God-sent mission!

Elisabeth was the cousin of the woman whom, a mere six months later, was privileged to be the chosen human mother of Jesus - a Jewish virgin called Mary.  (Luke 1:36)

Zacharias, ‘…filled with the Holy Ghost…prophesied…’ that John would be part of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning the long awaited coming of the Messiah.  John would go before Christ Jesus to call the Jewish Nation to repentance; to prepare the way for Christ’s coming to His own as promised in Holy Scriptures.  (Luke 1:67-80)

“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand…this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias (Isaiah), saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”  (Matthew 3:1-3) (Malachi 3:1) (Isaiah 40:1-11) (John 1:23)

John would not come as the Light of the world, Christ Jesus, but to bear strong witness of Him - and praise God, he did.  John proclaimed the good news of Christ’s first coming into the world as the Lamb of God Who would take away the sins of the world.  Hallelujah!  What a witness to those of us who sat in the darkness of sin and Eternal damnation.  Bless the Lord!

Thought:  John was faithful unto death - will you and I bear witness to Christ with our daily lives?  (Acts 1:8)