Testifying Before The Grand Jury - [John 1:19-28]

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Let me ask you a question. What's the most frightened you've been for your physical safety? Are you thinking right now?
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No. It was a Valentine's Day a few years ago, a few years ago,
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I don't know, 15, 14, 15 years ago. I'd been asked to go teach at a homeless shelter in Los Angeles.
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I checked with my wife to make sure it was okay. It's Valentine's Day after all. Evening down there at the homeless shelter, and I was told that there were going to be a number of men there, and ladies.
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I just untied my shoes, so if I fall down, you'll know why. And it was broken up like this.
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I'd speak to the ladies first, and then the men. So, anyway,
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I told some of the people in the jail. I told one of the jail chaplains, and I told this trustee
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I had. They were both Christians. Obviously, the chaplain was. But this inmate, I really had come to like him a lot.
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He still writes. And they both said, you have to tell me your deputy sheriff.
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You know, they'll really think it's great that you're spending Valentine's evening with them. And I said, okay.
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So I'm talking to the ladies. There's probably 70, 75 ladies in there, and I tell them that. And I'm preaching the gospel to them, and they receive it, and they are just super nice.
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They could not be nicer. I mean, it was just like, you know, a bunch of little old church ladies.
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And, you know, they're all thanking me and everything afterwards. And so then they go off, and they eat dinner. And now
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I get into a different room, and I'm with all these guys. And there's probably 250, 300 men. It was a big crowd.
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And so I get up there, and I go through my little intro. And then I tell them that I'm a deputy sheriff.
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And all of a sudden, there's just some talking in the background. Let's get him. And they start moving up like they're going to charge me up.
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And I'm just, I'm like, what can I do? Reach for my gun, which
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I didn't have. And would have had six rounds anyway. Jailer, or the chaplain for the place, says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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He's talking to these guys, and he's just, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Let's hear what the brother has to say. And he just kind of, he said it in a way, and they just kind of listened to him for a second.
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And they just kind of paused, and I just kept going. And all of a sudden, they sat down, and they listened, and they were very nice after that.
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But for just a minute, my life flashed. You know, I thought of all the things I'd done in my life. And here I'm going to die in a homeless shelter on Valentine's evening.
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It seemed a little awkward to me. That was scary. Would have been a way to go out in a blaze of glory.
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You know, some people are terrified of going to court. They get scared of even, you know, if you're called as a witness, or what if you're going to be in a jury or whatever.
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People get nervous about that thing. I think probably they get more annoyed about being on the jury. But have you ever had to testify in court?
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You ever had to go before a judge, you know, raise your hand, and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you
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God? I do. I've done it a few times. Sometimes it can be not just, it's not really frightening.
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It is kind of annoying. I was working the graveyard shift, which means
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I worked all night. And then court, you know, you get off of work at 7 o 'clock in the morning. Well, court doesn't start at 7 o 'clock in the morning.
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The judges aren't stupid. So, you know, they come in at like 9, 30, something like that. And they don't really get started until 10 or 10, 30, and then they break at noon, and it's a couple hours there.
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So they had a couple of small matters to take care of, and then I got up on the stand. And it was a pretty straightforward possession of narcotics thing, and I'm answering the questions.
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And all of a sudden the defense attorney starts really zeroing in on one particular topic. And she won't let it go.
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And it's question after question after question about what happened to the suspect's cigarettes.
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And in so many words, I told her that. We adjourned for lunch.
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We came back, and the same thing started all over again about the cigarettes, cigarettes, cigarettes. Finally, the judge stopped the madness.
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That was annoying. But I'm going to shift gears here a little bit, and I'm going to say, what if a jury came to your house?
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And what if that jury had investigative powers? What if they were going to examine you and try to find fault with you?
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And that's the situation we find ourselves in, getting back to reality, the Bible, John 1.
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Please turn to John 1, because what we're going to see tonight, we're going to see
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John the Baptist really undergoing an examination by really what I call a grand jury.
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And we'll talk about the differences between a regular jury, a regular courtroom. I'm not going to go into all the differences, but what can a grand jury do, and how are they sort of structured?
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And it is interesting. It's an interesting analogy, I think. John 1. Now, just to kind of bring us up to review as we go through the
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Gospel of John, the first 18 verses, John the
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Evangelist. I mean, I have to kind of separate between John the Evangelist, John the writer, John the author of the Gospel of John, and John the
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Baptist, because we're going to be talking about two Johns. It gets a little confusing. But the author of this
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Gospel, John the Apostle, has introduced many truths about Jesus Christ.
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Just in the first 18 verses, we would learn that he is ever -existing, that he is co -equal with the
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Father, that he is the creator, that he is the sustainer of all life, that he is the source of all truth, that he has authority to grant eternal life, that he is sinless, that he is one of a kind, unique, and that he is fully
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God and fully man. And he is the source, the only source, of God's grace to mankind.
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All of this, John writes, to prove what? That Jesus is the
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Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Anointed One. He is the Son of God because John wants his readers back then and now to believe in him, to believe that he is the
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Son of God so that his readers, you, may have eternal life.
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Let's look at John 1, verses 19 -28. And this is the testimony of John.
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When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?
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He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the
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Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? He said,
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I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, No.
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So they said to him, Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us.
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What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.
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Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the
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Pharisees. They asked him, Then why are you baptizing? If you are neither the
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Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet. John answered them, I baptize with water.
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But among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandals
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I am unworthy, or I am not worthy to tie.
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These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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Now tonight we're going to look at what amounts to a mobile grand jury. A grand jury moving out of the courtroom and investigating the early ministry of John the
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Baptist. Most importantly, I want you to consider how he responds to this exceedingly difficult, and I would suggest to you, for most people, it would be pretty frightening.
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These are, after all, the authorities, the religious authorities, and he is a, I guess you could call him a religious figure.
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And they're coming to scrutinize him, to figure out what he's doing, what his authority is for what he's doing, all these kind of things, because they're basically in the business of rooting out heretics, squashing problems.
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First thing we're going to do is we're going to look at the setting because, frankly, because verse 28 is a little difficult to just tack on to the end.
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So, we're going to go to verse 28 first. The setting, where did all this take place?
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These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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Now, most of us, if you're familiar at all with Israel, when we think of Bethany, we think of a little village not too far from Jerusalem.
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Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived there, and we think of that place, and it's very close to Jerusalem.
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In fact, it's really a walking distance. You can walk there quite easily, but that's not the place that he's talking about.
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And you say, well, how can there be more than one Bethany? Look it up, up and down the
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East Coast. I mean, it's like they ran out of names, right? They just repeat them over and over and over again.
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You've got this town in Maine, oh, and it also happens to be in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire and Vermont, and it's all over the place.
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I just know this untied shoe is going to be a problem. I keep stepping on the lace.
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But it's not that place. We know that it's closer to the Jordan, because why?
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Because he was baptizing there. There had to be a lot of water there. He wasn't just doing a little sprinkle. He was dunking people.
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So that's the setting, is this place where he was conducting baptisms. This is where they go.
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They go out from Jerusalem to this place to find out what's going on. Now, I look at it this way.
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I go, this is like a jury of his peers. This is trial by jury, right? Look again at verse 19, and it says, and this is the testimony of John, when the
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Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?
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Now, let's talk for just a second about the difference between a jury and a grand jury. And the difference isn't the word grand, for those of you who are just wondering about that.
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The difference is this. A jury is passive. It's those six or 12 people who sit in the box, and who listen to the testimony, and who listen to the instructions from the judge, and who have to just listen.
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And then they render a verdict at the end. They get to debate, and they render a verdict. A grand jury, on the other hand, is really an investigative body.
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And what they are able to do, lawyers come in, and they, actually, prosecutors come in, and they present their evidence, and they try to get indictments.
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And it's been said, of course, that you can indict a ham sandwich, meaning a grand jury is a fact -finding body, and they do not render a verdict of guilt or innocence.
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But they are allowed to, for example, ask questions. If they don't like the questions the prosecutor is asking, they can say,
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I have a question, and they get to ask. They can also issue subpoenas.
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They have all kinds of power that a typical jury doesn't have. And so why do
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I like that kind of analogy? Well, because this is exactly what happens.
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Look again at verse 19. I already read it. But the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem.
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So John the Baptist is going to testify. That's what the word means, testimony. He's going to testify.
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He's going to give confirmation or attestation. This is the official dictionary definition, confirmation or attestation of the basis of personal knowledge or belief.
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He's going to give his testimony to this group of people who are going to come and talk to him.
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Now, a testimony. You know, we typically think about, I'm going to give my testimony, and I describe how
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I was saved. Well, in this case, he's just going to talk about what he's doing.
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He's going to justify his activities. Just as an aside, you know, growing up,
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I grew up in the Mormon church, and they had something that most of you would not be familiar with, a lot of things you wouldn't be familiar with.
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But the first Sunday of every month, and some of the kids are just going to start groaning when they hear this, especially the
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Johanson kids, boys, young men. First Sunday of every month is something called fast and testimony meeting.
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And that didn't mean, by the way, that it went fast. What it meant was that you didn't eat breakfast.
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You didn't eat lunch. You got to eat dinner. But you didn't eat breakfast. You didn't eat lunch. That money went to the church, and then they would use that money to help feed the poor and the needy.
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Now, the testimony part came because we didn't have a typical structure of a church service. It would be one person after another.
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Whenever the Spirit moved them, they would get up in front, and they would testify. They would give their testimony.
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They would say what they knew to be true. And typically it would be, you know, I could almost recite one from memory.
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I won't. But they would testify to just a few facts that this is the true church, the
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. That's what they would say. And that Justice Smith was a prophet of God.
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And each and every person would, among other things, they would always say those two things. What's wrong with that?
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What's wrong with that is it was all subjective. They had no objective knowledge whatsoever. They were giving testimony to something that they had no independent knowledge of.
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It was all false. But John the Baptist is going to give true testimony.
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He's going to tell the truth when this grand jury comes in, and it's not subjective. In other words, it's not something he thinks to be true.
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It's something he knows to be true because God has told him. He was the last
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Old Testament prophet. It's not subjective. It's not on the basis of feelings or the testimony of others.
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Before he was even born, an angel told his father what would happen. Turn for just a moment to Luke 1.
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We're going to get some background about John the Baptist tonight because we're going to be talking about him for the next few times.
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I think I have a couple more messages coming in February, so it's good to get all this foundation laid here.
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Luke 1, and beginning in verse 5, In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named
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Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was
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Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the
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Lord. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
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I mean, this is a familiar story we would see over and over again in the Bible. Verse 8,
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Now while he was serving as a priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot, random chance, to enter the temple of the
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Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
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And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Look at verse 12,
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And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
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I'd be troubled too. Verse 13, But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife
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Elizabeth will bear you a son, 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
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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.
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And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the
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Lord a people prepared. Now back in verse 12, the word troubled,
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Zechariah says he's troubled. It gives us a picture of somebody being shaken, of somebody being, in the parlance of the 70s, freaked out.
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He was confused. He was like, Okay, I don't normally see angels. That's odd.
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And he's afraid. This is not what he expected at all. But the angel promises him a son, commands him to name him
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John, and then he tells him what his life is going to be about, about what his mission in life is going to be.
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He was going to prepare the way for the Lord, for the Lord Jesus. John's direction was determined even before he was conceived.
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And that whole, the whole bit about drinking a strong drink and all that, that's part of the
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Nazarite vow. And that's why when he comes out of the wilderness, he just looks so bizarre because he's done all this stuff.
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His hair is all wacky, and he comes in looking like, well, like we're going to see in a little bit, in a little bit, like an
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Old Testament prophet. In fact, we're going to see it right now. Turn over to Matthew chapter 3. This is the picture of John the
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Baptist. Now this guy is bound to draw a little bit of attention. I mean, there are some people, you just see them and you go, something ain't quite right with that guy.
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And in this case, I think most people would, their attention would immediately be drawn to him. Matthew chapter 3 verses 4 to 6.
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Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
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Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river
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Jordan, confessing their sins. So first of all, his appearance was pretty spectacular. But then look at that in verse 5, then
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Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him.
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In other words, there's this mass of people going out to hear this man, to see him, to be baptized by him.
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I mean, if he was just odd looking, then nobody would care about him. The religious establishment would have ignored him.
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But there were, basically because there were then and there are always kind of crazy people walking around.
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But in particular, during that time frame, there were a lot of people walking around claiming to be the
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Messiah, acting in bizarre fashions, doing all kinds of things. So there would be reason for their attention, the religious establishment, for their attention to be focused on John the
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Baptist, mostly because of the response of the people, right? If everybody's going out there to find out or to be baptized by him and interact with him, then the religious authorities are going to be concerned about that.
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They had to go check him out. I mean, he could cause trouble with the
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Roman Empire. He could upset the apple cart, as it were. There were many
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Jews who were chafing, were just itching for someone to come and deliver them from the domination of the
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Romans. If you're familiar with the history of the Jewish people, they revolted against the
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Roman Empire several times. But 70 A .D. and 135
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A .D., over and over again, they would revolt. And so this was good,
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I guess, in some respects. But if you were in charge, if you had a position of authority and a position of importance and a position where you were paid well, the idea of a revolution wouldn't be very appealing to you.
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So if John the Baptist, if he was that kind of a person who was revolutionary, well, then they need to go out and squash it.
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If he was some kind of false messiah, then they needed to know that, too, so that they could stamp it out, so that they could dissuade people from going out to see him.
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So who are these Jews that sent out the group of investigators? Well, it seems most likely that it was the
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Sanhedrin, the ruling group of high priests. They were the ultimate court of appeal when it came to understanding the
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Jewish law. And they would have the authority to investigate John the Baptist and would be the most likely group to send out priests and Levites from Jerusalem, as our text says.
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We're back in John 1. Levites. Levites were those.
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They weren't priests because they weren't descendants from Aaron. But they served in the temple.
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They were usually musicians. They were, you know, the Charlie Crane to Pastor Mike kind of thing.
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They played. They did the musical things. But they could not be priests because they did not descend from the line of Aaron.
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But it's this official delegation, sent most likely by the Sanhedrin, that shows up out there at Bethany to interrogate
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John the Baptist. And that's what it is. Make no bones about it. This is an interrogation. They want to get to the bottom of whatever he's doing.
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And they have a few questions for him. And it starts out, verse 19, Who are you?
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It's pretty basic, right? Except when you think about it, you go, that's a little odd.
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I mean, you know, like you could show up. If you're a cop, you could show up and say, you know, can I see some identification?
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But you would never say who are you because there are other ways of figuring it out. And they knew who he was. They knew his name.
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That's not the point. That wouldn't take a grand jury investigation to do that. But if we don't understand the air of anticipation that enveloped this region, we miss this.
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They're not interested in just, you know, his driver's license type of thing. They're not interested in that at all.
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They want to know who he is and the structure of, there are many people out there saying that they're the
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Messiah, that they're the Christ. And he understands that. John the Baptist gets that. They want to know if he is the
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Christ or if he says he's the Christ. And so he answers, I am not the Christ. I'm sorry to disappoint you guys, but I'm not the
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Messiah. I'm not claiming to be the Messiah. And I'm not even hinting that I'm the
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Messiah. I'm not the chosen one. I'm not the one who's going to fulfill all the Old Testament prophecy. This region at this time was filled with expectation that the time of God's chosen one might have arrived.
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Some Jews were waiting on a deliverer, somebody to throw off the shackles of Rome. Some wanted the throne of David taken by force.
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And others were waiting on a priest or a prophet or some combination thereof.
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But whatever ideas this grand jury had, the Baptist quickly lets the air out of the balloon.
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He is not the Christ. He's not, that's not who he is. Well, why does he use that language in there?
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It seems kind of circuitous. He says what? He says he confessed and he did not deny but confessed.
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I mean, certainly there's a matter of emphasis there. But listen, one writer says this, even the
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Baptist denials that he was the Christ constituted part of his positive witness of the true
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Christ. In other words, even while he's denying it, he's saying, look, I am absolutely positively not the
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Christ. In one way, it's kind of a positive witness to the truth. It's not me.
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It's somebody else. I'm not the one you're looking for. And that was John the
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Baptist's whole purpose. We found that out in John 1, 6 -8. You don't have to turn back the page, but you can if you want to.
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John 1, 6 -8, there was a man sent from God whose name was
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John. This is John the Baptist. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light.
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That's the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light but came to bear witness about the light.
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John the Baptist could not have been any more plain. He went every which way he could to say, I am not the
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Christ. That's not me. Now look at their next question.
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Are you Elijah? They're like, they know he's not the
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Christ now, so they're just going to kind of go through an end times Rolodex. Okay, you're not the
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Messiah. Are you Elijah? Now, if you were part of this group, you might be thinking, okay, so you're not the
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Messiah. But these people are people, Jewish people, are coming out to hear you preach and they're getting baptized.
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So who are you? I must know. Now, why would they guess
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Elijah? I mean, if this is a game of 20 questions, have you ever played 20 questions? You know, you want some general questions first, unless you just know, unless you're playing against some little kid who's like giggling and like showing you the answer or whatever.
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You don't just zoom in right on something because you want to keep it more general and then you narrow down.
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So why Elijah? Well, because they knew the Old Testament. This grand jury knew the
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Old Testament. Most of these Jewish experts knew the Old Testament. And go ahead and turn to 2
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Kings 1. 2 Kings 1. And to just kind of set up what
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I'm going to read here, King Ahaziah of Judah sends messengers up to inquire of an idol,
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Beelzebub, whether he will recover from a sickness. He's fallen sick, and he sends some messengers to communicate with this idol to ask this idol,
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Beel, Beelzebub, whether he's going to recover or not. But they are intercepted because God has sent a messenger to intercept them.
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This messenger happens to be a prophet named Elijah. And this is what Elijah tells them in 2
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Kings 1 .6 -8. Go back to the king. Go back to the king who sent you and say to him,
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Thus says the Lord, Is it because there is no god in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron?
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Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.
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In other words, you're not going to recover, says the god of Israel. You want to consult some false god.
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Well, I'm going to tell you straight out, you're not going to recover. So then the king says to them, to his messengers,
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What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things? They answered him,
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He wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather around his waist.
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And he, being the king, said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. Who was it who preached tonight?
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Well, I don't know, but he was wearing a three -piece suit. It was Steve Cooley. Elijah the
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Tishbite was so unique in his dress that the king knew right away.
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In that same way, I mean, they're looking at John the Baptist and they just start going, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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I remember this guy wearing a fuzzy little garment and leather around his waist.
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That's Elijah. So that's what they're thinking. Combine that then with Malachi 4, 5.
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Go back to 1 John, I'll just read this. Or to John 1, sorry. Malachi 4, verse 5.
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Behold, this is God saying, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the
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Lord comes. So they're living in this kind of end times fever or coming of the
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Messiah fever. This is all going on around here. And they're trying to figure out who this guy is.
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They know that he's unique. They know there's something strange about him. And they're just trying to slot him in, figure out who he is and why he's here.
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So this group of Jewish scholars knew that God had promised to send Elijah. And they knew how
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Elijah dressed the same way John the Baptist did. So it's not that crazy to think, hey, he might be
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Elijah. But John the Baptist tells them to get used to disappointment.
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Look at verse 21 again. He said, I am not. Very simple. It's not me. Now, some of you are thinking, well, wait a minute.
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We read this earlier. Didn't the angel Gabriel tell John the Baptist's father that he would be like Elijah?
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Right? Luke 1, verse 16. Didn't you read that just a little while ago,
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Steve? It says, And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the
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Lord or people prepared. That's not the same as saying he is Elijah. Jesus.
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Didn't Jesus say that he was Elijah? Listen. Matthew 11, verses 13 and 14. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, until John the
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Baptist, that is. Verse 14. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
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Well, how do we resolve this? He says, I'm not Elijah. Is he lying? I don't think so.
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I think he's just saying that Elijah, Old Testament prophet that you think I am, that's not me.
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Jesus, later on, is saying that he is the fulfillment of Elijah in the sense, in the same sense that the angel
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Gabriel said that, but not in the literal, physical sense of being Elijah.
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So they've run through a couple of possible, or they've asked him a couple of questions, and they're not really getting anywhere.
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He's not the Messiah. They know that much. He's not Elijah. They know that much. And now they're going to ask him a third question.
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Are you the prophets? They're just going to keep flailing around until they figure this out.
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They know that, again, they know that there's something strange. There's something powerful. There's something unusual about him.
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But what is it? Who is he? Why the prophets?
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What would the prophet mean? Don't turn there. I'm going to read Deuteronomy 18, verses 15 to 18.
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Deuteronomy 18, 15 to 18. This is
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Moses speaking. So they're wanting to know if he is that prophet.
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Many in the area, including the Samaritans, believe that this new Moses, this new prophet to arrive before the
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Messiah or would arrive before the Messiah. So is it possible that John the Baptist is this guy?
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Again, John the Baptist does not explain. He doesn't sort of say, no, no,
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I'm really kind of this. He just says, no. Again, their job is to figure out who he is.
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They must be getting a little bit exasperated here. They've got a problem. They can't sort out who this guy is.
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So they push it even further. But look at the second half of verse 22. Here's their issue.
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Here's why they can't just leave it and go, okay, he's not the Messiah. He's not Elijah. He's not the prophet. Okay, well, have a nice day.
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Verse 22, we need to give an answer to those who sent us. Look, we can't just go back to Jerusalem and say, we don't know.
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We couldn't figure it out. That's not going to work. They have to go back to the religious elite, the
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Sanhedrin, and they cannot come back, you know, just kind of shrug their shoulders and go, you know, we couldn't figure it out.
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Tough day at the office. But they're really kind of done guessing. They're going to take a different approach now.
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You know, this is really good investigative technique. If you are investigating a crime or you're interviewing somebody and you try one approach over and over again and it doesn't work, well, then guess what?
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You try a different way. And one of the ways is, you know, if you push them to answer direct questions and they won't, then you take a step back, you throw them a softball and see if maybe they'll give you the answer.
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So that's what they do. In essence, they say, we give up. We can't figure it out.
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You tell us. And that's what they do in verse 22 again.
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They say, what do you say about yourself? You know what? We can't figure it out. Why don't you tell us? But his answer is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma.
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Listen. He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the
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Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. He doesn't identify himself even as a person.
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He just says he's a voice. And he quotes Isaiah 40. Let's turn to Isaiah.
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I mean, we're kind of going all over the place here, but let's go back to Isaiah chapter 40. I'm going to read several verses here to kind of set up a little context.
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We know that in chapters 37, 38, 39, all in there,
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Hezekiah the king really, really chumps it. And he reveals his wealth to representatives of the king of Babylon.
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And this is not a good thing to do, because now Babylon pretty much decides that they want that.
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And so we come to Isaiah chapter 40, which is a prophetic look.
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In other words, it's a look in the future at a time when Israel is going to be in captivity. The southern kingdom,
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Judah, is going to be in captivity. And it starts, therefore, in a rather unique way.
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Comfort. Comfort, my people, says your God, because they're in captivity. But Isaiah, the
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Lord through Isaiah, wants them to understand that redemption is coming.
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So he says in verse 2, Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the
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Lord's hand double for all her sins. In other words, your time of captivity is coming to an end.
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A voice cries, and this is where John the Baptist references verse 3 of Isaiah chapter 40.
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A voice cries, In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our
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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.
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And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the
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Lord has spoken. I mentioned this this morning in Sunday school. In Isaiah chapter 40 and continuing there, what happens over and over again is
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God says, This particular incident is going to come to pass. I'm going to deliver my people.
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And it's so that you can know that I'm God, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen, and then I'm going to bring it about. And that's what's happening here is
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He's saying, I'm going to deliver my people. And when this is written, this is a time when they're not even in captivity yet.
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So in Isaiah, in the context there in Isaiah, the Lord has given His prophet words of comfort for their upcoming captivity in Babylon.
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He's not abandoned them, but He is chastising them, and He will bring them back into their land, into the land
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He promised them. So that's the picture then. They are returning to the land from captivity, and everything that might hinder their return is being removed.
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Now, it's a metaphor. He's saying that God is going to move everything out of the way, so that their return will be unhindered.
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And their return is to be a power or a sign of the power of God. And it's right there in verse 5,
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And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Because what an amazing thing, that a people taken off in captivity, without any hope whatsoever, would be delivered.
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And it's from God. Listen to what Hendrickson says here. He says, His quote from Isaiah serves a two -fold purpose.
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Talking again about John the Baptist. He says, It indicates who the
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Baptist is, and it also amounts to an earnest invitation to repent.
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So we've got the picture in the Old Testament of Israel being in captivity, and then
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God bringing them out, and how he smooths the way. But here, it's a different picture that John the
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Baptist is presenting. He's saying, I'm the voice of one in the wilderness. And here's what he's saying.
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He's not talking about this return from captivity. He's not talking about leveling roads, and building bridges, and making things smooth, and all that.
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And in an unusual way, he's telling the grand jury, this investigative body, these Jewish authorities, that they need to personally prepare themselves for the arrival of the
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Lord Himself. He might as well just say, Repent. He's saying, Remove all these obstacles that you people have created, to prevent you from receiving your
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King. Your King is coming. He is coming, and I am the preparation.
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I am here to announce it, so that you people will get ready. And again, notice how he identifies himself.
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Calling himself a voice, he's saying, I'm the messenger. He doesn't say, I'm the message. Look at me.
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He says, I'm a voice. I'm the messenger. I'm just here to call you people to repentance.
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He is on the scene, to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah. For the long -awaited rightful claimant, to the throne of David.
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So that would bring up another question. If this is the voice, that is declaring this great thing is going to happen, if this is the man who is baptizing people, and who is proclaiming that they need to repent, then ultimately they have to understand, what his authority is.
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And that's their next line of questioning. Now verse 24 is kind of unusual, and I think most scholars agree, or most of the ones
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I read agree, that it's really not quite translated correctly. It says, now they had been sent from the
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Pharisees. And when you look at it, you go, well, that seems pretty straightforward. This group had been sent by the
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Pharisees. Well, there's a problem with that. There are a couple of problems. One is grammatical.
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The other problem is, and I'm not going to explain the grammar, but the other problem is that the Pharisees, who were the fundamentalists of their day, they weren't the main power in the
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Sanhedrin, this ruling council. They weren't the main guys there. They were kind of, there were only 6 ,000 of them total in all the nation, and they weren't the main source of religious power.
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The Sadducees, who were kind of the liberals of their day, they had a lot more influence than the
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Pharisees did. In fact, most priests and most Levites, most of those who worked in the temple, were
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Sadducees, not Pharisees. So, most scholars say that it is better to understand the verse this way.
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Some Pharisees who were in the group asked him. So, in other words, it's not the
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Pharisees that sent the group. They were part of the group. I think it's better understood that way.
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But anyway, the key point is, they asked this question, and it ultimately gets to this.
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What is your authority? They say, then why are you baptizing? If you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet, what right do you have to baptize anyone?
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And isn't that the way the Jewish authorities always challenged Jesus? By what authority are you doing this?
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By what authority are you doing that? Who gives you the right to break the Sabbath, to cast out demons, all these kind of things?
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This is what they do over and over again, trying to catch him. I would say that John the
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Baptist was the forerunner of Christ in many ways, including being challenged by the religious authorities of his day.
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But we have to understand what baptism was. We think we understand what baptism is now.
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It's being identified with Christ. You're put under the water, you're raised, and it signifies identification with him in his death, burial, and resurrection.
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But back then, it was a ritual cleansing. And it's interesting, because people who converted from being, being,
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I guess, converted just from being pagan Gentiles, to the Jewish religion, got baptized, but they baptized themselves.
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They baptized themselves. And this isn't about conversion, because what's happening?
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We read it earlier. People are coming from all around to come see John the Baptist. They're Jews.
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They're not proselytes. They're not Gentiles. They're Jews. So by what authority was
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John the Baptist proclaiming that these Jews, descendants of Abraham, God's chosen people, had to be ceremonially washed, which is what it was.
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It showed that you were acknowledging your uncleanness. You know, a Gentile would acknowledge his uncleanness, and then he was allowed to enter into, you know, his ritually clean by the water, and then he was allowed to enter into the nation of Israel.
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So how is it that he's telling Jews that they are unclean, and they need to be baptized, and by the way, they need to be baptized by him?
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Just who does he think he is? And his answer is direct, and it's humble, and it's mystifying all at one time.
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He says in verse 26, John answered them, I baptize with water. I'm guilty as charged.
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I do it. But I know something that you do not know. And he's going to tell us that right now.
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Because here's what he was doing. He was baptizing, but it was a baptism of preparation, a baptism of anticipation and acknowledgement, really kind of similar to what
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Isaiah said in chapter 6 of his book, where he says, I'm a man of unclean lips who lives in the middle of a people who have unclean lips.
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In other words, this is an acknowledgement by the Jews that they are unclean. It is not identification with Jesus.
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It's just simply a public statement that they needed to be cleansed inwardly, an acknowledgement that they could not make themselves right with God.
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But John the Baptist was fully authorized to baptize. Look again at verse 26, But among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me.
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Who gave him authority? The one who was to come after him. He says, He says, You want to know about my authority?
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There's one coming after me. Don't even worry about what my authority is. There's one coming after me that you do not know.
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John the Baptist was not just any man. He was God's choice to prepare his people to receive his son.
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Listen what Leon Morris says. He says, His baptism, John's baptism is not an end in itself.
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Its purpose is to point people to Christ. John's interest is in the
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Christ and in nothing less. So he proceeds to tell his inquisitors.
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I like that word that he or that the great one stands among them, though they do not know him, that he would point to the as yet unknown
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Messiah would be mind blowing enough. But it concludes this interrogation, this investigation with a shocking statement.
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And it's again, a verse 27 at the end there, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.
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Now, a disciple of a teacher would be expected. I mean, it would be like imagine we had an intern.
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There's a crazy thought that we had an intern here at the church. You know, Pastor Mike says,
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I'd like my Doppio Campagna, you know, his special order from Starbucks. How do
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I know it? Well, I've gotten it a few times. But the disciple, the intern would be expected to go get it.
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And in the same way, a disciple would be expected to do whatever a teacher, a rabbi wanted him to do with one single exception.
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What is that one exception? Well, it's right there in the verse, whose sandal I'm not worthy to untie, to untie someone's sandal.
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Listen, what Leon Morris says again, he says, disciples were in the habit of performing small services for their rabbis instead of paying them.
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But they had to draw the line somewhere. And menial tasks like loosing the sandal thong came under this heading of things that they wouldn't do.
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There is a rabbinic saying that goes like this. It comes from about, well, it comes from about this time, says every service, which a slave performs for his master, shall a disciple do for his teacher, except the loosing of a sandal thong.
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So this crowd is sitting there. They're listening. They're going the strap of whose sandal you're unworthy to untie.
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You're saying that you are not even worthy to perform the duties of a slave.
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John the Baptist, one of these men, this grand jury, these representatives of the religious elite to understand one thing, his master, the one whom he was preparing the way for was more than a mere rabbi.
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He was so great that there was literally no comparison between John the
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Baptist and the one who would follow him. He pointed to Jesus, even though he would not meet him.
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He didn't even know who Jesus was. He didn't meet him until the next day. And that's where we're going to go next.
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Now, you know, this morning we heard basically there are times when you don't have much application. I don't have much application either, and I'm going to make it pretty easy.
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Here's my application. John the Baptist pointed to Christ. It's interesting what he never said.
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John the Baptist, the greatest man who ever lived, according to Jesus, the greatest mirror mortal who ever lived, didn't say, you know what?
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Here's what I want you guys to know is that you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.
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Don't worry about religion. I want you to have a personal relationship with Jesus. He never said that.
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Neither did Jesus. And I, I kind of, I've been focused on that.
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My wife knows that this week, cause I'm just like, I, I so dislike that idea.
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It's even when I, when I watch certain celebrities and they want to testify of Jesus, I'm all in favor of that.
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But here's what I want to hear them say. I don't want them to say things like you can have a personal relationship too.
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How about this? I want you to know how you can be forgiven of all your sins, just as I have been forgiven of all my sins.
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I stood condemned before a Holy God. And, but for the grace of God in Christ Jesus, his perfect life, his death on my behalf and his resurrection,
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I would have no hope for anything, let alone heaven. I don't like that idea of a personal relationship of Jesus.
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We ought to be like John the Baptist, just pointing at Jesus and saying, listen, he's perfect.
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You're not. He's God. You're not. You need to repent.
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You need to, in John the Baptist words, what in Matthew chapter three, verse eight, he said this bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
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If God has transformed your heart, if you recognize your sinfulness before a Holy God, and you have a desire to repent, your life is going to be changed.
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It's not about a personal relationship. Of course, you're going to have a personal relationship, but enough of this stuff about Jesus as our buddy, the greatest man who ever lived said, what
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I'm not worthy to untie his sandal. And yet, so many times we present the gospel as if it's as easy as just throwing your arms around Jesus.
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We talk sometimes about the old Testament, about, you know, the, the dangers of dare to be a Daniel preaching.
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As I studied this though, I thought, you know, it probably wouldn't be a bad thing to say, dare to be John the Baptist, because if he is the greatest mortal who ever lived, even though he is sinful, even though he needed a savior, what did he do all the time?
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Jesus, not me, Jesus. Don't worry about me. Don't think about me. Don't be concerned about my authority.
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Jesus. In all that we do, we should seek to glorify Christ. In all that we think, we should seek to glorify
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Christ. And all that we say, we should seek to glorify Christ, including a simple thing like preaching the gospel.
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Let's close in prayer. Our father in heaven, we thank you for your word.
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We thank you for the surety of it. We thank you that you would send a man like John the
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Baptist to point to Christ, to tell about him, to call people to repentance.
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Lord, I pray that you would raise up men and women today who would be faithful to in their comings and goings, whether the world loves them or hates them, to just testify of Christ, to tell of his goodness, that if someone wants to give us credit or us honor or us glory, we could just honestly say that there's nothing good in me.
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If there's anything good in me, it is all of Christ, all of him. All the glory goes to him.
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Father, I pray that you would make us a people who just are so in love with Jesus that we would not fear anything, that we would be like John the
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Baptist in this sense, that even with potentially our life on the line, we would point to Jesus.
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We would say he is the answer. Lord, we love you and we thank you so much that you would send your son to die for us.