John pt. 6 | John 1:19-34

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Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Pastor Jeff Rice September 25, 2022

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John pt. 7 | John 1:35-51

John pt. 7 | John 1:35-51

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All right, if you will turn to the Gospel of John in your
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Bibles, the Gospel of John, we're still in chapter 1. We'll be considering verses 19 through 34 for the second time.
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The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 19 through 34.
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Let me pray. Father in God, Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus, your
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Son, the Christ. Lord, as I am speaking,
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I pray that your Holy Spirit, the Spirit that proceeds from you in the
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Son, is speaking forth through this vessel. You will use me this day to proclaim the magnificent works of your hand.
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In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. So our theme has been a prophet's testimony, and this is part two of a prophet's testimony.
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We looked at this last week, and I've been saying this over and over for months, maybe even over a year now, that the testimony of a prophet was to do two things.
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The first they were to do is they were to prophesy the coming of the Messiah. And the second thing they were to do is they were to prophesy a future judgment if Israel does not repent.
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The Redeemer is coming, but if you don't repent, judgment is coming.
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And I had mentioned last week that John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet sent to Israel, and that Jesus was the final prophet sent to Israel.
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Before John the Baptist, there was a period of 400 years of silence in Israel, and since Jesus Christ, there has been no prophet sent to Israel.
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So before John the Baptist, 400 years of silence. Since Jesus Christ, silence in Israel.
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So join me as we read our text together. The Gospel of John, chapter 1, beginning in verse 19.
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And this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?
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And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then?
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Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet?
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He answered, no. So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us.
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What do you say about yourself? And he said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the
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Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the
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Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing?
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If you are neither the Christ, Elijah, or the prophet? John answered them,
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I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. Even he who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals
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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. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and he said, behold the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 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.
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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.
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And John bore witness, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and remain on him.
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I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the
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Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the
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Holy Spirit. And I have seen and I have bore witness that this is the
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Son of God. In our outline today, we will see the testimony of a prophet.
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First we will see his testimony of himself, which we saw last week, but we'll kind of look at it for a second.
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Second we'll see his testimony of Jesus. What is it that he proclaimed about Jesus?
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And third, we will see the purpose of his baptism versus the purpose of Christian baptism.
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His testimony of himself, his testimony of Jesus, and the purpose of his baptism versus Christian baptism.
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Like I said, we looked at his testimony last week. We saw that John the Baptist was the
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Elijah who is to come. He said he wasn't, but the angel
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Gabriel said he was, and Jesus said he was. And we concluded that John's not lying when he said that he wasn't.
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John just didn't know. John didn't know, but John was the
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Elijah to come, and this prophecy speaking about Elijah to come was given to us in the book of Malachi.
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So that 400 years of silence, the last prophecy given before John came, was from the book of Malachi, the last book of the
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Old Testament. So the last prophecy given was that Elijah was going to come.
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400 years of silence, Elijah comes in the person of John the
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Baptist. And that Jesus was the Christ, and he was the prophet spoken of by Moses.
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And we also saw in John's testimony of himself that he was a road worker, right? If you look at verse 25, it says, and they asked him, then why are you baptizing if you're…
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I'm sorry, verse 23. Verse 23, excuse me. And he said,
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I am a voice crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet
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Isaiah. So at this time whenever kings, whenever important people of power would travel, they would send people in front of them.
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They would make straight their path. They would fill up potholes with other dirt, no matter what it was, you know, move stuff out of his way.
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Whichever way that this king or this person that was in power was traveling, the road worker had to make straight his path.
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And so Elijah is saying that that's what he is. He is a road worker making straight the path.
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And that he was the lowest slave on the totem pole. If you look at verse 26 and 27,
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John answered, I baptize with water, but among you stands one I do not, you do not know, even he who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals
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I am not worthy to untie. The lowest slave on the totem pole was the one that would remove the sandal from the feet of their master, who had been walking in sand, dirt, poop, whatever it was that he had walked in, he would remove the sandal, clean the sandal, and clean the feet.
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He would wash the master's feet. John says that I'm unworthy to do that to Christ.
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You're looking at me like I'm the man. I'm not. I'm not the man. I'm unworthy to be the lowest slave on his totem pole.
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John made himself low. That's his testimony of himself. His testimony of Jesus, we see in verse 29, and we'll have some subheadings for this.
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So verse 29, the next day he, speaking of John, saw
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Jesus coming toward him, and he said, Behold, the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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So I have three subheadings, and we'll get to these pretty quick. The first subheading is
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Jesus is the Lamb of God. The second subheading is that Jesus, well, let me re -read that.
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I'm sorry. Let me re -read that. I want to go to verse 31. Verse 29,
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I don't feel like it's, I feel like it's incomplete. Maybe I forgot to finish the verses out.
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Verse 29, the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and he's coming toward him, and he said,
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Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Verse 30, This is he of whom I said,
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After me comes one who ranks before me, because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose
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I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. Okay, that makes more sense to me.
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Three subheadings. The first one is Jesus is the Lamb of God. The second is that Jesus is eternal, and the third is
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Jesus is the reason behind the message. So the first subheading, Jesus is the
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Lamb of God, and that's what's taken from verse 29.
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Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So for the most part, I believe that everyone here,
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I'm not going to read too much into it, but I believe that everyone here understands that this is pointing us to the
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Paschal Lamb, aka the Passover. So Egypt, if you're looking at it from the time of Joseph to the time of Moses, Joseph has a dream, he tells his dream, his brothers are jealous, they throw him into a pit, they ended up selling him into slavery, he gets put into prison, he gets let out of prison because he's able to interpret a dream, he's put second under Pharaoh, I'm trying to go through this real quick, he's put in second under Pharaoh, and then his brothers who sold him into slavery along with his father come to Egypt, they live really good, they have really good lives, they have children, they start to grow, they begin to die,
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Joseph dies, then comes a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph, and they put the
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Israelite people into slavery. Moses comes, lives in the house of Pharaoh, leaves, hears from a burning bush who is the angel of the
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Lord, God's speaking to him, the I Am, and he sends him back to redeem his people.
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Pharaoh would not let his people go, God sends plagues. Just kind of like a short summation to get us to where we have to be.
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So in the plagues that God sends upon Pharaoh because he would not let his people go, we read about the plague of water turning to blood, the plague of frogs, the plague of gnats, or could be lice, the plague of fleas, the plague of diseased livestock, the plague of boils, the plague of a fiery hailstorm, the plague of locusts, the plague of darkness, and the last plague was the death of the firstborn son.
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So now the Passover, the Paschal Lamb, the Passover focuses on the last plague, and that is the death of the firstborn son, that it was after this plague
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Pharaoh let the people go. So according to this, what we read in Exodus, each house was to have a male lamb.
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So each house was to have a male lamb, that male lamb was to be a year old, and it was to be without blemish.
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They were to kill the lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the two doorposts and on the lentil.
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So the two doorposts and the lentil above it, they were to apply the blood of the lamb in which they were to eat.
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So they were to slaughter the lamb, put the blood on the door, and eat the lamb. The blood was to be for them a sign, listen, it was to be a sign that as the death angel was going over to kill the firstborn son, it would see the blood on the door and pass over the house that had the blood on the door.
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And this was to be a memorial for the house of Israel. Every year they were to remember this day by re -enacting what took place.
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So every year a death angel was not coming over them, they were to do this as a memorial, a re -enacting of what took place when the death angel came.
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They would apply the blood on the door and the death angel would pass over them.
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So this had become a memorial to them, a re -enacting.
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John sees Jesus coming toward him and he understands that this re -enacting of this event is coming to an end.
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He says, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And we will pick back up on that later.
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Subheading number two, Jesus is eternal. Verse 30, 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.
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We saw this quotation last week, right? We looked at it, I mean not last week, it was two weeks ago.
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Verse 15, John bore witness about him and he 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. So we already kind of looked at this verse, we already walked through this verse.
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John sees Jesus coming toward him, verse 29, and he says the famous words, behold the lamb of God is coming.
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Verse 30, this is of he who comes after me who ranks before me.
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This is telling us that his coming after him points to Jesus being the king of whom
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John was preparing the way for. So we have John saying that he is a voice and this voice he is crying out in the wilderness makes straight his path.
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Verse 30, after me comes one who ranks before me. Remember a king or a person that's in power because he was before me.
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John's pointing to Jesus as being the one whom he is clearing the path for.
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I'm the road worker, the one who's coming, this lamb of God who I see walking toward me, that's the one
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I'm clearing the path for. He tells us that he,
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Jesus, who was right before him, that this is the king and John the
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Baptist is saying I'm the lowest one on the totem pole because he was before me, that he is the eternal king.
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Now when it talks about he was before me, when you look at John's mother
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Elizabeth, Elizabeth was pregnant six months prior to Jesus's mother Mary being pregnant.
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For John says he was before me, here would have to be pointing to Jesus being eternal.
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How could he be before him if John was before him? Right, if John was born before him, how can
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Jesus be before him? So this has to be, John has to be speaking of an eternity past.
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He was before him and he ranks before him. John pointing to Jesus because he is the eternal king.
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He is the eternal son of God. The word that was in the beginning that was with God and that was
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God. So because God is condescending, John the Baptist is making his path straight.
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Subheading number three, Jesus is the reason behind the message. 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.
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So what was the message of John the Baptist? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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That's what John the Baptist's message was. You need to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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A new kingdom is developing. Jesus is the king and John baptized with water so that he,
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Jesus, might be revealed. Which takes us to our third point of the message.
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The purpose behind his baptism versus the purpose behind Christian baptism.
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So in John chapter one, we're going to go through 24 through 34.
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We're going to break it up a little bit. So I'm going to read verse 31 one more time and then I'm going to read 24 through 38.
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I think if I read it in that order, it's going to make some sense. At least in my head, it makes more sense.
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So I'm going to read verse 31 one more time and then we'll read verse 24 through 28. 31.
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I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, don't forget that, that he might be revealed to Israel.
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Verse 24. Now they, speaking of those that were sent by the
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Pharisees, now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing?
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If you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. John answered them,
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I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know.
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Even he who comes after me, the straps of whom sandals
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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. Now to see the full version of what
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John, the writer of this gospel, is speaking about, what he's pointing out about the testimony of John the
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Baptist, we have to go to Matthew chapter three. So look with me in Matthew chapter three.
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Matthew chapter three. We'll begin in verse one. Remember, what was his message?
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We see it clearly here. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.
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Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet
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Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
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Lord, make straight his path. Now John wore a garment of camel hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
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Then Jerusalem, right here, then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the
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Jordan were going to him, were going out to him. And they, who's the they, the all that it's speaking about, were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
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But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not presume to say to yourselves, we have
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Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
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And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees and every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit, it's cut down and thrown into the fire.
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I baptize with water for repentance. But he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals
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I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
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His willow and fork is in his hand and he will, and he will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn.
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But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. First things first, the purpose of John's baptism was that Jesus might be revealed to Israel.
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So why was he baptized? So that Jesus might be revealed to Israel.
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Baptism was his way of making straight the path.
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How was, how was John, this road worker, filling up potholes, straightening roads and chopping down mountains?
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Baptism. Baptism was his way of making straight the path.
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Look at verse 11a, I baptize with water for repentance.
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You go back to verse two, it says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. How are they to repent?
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Being baptized in water. Again, I made mention last week that this would have been something unheard of.
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Why would a Jew need to be baptized? Gentiles coming into the Jewish religion were baptized.
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Or unless you were a high priest or you was going into the priesthood, then there was ritual washings and baptisms.
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But for a common Jew, there was no need to be baptized. This baptism was like, you're on, you, you, you, you are the one who is unclean.
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You need to be baptized. John baptized with water for repentance.
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You repent it, in John's time, you repent it by being baptized.
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Repentance here has two meanings. So we're going to look at the two meanings of repentance.
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The obvious meaning that most people will use is, is that you, you turn from something to something.
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John's case, they were, they realized they're dirty. They want to be clean, right? You turn from something to something.
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Repentance. The second is from the Greek word metanoia. Metanoia means to change one's mind, to change the way you think.
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The Christian understanding of repentance is a transformation of the heart. It's a, it's a heart change.
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We say this in regeneration that Ezekiel talks about the removal of my heart of stone and giving me a heart of flesh.
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It's saying that I desire A over B, and then all of a sudden
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I desire B over A, right? It's like, I love this.
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I don't love this. All of a sudden now I love this and I don't love this.
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That's what repentance is. It first has to begin in a change of mind.
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In order for my, my hand, I've said this many times, in order for my hand to do this, to grab this book and open it, my brain had to send signals to my hand in order for that to happen.
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In order for my body to make the movements, in order for my body to, for you to see the change with my body, first my brain, my mind has to be changed.
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Remember what the message of a prophet was, as they were to prophesy the coming
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Messiah, and they were to pronounce judgment if Israel does not repent. Look at verse seven and nine of Matthew chapter three, seven through nine.
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But when he saw the many Pharisees and Sadducees, let me just stop right here for just a second.
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I want to talk about the differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So these are the two religious sets that we see take place in the
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New Testament. I think we might have touched a little bit on the Sadducees and Pharisees this past Friday night.
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As a matter of fact, as I'm up here speaking, I kind of remember something, some words we're speaking about them.
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But I want to talk about the differences between them. So the Pharisees, they held to the law, right?
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And the Sadducees held to the law, the writings of Moses.
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The difference between the two when they hold to the law of Moses is that the Pharisees also held to an interpretation of the book, the spoken word, as the
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Sadducees which held to the written word only.
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So the Pharisees would have an oral tradition that went along with the written tradition versus the
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Sadducees, it was only the written tradition. Don't say anything else.
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High biblicism, if you would say. We see a lot of this today when it comes to the reformed circles and the non -reformed circles too, right?
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Things just don't end. Nothing's new under the sun. So the Pharisees held to the law, but they also held to a spoken word, an interpretation.
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And the Sadducees held to the law, but it was just the written word. But they also held to temple.
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And so the Sadducees believed that their sanctification, them growing in holiness, was through the ordinances of the temple.
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So the Sadducees would have been where the high priest line comes through. The Pharisees held to the resurrection of the dead.
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The Sadducees didn't believe there was anything after death. So the Pharisees would say resurrection of the dead, they held to angels, they held to the spiritual things.
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Pharisees said, no, written word only, sacraments in the temple, death, nothing.
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We see this in Acts chapter 23, I believe it is. Paul has been arrested, he's being confronted, he's answering questions, and he says that I'm speaking about the resurrection of the dead.
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I'm here because I'm speaking of the resurrection of the dead. There was an argument, basically, that arose between the
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Pharisees and the Sadducees over that question, because the Pharisees held to the resurrection of the dead.
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When 70 AD took place, the temple fell, that was the end of the Sadducees. After 70
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AD, the Pharisees continued, and this is where we see the beginning of rabbinical
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Judaism comes through the Pharisees. So these are the two sets that's taking place now.
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They are against each other. So you have what's called the Sanhedrin, and then there was members of the
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Sanhedrin could be from both the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But the main idea that I want you to take right now is that they were against each other.
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But when you read the New Testament, they come together for a common purpose, and that is that they're against Jesus Christ.
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They come together because they are against Jesus Christ. So right here he says, when he, speaking of John, saw many of the
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Pharisees and Sadducees coming to him, coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, keeping with your cleanseness.
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And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, going back to the
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Torah, the law, the written book. For I tell you that God is able from these stones.
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Imagine he's speaking and there's rocks beside him, picking up a rock. God can raise up children from Abraham from stones.
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Imagine that. Abraham here frames for us a picture, a covenantal kingdom people picture.
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The Jews believed since they were the physical seed of Abraham that God was going to bless them simply because they are the physical seed of Abraham, they're going to receive the blessings of God.
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In verse 9 he says, do not presume to say to yourself, we have Abraham as our father.
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For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from stones. John here is,
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John the Baptist is saying to them, God does not need the physical children of Abraham to carry out his promises.
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And we being a Gentile church know this, right? Right? We receive the promises that were given to Abraham.
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If you are a child of God through faith in Christ, the Bible and Galatians and Romans tells us that we are children of Abraham.
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No, it wasn't a stone, but it might as well have been, right? Gentile sinners. That stone was probably more clean than we were to the eyes of the
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Jew. John saying, God doesn't need the physical seed of Abraham to raise up children for Abraham.
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And in verses 10 through 12, here is the prophecy of the Messiah, as well as the prophecy of the judgment that was to come.
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And it speaks about the purpose of, of spiritual baptism. Look at verse 10 through 12, and I'll give just a little commentary as we go.
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It says, even now the ax, think judgment, the ax is at the root of the trees, the tribes of Israel.
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Now, if you disagree with this, we can talk about it, but just listen, even now the ax judgment is laid to the root of the trees,
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Israel, the tribes of Israel and every tree, every tribe, therefore that does not bear fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
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This is judgment. This is hell. If you do not bear fruit, you are going to be chopped down and you're going to be thrown into fire.
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He says, I baptized with water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals
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I am not worthy to carry. And he will baptize you with the Holy spirit and fire judgment.
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Hell, the willow and fork is in his hand and he will clear the threshing floor and he will gather his wheat into the barn.