A Worthy Obituary - [John 10:40-42]

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Well, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 10 as we conclude this chapter You know, I just want to say a word about the the song that we sang a little while ago behold our
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God I would encourage you If you've not done so that's on together for the gospel,
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I think the 2010 CD It's really really good
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And you know, I just I listen to that song over and over and over again Which is probably one of the reasons we sang it this morning hint
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It's really a great song Well, let's pray before we start this morning
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Father in heaven You are a great God and we just praise you for giving us your word and for sending your son the
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Lord Jesus Christ to die in our place who could imagine such a thing that you would love us and So send
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Jesus to bear our sins to die for us and to be raised on the third day
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We who were helpless and your enemies who could not do a thing to make ourselves, right with you
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You made us right with you you did it and then in time You quickened us you brought us to Christ Father as we look to your word this morning,
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I pray that you would encourage each of us to examine ourselves and Our thinking and our lives and to be transformed by your word in Jesus name we pray.
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Amen. We know How many of you have heard the word legacy lately
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Legacy, you know you hear In political terms. They say well the president is very concerned with his legacy when
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Kobe Bryant Was retiring they're like Kobe What's your legacy
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When Ortiz retires, they're gonna be talking about David Ortiz's legacy what's the other day when
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I heard him talking it sounded like basically he's just gonna be tired and sore and happy to retire but Legacy is something we often hear about in terms of What are we gonna leave behind?
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Well this morning and I I have to tell you this is a very timely topic for me for reasons
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I won't go into this morning, but this idea of a spiritual legacy
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What are we going to leave behind when we pass? What are people going to say and remember about us?
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What will people testify about at our funeral? Was just a couple months ago.
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I was visiting my mom in Denver and She said she asked me why
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I went to my funeral now my mom is You know suffering from illness or whatever and I and I thought about that for a while Because I she was serious and she said that she'd seen pictures of my funeral and I told her
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I said mom I said I wish I could have been there Because I would have liked to thank to each one
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Who'd come to my funeral that would be really nice of course what I Didn't say and wish
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I would have I also would have liked to have preached the gospel to each person that went to my funeral But I was assuming that the gospel would be preached
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Spiritual legacy, what do we leave behind? Jonathan Edwards noted
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American and New England theologian, thank you very much Born in 1703 in Connecticut.
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He attended Yale University at the age of 13 Back when
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Yale really meant something he went on to serve as the president of what is now
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Princeton But when he was just 20 years old he wrote a list of personal resolutions many of you have probably heard of these resolutions
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Listen to this one He said that he would ask myself at the end of every day
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Wherein I could possibly in any respect Have done better Now that's a good resolution
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To always strive to do better But the gospel isn't about doing better But he had a very rigorous and demanding schedule he woke up as early as 430 in the morning as most of us do to read and write and He committed each and every day to spending an hour a day with his kids
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And when you think about how busy it was an hour a day was a lot Life wasn't as easy
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You know he couldn't surf the internet and do all those kind of things and just turn on the heating oil They actually had to do things to make the house run
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An hour a day with his kids, and you know what when he traveled he traveled a lot when he got home He would make that hour up with them
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Spending an extra hour until he caught up with them talk about a legacy.
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Let's just Bend BB Warfield Who lived about a hundred years ago?
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Has charted the 1394 known descendants of Edwards, so this would be outdated
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But this is what he found this was Jonathan Edwards legacy 13 college presidents 65 college professors 30 judges 100 lawyers 60 physicians 75
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Army and Navy officers 100 pastors 60 authors of prominence three
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US senators 80 public servants and other capacities including governors and ministers to foreign countries and one vice president of the
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United States Studying the word spending time with his family spiritual legacy
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Let's turn to John chapter 10 and you'll see Why I'm focused on legacy here this morning as we come to the conclusion of John chapter 10
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But I'm going to begin and verse 22 it again so that we'll have some context here
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Because by itself the few verses we're going to look at would not Stir you to love and good works
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John 10 verses 22 to 42 at that time The Feast of Dedication what we commonly would call
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Hanukkah festival of lights took place at Temple or at Jerusalem it was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.
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We've talked about the enclosed porch area of the temple So the
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Jews gathered around him and said to him how long will you keep us in suspense if you are the
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Christ Tell us plainly Jesus answered them. I told you and you do not believe
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The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep
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My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I Give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand
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My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand and We've talked about that.
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No one's able to snatch them out of the son's hand or the father's hand and that includes you
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No one is able to do that and he makes that Equivalence between himself and the father and then in verse 30 he clarifies it
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I and the father are one Verse 31 the
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Jews picked up stones again to stone him Jesus answered them I've shown you many good works from the father for which of them are you going to stone me?
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The Jews answered him it is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy
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Because you being a man make yourself God Jesus Answered them.
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Is it not written in your law? I said you are God's as we went through last week He argued from the lesser of the greater if it were true of ancient
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Israel and these judges back then that they have the power over life and death that they were to be ministers of justice and that they in fact had power from God and acted as God in a sense on earth then why
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Cannot the Son of God do the same and he goes on in verse 35 if he called them gods to whom the
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Word of God came and Scripture cannot be broken. Do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world?
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You are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God If I am not doing the works of my father then do not believe me
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But if I do them Even though you do not believe me believe the works That you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father
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And this did at least tamper down things so they didn't try to stone him
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But look at verse 39 again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands he went away again across the
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Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first and There he remained and many came to him and they said
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John did no sign but everything that John said about this man was true and Many believed in him there now again
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We're ending chapter 10 today This section really started in chapter 7 and it's really focused in Jerusalem and a lot of it takes place on the temple mounts a lot of interaction between The Pharisees and Jesus the
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Jewish leaders and Jesus and twice They sought to put him to immediate death and several other times.
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I kind of lost count as I was going through And studying this again how many times they tried to arrest him or they wanted to arrest him?
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But their anger really boiled over as we just read when he identified himself As not just the
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Christ the Messiah the chosen one of God But also as God God in the flesh as we saw last week even when
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He succeeded in Stopping them from wanting to put him instantly to death by stoning him
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They still wanted him tried which ultimately would have resulted in his death because we know that because several months down the road it does result in his crucifixion as he goes through the process of being tried and convicted and then
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Crucified Now our text doesn't tell us how but it does tell us that Jesus escaped and that's where we pick up This morning and this morning.
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I want you to be encouraged by the life. We're gonna examine the life of John the Baptist a Man filled with the
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Holy Spirit and consumed by a desire to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ We're going to see as it were the legacy of John the
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Baptist a worthy obituary I think I called it. I mean, this is the kind of thing if you examine his life
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It's the kind of thing that you would want To be said of you at your own death Everything that we do in life apart from Christ is ultimately vanity
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It has no lasting value and John the Baptist understood this he lived it out
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And he say why aren't you gonna preach Christ? We're going to preach Christ and we're gonna preach Christ By talking about a man who always preached
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Christ who always pointed to Christ But just for starters to sort of Put us again in this context.
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We're gonna talk about the location of the ministry where Jesus went to He went away in verse 40.
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He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at First this is
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I'm not gonna lie. This is kind of an awkward little passage here It's a transition, but it's not an easy transition
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And it really doesn't sort of fit the flow of narrative and there are all kinds of ideas about why it's here
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But I I think one of the reasons it's here so that we'll just kind of take a moment and that's what I want us To do this morning and reflect on the life of John the
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Baptist So, where is it where did Jesus go? well,
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I think it's What some writers have called the other Bethany the Bethany away from Jerusalem and you just say well
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Why would there be two towns so close to each other with the same name? We live in New England, right?
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I Mean if you go from state to state, in fact, this is true up and down the East Coast I'm always surprised, you know when
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I I mean, I don't know this but I'd venture to say there's probably some town called Boylston Virginia, I mean everybody has they all have the same
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And it's because the same group of people came over to the East Coast and they all just chose Nice little
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English names and that's what they did So there is a town a village really close to Jerusalem and we'll see that next week where Mary and Martha and Lazarus all lived called
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Bethany But there's also a Bethany across the Jordan and that's where we met
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John the Baptist in this gospel that's where he was first active in ministry in this book and It's where he's challenged by a group sent out by the
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Sanhedrin and we'll see that passage in just a minute Now it's clear why Jesus left
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Jerusalem Because it wasn't time for him to die yet, and they really wanted to kill him the Jews did
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So he went to a more secluded a safer location And in fact,
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Jesus would not return to Jerusalem Until when when would he return to Jerusalem on?
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Palm Monday I knew you were saying that I knew that's what you're thinking. We're not there yet.
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So don't worry about it It's actually Monday. I know
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I know it's it's upsetting So that's the location now. Let's look at the life of John the
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Baptist and this is where we're gonna spend a bulk of our time this morning Why was he significant?
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Because at every point recorded for us John the Baptist points to Jesus Christ Even before he was born and we're gonna be looking at several passages here this morning
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Let's look at Luke chapter 1 verse 39 Luke chapter 1 verse 39
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Even before he was born And this is an interesting one too because we also see some prophetic
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Action here in the New Testament before John the
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Baptist was even born. He was pointing to Christ Now after the angel
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Gabriel told Mary about the Coming birth of Jesus if you recall she went
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To go see her relative and look at verse 39 in those days
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Mary arose and went with haste She was in a hurry. She was excited
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She was gonna have not just a baby but the baby she was gonna be the mother of the Lord she went with haste into 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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Now a baby in the womb moving isn't that unusual? Wouldn't wouldn't surprise me at the baby and side my daughter here
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Megan is moving right now This is kind of what babies do they get their exercise somehow and you know, even those cramped deck little quarters they move around but John's mother
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Elizabeth She Interprets this leaping by the power of the
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Holy Spirit Look at the words she uses Well, and how do I know she how do
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I know that because it says that right in our text she says That she's or the text says that she's filled with the
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Holy Spirit in verse 41 Look what she says in verse 42 blessed.
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Are you among women and blesses the fruit of your womb? That blessed. Are you among women?
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It's a Hebraism Hebrew saying and it's meant to convey the idea that Mary is the most blessed of women
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Now not in the Roman Catholic sense of without sin, that's not what it means But why she the most blessed because she is carrying the
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Son of God. She's carrying the Savior And by the power of the Holy Spirit, she's enabled to know that Mary is both pregnant
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Mary doesn't even tell her that she just greets Her it's just a general greeting. It's like hi. Good morning, but it's of course excited.
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She's very excited But notice also that she says she calls the baby my lord
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Elizabeth being filled with the Spirit identifies that baby as her lord and all that from John the
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Baptist leap It's as if I mean you can't get too carried away, but it's as if he's just jumping up and saying that's him
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So from before he was born. He's pointing to Jesus He also at the beginning of his ministry lists to look over a few pages
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Luke chapter 3 Luke chapter 3 Beginning in verse 1
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Luke chapter 3 in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee and his brother
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Philip tetrarch of the region of it area and trichonotus and Licinius tetrarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas The Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, this is
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John the Baptist John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness So he's in the wilderness
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The Word of God comes to him in verse 3 and he went into all the region in other words This is the time for you to go for John and he went into all the region around the
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Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins as It is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet the voice of one crying in the wilderness
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Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall become straight and the rough places shall become level ways and Listen verse 6 and all flesh
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Shall see the salvation of God He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him
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You brood of that vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruits in keeping with repentance
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And do not begin to say to yourselves. We have Abraham as our father For I tell you
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God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham He's he's preaching some brimstone and fire.
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They need to repent There's a wrath coming Well, John is the last we sometimes call him the last test last
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Old Testament prophet and you say wait a minute Luke is in you can't fool me Luke's in the New Testament Well, okay.
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You got me But the church hasn't begun yet. It doesn't begin we believe till Pentecost and we're still in the old covenants you can't have the new covenant till Jesus seals it with his blood and God has effectively been
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Silent for 400 years the last words of the Old Testament 400 years before that and suddenly
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Out of the wilderness comes this bizarre looking man Preaching repentance and I call him bizarre looking because he would have looked pretty odd coming out of the wilderness
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You know not unlike some of you when you come back from camping trips He would have been taking he would have had on him a
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Basically a Nazarite vow from the time he was born in Luke 1 turning back to Luke chapter 1 verse 13
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And this is the announcement to Zechariah the father But the angel said to him do not be afraid
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Zechariah for your prayer has been heard. They wanted a child They were older didn't have any children 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 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
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Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the
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Lord their God and he will go before him before who
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Before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the
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Disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared
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Now We talk about a Nazarite vow not dealing with dead things not drinking strong drink not combing your hair not cutting it
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So he would look pretty wild and we'll see more of that about how wild he would have looked
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But he had quite an effect let's turn over to Matthew chapter 3 Matthew chapter 3
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Starting in verse 1 in those days
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John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea Same place same idea here repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand
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For this is he who was spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah when he said The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the
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Lord make his path straight And now listen 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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He opened up a little stand there in town Then Jerusalem and all
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Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him And they were being bat or they were baptized by him in the
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River Jordan confessing their sins again Just think about this there been no prophetic presence
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No word from God for 400 years and here comes this man who says listen, it's time to get your lives, right?
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There's something special about to happen and you people need to repent You need to flee from the wrath to come and they started confessing their sins and they they go through this
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Baptism which really the objective of was it it wasn't Christian baptism It was an individual baptism about repentance of their sins
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One commentator said John the Baptist and this is the point The whole man was a sermon
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The whole man was a sermon. That's right Let's turn to John chapter 1
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John chapter 1 Verses 6 to 8 and this is the introduction of John the Baptist in the gospel of John There was a man sent from God whose name was
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John Verse 6. Sorry. There was a man sent from God whose name was John He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him
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He was not the light But came to bear witness about the light and we know who the light is the light was
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Jesus His mission was to prepare the way for Jesus to get the people ready to warn them that something
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Extraordinary is coming and Jesus was that something extraordinary Now all four gospel writers apply
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Isaiah 40 verse 3 to John the Baptist and Luke also applies verses 4 and 5 of Isaiah 40 to him and it could be summarized this way in Luke 3 verse 6
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We just read it a minute ago and all flesh shall see the salvation of God all flesh all mankind
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This is a universal appeal here from John the Baptist and his
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Legend his legacy lives on even today but almost every word of John the Baptist in some way was a witness to Jesus or a warning of the wrath of God and The need for Jesus certainly
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John chapter 1 still verse 19 And this is the testimony of John When the
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Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask who are you he confessed and did not deny
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But confessed I am NOT the Christ and they asked him what then are you Elijah?
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He said I am NOT are you the prophet and he answered no So they said to him
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Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us, what do you say about yourself?
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He said I'm the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. He was consistent Make straight the way of the
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Lord as the prophet Isaiah said Now they these people had been sent out from the
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Pharisees and they asked him then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ? Nor Elijah nor the prophets
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John answered I baptize with water, but among you stands one. You do not know Even he who comes after me the strap of whose sandal
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I am not worthy to untie These things took place in Bethany across the
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Jordan Where John was baptizing that's why I think we're in Bethany Now if you remember this from way back this group of priests and Levites were really kind of a grand jury they were sent out by the
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Sanhedrin to go find out who John the Baptist was there were many false messiahs many people
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Claiming to be the Christ during this time So any man who was having such an impact you could just imagine in Jerusalem at the temple and they hear about people from all around Going out to see this wild man
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John the Baptist To repent and be baptized and they're like, okay, who is this guy? We need to find out who he is
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Now we'd want to think well they had pure motives. They wanted to know if he was the Christ They wanted to know how should how they should treat him.
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Was he a prophet? How could they help him? How could they serve him? Well, that's not exactly what they wanted
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What they really wanted to do was find some reason to disqualify him just as they did with Jesus So when they asked who are you?
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His response was perfect when he said I am NOT the Christ because that's what they really wanted to know Are you claiming to be the
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Messiah? So then they say well, okay
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You know the Messiah. What are you doing baptizing people and really they're they're objective again or their their question was
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What's your authority? By whose authority are you doing these things? And he tells him whose authority is
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Looking in at verse 26. I baptize with water But among you stands one You do not know
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Even he who comes after me the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie what he's saying is
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I'm doing this by the authority of the Lord I'm doing this as a preparation for him.
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I'm doing this under the authority of God It's not really important what his authority for baptizing was but who his authority was and The very next day this is made very plain where his authority comes from John chapter 1 verse 29
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The next day He John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said behold the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world This is he of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me
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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 descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him.
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I myself did not know him But he who sent me to baptize with water and said to me he on whom you see the
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Spirit to send to remain This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and I have seen and have been born witness that this is the
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Son of God He couldn't be more clear now prior to his
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Emerging from the wilderness the only recorded meeting we have of John and Jesus was in the womb
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That's it. That's the only one So he wouldn't have when he said
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I didn't know him Well, he didn't know him but look at the sureness with which he declares his calling in verse 33
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He who sent me to baptize Sent me to baptize he knew he had an eternal purpose.
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He knew he had a divine purpose John the Baptist had no doubt. Remember the Word of the
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Lord came to him in the wilderness. He knew why he was there. No Think about this statement in light of what we've seen in John 858 that the statement being that he knew he was the
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Son of God right Verse 34 and I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God Think about that and then think about it in light of what we saw in John 8 58 when
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Jesus said Declared that he was I am and then in John 10 30 when he said, you know
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I'm the father or one and what the response to those things were and then We don't see them trying to kill
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John the Baptist, but nevertheless It was a pretty bold statement and right to the end of his life
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John was calling people to repentance. Let's look at Matthew We're gonna hit three of the four
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Gospels this morning Matthew chapter 14 Starting in verse 1 at that time
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Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants
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This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him
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For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias his brother
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Philip's wife Because John had been saying to him It is not lawful for you to have her and though he wanted him put to death
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He feared the people because they held him to be him John the Baptist to be a prophet
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But when Herod's birthday came the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased
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Herod So that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask prompted by her mother she said
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Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter and the king was sorry probably worried
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But because of his oaths and his and his guests he commanded it to be given
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He sent and had John beheaded in prison now Herod showed his ignorance
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About the religious goings -on not really being able to differentiate between Jesus and John Or maybe it was just guilt from having killed
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John and so he thought Perhaps John was back from the dead. That's what he says, you know in in the person of Jesus.
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So this is some kind of like Miraculous haunting but he heard of the miracles of Jesus Somehow thought that John the
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Baptist's resurrection had given him supernatural powers He felt bad.
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Well, he had the right to feel guilty He had the right to feel like he should be haunted because he had John the Baptist beheaded because he sinfully promised the
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Daughter of the woman. He was committing adultery with whatever she wanted She wanted
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John's head on a platter All because John had called him to repentance for adultery
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So keep that in mind the next time you so call somebody to repentance the entire life of John the
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Baptist can be summarized as I said by By just this he pointed people to Jesus Christ.
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He called them to repentance and he pointed them to Christ So we've seen the location of ministry and secondly the life of John the
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Baptist and now the legacy of John the Baptist He prepared the way for Jesus at the beginning of his ministry and Now at the end of his public ministry the end of Jesus public ministry
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We see some of the lasting impact that John the Baptist had If you look at verse 40, we see
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Jesus lingering and there he remained Well, why did he stay and probably what was
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Bethany out there in the middle of nowhere? Why do you stay there? Well, it was safe, right?
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Nobody was trying to kill him there. It wasn't time for him to die yet. So he wasn't going to go anywhere. That wasn't safe but it also seems like seems likely that he he went there because there were people who wanted to hear more about Jesus who wanted to hear him teach and Thirdly, I think that this is
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And I think the reason it's included here by John the Apostle is this is kind of a fitting epitaph for John the
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Baptist Now how long was Jesus in this region? We don't know but it was long enough to teach a lot of people look at verse 41 and many came to him
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Now this was not like Jerusalem. They weren't tracking him down and trying to Trap him into saying something so they could stone him to death
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They wanted to learn John the Baptist in his ministry had a clear impact even out here in the wilderness so much so that people
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Compared his ministry to that of Jesus Look at verse 41 and they said John did no sign
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Now when you read that initially you just go what's the big deal? John didn't do any miracles. I Think it's definitely we can infer from that.
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I like to say and we can infer or The writer implies either way we can infer that Jesus did know or that he did signs there
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And so the people say well, wait a minute Jesus is here. He's doing signs when John was here.
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He didn't do any signs. So we recognize that Jesus is greater. I Mean it would be very odd to say
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John did no signs if Jesus also did no signs and in Jewish literature
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They would not speak of a man as great They would not revere him unless some miracle or another was attributed to him
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John the Baptist was regarded as a great man In fact, we have Jesus word on that in Matthew 1 or I'm sorry in Matthew 11 11
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Don't turn there, but he said what said truly I say to you among those born of women
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There has arisen no one greater Than John the
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Baptist Not Elijah. Not Elisha.
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Not Moses. Not Abraham. Not Enoch No one you can name No one greater than John the
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Baptist Now sometimes we'll even say, you know, don't engage in dare to be a
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Daniel preaching But if you're gonna have somebody that you want to set as a role model
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You could do a lot worse than John the Baptist why? Because if you really emulate him, what will you spend your life doing saying let me tell you about Jesus Let me point you to Jesus Let me prepare your heart to receive
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Christ now the people there in the wilderness compare the words and actions of Jesus with those of John and They say in verse 41
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But everything that John said about this man was true Now I was joking a little bit earlier when
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I said I went to my own funeral Just imagine if John the Baptist Couldn't but just imagine if he could hear the people say that How thrilled he'd be
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Here is his life's work bearing fruits They listened they remembered his words
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They heard Jesus and they're going you know what everything John told us Everything he said about Jesus was true how did
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God work through the life and ministry of John the Baptist look at verse 42 and Many believed in him that is to say
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Jesus He had proclaimed Christ he had called people to repent be baptized He had told them of one greater than himself the one whose sandal he was not fit to untie
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And now they'd met Jesus Now they'd heard him Now they'd seen him
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They'd seen him do many powerful works. No doubt by the power of God and they believed
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They believed John the Baptist fulfilled his ministry he was to point to the light
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He did that faithfully What about you? What would your legacy be?
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Apart from Christ honestly that question has no relevance whatsoever Think about this
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Whatever athlete you want to name. I don't care if it's Bill Russell you take the best athlete of all time Whoever did whoever you think it is
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When he gets to heaven is he gonna be able to put his championship rings up and say This is my legacy.
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It's rubbish The greatest politician of all time
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Legacy is nothing Woodhane stubble when you leave this earth
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And you will if your legacy is not rooted in the gospel if it doesn't point to Jesus Christ Whatever your legacy is
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Will simply return to the dust and be destroyed by fire all that will remain is achieved by the power of God through the proclamation of the gospel by pointing to Jesus Christ Isaac Watts really had it right when he said this he said forbid it
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Lord that I should boast to him. We know well Save in the death of Christ my
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God all the vain things that charm me most I Sacrificed them to his blood
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We think about our own Humanity about our own mortality.
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What is it that we should want the most? I'll tell you what I want the most That my children my grandchildren would believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ That they would be so convicted by these things that they would want to pass them on to their children that's a legacy
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But that can only start if you believe You have to receive
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Christ his perfection in the place of your sinful life his sacrifice
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Paying for your penalty the penalty you rightly deserve his resurrection Which is your hope your proof that you will live forever with him apart from that You have no legacy
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I would just encourage you over to exhort your beg you to believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ if you don't know him today Believe on him flee to the cross Let's pray father.
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Thank you for the example of John the Baptist now that he was a perfect man
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If he was perfect he wouldn't have needed Christ we know he did but his faithfulness
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And pointing to Jesus Christ Not about him
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Not about his concerns but about sin salvation the
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Savior over and over again Father let this be etched in our minds and our hearts
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Our legacy is not in stuff Our legacy is not just in children
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Our legacy is not in anything If it's not in the gospel If we don't faithfully hand that down If we're not teaching our children to walk in accordance with your word father one day
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We will all be before you Giving the answer for what we've done with our lives
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Lord, it's a great thing To be forgiven of our sins, and there's nothing greater
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There's nothing greater than the promise of eternal life But what joy would be ours
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Knowing That those we love so much in life Will be with us in death.
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That's the legacy we all ought to strive for Father we pray for these things in Christ's name