John 1:19-34 Behold, The Lamb of God

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. There was a man sent from God whose name was

John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that all might believe.

He himself was not the light, he came as a witness to the light. We're going to look at John the

Baptist this morning from John chapter 1 verses 19 through 34. Now, John the

Baptist was an important person with a flourishing ministry. People came from Israel proper and all the surrounding regions to listen to John's teaching, to receive baptism, to repent of their sins.

Soldiers, commoners, even Pharisees came to listen to John the

Baptist. And, of course, with a movement this size, John the

Baptist's ministry drew the attention of the Jewish Sanhedrin, which is the ruling council of the nation.

And so, in the passage we're going to look at this morning, the Jewish Sanhedrin sent representatives to investigate this man,

John the Baptist. Let's read in John chapter 1 verses 19 through 28, as John is confronted with this delegation from the

Sanhedrin. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then are you,

Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no.

So they said to him, well, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?

He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet

Isaiah said. Now, they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing if you are neither the

Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal

I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

And what I find most remarkable about this passage is that John, in his answer to this delegation, refuses to talk about himself and he directs all attention to Jesus.

But one sentence really stood out to me, verses 26 and 27. Among you stands one you do not know.

He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

Unfastening the strap of a sandal was the task given to the lowest of household servants.

If you had the least rank as a household servant, you would unsandle your master when he came into the house.

And John is here saying that he is unworthy of performing even the most basic task in service to Jesus.

That any service that he would offer to Jesus was an undeserved privilege.

John was not doing God a favor by preaching to the people.

God was showing him undeserved favor and kindness by even allowing him the privilege of serving.

And herein is a lesson for us and let this thought lead us into worship this morning. There can be no true ministry before the

Lord until there is a self -emptying before the Lord. Let me say that again.

There can be no true ministry to the Lord before there is a self -emptying before the Lord. True service to God begins in worship.

Let's allow that thought to lead us into worship this morning. After all the sin that we as a people have worked, we don't deserve anything from God and we're not doing

God a favor by being here this morning. I'm not doing God a favor by teaching his word. It is an undeserved privilege that God would even allow us to gather today and an undeserved privilege for me to even share the word of God with you this morning.

Not one of us here is unworthy to unfasten the strap of Jesus's sandal and yet in spite of that, in spite of the fact that not one person here is worthy to unfasten the strap of Jesus's sandal, this same

Jesus turns, kneels, unfastens our sandals and washes our feet.

What kind of a God is this that we worship? Let's pray together and then we'll move into a time of worship.

Father in heaven, we are awed this morning by the humility and the majesty of your son

Jesus. We are unworthy of all the kindness and mercy and grace that you show us and it is our greatest privilege and honor, an undeserved privilege and honor to come to you this morning and worship you.

I ask that our worship, our service, all that we do this morning may be pleasing in your sight.

Thank you Jesus for your tremendous grace poured out on us. Amen. So I would invite you again to look into John chapter 1 with me.

We're going to look really at two sections this morning, verses 19 through 28, which we read previously, and that reflects

John the Baptist's response to this delegation from the

Sanhedrin and then we're going to look at John 1, 29 through 34, which represents

John's kind of message to the general population. So there's two different passages we're going to look at this morning and as we look a little bit more carefully at John the

Baptist and his teaching, what we find is this teaching, this section of scripture is not really about John the

Baptist, it's about Jesus and John is pointing all of his attention and all of our attention on the one who is coming, the

Messiah, Jesus our Lord. So let's look, let's start with chapter 1, verses 19 through 21.

I'm going to go ahead and read those again for us. And this is the testimony of John.

When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

He confessed and did not deny but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, well what then, are you

Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered no.

So again this delegation from the Sanhedrin is on a fact -finding mission to learn what

John said about himself. What is this man teaching and why is he drawing so many crowds to him?

Now what follows is a series of negations. There are three negations here. Negation number one,

John says he is not the Christ. The Christ means, is a

Greek translation of the Hebrew term Messiah and Christ simply means the deliverer king who would free the

Jews from their political bondage to the Romans. He would purify the nation and he would sit on the throne of David and rule and reign over Israel and over all nations forever.

So this coming king who would rule and reign forever is the Christ. John was not that man.

The second negation here, John is not Elijah. Many Jews believed that the prophet

Elijah, now you remember from the Old Testament, Elijah never died. He was taken up directly into heaven and so many

Jews believed that before the Messiah came, God would send the prophet

Elijah back in order to prepare the hearts of the people. This idea comes from Malachi chapter 4 verses 5 and 6.

Let me read this to you and as we read this passage, I'm going to refer several times to verses from the

Old Testament because this section that we're going to study this morning is just flavored richly with the

Old Testament and references and prophecies to the Messiah. So listen to what is said about the prophet

Elijah in Malachi chapter 4 verses 5 and 6. So the

Jews asked John the Baptist, are you Elijah the prophet? And he said no, I am not.

But what's interesting, this creates almost a question in my mind because John the

Baptist's appearance is described in Matthew chapter 3. It says he wore clothes made of camel's hair and he had a leather belt around his waist.

But if we compare John the Baptist's appearance with a physical description we have from 2

Kings of Elijah the prophet in the Old Testament, in 2 Kings it says Elijah the prophet wore a garment of hair and a leather belt.

So John the Baptist was intentionally, whether intentionally or unintentionally, his appearance resembled the prophet

Elijah when people saw him and evoked memories of Elijah the prophet.

And in Matthew chapter 9 what's even more interesting is Jesus is speaking to his students and Jesus affirms that John the

Baptist is in fact the typological fulfillment of Elijah the prophet.

He is the typological fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi. So does this create a contradiction?

Is Elijah or is John the Baptist Elijah or isn't he? Well it's only an apparent contradiction because really there are two comings of Jesus.

Jesus' first coming in order to prepare the people for their king, God sent

John the Baptist who is a type or a figure of Elijah. I believe in order to fulfill this

Malachi prophecy before Jesus returns, the prophet Elijah will return.

Whether it be the actual person of Elijah or somebody who is Elijah -like, I believe that before Jesus returns again a great prophet will arise in the spirit and power of Elijah.

But in any case John the Baptist denies being at least the the actual person of Elijah the prophet.

So then the third question the delegation asks him, well are you the prophet? Now they don't ask are you a prophet, they ask are you the prophet?

Now this is also an Old Testament reference. God spoke to or Moses predicted this in Deuteronomy 18 18.

He says, I will raise up for them, for the Jewish people, a prophet like you, speaking of like Moses, from among their fellow

Israelites and I will put my words in his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him. So in the time of Jesus many

Jews saw this prophecy of a great prophet who would come, they saw this prophecy as something that would precede the coming of the

Messiah. There's no clear consensus on who this prophet would be but in any case the

Jews asked John the Baptist, so are you the prophet? Predicted by Moses and he says I am not the prophet.

So now perhaps after these three negations, I'm not the Christ, I'm not Elijah, I'm not the prophet, the

Jews are maybe a little bit exasperated like what are we going to do? We have to take an answer back to the to the

Sanhedrin. Who should we say that you are? So in verse 22 they said to him, who are you?

We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? Verse 23, he said,

I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the

Lord as the prophet Isaiah said. John the

Baptist is quoting from Isaiah chapter 40. Listen as I read

Isaiah 40 verses 3 through 5. A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the

Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low.

The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain and the glory of the

Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

This passage in the book of Isaiah written some 700 years before Jesus is predicting the return of the

Jewish people from exile but it's also a reference to a greater redemption, a returning of the people in their hearts to the

Lord prior to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. Now I want to, so John the

Baptist is essentially saying, I am the voice crying out in the wilderness, my goal is to prepare the way for the

Lord. Now almost as an aside, I want to point out something absolutely remarkable in this section of scripture.

Isaiah says prepare the way for the Lord, L -O -R -D, capital letters.

Now in your Old Testament it has capital letters, L -O -R -D. This is the personal, sacred name of God written in Hebrew with only four letters.

This is the Tetragrammaton. The Jewish people were so reverent in their writing and speaking that they wouldn't even write the full name of the

Lord or speak this name. So sacred was the name of the Lord. When you see in your

Old Testament, capital L -O -R -D, in the Old Testament that is the sacred name of the

Lord. We sometimes say Yahweh or even Jehovah. This is the root of that word is that Yahweh is the great

I am, the self -existent one, the one that has no beginning and the one that has no end, the one that lives forever.

Now why is that important? Well look, Yahweh of Isaiah 40 verse 3 is applied to Jesus in the

New Testament. Isaiah says prepare the way for Yahweh.

John the Baptist comes, uses the same scripture and says prepare the way for the

Lord. Who is he talking about? He's talking about Jesus. This is powerful evidence that Jesus is

God. Jesus is the Word of God who was with God and who was

God. He was in the beginning with God. The Word has now become flesh.

I'm not sure honestly how much of the significance of what he was announcing actually rested on John the

Baptist. If he fully understood all that he was saying, sometimes people speak more than they know, but I think

John the Baptist had a fair understanding of what he was saying about the Messiah. If this first section, these first few verses talk about the delegation from the

Sanhedrin is questioning John's identity, where we go from here now, they begin, they change their tactics and they question his authority.

So let's pick it up in verse 24 as the question moves not from John's identity but it moves to the question of his authority.

Now some had been sent from the Pharisees. They had been sent from the Pharisees and they asked him, they asked John, well then why are you baptizing if you are neither the

Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? Evidently they didn't quite understand the full measure of what he had previously just quoted to them from Isaiah.

John answered, I baptize with water but among you stands one you do not know. Even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal

I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany across the

Jordan where John was baptizing. So this delegation was composed of priests and Levites who were

Sadducees, okay, and also there were Pharisees among the group. The Sanhedrin was divided between Sadducees and Pharisees, two different kind of political sort of religious parties, and so of course the

Pharisees would want their people involved in this fact -finding mission as well, and so now it's their turn to ask a question.

And so they are asking John, on what authority do you baptize people?

Now I asked a question as I was thinking through this passage, why would they resist the authority of John the

Baptist? What was he doing that was such a threat to them? What was he doing that was so offensive?

In answer to that question, I want you to see something. John is doing something here that is unprecedented.

He's baptizing Jewish people. Now baptism was not something unknown in the first century.

It was practiced. But baptism was practiced for people who were not

Jewish and they wanted to join the Jewish community. There was such a thing as proselyte baptism, so if you were non -Jewish and you wanted to become

Jewish, you had to follow certain steps. One of those steps was for males, of course, to be circumcised, there were other things, and one of those steps was to be baptized.

So baptism was something that you did when you wanted to convert to Judaism. John is baptizing people who are already

Jews, who are already faithful Jews. In essence, by this action, what

John is essentially saying, by his actions is what he says overtly in the book of Matthew, he's essentially saying the kingdom of God is at hand.

Your king will soon appear. Your Jewish ancestry is insufficient for entrance into the kingdom of God.

Your privileged position as the children of Abraham, as the recipients of the Mosaic law, your privileged position is insufficient for entrance into the kingdom.

You need to go back to the beginning. You need to personally repent. You need to personally ready your hearts.

You need to start all over again, just like a convert to Judaism would start all over again.

This is a humbling act for a Jew to receive baptism because it's like going back to the beginning and starting all over again.

And I think that's one of the reasons why these Pharisees and Sadducees, this delegation, took offense at what

John was doing. And just as a point of application before we move on to the next passage, that's exactly what we teach today, isn't it?

If you were fortunate enough to be born into a Christian family, you can't ride the coattails of your parents into the kingdom of God.

Your family heritage is insufficient for entrance into the kingdom of God.

All of us, each of us, must personally and individually repent and believe upon the name of the

Lord Jesus, just like the Jews in John's day. The message remains the same.

Let's move on now to the second testimony of John. So if this first section was

John's response to this Jewish delegation, the second section now composes his kind of announcement to the people in general, to the general population.

So let's pick it up in verse 29. The next day, he,

John, saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the

Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom

I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.

I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.

And John bore witness, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the

Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the

Son of God. Now, prior to the exchange with this

Jewish delegation, prior to all of these events, John had already baptized to Jesus. And we see that the baptism of Jesus served the essential function of identifying to John the

Baptist who the Messiah was. God had revealed somehow to John that he on whom you see the

Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. At the baptism of Jesus, the

Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and that confirmed for John that Jesus was in fact the

Chosen One. John may have suspected it before, remember

John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins, but I don't think John knew for certain until he actually saw the

Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus. That's why John says,

I myself did not know him. I think they were acquainted before, but he didn't know him in the sense he didn't know that he was the

Messiah. Now, in verse 34, we have somewhat of a manuscript variant.

That means different translations translate this in different ways. If you have an ESV, which is I think what is in the chair in front of you, it reads,

John the Baptist says, and I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God. If you have an

NIV, however, it reads, I have seen and testified that this is God's Chosen One. I actually believe that the

NIV reading is the correct reading in this case, and I believe this is a reference to Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1.

Let me read that passage for you. Here is my servant whom I uphold, my

Chosen One in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my Chosen One in whom I delight.

Jesus is the Chosen One, the fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah chapter 42.

And in the Old Testament, you know, we see in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit coming on people at certain times, usually in order to endow them with power for a certain kind of ministerial task.

But in the New Testament, we see the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus and remaining on Jesus.

And then Jesus in turn baptizes his followers with the Holy Spirit.

As I said before, these passages are just dripping with Old Testament significance.

And I want you to see that this prophecy that Jesus will baptize his followers with the

Holy Spirit is in a sense the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Listen to the words of Moses.

Moses said, I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his

Spirit upon them all. Numbers 11, 29. Moses said, I wish that all the

Lord's people were prophets. I wish that the Holy Spirit would be given to them all. And the essential heart's desire of Moses was fulfilled through Jesus in the

New Covenant era as God gives us the Holy Spirit of Jesus to indwell us.

So what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Well, a couple years later, three years later, in dramatic fashion in Acts chapters 2, we see the

Holy Spirit falling upon the disciples and they all begin to speak in tongues and they are empowered to fulfill the

Great Commission. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit not only finds historical fulfillment in Acts chapter 2, it finds fulfillment in our lives as well.

The Holy Spirit indwells all true Christians. Everybody who has made a decision for Jesus Christ and has placed their faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ receives the Holy Spirit. That is what is meant by the baptism of the

Holy Spirit. Romans 8, verse 9 says, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

Now there's mystery here, but honestly I can tell you, friends, one of my greatest desires in life is to understand and to experience more deeply, more profoundly, more transformingly, more dynamically the

Holy Spirit's work in my life. I want to experience the power and presence of the risen

Christ in my life. If I can just be selfish for a second, if you pray, if you ever pray anything for me, pray that.

I want to experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. I think we should all want that.

But there's another issue that I would like us to explore this morning. I want us to think about John's public declaration about Jesus.

John says, Now let's start by asking, what did

John the Baptist understand when he declared, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

Bible scholars like to debate about that question. See, not too long after this,

John the Baptist was arrested. You may know the story, John rebuked King Herod, a powerful political leader, for his adultery, and Herod took exception to that, arrested

John, and threw him in prison. And while John was in prison, he began to receive through his disciples just the echoes and whispers of news from the outside world, and so as he was sitting in Herod's dungeon,

John the Baptist began to realize that the Jewish leadership was not accepting

Jesus. They were not embracing him as Messiah. Instead, they were hardening in their resolve to murder

Jesus. And so John actually sent word to Jesus and said, are you the chosen one, or should we expect somebody else?

So this raises a question. If John announced that Jesus is the

Lamb of God here, then why later, after being arrested, why did he need to ask the question?

Shouldn't he have expected that Jesus would ultimately be betrayed and rejected? Shouldn't he have understood that Jesus would go to the cross?

And so as Jesus's road became clear to John the Baptist that Jesus's mission would ultimately end in tragedy, would end at his death,

John asked later, should we, Jesus, are you the chosen one, or should we expect somebody else?

So how do we understand this? Well again,

I think John, like most of the people, like really all of the people of his time, was expecting a

Messiah, but he was expecting a certain kind of Messiah. A Messiah who would come, who would sit upon the throne of David, who would crush the enemies of Israel, who would deliver the

Jewish people from bondage to the Roman soldiers that they hated so much. He would purify the nation, and he would reign and rule over all nations forever.

As John was in Herod's dungeon, he realized Jesus's road is not ending in his reign and rule over all nations, it's going to end in his death, because the

Sanhedrin is rejecting him. But as it happens, people often speak better than they know, don't they?

Remember, in John chapter 11, Caiaphas, the high priest, actually said to his colleagues, you do not realize it's better for you that one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should perish.

He didn't understand the full significance of what he was saying, he spoke better than he knew. And in the same way,

Peter spoke, he said about Jesus in John chapter 16, you are the Christ, the son of the living

God. And then immediately, what did he do? Jesus predicted his death, and Peter rebuked him.

Peter was speaking better than he knew. He didn't understand, he was true in what he was saying, but he didn't understand the full significance of what he was saying.

I honestly believe that John the Baptist perhaps had an inkling of what was coming, but I think he was honestly speaking better than he knew.

Now, John may not have understood, that's just my opinion, but John may not have understood the full ramifications of what he was announcing to the people, but the

Holy Spirit was speaking through John, and what did the Holy Spirit mean when he spoke through John, communicating that Jesus is the

Lamb of God? Well, remember Genesis 22, Abraham was commanded by God, take your son, your precious covenant son,

Isaac, up to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him. And God provided a ram in place of Isaac so that his son would be spared.

Jesus is the true and prophesied Lamb. Prior to the exodus from Egypt, the

Jews were commanded to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood on the doorposts, and so when the angel of death came, he passed over those houses to which the blood was applied.

Jesus is the Passover Lamb to which all those sacrifices in Egypt pointed.

Every day in the Jewish temple, in the morning and in the afternoon, the priests killed a lamb, they slaughtered a lamb, and Jesus is the

Lamb to whom all those sacrifices pointed. The prophet

Isaiah predicts this about Jesus, he says, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep before her shearers that is silent so he did not open his mouth.

Jesus is the Lamb that was taken to the slaughter. Not only is

Jesus the Lamb of God, but he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

His mission is not just narrowly defined here as taking away the sin of the Jewish people, is it? He is to take away the sin of the world.

What a remarkable statement to say at this time for John the Baptist, that Jesus would take away the sins, not only of the nation, but of the entire world.

Friends, Jesus accomplished something on the cross. He made payment for sin.

Don't be fooled by false teaching that says Jesus's death on the cross was just an example to us of sacrifice.

It was that, but it was so much more. He was accomplishing something on the cross. He was taking our sins upon himself and carrying them away.

He was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. 1 Peter chapter 2 says he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness for by his wounds you have been healed.

Jesus paid your debt and my debt before God and in Christ in corporate solidarity with our covenant head we now stand before the throne of God blameless, clean, pure, and holy.

What a magnificent thought that is, that we can approach God with confidence, blameless, reckoned righteousness by the finished work of Jesus because he is the

Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He is the Lamb of God that takes away our sin.

We do not need to bear it anymore in our consciences. We do not need to stand fearful before God.

Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away our sin and the sin of the whole world. Now, I want to pause saying that and just restate a truth that all of you know already.

When it says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, it means that Jesus died for all people without distinction but not for all people without exception.

Now, what do I mean by that? The benefits of Jesus's death are sufficient for all people but they are applied only to those who believe.

When John says, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, he doesn't mean that everybody is saved.

I met a student once on campus who came up to our table and he said to me,

I believe that everybody goes to heaven and I said, okay that's a lot of people believe that.

Why do you believe that? And he said, well the sacrifice of Jesus is so great that it will eventually take away all the sins of all the people ever.

Now, is that what the Bible teaches? No. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world but it is a taking away of sin that requires us to believe and appropriate that.

So, not without exception, we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgiveness is available to us but we must believe.

John 3 .36 emphasizes this point, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the

Son will not see life but the wrath of God remains on him. You must make a personal decision to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ and receive forgiveness of sins. Please don't, don't this morning be deceived by a false teaching that would misplace confidence that says, you know,

I'm a good person ultimately on the day of judgment.

I've lived a good life. I've tried to obey the ten commandments. Your resume is insufficient, friends.

There is no other Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

There is no other way for sin to be cleansed. I would like to conclude with a thought.

I don't know if this if this message has come up short here. Maybe we didn't look at the time here but I'd just like to conclude with a thought.

In the days of John the Baptist, the Messiah was soon to appear.

In preparation for his coming, the people were required to ready their hearts through humility, through repentance, through faith, through eager expectation.

And so today, Jesus is soon to appear. I believe that.

It's been almost 2 ,000 years since Jesus ascended into heaven and he promised to return in the same manner.

Jesus predicted that prior to his return, the gospel would be preached to all nations and it's being done today.

The signs are being fulfilled. I believe that Jesus is soon to appear. Jesus is soon to appear.

His kingdom is soon to come. The signs are being fulfilled. We too, just like the people in John's day prepared for Jesus's coming, so we too must be ready for Jesus's coming.

We must prepare our hearts in anticipation and humility and purity.

I want you to just think about a question this morning. Are you ready to meet the

Lord? Have you invested your talents for the sake of the kingdom?

Are you walking in holiness? Are we cherishing secret sin? Would you be ashamed to meet the

Lord if he came today? I'm just going to say to you what

John the Baptist said to the people of his day. Jesus is coming soon.

Among you stands one you do not know, the straps of whose sandals we are not even worthy to untie.

Our Lord is coming soon. Let the mountains of pride be made low.

Let rugged ground of sin may be made level. You will soon meet the

Lord Jesus. He is the judge. He's the king and we are not worthy to unfasten the straps of his sandals.

I'd just like to ask you friends, are you ready to meet the Lord? He is coming soon. That's the message of John the

Baptist and that's the message that I would like us to reflect on this morning.

So I'm going to go ahead and pray for us and then we will move on.

Lord Jesus, come quickly. We are eager to know you, to see you, and to experience you.

But as we wait for your coming, Jesus, we ask that you would ready our hearts. Give us obedient, humble hearts.

Lord Jesus, we are unworthy of you, but still you are so gracious. You love us, you welcome us, you have joy in us.

Oh Father, we praise you for the Son. We ask that you would give us very soberly and sincerely to prepare our hearts and to welcome our

King when he comes. Lord Jesus, we say honestly, come quickly. Amen.