Mark 1:1-8

Today we're going to look at John the Baptist, or as I prefer to call him John the Baptizer.

! Let's read together the first eight verses. Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him,

and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel's hair, and wore a leather belt around his waist,

and ate locusts and wild honey.

And he preached, saying,

After me comes he who is mightier than I,

the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down,

and untie.

I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Let's pray together.

Father, certainly this morning we can echo the writing of the hymnists.

We need you.

We need you in this hour to bless the preaching of your word,

for our hearing, for your sake.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

So, today we're going to look a bit at who is John.

Last week, who was Mark?

Here we see who is John.

But I want you to be very clear and remember that this is ultimately a story about Jesus Christ.

But it's important, I think, that we know a little bit of the background.

We see here in verse 4 that John appears.

And he appears as the fulfillment of prophecy, as the foretold prophet.

So, firstly, John was the foretold prophet.

We see this bit of prophecy here in verse 2 and verse 3,

which is kind of a mash-up.

We know it's attributed here in Mark to Isaiah,

but it's actually a bit of a combination of two.

Verse 2 is the first part of Malachi 3.1,

which reads in the ESV,

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.

And then verse 3 in Mark is from Isaiah 40, verse 3,

Isaiah 40:3

which says,

A voice cries,

In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

And these two verses together are commonly used,

both in Matthew and in Luke,

to prove who John the baptizer was,

that he was this foretold prophet.

Now, to clarify for you,

as it says, as written in Isaiah, the prophet,

it was very common when this was done,

when two different prophecies were put together,

to use the greater prophet,

the prophet that had had more influence,

that people would have been more familiar with,

and to attribute the prophecy to that man.

So this is a very common thing done in Hebrew writing.

The writers of the New Testament quote sometimes exactly from the Hebrew.

Sometimes they quote from the Septuagint,

which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

They would have had at this time.

Sometimes they make sort of a general reference to a text.

And sometimes it's an interpretive reference.

This is what we see here.

If you carefully were listening to me,

quoting to you Malachi 3.1 and Isaiah 43,

you saw that it wasn't the exact wording,

but rather an interpretive reference.

Remember that the New Testament writers were inspired,

carried along by the Spirit of God to write this,

and therefore we can take their interpretations as inspired

to help us find meaning and help us understand the Old Testament text.

So it's a common thing that's happening.

As you're reading through your New Testament,

and you're really checking out those cross references,

and you're going back to the Old Testament,

so that's not exactly what this says.

It is.

Because this was common practice that these people did

as they were carried along by the Spirit of God.

So we see that he is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy,

and this is the extent of the argument that Mark makes in that regard.

He gives us two verses put together as they were commonly done to say,

this John, John the Baptizer,

is the one that the Old Testament was telling us about,

that Malachi the prophet and Isaiah the prophet said would come

and make the way, would be the predecessor for Jesus Christ.

Now I say to you, this is proof enough.

There it is.

Need he say more?

Some of the other Gospel accounts make a more extensive case

for who John the Baptizer was,

that he was in fact this foretold prophet.

But I want to remind you that Mark, most likely,

it's widely accepted,

wrote this Gospel account from Rome,

more than likely in a Roman prison,

for Roman Christians or a Roman audience to convince them.

He didn't need to use the Old Testament in an extensive fashion.

It wouldn't have meant that much to them.

So it's important, I think, just to pause at this moment

and recognize that it's important for us to look at a letter intended audience.

Why is it that Mark did it in this way?

It gives us two verses to say,

this is John.

This is the foretold prophet.

And so we see this here in verse 2 and verse 3.

Now, let's get down to verse 6 for a moment as we ask this question,

who was John?

There is certainly much that could be said about John the Baptizer.

Right?

Matthew, Luke, even John, the Gospel of John,

speak of John rather extensively.

And they report to us a number of interesting facts about him.

Firstly, he was miraculously conceived

because his parents were too old and had been barren.

He was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb.

It's a unique thing in this day.

He was a relative of Jesus.

He was the culmination of Old Testament prophetic history,

the last prophet,

and there hadn't been a prophet for 400 years.

This is John the Baptizer.

Jesus said in Matthew 1.11,

He's the greatest man that ever lived up until His time.

Why?

Because He was the predecessor.

He was the herald for Jesus Christ.

Jesus Himself said He's the greatest man that ever lived up until His time.

There's much that could be said about John the Baptizer,

but Mark doesn't mention any of this, does he?

He doesn't mention any of it.

In verse 6, He gives us some seemingly obscure facts.

The things that I have read over the years and just thought made John an odd guy.

Right?

He was clothed with camel's hair,

wore a leather belt around his waist,

and ate locusts and wild honey.

What an oddball.

But there's significance to this.

The reason that the descriptive things that were given by Mark as just this is very, very important.

So recognize, we need to hone in on these things.

Firstly, we need to see that He was in the wilderness.

Right?

It doesn't actually say that in verse 6.

I think we're up in verse 4.

Right?

But we need to recognize that He was in fact in the wilderness,

which was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 43 and Micah 1.3 that we saw in verse 3.

Right?

He'd be the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

So here we see the fulfillment of that.

But why would He have been in the wilderness?

It seems to me that it would have been more beneficial for John to have planted himself somewhere in the city

where there were more people.

That's typically a good habit if you're trying to perpetuate something,

trying to get truth going, some sort of a movement, to be with people.

Right?

I wouldn't suggest to any of you that you go off in the wilderness to be a gospel herald.

It's really not the best place to be.

Go park on the AT and just talk to people who walk by you occasionally.

Right?

It's good to be around people.

Be on campus.

Be in your workplaces.

Be in your neighborhoods.

That's where people are.

So why is it that He's in the wilderness and people are coming out to Him?

You remember the wilderness at the first exodus when the people of God were led out of captivity,

which was symbolic.

It was a foreshadowing of the full and final salvation we have in Christ.

The wilderness was a place of trial and judgment.

So they're being called back out to the wilderness for the very same reason.

A great quote I'm going to read to you, and I could not find the author of the quote.

I found it attributed to somebody, but I don't think this person exists.

I couldn't find any information about them anyway.

So I'm just going to say to an unknown author, but this is very good.

Listen carefully.

The summons to be baptized in the Jordan means that Israel must once more come to the wilderness.

As Israel long ago had been separated from Egypt by a pilgrimage through the waters of the Red Sea,

the nation is exhorted again to exercise separation.

The people are called to a second exodus in preparation for a new covenant with God.

As the people heed John's call and go out to him in the desert,

far more is involved than contrition and confession.

They returned to a place of judgment, the wilderness,

where the status of Israel as God's beloved son must be reestablished in the exchange of pride for humility.

The willingness to return to the wilderness signifies the acknowledgement of Israel's history

as one of disobedience and rebellion and a desire to begin once more.

So not only is this a fulfillment of the prophecy,

which I would say is the most important reason John was in the wilderness,

but it was also a beckoning for people to come back to a place of humility,

a place of recognition.

Israel existed, dwelt in the desert for 40 years because of their disobedience.

They come out once again to the wilderness to meet with him,

to hear his preaching, and to be baptized.

We see a record in verse 6, as I said, that he was dressed oddly.

That he was dressed oddly.

Certainly there could have been some practical application to him being clothed in camel's hair.

In the desert it gets very cold at night.

You may not realize that.

Very hot in the day, but very cold at night.

But the reference here is not to a hide.

This wasn't a camel's hide.

This would have been camel's hair woven.

It's common.

This happened, right?

Coats and things were made of this type of material.

And this is what he's wearing.

Camel's hair and a leather belt.

This was the garb.

This was the uniform of prophets.

There had yet been a prophet for 400 years.

And John comes on the scene,

and he knows that to be taken as a prophet,

he must dress as a prophet.

So catch this.

Let me show you the evidence of this.

Zechariah 13.4.

Speaking of a day when false prophecy will cease,

there's a prophecy about false prophecy ceasing,

says he, being the false prophet,

will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive.

2 Kings 1.8, when we meet Elijah the prophet,

says he wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather about his waist.

Elijah set the dress code for prophets.

This was the way they set themselves apart from the people.

They wore a rough clothing.

Rather than a fine cotton, they wore rough clothing.

Would have been similar to somebody clothing themselves in sackcloth.

Uncomfortable cloth.

This was the garb.

This was the uniform of a prophet.

And that's why Mark records it for us here.

If you think about this,

and I hope maybe at least a few of your minds were drawn to Jesus' words in Matthew 7.15,

where he says,

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing,

but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Very clever turn of phrase for Jesus,

because the false prophets would have in fact come

in some woven form of animal fur

to say to the people,

I am a prophet.

But the heart is what matters in this case.

So, he was dressed oddly, to be sure,

but to set himself apart.

As a prophet for God.

John did not wish to be associated with the people,

but rather with the prophets.

Look at this prophecy in Malachi 4, 5, and 6 concerning John.

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.

This is Malachi prophesying much time has passed

since Elijah was on the scene.

And here it says,

Behold, I will send you Elijah,

one like Elijah,

the one we know as John,

the baptizer.

Now, as a side note,

it's of some significance,

but we also see that he ate oddly.

He ate locusts and honey.

These would have been plentiful things for him to eat in the desert.

Would have been things that the average individual would not have ate as their set-apart diet.

And so again, he's separating himself from the people.

Incidentally, if you care about this,

Leviticus 11, 22,

the locusts were one of the only insects that God permitted people to eat in this day.

So locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers were permissible in this way.

I thought it was very interesting information about how they cooked them.

All kinds of ways.

I thought of the scene in Forrest Gump,

all the different ways you can cook shrimp.

They did all kinds of things with them.

They roasted them.

They ground them up and put them in flour.

It's a good source of protein.

Took off the legs and the wings,

and did all kinds of things with the locusts.

And this is what John ate.

Plentiful supply of locusts and honey would have been there for him.

Good protein and carbohydrate complement there.

So this is what John is doing.

This is why Mark chooses to share this information with us.

So here's how we see it.

We see John as a prophet in the line of Elijah,

sent from God to herald the coming of the king.

So that's who John was secondly.

John was the herald of the king.

We'll go back to verse 1.

And recall his language here.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Son of God.

And this word gospel is the word euangelion.

Euangelion.

And now as he's writing to a primarily Gentile population,

in Rome there would have been Jews as well.

And they would have really understood this term.

It meant generally good news.

We know that.

Gospel.

Good news.

It meant that generally.

And was used in that way throughout history.

Throughout both Hebrew and Greek writing.

In a very general sense.

But it more often was specifically used to speak of the coming of a God king.

We have a couple of Old Testament examples of that.

I read these to you last week.

Isaiah 40 chapter 9.

Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion.

Herald of good news.

Here's the word.

In the Greek, in the Septuagint, would have been this word.

Would have been translated that way.

Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem.

Herald of good news.

Euangelion.

Lift it up.

Fear not.

Say to the cities of Judah,

Behold your God.

So here they are heralding God.

Isaiah 52.7 says,

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.

Euangelion.

Who publishes peace.

Who brings good news of happiness.

Who publishes salvation.

Who says to Zion,

Your God reigns.

Again, heralding the God king who will come.

There also would have been a very clear understanding of this term in Greek culture.

In Gentile culture.

In Rome as well.

Listen to this inscription from 9 B.C.

Okay, so track the timeline there.

Pre-Christ, 9 B.C.

Listen to this inscription.

The providence which has ordered the whole of our life,

Showing concern and zeal,

Has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life,

By giving to it Augustus.

Caesar Augustus.

By filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men,

And by sending in him, as it were,

A savior for us and those who come after us,

To make war cease,

To create order everywhere,

The birthday of the God Augustus

Is the beginning for the world of the good news,

Of the gospel that has come to men through him.

So this inscription, apparently,

Etched on Caesar Augustus' birthday,

Uses that very same term,

Of course, in this manner,

Speaking of Caesar Augustus.

They worshipped him as a God-king.

So they would have understood this term as well,

This euangelion, right?

That this was a good news of the coming of a king

That was not just a king,

But God who would reign.

A lot of significance, right?

In that little word,

Right there at the beginning of the gospel of Mark.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

The Son of God.

And here we see him ascribing to Jesus

As Yeshua, the God who saves,

As Christ, the anointed one, right?

The king who saves,

And as the Son of God,

Who has equality then with God.

You see now the power and the thrust of verse 1.

And then he goes right on to tell us about

John the baptizer,

The one who is coming to tell us of this

God-king,

Who is coming to reign.

Turn to Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

This is the record of the angel coming to Zechariah,

Who was John the baptizer's father.

Beginning in verse 13,

It says,

Do not be afraid, Zechariah,

For your prayer has been heard,

And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,

John.

And you shall call his name John,

And you will have joy and gladness,

And many will rejoice at his birth.

For he will be great before the Lord.

And he must not drink wine or strong drink,

And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit,

Even from his mother's womb.

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.

There he is again, Elijah.

To turn the heart to the fathers,

To the children,

And the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,

To make ready for the Lord

A people prepared.

So here's the work that he's about doing, right?

Heralding the coming of this king,

The Lord,

The one who will come and reign,

To make them ready for his reign.

So what was he saying to prepare the people?

What was it that he was preaching

To prepare the people

For the coming of Jesus?

We see in verse 4,

Excuse me, I'm going to back up a sec.

Firstly, judgment.

Not found necessarily in verse 4,

But we see that in verse 4,

He was preaching a baptism of repentance

For the forgiveness of sins.

Why do we need forgiveness of sins

If there is no judgment?

Okay, so there's my connection for you.

Right?

But turn down to Luke chapter 3.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

To show you some of what he was saying.

We'll step out of Mark

To give you a little bit of weight

To what was being preached

By John the baptizer.

Beginning in verse 7,

He said therefore to the crowds

That came out to be baptized by him,

You brood of vipers,

Who warned you to flee

From the wrath to come?

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance

And do not begin to say to yourselves,

We have Abraham as our father.

For I tell you,

God is able from these stones

To raise up children for Abraham.

Even now the axe is laid

To the root of the tree.

Every tree therefore

That does not bear good fruit

Is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Right?

Don't come out here

Making claims

That just because you're a Jew

You have salvation.

Right?

You must bear fruit

In keeping with repentance.

That's what he's saying.

He's preaching judgment to them.

And then skip down to verse 15.

As the people were in expectation

And all were questioning

In their hearts concerning John

Whether he might be the Christ,

John answered them all saying,

I baptize you with water,

But he who is mightier than I

Is coming,

The strap of whose sandals

I'm not worthy to untie,

He will baptize you

With the Holy Spirit

And fire.

His winnowing fork

Is in his hand

To clear his threshing floor

And to gather the wheat

Into his barn.

But the chaff he will burn

With unquenchable fire.

So here he is

Preaching this judgment

Upon the people

That are coming out to him.

Because of your sin,

Because of your offense to God,

You will be destroyed.

Right?

So here we see

As he's preaching

A baptism of repentance

For the forgiveness of sins,

This is why.

Right?

It's this teaching of judgment

That he's bringing upon them.

That God will in fact

Judge the wicked.

Secondly,

He's also preaching

Repentance.

I flipped my notes this morning

So I apologize for the

Previous misspeak.

He's preaching repentance.

A baptism of repentance

For the forgiveness of sins.

Now at this point,

This is where I'd like to explain to you

Why I like to call him

John the Baptizer.

Right?

This was a signifying mark for him.

Certainly appropriate to him

As he was in the wilderness

Baptizing

In the Jordan River.

Right?

It's a way to set him apart.

There were a lot of Johns

In this day.

A couple of years ago

We would have said that

Of our church as well.

Lots of Johns

In our church.

Right?

So this is a way of

Setting him apart.

Right?

John was not the first Baptist.

To be clear.

Right?

I think he would have

Agreed with us.

But he was not

The first Baptist.

He was simply

John who baptized.

Right?

John the Baptizer.

Right?

But what is this

Baptism that he's doing?

What is this

Pre-Christ

Baptism

That we're observing

At this point?

Because we understand

Baptism to be

A symbol

A picture

Of what Christ

Has accomplished

On our behalf

With his death

And his resurrection.

Right?

Romans 6

3-4 says

Do you not know

That all of us

Who have been baptized

Into Christ Jesus

Were baptized

Into his death?

We were buried

Therefore with him

By baptism

Into death

In order that

Just as Christ

Was raised from the dead

By the glory of the Father

We too might walk

In the newness of life.

Okay?

So here we have

The picture

That Paul's laying out

For us

About what baptism

Is meant to symbolize

To show people

What has taken place

In our hearts.

Right?

But Christ has yet to be

Killed and buried

And resurrected.

Right?

So what is this baptism

That John is performing

In the wilderness?

There was a practice

Called proselytite baptism

And that would have been

For somebody

Who was not

Of Jewish descent

But was a Gentile

And wanted to come

And worship God

With the Jews.

Right?

As they saw rightly

To worship the God

Of the Hebrews

And wanted to be included

In that community

Of faith.

It's called

Proselytite baptism.

Right?

It was a very uncommon thing.

Very, very rarely happened.

But by and large

Up until this point

Until Christ sends the gospel

Out to the world.

Right?

Israel had been very closed off

To the nations.

They were really meant

To be that way.

We talked about that

In Nehemiah

That they were meant

To be a people

Set apart for God's glory.

So it's very rare

That God brought

Into the family

Into the community

Somebody in this way.

But recognize

Who's coming out.

Verse 5

And all the country

Of Judea

And all Samaria

A vast number of people

We don't read these

Alls as literal

Alls

But a vast number

Of people

Are coming out.

People of Jewish descent

Judea and Jerusalem.

Right?

I think I just said

Samaria.

Excuse me.

Judea and Jerusalem

They're coming out

To be baptized

With a proselytite

Baptism.

Which was to say

They recognized

Their offense

Against God

To the degree

That they saw

That they ought

Not be treated

As the people of God.

That they should be

Treated as a Gentile

Outside of this

Community

This covenant community.

They were seeing

That it was more

Than just

Their Jewish descent

That made them

Right before God.

But rather

Repentance of sin

And righteous living.

Catch that.

That's important.

This was

For these Jews

Radical repentance.

Seeing this

To be the case

Was a huge

Deal

For them.

Now

What John

Was doing for them

Was simply

To prepare them

For the Christ.

Simply to prepare them

For what was happening.

This was not

Forgiveness

Of their sins.

Right?

But it was to prepare

Their hearts

For the gospel

That was coming

To them

In the person

And work

Of Jesus Christ.

Okay?

So be careful

At that step.

Right?

This was not

John had a special

A special time

Where he got to

Baptize people

And that forgave

Their sins.

It didn't.

In fact

We have a record here

That all the country

Of Judea

And all Jerusalem

Were coming out to him

Listening to his teaching

Receiving his baptism.

How many people

After Christ is crucified

Do we see waiting

Upon him

Afterwards?

Right?

120.

So was there

True

Genuine

Repentance

On their part?

No.

But this was a step

To prepare them

For what was to come.

Most of these people

Came out

Thinking

They were repenting

And in fact

Weren't.

But this was what

Was going on.

This is proselytite

Baptism.

This is why

He was baptizing

In this way.

Thirdly

John was preaching

Jesus Christ.

I'm getting to you next.

Verse 8

We see that

John baptized

With water

But Jesus

Will baptize

With the Holy Spirit.

We're not referring here

To some

Pentecostal

Second baptism.

It's not at all

What's being talked about here.

This is the washing

Of regeneration

And the renewing

Of the Holy Spirit

Of Titus chapter 3.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

This is the new covenant

Purification

Cleansing

Transformation

Regeneration

New birth.

And John says to them

I can't give you that.

I can prepare the way.

I can herald

The coming king.

The one

Who can come

And give to you

New hearts.

The one that will

Come to you

And bring you

The Holy Spirit.

I can't do that.

I can prepare your hearts.

I can maybe

Massage them a little bit

To get you prepared

For the coming

Of the king

Who can give you

The spirit.

This is why

He says

He's not even

Worthy to untie

Jesus' sandals.

It was not his point

To get people

To worship him.

It was his point

To get people

To worship

The Christ.

Right?

Now understand

That this task

That he says

That he is below

Would have been

The lowest

Possible task

For any slave

In Jewish culture.

This would have been

The lowliest

Of the low task.

The reason that

Jesus washed

The disciples' feet

Would have been this.

You did not

Want to be around

Feet at this time.

I think as a culture

Now we probably

Understand that more

Because all of you

Wear Chacos

All summer.

And your feet

Stink.

Right?

We at least

Get the benefit

Of bathing

And soap

For our sandals

And can do things

Like that.

They didn't do that

As often

In this case.

And their feet

Stunk.

Right?

They were dirty.

Filthy.

So the job

For a slave

To untie

Somebody's sandals

Was a low job.

In fact

Most masters

Didn't require

That of any

Of their slaves.

They thought

It so belittling

They didn't even

Ask them to do it.

They would untie

Their sandals

Themselves

And then let

The slave

Wash their feet.

Right?

So this is

An incredibly

Subservient thing.

And what John

Is saying is

I'm not even

Worthy

To do that.

Right?

Think of the

Most humble person

In our society.

I am more humble

Than that

Compared to

This Christ.

Right?

John was a great man.

Jesus himself said

That John was a great man.

Filled with the spirit

From his mother's womb.

Right?

Accomplishing

Great things

For the coming

Of the kingdom.

The first prophet

In 400 years.

And he says

Compared to the one

Who is coming

I am

Nothing.

His aim

Was to point

People

To Christ.

We see the record

Of the words here.

John chapter 3

John 3:28–30

Verse 28 through 30.

John the baptizer

Speaking.

He says

I am not the Christ.

People were speculating that.

They thought maybe he was.

He says

I am not the Christ

But I have been sent

Before him.

The one who has the bride

Is the bridegroom.

The friend of the bridegroom

Who stands and hears him

Rejoices greatly

At the bridegroom's voice.

That's John.

The friend of the bridegroom.

Therefore

This joy of mine

Is now complete.

He must increase

But I must decrease.

He must be made great.

Stop coming

And looking to me.

Stop worshipping me.

I am simply

John the baptizer.

The one you need to worship

Is Jesus.

The Christ.

And that's what he was

Out there doing.

Preaching this.

Judgment.

The repentance of sin.

And Jesus Christ

In whom we find

Our forgiveness.

Jesus.

Jesus.

The coming king.

Jesus.

The one who would come

And rule

In the hearts of men.

Who would bring his kingdom

To earth in a way

That nobody thought

As they reviewed

The Old Testament text.

They thought he would come

In a charge

With an army.

Conquer Rome.

Send them back

Cowering.

Instead he came

And brought his kingdom

To rule in the hearts

Of the men.

And that is the kingdom

We are part of

This morning.

We are part of

This kingdom.

So John was the

Foretold prophet

Who came to herald

The coming

Of a new king.

It's good news.

Isn't it?

That is good news.

A king who would usher

A kingdom

Of forgiveness

For sins.

John foretold

The coming of

Jesus Christ

Who would be

The great climax

Of redemptive history.

The Jesus that we

Have placed our faith in

For the forgiveness

Of our sins.

The source of our life.

Our joy.

Our comfort.

Our peace.

He is to us

Our great prophet.

Our atoning priest.

And our glorious king.

And now it has been

Given to us

As those who are

Filled by the spirit

By the work of Christ.

Much like John

Was filled by the spirit.

To also be heralds

Of our king

Who is coming

Again

To return.

This is the place

We find ourselves in.

He has come

Brought the kingdom.

He's coming

To complete

That work.

Right?

And that is our

Task now.

In that way

John's a very unique

Character in the

Biblical narrative.

But in that way

We should be

Just like him.

Making much of Christ.

Making very little

Of ourselves.

Right?

I fail if you look at me

On Sunday morning.

Right?

If you look at me

And think

Nathan's a great speaker.

But if you do that

I failed

At my job.

Right?

But if you look

To Christ

And you say

Christ is a great savior.

He is a king

Worth worshipping.

Then I have succeeded.

Right?

I must decrease.

He must increase.

Right?

All of us

Must do this

For the sake of the kingdom

Our good

And God's glory.

Let's pray together.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.