John 1:19-34 - Brad Borowski

The Gospel according to John, beginning in chapter

1, verse 19. This was John's testimony when the

Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites

to ask him, Who are you? He didn't deny it, but

confessed, I am not the Messiah. What then? they

asked him. Are you Elijah? I'm not, he said.

Are you the prophet? No, he answered. Who are

you then? they asked. We need to give an answer

to those who sent us. What can you tell us about

yourself? He said, I am a voice of one crying

out in the wilderness, make straight the way

of the Lord, just as Isaiah the prophet said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees, so

they asked him, why then do you baptize if you

aren't the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet?

I baptize with water, John answered them. Someone

stands among you, but you don't know him. He

is the one coming after me whose sandal strap

I am not worthy to untie. All this happened in

Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him

and said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away

the sin of the world. This is the one I told

you about. After me comes a man who ranks ahead

of me because he existed before me. I didn't

know him, but I came baptizing with water so

that he might be revealed to Israel. And John

testified, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven

like a dove, and He rested on Him. I didn't know

Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water

told me, The one you see the Spirit descending

and resting on, He is the one who baptizes with

the Holy Spirit. I have seen and testified that

this is the Son of God. The Word of the Lord.

You all can have a seat. You guys ready for John?

Hey, if you don't have one of these Bibles, this

is our gift to you. The cool thing about it is

you can write notes in it and write it all up

and do whatever you want with it. The first thing

you do is grab one of these. If you don't have

one right now, you can jump up. We won't be afraid.

We won't shame you. Just go in the back, grab

one off the table. They're there for you. And

then write your name in it so that when you leave

it here at the school, They know who it goes

back to. Just kidding. So keep it, all right?

Andrew, can you turn me down just a little bit?

Thank you. All right, I can pull up. Notice today

I've got two, what I'm wearing. Just look at

me for a minute. Look at this craziness of what

I'm wearing. I've got the Radiant logo, and I've

got the Living Stones logo right here. Okay,

what is Living Stones? Well, if you remember

a few weeks ago, I told you about I was down

in Reno. At South Reno, Livingstone, South Reno.

So it's a church. So over a number of years ago,

we began kind of a close relationship with another

network of churches called the Livingstone's

Family of Churches. So we have five Radiant Churches,

and they have ten Livingstone's Churches now.

And so we just began to say, let's work together.

find ways to help one another. In fact, when

I was down there, I met with a potential church

planner that they're looking to start an 11th

church, and we were talking about what would

it look like for Radiant Matsu to financially

contribute to help make that church to go. I

don't know what just happened there, but anyway,

way down. So I was down there at South Reno.

South Reno Church has financially... From the

very beginning, when we moved here, financially

jumped on board and said, we want to support

and believe in this church plant. And so Brad

Browski, who had been a part of the Living Stones

for a while, planted a church in Winnemucca.

Anybody know where Winnemucca is? Yeah, I've

got like two people. Yeah, it's a... Kind of

like an Alaskan town. It's a mining town, ranching

town in a sense of independence. Well, anyway,

I've heard that. I've never been there. So Brad

planted a church there, and now he has moved,

handed that church over, and he's at South Reno

Church in the south part of Reno. And he is the

executive pastor of this church. When we were

down there, I invited him up, and he's come up

to be a part of the Convergence cohort that we're

launching this week, which we'll talk about that

more later. But Brad's come on up here, and Brad's

a good friend. He's been to Alaska before. I

won't tell all of his stories, but he's a good

friend. And I asked him to preach because we

don't get this opportunity very often. And just

so you know, he can preach pretty well. So we're

going to pray for you. We need it, though. Lord,

we just pray for Brad right now, that as he preaches,

that by your spirit, not by what Brad does, but

by your spirit, you empower him to unpack this

amazing text. God, thank you for the relationship

we have with Living Stones. Thank you for the

relationship with Brad, and thank you that he

can be here with us. So will you work in our

hearts as well, by your spirit. Amen. Thank you,

Caleb. And hello, Radiant. A lot of people struggle

to tell Caleb and I apart because we have equally

awesome beards. But yeah, it's great to be with

you. I've finally met you guys for the first

time today. But so you know, this is special

for me. Like Caleb said, we've been supporting

and not just financially, but through prayer

and thinking about and hearing from and wanting

to know and be part of this church plant from

the very beginning. And so it's awesome to finally

be here. I've never been able to worship with

you guys and to meet all of you. And if you've

been coming to, if maybe you met Jesus here,

just so you know, people have been praying that

that would happen for you since long before.

And God had a purpose, and that was fulfilled

here. And you were able to meet Jesus because

churches a long way away from here prayed for

you and supported this ministry. And so there's

something big going on here. And I actually love

Alaska. I've been here. My uncle was stationed

in Kodiak when I was a kid, and so I can't come

up here a bunch. I've got lots of stories. I

come up here a couple times a year to hunt and

fish and plan. in retreat, you know, while I'm

hunting and fishing. But one time I brought my

wife up and I tried to convince her to move here.

And she was totally on board until she found

out about this thing called winter. And then

she was less on board. And so, actually, it's

been record heat wave where I live. I don't know

if you could tell, but I got a sunburn a couple

of days ago because I was outside too long in

the nice sun. Did you guys see the sun two days

ago? Not sure? Too soon? Too soon? Is that a

sore spot? Okay, I apologize. Again, we love

this church. I love this church. I've been praying

for you for a long time. And so you know, if

you've been coming, last week you started a series

in the book of John. And the book of John is

an awesome book. And we're actually, it's an

awesome book because it reminds us of the fundamentals

of what our hope is and what our purpose in life

is and who Jesus is. We always need that reminder,

right? Like Caleb said last week, the foyer.

We got to go back to the foyer and say, what

is all this about? Because it can seem kind of

hopeless and kind of routine. Life can just seem

sort of like that. And so we need to remind ourselves

of who Jesus is and why do we really follow him

and who are we really following. And if you're

a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus, then

I'm guessing that you want to do that. You want

to follow him. And today we're going to talk

about exactly what that looks like. And maybe

this is your first time here. Maybe you're here

and you're a skeptic of all this. You actually

don't believe these things. And just so you know,

you're here on purpose too. People far from here

have been praying that you would be here today.

And God has a purpose for you. And just so you

know, a fundamental four -year type thing that

you need to know about. about Radiant and about

Living Stones too, and about gospel preaching

churches, is we believe that this Bible is God's

word. That every single word of this is from

the one who made us. And it's what we need in

order to know why we're here and what he did

to bring us back to him. And every single word

of this is important and vital for our living.

And you may not believe that yet, but I'm going

to go out on a limb. And if you're a follower

of Jesus, then this is true for you too. It's

true for me. I bet you've spent at least a small,

if not a large portion of your life, trying to

live without a source of truth. Trying to live

by your own source of truth, by your own desires

and ideas and hopes, and without a clear path

of why you're here and what you're supposed to

be doing, without a constant hope that's never

going away. And I'm guessing you've probably

realized, and if not, let me tell you today,

there's no other place you can find that except

in Jesus. There is no other way. There is no

other source of truth besides God's word. There

is no other hope besides what Jesus provides

for us. And so that's why we're in the book of

John. And Living Stones is actually preaching

through the book of John right now also. We're

a little bit further ahead. We've been in it

for a while. We're way further in chapter 12

or 14 or something. And I'm not going to give

you any spoilers. Actually, I am. I'm definitely

going to give you some spoilers and ruin the

ending for you. But that's all right. We're going

to get into the passage. Let's turn to John chapter

John 1 · chapter mention

1 as we just read. And by the way, I think I

could listen to that Bob guy read scripture all

day. Holy smokes. That was amazing. I kind of

want him just to come up and read my sermon so

I can listen to it. His voice is soothing. All

right. Verse 19 of John chapter 1. This is John's

John 1 · chapter mention

testimony. This just means story. When the Jews

from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask

him, who are you? He didn't deny it, but confessed,

I am not the Messiah. What then? They asked him.

Are you Elijah? I am not, he said. Are you the

prophet? No, he answered. Who are you then? They

asked, we need to give an answer to those who

sent us. What can you tell us about yourself?

Now, the first time I actually came to a Radiant

church, it was the Radiant in Fairbanks where

Caleb planted first. And this was long ago before

Matsu was in his view. And we went for a cohort.

We were gathering with a bunch of pastors. It

was actually during COVID. We were part of this

church planning network that put pastors together

to help each other, encourage each other, and

share ideas and support each other. And they

said, no cohorts because it's COVID and people

can't travel. And we said, we're going to do

it. anyway, but we're going to go to where no

COVID could possibly be, and that's the wilds

of Alaska. So we went to Fairbanks, and then

we went two hours outside of Fairbanks. But as

you guys know, because you were most likely here,

Alaska really didn't want anyone coming here,

right? Because then we might bring some germs.

And so it was tricky. You had to have a COVID

test within a certain period of time in order

to get on the plane or to be let in to the state.

And so all of us had to deal with that. And one

of the pastors, we get to the Fairbanks airport,

and we're waiting for him to come. through the

checkpoint. He had to get off the plane. He had

to go to the checkpoint. They had to get your

documents, you know, and he had apparently some

issues with his document, right? The doctor signed

it wrong or the test he got was not quite right

or whatever, and they sat there. They like took

him into a side room and like held him there

for like 45 minutes, almost not letting him out,

almost like trying to send him back to California

or wherever he was from. And they were just grilling

him. Hey, what actually did you get? Can you

log on to this thing? Can you call the doc? I

mean, they were grilling him. They were trying

to figure out if he was legitimately able to

come into the state. And that's exactly what's

happening here in John 1. Right? These Pharisees,

in fact, the Pharisees, by the way, are the religious

leaders, right? So they're kind of the stewards.

They have portions of the Old Testament in there

and they're like trying to make sure people are

believing the truth, right? It's a good thing

to try to do. They kind of added a bunch of their

own rules in there and so that got complicated.

But basically what they do is they're trying

to keep the people from believing false prophets

and people who... preach who claim God's word

but aren't really true. And what we find out

later is these aren't the Pharisees themselves.

They actually send some lackeys, some interns,

some Pharisee interns to John because they hear

this guy's been preaching. And they're like,

you guys need to go and find out who he's claiming

to be, what he's claiming to do. Now, they grill

him with all these questions. Hey, who are you?

Who are you saying you are? Are you saying you're

the Messiah? Are you saying you're Elijah? Are

you saying, who are you? What is going on here?

These interns are like grilling this guy. Now,

we love to hate on the Pharisees, right? Jesus

is constantly, you know, making them look stupid.

They're constantly asking dumb questions and

doing shady things, and Jesus is like tossing

tables and constantly making them look dumb and

arrogant, and he's like, don't be like those

guys, right? But these are actually really good

questions. Like, if we're honest, it doesn't

denigrate the Pharisees or their interns from

asking John these questions. If someone comes

claiming, Like an authority from above. If I

were to come and say, hey, you don't need to

worry too much about what Caleb's saying. You

just need to listen to me. You need to have some

questions. What exactly are you saying? Where

are you claiming your authorities from? These

are good questions. This dude comes on the scene.

He's preaching. He's baptizing. And by the way,

baptizing was something that only the Pharisees

were supposed to do. And they were doing it to

take people who were not Jews to baptize them,

to symbolically make them Jews. John the Baptist

over here is over here baptizing Jews into something

else. They're not quite sure. And so he's doing

some strange things. And so the Pharisees are

like, we're only supposed to do that. What are

you claiming? What are you baptizing people?

Why are you preaching? What's going on? And he's,

not only that, he's saying some new ideas and

they're not quite sure what he's claiming to

be. So they send these people to ask him, to

grill him, say, who are you? Who are you claiming

to be? What authority are you claiming to have?

And really the question they're asking is, why

should we listen to you? The story we're going

to talk about today has three questions, really

three truths that we can, we'll bring your questions

in later, that are just baked into creation.

First one is this. You are shaped by who you

listen to. You are shaped by who you listen to.

Who you follow. Who you respect. Who you spend

time with. And not people you listen to once,

but people you repeatedly listen to. What are

the voices that you constantly listen to? You

are shaped by those. And that's by design. Psalm

1, 1 -2, it says, Blessed is the man who walks

not in the counsel of the wicked, but his delight

is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he

meditates day and night. Proverbs 13 says, he

who walks with the wise becomes wise, but the

companion of fools will suffer harm. This dynamic

is part of God's creation order. It's a principle.

You can't get away from it. We were made with

purpose in mind, and that's one of the purposes

is that we're shaped by the voices that we listen

to, and the fact is if you listen to the voices

you shouldn't, you'll become the person you shouldn't.

And the religious leaders knew this, right? The

Pharisees knew this. And so that's why when this

guy comes on the scene, he's baptizing, preaching

some weird things. They send the interns to go

find out what's going on. And so they start grilling

him. So he responds. They're like, who are you?

He responds in verse 24. He said, I am a voice

of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight

the way of the Lord, just as Isaiah the prophet

said. Now. These Pharisee interns would have

had this memorized. They were supposed to memorize

the entire first five books of the Bible and

a bunch of Old Testament scriptures. They would

have had this memorized. They would have known

what he was referencing. When John the Baptist

responds and says this, this is actually a quote,

as he says, from the prophet Isaiah. And see,

the Pharisees knew something. One of the reasons

they were so hard after asking them, are you

the Messiah? What does that mean? Well, there

was very clear. voice from god in the early days

saying i'm gonna send someone to you called the

messiah and this goes back to the very beginning

of creation right the genesis chapter one god

makes us and just so you know this is the story

of you as well he makes humanity to listen to

him to be shaped by him to trust him to follow

him to glorify him to enjoy him in his world

and we decided we didn't want to do that we wanted

to go and forge our own path and find our own

way and do our own thing and so God said, he

promised that one day he was going to send someone.

He was going to come and he was going to die

for the ways that we've ruined his world with

our rebellion. And he was going to pay for those

sins and he was going to rise from the dead.

And he was going to prove that he had the keys

to death itself. And that person was going to

be called the Messiah. Now, this is kind of cryptic

in the Old Testament. It's sort of hard for them

to understand. So they kind of had an idea. But

basically, their role, the Pharisees' intern's

role, was basically just to squash anyone's claiming

to be that. They didn't really want him because

they had the power. They didn't want someone

trusting in someone else besides them, even if

it was God's Messiah, the one he had promised.

And so they knew that there was someone supposed

to be sent to save the world. called the messiah

but to be fair there's a lot of people that claimed

this and so there's a whole lot of times where

someone claimed hey i'm him follow me and they

had to go down and squash it and so that's why

the pharisees themselves didn't go there's too

many people claiming this and so they sent some

folks to go do it and basically they were just

there to confirm that he was saying he was the

messiah so that they could write him off that's

what they were doing So they're like, are you

claiming to be him? Because if so, then we can

ignore you because we know you're not him. And

he says, no. He says, no, I'm not the Messiah.

He says, I, if you remember from your studies,

John the Baptist, this random homeless guy from

the woods, schools them in Old Testament scripture.

He says, if you remember from your studies, Isaiah

actually said there would be one that comes before

the Messiah. God's going to send someone beforehand

to... tell everyone that he is coming, and that

will be part of the proof that he is really him.

And so, basically, they say, okay, this is above

our pay grade, we're not quite sure, they scurry

away, right? Sometimes it's easy to know truth,

and sometimes it's hard, and they're above their

heads, and so they run away. So, the question

for us is, who do you listen to? What are the

voices that you listen to the most? You can probably

think of your day in terms of what voices are

constantly talking to you and how is that shaping

you? Because you're going to be shaped by the

voices you listen to. John the Baptist had steeped

himself in God's words so much that even in the

moment when they were trying to prove him wrong

and he could have said, well, yeah, I'm here

to do something great. I'm here to baptize. He

just ignored all that and he just... basically

went back to God's word and they couldn't say

anything. What voice do you agree with and consume

the most? Obviously, we believe that this is

God's word and this is something we should listen

to. This is a voice we should be dwelling in.

Now, if you grew up in church like I do, you

have an immense amount of guilt that you don't

spend enough time in this book. I'm just guessing

if that's you. That's how I am. If I don't spend

enough time in this every day, I feel guilt and

shame galore. I want to free you. You actually

don't have to read this book every day. You don't.

In fact, you don't have to read it at all. The

only question you have to ask is, how dumb do

I want to be? Then you don't have to read this

if you're cool being as dumb as possible. Now,

that's a joke. Really, you guys are really in

March Madness. Goodness gracious. I'm trying

to bring some, like, joy here. Look, God gave

this to us as a gift, not to guilt us that we

don't listen to him enough. Jesus already paid

for all of our guilt, even every day when you

don't read this as much as you should on the

cross, which means that now we're free. We get

the opportunity to read this and to know more

about him and to steep ourselves in this voice

so that we can live in more truth and have more

joy. But if we want to become like Jesus, we

need to listen to his voice because we're shaped

by that. Okay, so John talks to them. They run

away. It says, now they had, in verse 25, now

they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they

asked him, why then do you baptize if you aren't

the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet? I baptize

with water, John answered them. Someone stands

among you, but you don't know him. He is the

one coming after me whose sandal strap I'm not

worthy to untie. All this happened in Bethany

across the Jordan where John was baptizing. So

the second truth is who you talk about reveals

what you worship. You can say what you talk about

as well, but who you talk about reveals who you

worship. Notice John the Baptist immediately

directs them to Jesus. I guess they haven't scurried

away yet. They're going to in a minute. They're

asking him, who are you? What are you saying?

Why are you baptizing? You're not supposed to

do that. And he's like, look, it's not important.

I'm just a guy dunking dudes in water. The point

of my life is to point to his life. The point

of my life is to prepare you and to point you

to Jesus. And he says, someone stands among you,

but you don't know him. Jesus is already on the

scene, right? He's there. He says, Jesus is already

here. The Messiah is already here. The one God

sent to save you from your sins is already here.

You just don't recognize him. You're just ignoring

him. He's among you, but you don't know him.

And this is really important for us today. Because,

and this is true whether or not you're a follower

of Jesus, but we spend so much time talking around

Jesus, but not talking about Jesus. You know

what I mean? We spend so much time talking about

what we think Jesus would want the government

to do. Or what we think Jesus would want to happen

in politics. Or how we think Jesus would want

us to treat one another or other people to treat

us. How we think Jesus would want us to talk

to each other. And how we think Jesus would want

our laws to be constructed. But we don't spend

a whole lot of time talking about Jesus. We have

a lot of opinions that we think are shaped by

him. About what we want to happen in his world.

But we don't spend a lot of time talking about

him. Did you know that our life is a vapor? We're

going to be here and then we'll be gone. The

only thing that matters is how much attention

we give and bring to the one who can actually

save the world through the gospel message that

he's given us to preach. If all we have as our

legacy is that other people get to meet the one

who died for them and are saved from their sins

forever so they can be with him now and experience

freedom now and eternal life forever, that is

worth. If it's just one person, that is worth

giving all of our time. But we've got to talk

about him. We can't talk around him our entire

lives. and not lead people to him. Now, one of

the reasons we don't want to do this is because

if we really talked about Jesus a lot, we're

going to be weirdos. It's true. We're going to

look weird. I mean, look at John the Baptist,

for example. He doesn't say it in this particular

passage, but John the Baptist, it's not wrong

to say he lived a weird life. I mean, he was

a homeless guy, lived in the woods, wore camel's

hair clothing, which is a famously uncomfortable

clothes. You could barely call it clothes. He

ate locusts and honey. That's how he survived.

Bugs. It's important, as a side note, to recognize

that the Bible has two types of commands. One

is, or two types of thoughts. One is descriptive

and one is prescriptive. right? The difference

is sometimes the Bible says this person did this

thing. Sometimes the Bible says you should do

this thing, and thankfully this is one of those

descriptive things. John the Baptist did all

this stuff, and it doesn't say you need to do

this stuff. Thank the Lord, right? We don't have

to go live in the woods. We would all instantly

die if we tried to do that right now here in

this part of the world. Well, maybe I would.

You guys would. In Matthew 11, Jesus actually

talks about John the Baptist. He says, truly

I say to you, among those born of women, there

has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.

If you forgot about biology, that's all people,

everyone. You guys get this. You guys are like,

there's like a thousand kids here. You guys know

how that works. So that's everybody. Why would

Jesus say this? Of all the prophets, I mean,

some prophets did some awesome stuff, right?

Like Elijah, you know, like did the whole like

calling fire from the heaven. Like that was pretty

epic. Why did Jesus say, among those born of

women, there has arisen no one greater than John

the Baptist? What do we need to learn from John

the Baptist? Of all the prophets, why does he

so great? Three reasons. Three reasons he's great.

Number one is his clarity. He had a clarity like

no one before him. He knew exactly who Jesus

was. And you can't say this for the prophets

in the Old Testament. I don't know if you've

read some of the Old Testament prophets. They're

not clear. Like there's a story in Ezekiel. Ezekiel

is a prophet. God sent to tell people stuff,

right, from him. There's a story where he tells

Ezekiel to like go and take his hair and to do

three things with it. To burn some, to take his

hair and burn a third of it, to take another

third and throw it up and chop it with a sword,

and then to take another third and throw it into

the wind. And that was supposed to symbolize

something to the people. Do you know how many

people understood what Ezekiel was doing out

there? I guarantee you it was zero. No one understood

that. Daniel 12. I love Daniel. You see, God

shows him all this stuff, and it's crazy, you

know, a bunch of like angelic things. And he

literally says, I have heard, but I did not understand.

He's like, I saw a bunch of stuff. I don't know

what's going on. I'll just write it down and

see if people can figure it out. I have no idea.

John had a clarity. He knew exactly who Jesus

was and why he was there. He said, I'm the voice

preparing the way. Remember Isaiah? I'm who he

was talking about. See that guy? That's Jesus,

right? He's got a clarity like no one else. The

next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him and

said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the

sin of the world. Right? He did exactly his job.

And unlike any prophet before him, he was able

to be like, you know what God's telling you to

do? Look over there. Look to that guy. Number

two, his humility. Prophets were famously not

humble. But he knew not only exactly who Jesus

was, but exactly who he wasn't. These guys come

in and say, who are you? Are you someone great?

Are you like Elijah reincarnated? Are you in

some sort of, we need to know. Are you worth

listening to? And he's like, look, it's not important.

I'm not important, but let me tell you who is.

There's a guy who's right over there, and I'm

not even worthy to untie his sandal. Who I am

and what I'm here to do is not important. Just

go look to him. Just go listen to him. And gosh,

you and I get mad at Jesus when he doesn't give

us instant gratification over the things we want

from him. And we shouldn't feel too out of sorts

about that because the disciples did the same

thing. They really wanted to be great. In fact,

one time they were arguing about who was greater

and they're like, Jesus, which one of us is best

to Jesus? He's like, neither. You both suck.

John the Baptist had a humility, even unlike

Jesus' disciples. And he saw Jesus and says,

look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin

of the world. He's on the greatest mission. He's

the greatest one to ever walk the earth. I'm

not even worthy even to look at him. This is

he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks

before me because he was before me. Jesus. literally

made the world tells us father son holy spirit

he's god the son he he didn't just start walking

the earth he's he's fully god and fully man he's

existed since the beginning of time and this

is another proof of jesus divinity that he's

he's god walking among us and that's why john

unlike anyone else actually recognized who jesus

was and pointed to him now this is kind of confusing

And if John really wanted to get a lot of followers,

he probably wouldn't talk like this. But John

didn't care. Jesus was way greater than him,

and it wasn't even close. Let me ask you, would

you rather have greatness in this life, or would

you rather people forget about you and see Jesus?

I had a professor in seminary. He wrote a book

called Nobody's for Jesus. It was one of my favorites.

That God does his greatest work through people

who are content to be unknown so that Christ

is known. This is a temptation for people who

speak before people. And maybe in your job, you're

really good at your job, and there's a temptation

for you that you want to be known. You want to

be impressive. You want people to remember you.

Like Caleb said, I planted a church 12 years

ago in Winnemucca, a small town in Nevada. My

wife and I grew up in Florida, and so we moved

there to start the church. So from the very beginning,

you know, I led this church, and it was great.

And God blessed us, and it was an awesome, awesome

church. And then he called me out of it years

ago. He called me to lead the lead pastor role

of a church I started and to become the executive

pastor of another church that someone else started

and to kind of hand off that church to someone

we had raised up. That's an emotionally difficult

request. But the fact is God showed me that this

was where he was calling me and gifting me to

be. And just a couple months ago, that church

in Winnemucca celebrated their 200th baptism.

200 in the last 10 years. And that church is

only 250 people. It's a small town. And you know,

I want to go back and like be there for it, you

know, celebrate with them. And the fact is I

had this realization the other day. If I went

back there, it's so transient. If I went back

there, I don't think most of the people would

even know who I was. That's a tough thing, right?

We have to be okay choosing Jesus as our legacy

over our own reputation. What's worth living

for? John the Baptist knew. Clarity, humility.

The third thing that made him great was purpose.

He knew what he was living for. He said, in verse

31, I myself did not know him, but for this purpose

I came, baptizing with water, that he might be

revealed to Israel. That he might be revealed

to Israel. Is that your purpose? Would I know

that if I walked around listening to who you

talk about? Or would I think that your whole

life is oriented and devoted to worshiping and

making your kids name great? Or your grandkids?

Or an athlete that you talk about? Or a politician

that you won't shut up about? Now I'm in the

same boat, right? I'm sure I talk about other

things a lot more than Jesus. Most of the time

I spend time talking about the next hunt I want

to go on. Like I want to go on this caribou hunt.

I was just at Caleb's house last night, and the

first thing I started talking about was I want

to go on this caribou hunt. It's a 20 -hour drive.

You guys probably are familiar with it up the

hall road, and no one will go with me because

it's a 20 -hour drive up a hall road. And I spend

time talking about hunts. I spend time when I

come to Alaska just talking about all the times

I've been to Alaska. came and almost died waiting

across Eagle River, when I came and almost died

flying a plane over the Kachemak, when I came

and almost died on a four -wheeler up in Fairbanks.

I should probably stop coming up here, I think.

But I like talking about going places and doing

things. I'm almost addicted to adventure, and

I want to be out and do things and enjoy God's

world. But enjoying God's world is not the same

as enjoying God and worshiping Him and making

Him known. I have to ask the same question that

you do. What kind of legacy are you trying to

leave? What is your purpose? Because your life

will point to some hope and other people will

learn what they should hope in by what you are

hoping in. And if it's the next adventure or

the next child or the next government, are you

teaching them that their purpose is something

that is not going to hold their hope long? The

next thing we see, we see that you're shaped

by who you listen to. Who you talk about reveals

who you worship. And three, your behavior proves

your belief. Your behavior proves your belief.

And John shows us this in verse 32. John testified,

I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like

a dove, and he rested on him. I didn't know him,

but he who sent me to baptize with water told

me. The one you see the Spirit descending and

resting on, He is the one who baptizes with the

Holy Spirit. I have seen and testified that this

is the Son of God. John's like, look, I was like

you. I had no idea who Jesus was. All I know

is that I listened to God. I listened to him.

I leaned in and I asked, and God said, go. and

baptize people with water, preparing them for

the one who's going to baptize them in the Holy

Spirit. Meaning you're going to do a symbol.

The baptizing with water represents us dying

to ourself and rising to new life. Just like

Jesus literally dies on the cross and is buried

for our sins. He pays the price that you and

I deserve for ruining our life and God's world

with our rebellion. And Jesus rises from the

dead. And that's that symbol. And he does that

spiritually, whereas baptism with water is just

a symbol. But Jesus baptizes us eternally. He

actually rises us to new life with God. He takes

our dead spiritual life, our dead relationship

with God that none of us have when we're born

because of the sinfulness of the world. You and

I start in the same place. And Jesus died to

give us a relationship with him again. And he

gives us the Holy Spirit to give us an eternal

hope with God. That we're not just going to have

him now but forever. John listened. And he oriented

his whole life over that. He forsook even a bed

to sleep in. So that he could point everything

to Jesus. Again, he has not said you have to

do that. But he did that. And he's called us

to a unique version of that that he's gifted

us and wired us and positioned us for so we can

point with the things he has given us, the time,

the resources, the talent, and the treasure so

we can point to Jesus so other people can know

him. And there's so many places in my life and

maybe yours that I just, I'm like, God, I'll

do it. I'll do what you want. I just want you

to show me what's on the other side of the request.

Give me the next three or four steps, and there

we go. I'll see it. He's asking us to take the

one, and if you give me the next three, he's

like, no, I'm not doing it. That's not how he

works. We don't grow in faith when we don't have

to trust him. Some of you, maybe say you believe

in Jesus. You say that you're a follower of his,

but no one would know that. If they look at how

you spend your time, talent, and your treasure.

Your behavior doesn't look like it at all. And

that's okay. We're all in the same boat where

we're constantly failing. This is why we need

Jesus to pay for our sins. But have you been

called to something and you're making excuses?

You're not going to find... The hope of Jesus

that way. I'm not trying to shame you. Jesus

did. In fact, later on in the book of John, he

says he didn't come to condemn the world but

to save it. But what it means that Jesus came

to baptize with the Holy Spirit is that the things

that are keeping you from being with God now

and forever are your sin and he wants to free

you from them. And the longer you spend not listening

to him and not talking about him and not... orienting

your behavior around him, the less of that freedom

you will experience. He inspired John, the author

of the book, and John the Baptist, and me, to

do for you what John the Baptist does for his

disciples right here. The next day, again, John

was standing with two of his disciples, and he

looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold,

the Lamb of God. Your Bible says, look. the Lamb

of God. Behold the Lamb of God. The two disciples

heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

So John's got disciples. He's literally got a

following. People are like, wow, you're definitely

preaching the truth. We've been ready for this.

We're jiving with what you're saying. We believe

that you are this voice crying out in the wilderness,

and they're following him. They're disciples.

He's literally got an entourage, and instead

of being like, yeah, bud, you know, like, follow

me. Like, come, let's create a compound and do

our thing. He's like, see Jesus? Go over there

to him. I'm nobody. Go over there. Behold, look

to Jesus. And they go. Why does he do this? The

main point of the message today is you become

what you behold. You become what you behold.

Like I said, in your Bible, John said, look.

I'm using the ESV, which is what I normally use.

And I came up with the main point before Caleb

told me you guys use the CSV, which doesn't have

the word behold in it. But that's my main point.

You become what you behold. His whole life is

about helping people behold Jesus. And what does

it mean to behold? Well, it means to listen to

his voice the loudest. Behold is like more, I

like it better than look, even though look technically

is a better translation for us today because

we don't use the word behold ever. But behold

to me gives this deeper spending more attention

and time than just like a passing glance. And

so that's why I like it. But it's first to listen

to his voice the loudest. To behold someone is

to kind of spend some time hearing what they

have to say when deciding how to think or how

to live or how to plan your future. Are you beholding

Jesus before you make those decisions? It's sitting

with and it's dwelling in his words. And number

two, it's talking about him. To behold someone

is not just silent, it's active. It's I'm going

to actually spend some time talking about him.

Like when I first beheld my wife, before she

was my wife, when I first met her, I was like

everything in me wanted to tell someone. You

see how freaking beautiful she is? There's something

that has to come out when you behold something

beautiful, something incredible. You want to

tell people about him. And if you really believe

that Jesus is the savior of the world that will

take away the sins and bring about the joyful

freedom forever, then you can't not talk about

him. Remember, what you talk about reveals what

you worship. Number three, behave like Jesus

did. To behold Jesus means to listen to his voice

the loudest and to talk about him. And three,

to behave like he did. Here's the reality. Every

single major religion and even atheists, they

want what Jesus talked about. I mean, they either

think he was a good teacher, he said good things,

talked about good things, or every major religion

has Jesus somehow in their doctrine or theology

as he was some sort of prophet or something.

Why? Because when Jesus, the fruit of the life

Jesus lived and the fruit of what he tells people

is exactly what all of us know we deeply long

for inside. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness.

Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

The fruit of the Spirit, right? The fruit of

Jesus baptizes us in the Spirit, shapes us from

the inside out. His salvation makes us new, and

then we can experience those things the more

we walk and behold Him every day. Everyone knows

we want all these things. None of us don't want

those things. We just don't want to, like, surrender

our way. To get them. We just don't want to stop

following our own path in order to follow Jesus'

where those live. We want the sculpted body without

the tracking the calories and lifting weights.

We want the caribou without the 20 -hour drive.

We want the unmatched Alaskan summer without

the harsh Alaskan winter. Which is why many people

stay consumers and spectators like me. And we

get to experience one fiftieth of being Alaskan

and enjoying one of those beautiful places in

the world that you get because you're here and

you dwell and you behold it every day. John the

Baptist is an excellent example for us on living

a life that matters and beholding what God has

called us to behold. Jesus said it. No one's

been greater than John the Baptist, but that

verse doesn't end there. Truly, 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. How is that possible? John

the Baptist is so great. How is the least, the

person who struggles to follow Jesus the most,

which is me, How am I greater than he? And maybe

that's how you feel about yourself. He says you

are greater than even John the Baptist in directing

people to me. Why? Well, because the three things

that made him great, clarity, humility, purpose.

We can have more. We can have greater clarity.

We know exactly not just who Jesus is, but what

Jesus did and what happened after. We know that

Jesus died and rose. John the Baptist didn't

get to see that. He got his head chopped off

before that happened. For following Jesus and

teaching people and directing people to him.

That's a spoiler. But we're not there yet. We

can have greater clarity. We know the whole story.

We can have greater humility because we know

that Jesus, it wasn't just John the Baptist believed

Jesus was going to rise from the dead. We actually

saw him do it. And the world changed. Everyone

saw it in front of them that Jesus rose from

the dead. There's nothing greater. positions

him as clearly greater than all of us. We can

have greater humility. And we can live with greater

purpose. Because we know that Jesus said, go

into all the world, make disciples and baptize

them. He gave it to us right there. So I want

us to do an analysis today. And maybe you probably

already have, hopefully a little bit, but later.

Do an audit of your life. And just ask the question,

who am I beholding? Because you become who you

behold. For most of us, it's probably yourself.

If we're honest, we talk to ourselves the most,

we listen to ourselves the most, we talk about

ourselves the most, and the problem is our hearts

are deceptive and wicked. We all know this. If

you haven't figured this out, just everyone does

at some point. You can't trust your own feelings.

You can't trust your own thoughts. Maybe the

person you're beholding the most is a politician

or journalist or an influencer online. And let

me just ask you, the church is not about politics,

but let me ask you, is the person you're listening

to make your heart harder or softer toward those

Jesus died to save? Does it make you more...

Loving or more ready for a fight? Who are you

beholding? The invitation is that Jesus says,

I can free you if you come to me. If you deny

yourself and you follow me, you can be with me

now and forever. You can know the freedom. You

can know the joy. You can have the fruit of the

Spirit. You can have it. Pastor wrote a book

that I love about hospitality. He says the gospel

is not about trying to wedge a little Jesus into

our crazy lives. The gospel is about letting

God bring redemption and the way of his crazy

kingdom into our frantically dysfunctional patterns

of living. I got here this morning and a dozen

of you showed up to help set up. everything you

see. There's cords literally every square inch

of this stage. Someone put those there. Literally

so that they could create a place for you to

hear about God's great love for you and sing

and worship the one who made you and reconnect

with Jesus. What a purposeful use of time. What

a lasting legacy. Who are you beholding? Imagine

a life centered around beholding Jesus, sitting

with him, listening to him, talking with others

about him, adjusting your behavior and your actions

and your attitude and your rhythms of life around

seeing him and beholding him more. That's literally

the point of this church. That's what we prayed

for seven, eight years ago, whenever it was,

that would happen here in this place. The fact

is we all need a Savior. What John the Baptist

shows us is not about us. Everyone needs a Savior

and we are not him. That Jesus came to die for

you and he rose to behold, to help you behold

the one who made you so that you could find life

again. And that's why we come. That's why we

gather. That's why we preach. That's why we...

Listen, it's why we open the Bible is because

that truth is the foyer of our life. We always

have to go back to it. It's why we, after we

hear God's word preached every week, we take

communion or the Lord's Supper. We take these

elements. Jesus gave us this ritual, kind of

like baptism, to remind us of this truth that

it's not just... We come on Sundays and that's

it. It's that we are actually now a part of his

family. That he wants to be with us, not just

tell us what to do. He wants us to spend time

with him. He wants us to be with us. He gathers

disciples together and he put them at a table

and he said, I want you to remember this moment.

I want you to remember me and what I'm going

to do for you. doing for you on the cross is

to bring you back to the table with me so you

can be with me like you were intended to be.

So I'm going to invite the band back up, and

we're going to sing, but we're also going to

take communion, and there's going to be communion

in the back of the room. But what that is is

it's bread and it's wine or juice that represents

Jesus' body and blood that was broken for us,

that his love was so great that in order to bring

us back, he had to die. So that he could pay

for your sin. But that in his death and resurrection,

that's what he did with his disciples. He gave

them the bread and the wine to represent how

we can take his death and we can live life from

it. How it's all paid for. Every way you fail

to behold him with your whole life. And so we're

going to do that as an act of worship. It's part

of beholding. It's part of this. This lifestyle,

we get a tangible witness of the gospel in the

bread and the juice, and that's why we do it.

And so I'm going to pray, and then we're going

to sing some more praise to him. We're going

to take communion together, and then we can go

and hopefully behold him more in a lot of ways

this week as well. Let's pray. Lord, we know

that we're strugglers. in your world. And we

don't, we rarely know what to do or what to think

or how to live. Lord, even the moments we think

we do, we quickly recognize we're wrong. And

so, Lord, we thank you deeply for your word.

Thank you for this truth that we can stake our

life on, that we can trust, that has stood the

test of time, that is adequately described. and

us and what's in us and around us. And Lord,

we thank you for Jesus who died to save us. We

thank you for sending your son and doing what

we couldn't do, which is live that perfect life.

And thank you for taking our penalty. Thank you

for giving us freedom. Thank you for the reminder

from John the Baptist of the life worth living.

Lord, we ask that you give us clarity today,

maybe for the first time. about your love for

us. Give us humility if we've been arrogant and

proud about our own entrenched ways of living.

Remind us of our purpose and fill it with us

when maybe we lack hope, we lack meaning in our

days. But I pray that this week is filled with

hope for this amazing church and that you get

all the glory and the credit. Your sons and we

pray. Amen.