Messenger

“MESSENGER”,  John 1:19-28

• The last prophet on the Old Testament ends with this…
  • “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Malachi 4:5–6
    • 400 years of silence ensue… special Revelation from God stops. 
  • But then the silence ends. It doesn’t end with the angel Gabriel visiting Mary, he visits someone else about 6 months before. 
• Zechariah was a priest, and he was chosen by lot to enter the temple and burn incense. Everyone else for worship was outside in prayer and John enters in. Knowing he was in a sacred place, prayerfully lighting each candle, and then… and Angel appears. 
  • Filled with fear, but then the angelic being speaks “do not be afraid”. If that wasn’t enough he says he and his wife will have a son, He said he would be great… 
    • And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” Luke 1:16–17
  • He, and his wife were “advanced in years” and doubted the angel, so the angel said, 
    • And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” Luke 1:19–20   
  • His name was to be John, the silence ends and hope has come… 
  • Hundreds of years earlier a prophet named Isaiah said…
    • A voice cries:  “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 40:3–5
  • A few months later this same Angel visits a humble virgin named Mary. A virgin birth. The prophecies are coming true. Light was coming, but darkness in the hearts of men was about to reveal itself, envy due to a a supposed threat of his kingship rose in a kings heart. Herod was visited by wisemen from the East saying the king of the Jews was coming, and after they were warned by an angel to not tell him where he was, he had all the male children in the area killed and with it, hope. Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt and though the story does not say explicitly, I imagine Zachariah and Elizabeth hid their son John in the wilderness. 
    • Years later he begins his ministry, What is it? Dressed in camel hair, eating locus, still in the wilderness, 
    • during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Luke 3:2–3

His calling—> to prepare the way for true repentance and forgiveness.

• Read John 1:6-7 and 15

His identity —> Read John 1:19-28

• Humility- In light of who he is proclaiming he is nothing. The lowest of servants would be the one to strap the sandals. He is not even worthy of that! 
• Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Matthew 11:11

His Message—> Behold the lamb of God, Read Vs. 29-34

• To our minds this sounds mysterious at best, but in the context of the jewish mind, it brought an avalanche of meaning.  
  • Abraham and Isaac, “Behold, the fire and wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  
  • The passover, where the blood of the lamb kept death away
  • The atoning sacrifices at the temple
    • All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53:6–7
  • The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! 
    • The atonement (The GOSPEL) 
    • William Cowpers great hymn, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn for Immanuel’s veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all there guilty stains”
  • Behold, the Lamb of God! 

Application, what can we learn? 

• What is your calling? —> to prepare the way for true repentance & forgiveness
  • How? Repent and then call those to repentance! 
    • There is a philosophy out there that says “why mention sin?”
      • Conference about the Imago Dei
      • When do you mention sin? Because it’s biblical
  • John prepares the way, and points out sin. The book of Romans, which is a detailed explanation of the Gospel, spends 2.5 chapters on sin
  • To understand the greatness of atonement, the greatness of our sin and need for a savior is needed, but it’s not just pragmatic, it’s biblical. 
    • Mat. 4:17, Jesus Preaches, “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”
    • Peter, in the first sermon of the Christian church, calls people to repent. 
    • The kingdom starts with repentance all the way through revelation where the churches are called to repent! 
      • Start with yourself. 
      • You can’t lead people to somewhere you haven’t been.
    • 2 cor. 5, ambassors, like John, we point people to the atonement! 
• Your identity —> you are nothing, Christ is everything! 
• Your Message—> Behold, Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world
  • It’s for everyone all the time. 

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53:6–7