John 1:14-18 - ”The Other Guy” - Abundant Life (Gospel of John)

It's great following Chris. I don't have

to adjust the mic.

Our uh let's hear God's word as taken

from the book of the prophet Isaiah

chapter 40:es 1:5.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your

God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry

to her that her warfare is ended, that

her iniquity is pardoned, that she has

received from the Lord's hand double for

all her sins. 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 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.

Our gospel reading is taken from John's

gospel chapter 1:es

19-34.

And this is the testimony of John when

the Jews sent priests and Levites from

Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He

confessed and did not deny, but

confessed, "I am not the Christ." And

they asked him, "What then? Are you

Elijah?" He said, "I am not. Are you the

prophet?" And he answered, "No."

So they said to him, "Who are you? We

need to give an answer to those who sent

us. What do you say about yourself?

He said, I am the voice of one crying

out in the wilderness, make straight the

way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah

said. Now they had been sent from the

Pharisees. They asked him, "Then why are

you baptizing if you are neither the

Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?"

John answered, "I baptize with water,

but among you stands one you do not

know, even he who comes after me, the

strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to

untie." These things took place in

Bethany across the Jordan where John was

baptizing.

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward

him and said, "Behold the lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world.

This is he of whom I said, "After me

comes a man who ranks before me because

he was before me. I myself did not know

him, but for this purpose I came

baptizing with water that he might be

revealed to Israel." And John bore

witness. I saw the Spirit descend from

heaven like a dove, and it remained on

him. I myself did not know him, but he

who sent me to baptize with water said

to me, "He on whom you see the Spirit

descend and remain, this is he who

baptizes with the Holy Spirit." And I

have seen and have borne witness that

this is the Son of God. Thanks be to God

for this word.

All right, man.

All right.

Why am I not working here? Course

technology. Don't you love it, guys?

Give me one second.

I'm going to figure out why I'm not

working.

Let's try that.

Nope.

D do

[applause]

I hate I really hate technology and I'm

hating it worse now because my daughter

now rolls her eyes when I'm asking her

to help things. I used to be the eye

roller and now I am the rolled IE. I

don't know what that is. Anyways,

well, in honor of my friend Mike, who's

very excited today because it is Super

Bowl Sunday and his team is in the Super

Bowl. I am going to talk about football

for about 10 seconds.

Have you ever seen something like that?

Can you see that?

You see the sign at the end of the end

zone? John 3:16. You see this

John 3:16

everywhere, don't you? You see it all

over the place and it's particularly in

sporting events. I've seen it at NASCAR.

I even saw it at a at a UFC event which

I thought was odd. Um,

you even see it in wrestling, but I

think that has to do with a wrestler.

Anyways,

everyone thinks this is the text from

John, don't they? For God so loveth the

world, he gaveth his only begotten son

that whoever believeth in him shall have

eternal life. Can you tell I went to a

King James church when I memorized that

text?

What if I told you

that's not the best text?

What if I told you that's not even the

best text to tell the gospel story?

What if I told you that the text we're

going to read today, this little bit

about John is going to give us more on

the gospel than John 3:16?

John 3:16

Well, before you throw the tomatoes,

let me explain. And as much as I love

that John, my friend Shawn over there,

is going to preach and I'm thankful he's

doing it and explaining things simply,

John's gospel is beautiful because it

isn't simple.

God takes us seriously. You can read

John's gospel and in one level you go, I

get it. And that's why it's a great

thing. But I'm going to tell you right

now, we have to have eyes to see and

ears to hear. And when we get into a

gospel like this today, we will be blown

away what John is saying through the

through the uh Baptist and who God is.

So let's pray. [sighs]

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this

amazing truth of your gospel.

May you bring it to life today. May you

open our eyes and our ears where may you

breathe upon us with your Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Well, the John's Gospel here starts

pretty simple. He This is the testimony

of John. We've already talked about how

testimony is a legal language because

John is is witnessing in the court

because Israel thinks they're putting

Jesus under trial. Of course, we know

that Jesus is putting Israel under

trial.

When the Jews sent priests and Levites,

priests did the sacrificial work. The

Levites were the musicians from

Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"

He confessed and did not deny, but

confessed, "I am not the anointed one."

Why does he say that? They were waiting

the people of their time for a King

David person, someone who God anoints to

be a militant deliverer and deliver them

from Rome. And he says, "I'm not that

guy." That's confession one.

And he goes, he asked them and they

asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?"

Well, you go back to Malachi 4, before

the great and terrible day of the Lord,

this the day when Israel would be

delivered, it says Elijah would come.

And he says, "No, I'm not." Now, most of

us who know our synoptic gospels know

that Jesus says he was the Elijah, but

he's confessing truth. He did not see

himself in that role,

which is interesting.

God knows more than us sometimes.

He said, "I am not." Two confessions

that are true because he is telling the

truth. And finally, are you the prophet?

This is right out of Deuteronomy. Moses

the prophet. They were waiting for Moses

to come and bring deliverance. The

prophet. So, they got the three people

that would bring deliverance. And he

says, "No,

three confessions.

All right."

Now, this is the brilliance of John's

writing. There's going to be three sets

of three confessions.

Two are going to be true and one is a

lie. Can you guess what the other ones

are?

Well, you got this confession. What

about the guy who gets asked next time

if he knows Jesus three times?

Remember Peter? And what happens when he

jumps out of that boat and sees Jesus?

What does he get? He gots asked, "Do you

love me how many times?" And he

confesses true

three confessions three times. One good

confession, one a lie, the third one

redemption.

The brilliance of this writing is

something to note. But right now we're

just going to focus on this. He has said

I am not any of these three. So then

they said to him, who are you? Because

what he's doing is he's doing a national

act of baptizing. Baptizing in their

world clearly meant one thing and one

thing only. You were repenting of your

sin so that God would forgive you. It's

all about repentance. Okay? That's all

it meant to them.

Who are you? We need to give an answer

to those who sent us. They're following

orders. That could never go wrong.

What do you say about yourself?

What does he do is he gives us the first

thing of the gospel.

And if you have eyes to see and you and

now you're going to hear me preach this

again and again. If you stay in this

church for any period of time, I'm going

to tell you right now, learn your Old

Testament.

Cuz if you're going to understand Jesus

or the gospel, you've got to understand

the Old Testament. Because what does he

keep quoting? The Old Testament, right?

He says, "I am the voice of one crying

out in the wilderness, make straight the

way of the Lord as the prophet Isaiah

said."

So he goes to Isaiah. Now, if you know

Isaiah, the first 39 chapters is a

warning. You're going to go into exile

because you're idol worshippers, because

you're doing all kinds of sinful stuff.

And then there is a sense of the people

repenting.

And then at the beginning of chapter 40,

it is the promise of Exodus, the promise

that God would forgive them from exile.

And it starts exactly from this quote.

Comfort, comfort my people, says the

Lord your God. Speak tenderly to

Jerusalem, and cry to her that her

warfare is ended, that her iniquity is

pardoned, that she has received from the

Lord's hand double for all her sins.

Then the quote from Isa, from John,

in the wilderness, prepare the way of

the Lord. Make straight in the desert a

highway for our God. See the people have

come repentance repenting and John is

providing the repentance for the people

to come back to God. Okay, that's what's

going on here. The people have been

outside God's will, including the Israel

of his day and he's offering through his

baptism repentance

and he's going to lead him out. And then

he keeps going, every valley shall be

laid low. This means the people can come

back into Israel without any problems

and every mountain and hill made low and

the uneven ground shall become level.

It'll be like a highway heading back to

Israel cuz you have repented. It's not

hard to come back to God and the rough

places a plain. Now, I want you to

notice this. Do you remember last week

the word became flesh and dwelt amongst

us? Do you remember that? Do you

remember that thing about how the word

came and his glory shone? Do you

remember that from last week? Listen to

this next language and tell me you don't

think John is making connections.

And the what of the Lord?

Glory. What did he just say about that

last week? Right. Shall be revealed. And

all what what's the next word?

And the word became

and shall see it together. For the what?

What does the mouth of the Lord do when

he's spoken? He speaks the what?

Do you see it?

John is wrapping in right here this new

Exodus saying this is happening now

through Jesus. He's fulfilling that very

text. And John is coming and providing

the new way to it for people who repent.

And that's why he's baptizing. He's

creating a way where this word, this

flesh will see all these things. So

that's what John is doing. He has come

for repentance. That's the key for us.

That's part one.

Now they had been sent from the

Pharisees and they asked him then why

are you baptizing if you are neither the

anointed one Elijah nor the prophet and

John answered them I baptize you with

water that's only repentance the outside

but among you stands one who you do not

know even he who comes after me the

strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to

untie this is a beautiful statement that

would have shocked them because a

disciple of a of a a of a teacher

was allowed was made to do everything

but never was made to take off the

sandals of the teacher because that was

too lowly.

And what does John say? I'm below that.

This rabbi is so great that I'm not even

worthy taking the shoes off his feet.

The one thing you think is too low for

someone to do.

And then he says, "These things took

place in Bethany across the Jordan where

John was baptizing."

He wants to locate it in history. This

is not ethereal stuff. When they start

putting locations that they're trying to

say to you and me, this this is real. It

happened in terapirma. It happened in

places.

It isn't just a philosophy. This is

history.

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards

him and he says something. Remember,

he's providing the baptism for

repentance, but he's not bringing

salvation.

So, he does number two here. He says,

"Behold the lamb of God who takes away

the sin of the world." Well, before John

said that, guess what? No one had ever

called Jesus the lamb of God.

No correlate him taking away the sins of

the world.

So, there is a repentance, but g all

John can do is give you the option of

repentance. He can't give you salvation.

What he says now is he's given you the

second part, salvation. And he says it

here. Behold the lamb of God.

How is that

pointing to our salvation?

Well, guess what? Guess what part of the

Bible? We have to go back to

the Old Testament. There you go.

I get excited by this.

We know Isaiah 53.

Surely he has borne our griefs and

carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him

stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our

transgressions. He was crushed for

iniquities. Upon him was the

chastisement that brought us peace and

with his wounds we are healed. Everyone

saw that as the cross.

All we like sheep, and recalls him the

lamb of God, have gone astray. We have

turned everyone to his own way. And the

Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us

all who takes away the sins of the

world. Remember that he was oppressed

and he was afflicted, yet he opened not

his mouth like a what?

No wonder he said, "Behold the lamb of

God who takes away the sins of the

world." He's quoting Isaiah 53 for those

of us who have eyes to see and ears to

hear. What he has done now is he says,

"I'm the one who's preparing a way

through repentance, but this is the way

of salvation cuz I can't lead you there.

This guy has to do it." Part two of the

gospel, isn't it?

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,

like a sheep that his shears are silent.

So you he did not open his mouth. So we

have one part, repentance. John's doing

that. Number two, the lamb of God has to

get involved because there has to be a

price paid

for salvation to happen.

And then finally, we're going to get to

number three. This is he who I've said

after me comes a man who ranks before me

because he is before me. I myself did

not know him. Isn't that fascinating

that John his claim is that he doesn't

even know him. Nobody knew him until he

was on the cross. until God's spirit

showed them who he was.

Even John the Baptist.

I myself did not know him. But for this

person I this purpose I came baptizing

with water that he might be revealed to

Israel. In other words, I came to show

the repentance so he could be revealed

to Israel as the one who needed to save

them.

And John bore witness and he said, "I

saw the spirit descend from heaven like

a dove and it remained on him."

That's at John at his baptism, isn't it?

Why a dove? Have you ever wondered that?

Because you have to go back to the Noah

story,

judgment. And who does he send out to

find new creation?

A dove. And where does this dove end up?

He ends ends up in new creation. This

dove lands on new creation itself,

Jesus Christ.

So now we have so far,

repentance,

Jesus Christ sacrifice, acting out the

forgiveness, and then we have this other

thing called the Holy Spirit.

I myself did not know him. He says it

twice. But he who sent me to baptize

with the water said, "He on whom you see

the spirit descend and remain, this is

he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."

This is number three,

repentance,

salvation,

abundant life.

This one doesn't get preached in our

reformed churches as much as you'd like

because salvation isn't just getting

your sins forgiven so you can go off to

heaven one day. Salvation is so that you

can

live as imagebearers again.

Live abundant life. And that comes

because he pours his Holy Spirit in you.

Do you see the full gospel is here?

repentance because we're awful sinners.

Christ carrying the cross for our sin.

And then God pouring his new life in us

so we can be different now. Not one day

when we go to heaven.

And I have seen and bore witness that

this is the son of God. Let me tell you

something. What you just read was the

full gospel.

this section of the, you know, people

pass over these sections

because they're hard to figure out. Oh,

it's just about John the Baptist. Yeah,

let's get to the Jesus stuff. This is

the Jesus stuff.

In this section, what you've heard is

God has come to lead you out of sin,

which is exile.

That God has been able to do that

through the cross. Deal done.

And he doesn't leave it just there. And

here's where our Pentecostal neighbors,

bless their hearts, they do go a little

crazy at times,

but we reformers have forgot this.

God wants us to have new life. And that

comes through the Holy Spirit.

And that's John's gospel to the end.

Next time you're in, okay, I want to see

if you're at the if you're in the end

zone, I want you to have a sign and it

says John 1:19-34.

John 1:19–34

Read carefully underneath.

Repentance to new life,

water to spirit. Well, guess what? I got

one last thing to tell you. That's what

the Holy Spirit that God has been saying

since the Old Testament prophets. Listen

to Ezekiel.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and

you shall be clean from all your

uncleanliness and from your idols I will

cleanse you. Doesn't that sound like the

water baptism

doesn't end there?

And I will give you a new heart and a

new what?

Spirit I will put within you and I will

remove your heart of stone and from your

flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

God always wanted repentance.

He did the act of salvation we couldn't

do. But it doesn't end there. He wants

you guys to have new life.

People, I'm going to get a little bit

preachy today.

Even more so.

We need to embrace all of this or we

won't understand it.

In the traditions I've been in, we

totally believe you're a sinner. Oh,

Calvin, right? Sinner. And you were

right.

In the tradition I've been in, it's

like, "Oh, God got the heck beat out of

him, but he's forgiven us." Yep, that's

true.

Here's what we forget is he did all that

so we could have abundant life

so that we could be different today. And

that doesn't get preached.

So again, the beginning, the call to

repentance.

There is no beginning until you come to

terms with the fact you are nothing

without him.

Until you've walked this earth enough to

realize that without him, there's

nothing worth living.

Anybody been there?

when you're watching someone you know

die of some disease or you're walking

along and your tr your business is

falling apart, your marriage is falling

apart and you realize as you're reading

about things like the Epstein files and

these things in the world that are

driving you nuts and you realize there's

nothing here.

You will never know Jesus till you get

there.

The great Carl Bart, "What what is

pleasing to God comes into being when

all human righteousness is gone, irrably

gone, when men are uncertain and lost,

when they have abandoned all ethical and

religious illusions, and when they have

renounced every hope in this world and

in this heaven."

Pleasing to God. How? Because every time

we put our hopes and stuff into this

world, it's an idol that destroys us.

And salvation means you have to let go

of this idolatrous. Anybody watch news

lately?

It's just full of hatred

and vitriol and we we versus them. And

it's all based on the crap that we lift

up. our idols, our political idols, our

entertainment idols, it doesn't matter.

And then we put our hope in these idols

and they destroy us. And at some point,

God's greatest gift to us is when he

says, "It doesn't matter. None of this

matters. None of the things you're you

think you're so holy, you're not." And

it's a moment of great awakening. That's

the first part of the gospel.

When you're feeling down, it doesn't

mean God's left you. It might be that

God's right there saying, "Look at your

idols."

Repentance is ultimate honesty. Bre,

thank you, Dietrich Bonhoffer.

Repentance is the realize that this

world isn't all that and it's true.

And one of the greatest things that God

gives us is a recognition to lift off

the eyes and take away the shine of the

idols of our culture.

And salvation can't happen until then.

But it can happen through that.

If it was just repentance, if it was

just recognition, there is no hope

because we have no way of saving

ourselves. Right now, all we're doing is

sitting around depressed.

I think what's happened in this culture,

we have a 90%

increase in the last 20 years in

anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

Do you know why? Cuz the culture tells

them how crappy they are. Especially

white men right now. That's just the

target. There'll be others,

but they don't give them any hope.

So, we medicate them.

Oh, but Christian, here's what we can

say. When they're on that spot,

we have a means of salvation.

When you're at that point where you've

repented, you want nothing of this

world. You get the second part. You get

the lamb who was slain.

You realize that this God came and took

sin upon himself.

This word is in the singular, not the

plural.

This word sin means sin everything.

The core problem. He took sin upon

himself. Not a few of your bad actions.

He took sin of this world upon himself.

Can you believe that?

For the salvation of the world, he

offered that. And because of that, he

has offered it to everyone

who believes, who says yes to his yes.

He's kind of nerdy, but he got a good

quote out of this guy,

Leon. It's a great name. John is

referring to the totality of world sin

rather than a number of individual acts.

This expression, the sin of the world,

does not appear to be used prior to this

passage. In other words, no one would

ever talk like this. The reference to

the world is another glance at the comp

comprehensiveness of Christ's atonement.

It is completely adequate for the needs

of all men. Right at the beginning of

the gospel, John points us forward to

the cross and to the significance of the

cross. What that what Leon in his nerdy

way is saying

is your sin and his atonement was full.

There isn't one person here who's done

something that's beyond salvation.

That's how great this gospel was. So

those who are repentant and down, I

don't care whether you're in jail or

whether you've lived the best life, your

sin is forgiven and covered on the

cross, paid for, done. What is he uses

this word called? It is finished.

Right?

How many Christians to this day carry on

to sins they've done in the past

and feel guilty? Well, that's Satan.

That's not God because he's already said

done.

Told you I was going to preach.

And this wasn't some other God beating

up a little God as some preachers will

say. It's not father God beating the

hell out of Jesus.

This was Jesus as God taking it himself.

The cross is not what God inflicts upon

Christ in order to forgive. The cross in

in order to forgive. The cross is what

God endures in Christ as he forgives.

He took all of that idolatry and we were

at his lowest. He provided us the

greatest gift.

You are forgiven.

And he means it.

Can I tell you something really good?

Even if you're feeling sinful, even if

you're feeling shame, it doesn't matter

in God's economy, you are forgiven.

You're just believing fake news.

God has forgiven you. And that's what

this gospel says. So, you have

repentance and now you have the answer,

the cross, right?

But it doesn't end there.

Now you have the gift

abundant life in the Holy Spirit.

Please friends, this is so important. Oh

reformers, listen. We don't have to be

afraid of it. It's not going to make us

do the funky chicken. We're not going to

have gifts that are going to blah blah

blah blah blah.

The Holy Spirit is there

to make us gentle,

to give us self-control, to give us joy

in life, to be a different people in a

world that hates, to give us love.

[snorts]

It's come now in us who we've been

forgiven to be a different people. And

I'll tell you what, it will affect you

if you allow it.

It will make you a better marriage

partner. It'll make you a better parent.

It'll make you a better child. It'll

make you better at anything because he

wants you to have this. Are your

problems going to be clean? No. Are you

still going to get sick? Yep. It's not

magic.

But it will give you the life that God

wants you to have. It's not just about

being forgiven. It is,

but it's being forgiven into life. I

wish we had this preached more. I

remember one reformer preaching at a

church and he said he came in and he was

preaching about the forgiveness of sins

and everybody's oh amen amen but he said

and then we were done and they just

looked like they had sucked lemons cuz

they barely missed hell.

Do you know what his main goal is? Not

to get you out of hell.

His main goal is to breathe upon you the

new man.

He wants you to bear his image again. He

wants Adam blew it. You're right. Now he

wants new Adam alive.

What's the purpose of this again?

[clears throat]

But these words are written so that you

may believe that Jesus is the Christ,

the son of God, and that by believing

you may have what?

Life in his name.

We got to stop preaching that we just

avoided the bad and start preaching amen

but look at the good.

Right?

When I'm around these holy rollers,

these charismatics and and some of their

theology is nuts. I'm not going to lie.

And I spent some time. But they love

life because they see the spirit in it.

Not the world. They don't love the

world.

They love it.

And we Presbyterians have to be a little

less frozen chosen.

We need to let this stuff fall upon us

so we can have a life so that people

outside ourselves will see that life.

Now you might be saying, "Well, Emry,

are you saying I get baptized for

repentance and then later there's a

baptism of the Holy Spirit?" I'm not

saying that at all. What I'm saying is

in Jesus Christ, they all come into one.

Okay?

When you get baptized, you can't be

baptized and believe without the Holy

Spirit. John baptized just for

repentance because he wasn't giving out

the spirit, right? But Jesus gave the

spirit and we still got baptized under

the water with Jesus. It's one. There is

not meant to be certain that are I'm

spiritfilled. I actually saw a Bible one

time. You ever seen this? And it said

spiritfilled Bible. And I'm like, what

are all the other Bibles?

That's insane when you think about it. I

touch it, I went. Anyways,

just joking.

Okay. Nope.

Got to stop.

The spiritfilled life is not a special

deluxe edition of Christianity.

It is part and parcel of the total plan

for of God for his people.

So John has just given us the gospel,

hasn't he? Repentance,

the cross, the spirit.

Did you see that? And if we look at the

Old Testament, we can't miss it.

You, my friend,

have repented.

You, my friend,

had a God that died for your sins so you

don't have to try and save yourself.

And you, my friend, whether you believe

it or not, if you believe, have

something in you, a light

that if you let it glow, will bring new

life and make you truly human.

Another nerd coming up,

Dale Bruner. I like it cuz I put like

math equations behind him.

He says, "The lamb takes away our major

problem, sin.

The dove inserts our major resource, the

spirit.

Forgiveness is the great indispensable

negative of removal.

Spirit baptism is the great indispens

indispensable positive of renewal. And

both happen together simultaneously

in the one great gift of salvation or

rebirth and then continue to happen in

continuing believing in him and in his

two great gifts.

This is the gospel, the whole gospel.

Repentance, the cross, and new life.

John is not going to let us move away

from that.

The question for us is if we're going to

embrace this new life, whether we're

going to have the full gospel.

I want to invite you to do something. I

truly believe

that when it talks about the spirit, it

talks about the needing of the

infilling. It's in the the language is

in the point that it has to continue.

And again, I promise you, I don't think

next week you're going to roll down the

aisle

because most of the stuff of the fruit

of the spirit isn't like that.

But take some time and number one,

repent again cuz you're going to feel

like crap again cuz you're going to sin

again.

Number two, go back to that cross and

face the fact that your sin is forgiven.

Believe it.

And number three, and this is the one we

don't do enough, say, "Come, Holy

Spirit. [clears throat]

Fill me with your spirit.

Fill me with your life."

I promise you,

they know what they're talking about.

There's abundant life to be had. John's

gospel's here. So that we might have it.

Embrace it and let God do something new

in you.

and people will notice.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

amazing grace. We thank you for the

truth

that first you changed our hearts. You

showed us the fallibleness of this world

and you led us into repentance first. We

thank you and you did the act of

salvation we could not do on the cross.

We thank you that you are the lamb of

God who has taken away the sins of the

this world.

And we thank you Lord that you have

poured your spirit upon us for new life.

Help us

to be that people.

And if anyone is here, Lord,

or if anybody's watching, he's on one of

these stages maybe feeling great

repentance and guilt but doesn't really

get the cross. we pray, draw them unto

you.

And if there are people here who know

the cross but have never really tasted

the spirit,

we ask you to pour your spirit upon

them.

And may View be a whole gospel church,

inviting in and proclaiming this to a

world that desperately needs to be saved

and desperately longs for new life.