Behold The Lamb Of God (part 2) - [John 1:29-34]

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Biblical Spirituality From The Early Church (part 3)

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Well, I have a question for you tonight. Have you ever been a witness to a crime? You ever seen one?
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I've been the victim a few times. I'll tell you that's not very much fun Like the time
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I was robbed at gunpoint. That was bad And then the time my car stereo was stolen
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I was a little bit upset about that too, but you know very upset But you know, what's interesting is you would think you know as a
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As a police officer you would think the more eyewitnesses you have the better Right because you're gonna be able to gather all this information.
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You're gonna be able to write up the report and Then we're gonna be able to catch the bad guy
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That's not always how it works in fact sometimes because of people's perspective the way they saw a particular incident their experiences in life or maybe even their relation to a
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Suspect or to a victim they kind of change or tilt or Swerve their testimony a little bit or their their account a little bit.
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In fact, we used to call that You know, did you have an eyewitness or did you have a lie witness?
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We have all kinds of really cool phrases not that you need to know them all but Come here on Sunday nights, and you'll eventually be police trained.
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I think one of the worst Scenarios though, I can never remember I went to a house and this was a big house
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I mean we are talking a big house. How big was it? It had its own elevator, that's how big it was we're talking big and supposedly they had this
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Burglary, so we go in and there's the mom and the two teenage daughters and we're talking to him and we're figuring out what?
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has been taken and everything like that, but All of their accounts are different and they're in conflict and We leave the house and you know the partner my partner kind of looks at me and goes
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I'm glad you're you have to write this one and it wasn't till sometime later that I found out what the deal was and the reason why everybody was so conflicted and So confused on their testimony and it was this that the burglar
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Was not really a burglar He was the ex -boyfriend of one of the teenage girls And so she was trying to protect him and the mom was mad at him and all this other
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But they didn't mention any of that. Oh heaven forfend So, you know
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I wrote this report and then realized you know a couple days later That was all pretty much garbage that I should have never wasted my time doing it
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But witnesses can often be more of a hindrance than a help But tonight as we go back to John chapter 1
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I think we're gonna find here an eyewitness that is thoroughly reliable fully trustworthy and one that will give us great insight into the nature of our
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Savior and to What his mission actually was so I'd invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 1
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And we're going to again begin at verse 29 Just kind of catch up some of those who weren't here this morning
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The gospel of John is What I mean we talk about it. It's a gospel.
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Well, that means it contains good news That means it tells the story the history the biography of Jesus in such a way
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That one would listen to it and come to a particular conclusion This is not objective history not in the sense that it's false
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But in the sense that the author has a particular thing that he's driving at and in fact
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John has One conclusion that he wants every reader of his book to get and that is this
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That Jesus is the Christ that is to say the Messiah The Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name.
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That's John 20 31 John explicitly states Kind of more
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I I guess I could say more implicitly But as we work our way through John chapter 1 we would see that he implicitly states that Jesus Christ is ever existent
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He chooses his words and we're gonna see this over and over again in The gospel of John that John chooses his words very carefully and he doesn't
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I like to say he's a very precise Theologian he doesn't leave anything Kind of sketchy or a gray we get very clear and vivid pictures when
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John presents what he is Writing and he says that Jesus Christ has ever existed in John chapter 1 we get that just from in the beginning
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Was the word and the word was with God and the word was God we we can understand just by looking at the tenses of The verbs that that's what he's saying
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John the evangelist introduces us to John the Baptist But only to show that he is merely a witness.
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He is testifying to the Messiah to Jesus In fact, he testifies to a delegation sent by the
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Jewish leadership they send Some representatives out there to figure out exactly who
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John the Baptist is and It seems as I said this morning that the very day of that investigation of that interrogation as it were that later on that day
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Jesus is baptized and the drama of the scene that we
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Find ourselves in tonight in Jeff in chapter 1 is Papa. Why you could feel the tension
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There are false messiahs all over the place people claiming to be the Christ and It's precisely because of John the
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Baptist odd looks. I mean he comes out, you know dressed in camel hair He's eating locusts and honey.
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This is not You know the Southern Baptist pastor coming out of the out of the wilderness here
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His odd looks his odd behavior In fact, I think you might call it prophetic behavior and His odd activities baptizing others, which as I said this morning is odd because The the way that was done is proselytes were baptized and they baptized themselves
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So this was very strange and he's calling for repentance among the Jews no less
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So there's some speculation about his identity and that's why they went to go figure out who he was Was he the
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Messiah? Was he Elijah? Was he the prophets and as we saw a few weeks ago and then this morning
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John the Baptist Utterly crushed any such thoughts that he might be this other person
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That he might be the Messiah that he might be Elijah that he might be the prophets He consistently points at Jesus Christ.
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He is a faithful and true witness to the Lord Jesus Christ Let's look at John chapter 1
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Starting again in verse 29 the next day. He saw Jesus coming toward him and said behold
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The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world This is he of whom
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I said after me comes a man who ranks before me Because because he was before me.
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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
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I Saw the Spirit to send from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him
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But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the
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Spirit to send and remain this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and I have seen and borne witness that this is the
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Son of God Now tonight we're gonna see the second of John the
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Baptist testimonies of Jesus as the Christ the Son of God the Messiah the
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Chosen One and Tonight I want you to see five elements of John the Baptist testimony concerning the
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Lamb of God Jesus Christ Five elements of John the
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Baptist testimony concerning the Lamb of God Jesus Christ first element is The Identification of Jesus we're gonna kind of briefly go through verse 29 again
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Went through it at some length this morning But the identification of Jesus the next day he saw
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Jesus coming toward him and said behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world? This is the second day.
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And as I said, I think it's a pretty amazing week it starts with this investigation and then the the baptism of Jesus that really the
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Emergence as it were of Jesus into public life in a public ministry And in some ways,
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I think it's fair to say that John the Baptist was kind of a decoy Because all the hubbub all the attentions on him
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All these people are coming out to see him to be baptized to hear what he has to say to just look at him
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And so Jesus kind of just slips under the radar for a bit in Fact, we'll see later.
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He's able to come and get baptized and once people know who he is once they see who he is then things
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Change pretty quickly But this morning we saw that Jesus is the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world And I gave you several s's here.
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He does so Sacrificially, he is the sacrificial lamb at the direction of the Father the
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Son came to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin We can go to other passages in John where he says he lays down his life for the sheep
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He is a sacrifice That was his one of his functions He's also the sin bearer when it says he takes away the sins of the world
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The sins of those who believe did not vanish into the ether they went they were passed on to Christ they were placed on him he paid for them on the cross and Finally the work of the
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Lamb of God was salvific salvific meaning he actually removed the sins of All those for whom he died and as I said this morning, we don't see any conditions
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Attached to his taking away sin So we're left with either he removed the sin of everyone the sin of the whole world
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Or we're left with the idea that he fully takes away the sin of those
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For whom he came to die. Now what I mentioned this morning, you know, what was the value of Christ's death and I said it was
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Infinite and someone said well that sounds kind of Arminian to me And I said well
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It was kind of purposefully Arminian why because that passage talks about him taking away the sins of the world and when we think about you know
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Is it possible that Jesus could have died in such a way as to save every single person?
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What value does the the death of God on A cross what value does that have?
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infinite God infinitely powerful infinitely holy has an infinite value if There were and if there are people on other planets
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We have no reason to think that there are but if there were people on other planets His death is sufficient for every single soul everywhere for all time ever
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But that doesn't really address the design or the purpose of Christ's death because again
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Other than him being a sin bearer that really wasn't in the text this morning But nevertheless the fact that sin is definitively removed apart from any condition leads us to one of two conclusions either universalism or Definite redemption in other words the idea that every single person is included in that idea of the world
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That he takes away the sins of every single man woman a child everyone who will ever live
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Or and therefore everyone goes to heaven or He takes away the sins perfectly of every single man woman and child whoever believes in him
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It can't be some kind of mix in between There's nothing really in the text that would lead to that AW pink says it this way
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Says Christ is a complete Savior. He taketh away sin you have to love the
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King James He did not merely make vague proclamations of pardon mercy and forgiveness
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He took our sins upon himself and carried them away. That's the idea there in the text
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He allowed them to be laid upon himself and bore them in his own body on the tree The sins of everyone that believes on Jesus are made as though they had never sinned at all
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The Lamb of God has taken them clean away So that's the idea of the
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Lamb of God That's who? John the Baptist is pointing to Secondly we come to the eternality the eternality of Jesus in verse 30.
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This is he Again John the Baptist testimony. This is he of whom
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I said after me comes a man who ranks before me Because he was before me and this is basically a restatement of verse 15
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Where John the Evangelist said this? John bore witness about him and cried out This was he of whom
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I said he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me And if we go back we unpacked all of chapter 1 starting from the beginning
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John again He's very careful to to get us to understand that when
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God sends the Sun into the world It's different than when God sends John the Baptist in the world that there is a pre -existence to Jesus that doesn't exist or isn't there with John the
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Baptist But again, as I mentioned several weeks ago, maybe a few months ago.
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This is really a Statement of the humility of John the
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Baptist It's it's really atypical of the culture because culturally he would be expected to say
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I'm older than this guy Therefore I deserve more respect But that's not how it was
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John the Baptist didn't say that because he knew that the Messiah was of a different Caliber that he was the only begotten that he was of a unique type
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Both God and man he knew that John or that Jesus was special in that sense
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And the entire idea here is that Jesus is not merely a man. He existed before John the
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Baptist because as this gospel explains to us he is eternally he created all things He was always
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God there was never a time in which he did not exist That is vital.
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There was never a time when he did not exist and this first chapter of John is a it's a
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Broadside a Fusillade a load of double -aught buck Buck shot to anyone who wants to deny the deity of Christ You simply cannot study this chapter in depth and come to the place where you think well, maybe he's
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God Maybe he's not God. Maybe he's fully man. Maybe he's not fully man You can't come to that conclusion if you understand this chapter.
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I remember once that I And Talking to a returned Mormon missionary and he was claiming that he was a
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Christian And I really for about probably 10 minutes I got frustrated because I couldn't get him to admit that he wasn't a
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Christian no matter what question I asked him He had the answer that seemed Christian he was speaking
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Christian ease and So finally I said to him I said was there ever a time
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When Jesus did not exist And I think he thought for just a moment because I think he was trying to figure out some kind of cool way around that Question too, and he said he had to say yes
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There was a time when Jesus did not exist and I said then you're not a Christian. You don't understand What the
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Bible says about him our third? element of John the
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Baptist testimony We're gonna move quickly because we have more Towards the end which my wife will like because the you know, she always says the first points are the longest
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Not so A third element of his testimony the purpose of Jesus baptism
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It really was to identify or one of the purposes was to identify Jesus to Israel look at verse 31
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I myself did not know him, but for this purpose. I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel Now that's interesting you ever think about that that one of the reasons why?
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John the Baptist had his ministry was so that the people of Israel might know who the Messiah was I don't really think about it that way
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Now does John the Baptist really mean by the way in this first part? I myself did not know him Does he mean that he didn't know him?
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Maybe I I don't really think that's the the point though, and we'll develop that a little bit Why do
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I say that well because he's related to? Jesus there's some relation there after all
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Jesus mother was Mary John the Baptist mother was Elizabeth and they are what they're described as relatives
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In fact for just a moment here turn to Luke chapter 1 Luke chapter 1 and we're gonna be reading verses 36 to 44
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This is after the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is going to bear this special child the
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Messiah Gabriel tells her this starting in verse 36 and behold your relative
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Elizabeth And you know I looked it up, and I was trying to figure out You know if we could see exactly what the relation was we can't
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And I'll talk more about that in a minute and behold your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son
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And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren For nothing will be impossible with God and Mary said behold.
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I am the servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word and The angel departed from her verse 39 in those days
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Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country to a town in Judah And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted
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Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the
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Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and Why is this granted to me that the mother of my
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Lord should come to me? For behold when the sound of your greeting came to my ears the baby in my womb leaped for joy
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That's John the Baptist jumping for joy there But I I think what intrigued me the most here is if you look at it.
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What is it? What is it that compels Mary? To go visit
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Elizabeth for example We read in gospel accounts Often that somebody is told to do something for example
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Joseph has a dream that tells Where he's it's communicated to him that it's okay to marry
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Mary I? Knew I was gonna say that to marry Mary And he has another dream warning him to go to Egypt Because of persecution because of what the the
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King what King Herod's going to do This is an extraordinary time where extraordinary things are happening
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Prophecies are being fulfilled, but there is nothing like that concerning this trip to Mary Or to Elizabeth Mary's trip to go visit
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Elizabeth one man says this Mary's journey is apparently unmotivated She does not go in obedience to the angel who gave her no such instructions
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But look at what the text says and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah Why do you suppose she was doing that?
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What's that The holy I I mean so that we would have this text. I think that's that parts true.
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What's that? She was pregnant right? I think she's pretty excited that she's pregnant and You know what do you do when you're pregnant not that I know
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But what do you do when you find out you're gonna have a baby? You tell people that you are close to that you have
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Friendship with she couldn't get on her cell phone and say hey Elizabeth guess what I'm gonna have a baby, too
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So she makes haste I mean that's speculation right, but I mean it makes sense she makes haste well
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Why I think it's because they were close Now the the word relative
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Sadly it just means relative or kinswoman, so we don't have any any kind of idea. Maybe she's a cousin
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Maybe she's a second cousin You know third cousin twice removed who knows, but we know that they're related in some way
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And I don't think it's a big stretch to say that there's a bond of affection. There's a bond of friendship She's excited to go tell
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Elizabeth and guess what Elizabeth is pretty excited to see her, too I think even about you know our own grandkids
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There's no one my wife's probably cringing right now, but there's no one on the earth that January loves to see more than Daphne I mean first thing she does she walks in the room
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Into our house in the morning, and what does she want to see she wants to go to the computer And she wants to go watch videos of Daphne I Can show her videos of other babies.
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Yeah, okay, but she has specific Requests she has words that she uses to let us know she wants to see
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Daphne And that's just that's just the way it is, but I think there's a special bond between them now
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Going back to John and the whole point of this whole you know
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Exercise this whole kind of sidewinder up the hill Was because even though they they most likely grew up in different areas
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John the Baptist and Jesus grew up in different areas I think it's pretty likely that they would have at least known of each other
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Because of this closeness between Mary and Elizabeth again that speculation But I don't think it's
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I don't think it's the issue that he's saying I didn't know anything about him never heard of the guy
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I Don't think that's the issue I Think the text pretty clearly says he didn't know who he was he didn't know the significance of Jesus He didn't know that he was the
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Christ until what until the time of his baptism Hendrickson says this he says the
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Baptist means to say I Did not know him any more than you did talking to the crowd
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I didn't know anything more about Jesus than you did you know what do they say about him later?
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You know isn't this Mary and Joseph's son isn't this that carpenter isn't this you know the brother of all these other?
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People I mean, what's the big deal with him I? Think John the
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Baptist pretty much had the same idea until he baptized him so what changed his mind we're gonna find out a little bit later in the text, but John the
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Baptist did not begin baptizing people because he knew Jesus was the
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Messiah that revelation came to him after he began his ministry, so what was John the Baptist doing? Why was he baptizing people look he says they're in verse 31
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But for this purpose I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel That the curtain might be pulled back that we might finally see who the real
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Messiah is John's ministry had a purpose he was to prepare the way of the
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Lord to make God's people Aware that the Messiah was on the way that this was the time to repent
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Why because the kingdom of heaven? Was at hand
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Yet there was another purpose that the Messiah The Christ God's chosen one might be unclothed
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He'd been in kind of in stealth mode his whole life not too many people knew who he was anyway
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I mean we have If we go back to his birth And there are a few people who are filled with the Holy Spirit who then know but for the most part
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He just seemed like an average child one would suppose So he'd been among them he even said that right he says there's one among you who's
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Sandal I'm not worthy to untie he'd been there hiding in plain sight
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But now now was the time when he would be revealed Jesus baptism was in part so that Israel might know who he was again this points out
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That for all of John the Baptist For all of his humility for all of his look at Jesus look at Jesus look at Jesus which was right
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His role in all of this is significant. Why because he is introducing the Messiah to the entire nation
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So we've seen these elements of his testimony first the identification of Jesus secondly the eternality of Jesus thirdly the purpose of Jesus baptism and Fourthly we're going to see from his testimony the sign of the
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Holy Spirit And I found this very interesting, I think it helps us to understand why John the
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Apostle felt compelled to write his gospel I think when we see some of the kind of I don't want to call them gaps
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But again, I think it's this idea that different people see things from a different perspective
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And this is what John the Evangelist John the Apostle brings to his gospel is a different perspective
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Things that weren't necessarily brought out in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke Somebody came up to me this morning and said you said synoptic and we were just talking about that, you know, and I I Think it's cool.
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It's good that people know what the synoptic Gospels are Okay, different perspectives verse 32 and John bore a witness.
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I Saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him Now you might be thinking so what
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John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit Sending like a dove and the Holy Spirit You know descended like a dove and that was that period
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That would be wrong Let's look at Matthew chapter 3
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Matthew chapter 3 We're gonna look at a different account starting in verse 13
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Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him now this happened the day before John would have prevented him saying
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I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him.
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Let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness then he consented and When Jesus was baptized immediately
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He went up from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God Descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and behold a voice from heaven said
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This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased You see the difference in the gospel of John It's John the
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Baptist who sees the Holy Spirit descend in Matthew Mark and Luke it is Jesus who sees the
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Holy Spirit Descend now. Is that a conflict? No They both saw it.
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It's just that Matthew Mark and Luke don't include that in their accounts and John does
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Now as an aside someone I won't mention names Brian Bartley was bothered by the word it
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Being applied to the Holy Spirit in verse 32 this morning It says right there and it remained on him
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When I heard this, I probably my facial expression was kind of like yeah, that's bad That's really really bad.
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So I went home and I looked it up King James says the same thing And I was thinking about it studying it more and I thought you know, why would it say that Why would the text say that and I think it's because it refers to the dove
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The image that John the Baptist saw and not to the Holy Spirit per se So I don't think the
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King James translators or the ESV translators were trying to demean The Holy Spirit or take a shot at him or make him into a force
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But I I do wish because basically there's no pronoun there It's just the verb and I do wish the translators had said
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He instead just for the sake of clarity because there's really no reason to put the it there instead be nicer,
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I guess but It is what it is So but what's the meaning or what's the significance that the
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Holy Spirit? Remained on Jesus Well in the
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Old Testament if we look if we did a complete study, which we're not going to do tonight of How the
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Holy Spirit worked? We would see in fact, I just did a quick search on the word on the phrase the the spirit rushed upon him because I knew that that happened several times to Samson and it didn't just occur to Samson.
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It was also Saul and David and others Whom the the
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Holy Spirit would descend on for a time They they would have the power of the Holy Spirit for a short period of time
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But for it to remain on Jesus was significant and it's also indicative. It tells us something about his ministry it tells us something about the nature of Jesus ministry in fact, listen, you don't have to turn there.
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I'm gonna read Luke 4 verses 16 to 21 the Lord is himself Explains the significance of the
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Holy Spirit And he came to Nazareth Where he'd been brought up and as was his custom was talking about Jesus He went to the synagogue on the
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Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll the Prophet Isaiah was given to him
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He enrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written And by the way, that's
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Isaiah 61 verse 1 Where it was written the Spirit of the
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Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of Sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the
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Lord's favor And he rolled the scroll and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down And listen to this and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and He began to say to them today.
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This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing Now you just why would everybody be staring at him?
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Why would it describe it there as their eyes were fixed on him? Why were they just so focused on him after he read that and sat down because that's what a rabbi would do before he did what
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Before he taught as he was kind of warming up, you know whereas we get up here to teach a rabbi would sit down that was the
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That was him taking kind of control of the situation So he does it's probably one of the shortest sermons we have on record by him
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He tells them, you know in essence this passage. I just read it's about me is fulfilled and it remains fulfilled
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In other words Jesus himself that day left no doubt that His was the very fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy and that it was an ongoing fulfillment.
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Listen what a T Robertson said Jesus could only mean that the the real year of Jubilee had come that the
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Messianic prophecy of Isaiah had come true today and That in him they saw the Messiah of prophecy
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In other words, he was the fulfillment of Isaiah 61 the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecy
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The ministry of Jesus was of an entirely new dimension Filled with the
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Holy Spirit in a way that was unlike any who had come before him the response to Jesus startling claim in Nazareth after we go down just a few verses down to verses 29 to 30 we read this and they
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The congregation they're just preaching to said great sermon they stood up at the door They lined up there and they thanked him.
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They said thank you for sharing today pastor rabbi they didn't do that and they rose up and Drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so they can throw him down the cliff
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I Guess no honorarium At verse 30 but passing through their midst he went away miraculously
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Supernaturally, he escapes the crowd because it wasn't time for him to die. This wasn't the manner in which he was supposed to die
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So we go back to John chapter 1 verse 33 back to this phrase.
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I myself did not know him And again, John the Baptist says he did not know that Jesus was the
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Messiah But what comes next tells us how he figured it out. And this is where it's all leading
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Up to here in verse 33, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me
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Before I get to what he said kiss marker says this his testimony is all the more valuable
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Why because it was given to him from above? In other words, you know if you're gonna say well, what's the source of your information
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John the Baptist? Mr. Baptist, sir And he says God, how do we know it's
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God he who sent me? Well that phrase Appears six times in all the
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Bible and All in the Gospel of John and in fact, this is the only time that it's used where it's not
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Jesus himself saying that And if Jesus says he who sent me what do we immediately know?
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We immediately know that that that's the father And it's the same here
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John the Baptist knows who sent him there. He knows the one who has sent him on this mission on this given him this ministry and so we go on to verse in verse 33 he on whom this is what
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The father said to him what God said to him he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain
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This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit? So John sees that I mean think of a we don't know how many people he baptized, but it was more than one
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Yeah I mean he had a pretty good crowd there enough to where he had aroused the suspicions of the
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Jewish leadership He's out there baptizing people and God says to him. He says listen John Somebody's gonna come to you to be baptized
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You're going to see the Holy Spirit descend as a dove and when you do that man, that is the one who is the
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Messiah That's him you're gonna see it come down and remain on him and This is he who baptizes with the
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Holy Spirit Now I've said before that you know John the Baptist was the the last
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Old Testament prophet This is but one example. He gets direct revelation from God telling him who the my
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Messiah is gonna be Identifying the Messiah for him other disciples of Jesus would come to know that Jesus was the
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Christ the Son of God, but they would do so Gradually Gradually They would come to know the truths about him gradually and some of them wouldn't even really get it at all until he was resurrected but John the
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Baptist is the only one to have this kind of supernatural insight Like that until we see later on the
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Mount of Transfiguration things like things of that nature to really reveal who
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Jesus is But that Jesus is to baptize with the Holy Spirit is yet another indication that he is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and Really?
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He even tells us in the in the New Testament John chapter 15, but when the helper comes Whom I will send to you send you from the
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Father the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father he will bear witness about me and How do we know the old it's the
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Old Testament? because When the Lord sends the Holy Spirit upon his church, what does he do that?
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It's a day of Pentecost right on Acts 2 and what does Peter say about that? He says it's the fulfillment of Joel 2 so Jesus sends the
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Holy Spirit. It's the fulfillment of Joel 2 Jesus baptizes with the
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Holy Spirit. He brings in a whole new ministry of the Holy Spirit into the lives of believers
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Those who are in Christ have been baptized into the Holy Spirit, how would we know that we know that from 1st
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Corinthians? The Holy Spirit is with believers constantly in a way that was not consistently seen in the
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Old Testament Carson notes this he says that Jesus would baptize his people in the
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Holy Spirit is therefore simultaneously an attestation or a proof of who he is and An announcement that the promised age is dawning that which was promised in the
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Old Testament is now coming true in the new a new chapter in the relationship between God the
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Holy Spirit and The people of God is just beginning one writer says this
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Jesus will be the bearer and the dispenser of The spirit of the
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Holy Spirit effect in the reality to which John with his water baptism only pointed
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Jesus ushers in a whole new era of relations between God the
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Holy Spirit and his people they are or he is with them now constantly and finally our fifth element of his witness of the witness of John the
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Baptist is found in verse 34 and It says there that and I have seen and borne witness that this is the
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Son of God it's interesting that both have seen and Have borne witness when we see or when you see the word have but for a verb and that helping verb
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That typically means it's a perfect tense. And that's exactly what we have here. Both those verbs are perfect tenses
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And it indicates the absolute surety with which he makes these statements Listen John the
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Baptist has had revelation from God where he is No, he knows for a fact who
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Jesus is that he's the Messiah He has no doubt about it. And so he says I have seen with a perfect sense.
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I have borne witness I am bearing witness with a perfect sense and absolute surety.
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It's not 98 % sure it's not I could pick him out of a lineup. He knows who the
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Messiah is Nothing could shake his confidence in that identification now, it's interesting that the
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ESV and most of the English translations have this is the
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Son of God in this text that this is the Son of God because Many scholars agree with the
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New English translation that it should say This is God's chosen one
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But it's really kind of immaterial God's chosen one is the Son of God It doesn't change any of the the the sense of it
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But in either case or in either case the meaning is the same Jesus is the
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Christ the Son of the Living God MacArthur writes it this way. He says to his first emphasis
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That the Messiah is here John added an equally compelling exhortation
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Recognize him for who he is the Son of God the Messiah the ultimate
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Sacrificial lamb for the sin of the world and that's the essence of John the Baptist testimony when he says look and as I said this
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Morning, it's not like he just goes. Oh look the Son of or the the Lamb of God It's more like an exclamation look and then you just need to pause a little bit to get the full
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Force of it. He says look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
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He wants everybody to see him This is as I said earlier
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We're going to see several testimonies of John the Baptist this is the second testimony of John the
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Baptist to the person and the deity of Jesus Christ his
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Messiah ship But John the Baptist was a man whose sole purpose in life
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Was to prepare the way from the Messiah and to point to him when he arrived. I mean think about it from the womb
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We could say from the womb to the tomb. What did John the Baptist do? He leapt
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Right six months old. He leapt and to the very end until he his life was taken from him while he
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Had some questions about things He never wavered in who? Jesus was
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The father gave him a sign unlike anything given to man until as I said earlier the
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Mount of Transfiguration And what's amazing is, you know, you think Peter James and John they go up to the Mount of Transfiguration That wasn't enough for them they did they still didn't get it and in fact
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Peter would later on Deny Christ three times Peter James and John all the disciples scattered after the death of Christ only to be gathered again later but John the
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Baptist faithful to the end John the Baptist was the first eyewitness to the glory and majesty of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray Father in heaven we thank you
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Not for John the Baptist But for the sure witness you gave him
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The fact that you would give him a sign that he might testify to The original hearers and to us today
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That Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world?
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That Jesus is the Messiah your Chosen One Your only begotten
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Son Lord, I pray that you would give us that same zeal
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That we would long to testify of Christ and we would long to point to him as the only Solution to the ultimate problem of life, which is sin our father.
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What a blessing. What a blessing To have our eyes illumined our hearts open that we might know
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Jesus Christ and him crucified Let us never lose sight of that let us long to pause look think
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About the greatness of what you have accomplished on behalf of your people removing our sins
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Taking them as far as east is from West removing them from us that we might not be found guilty on the last day
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Lord, I would pray for any here who don't know Christ here tonight Even for the young ones who are too young to even understand what we're talking about Father that you would so work in their lives that you would bring about the circumstances the trials the difficulties
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The teaching the faithful witnesses that they might believe that Jesus is
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Your son and that in believing They might have eternal life.