John the Baptist’s Message
John 1: 6-8, 15
John the Baptist was the first prophet to appear in Israel for 400 years and was considered by Jesus to be the greatest man who had ever lived, up to that time
Matthew 11: 11 ‘I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist’.
John the Baptist was a great man because he surrendered himself to the will of God and exalted Jesus Christ
John 3: 30 ‘He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less’
John the Baptist was sent by God to testify about the light, the eternal ‘Word’ Who was coming into the World; that is of course, Jesus Christ
John the Baptist’s testimony was powerful, thousands of people came to hear him, from all over Israel
Isaiah 40: 1-5, Malachi 3: 1, John 1: 26-28, Matthew 3: 5-6
Some of John the Baptist’s followers went on to become Jesus disciples, including ‘the disciple Jesus loved’ – John, the author of this Gospel
John 1: 35-37 (this the author of this Gospel’s first anonymous reference to himself)
The coming of the eternal ‘Word’ into the World
John 1: 9-14
Do you remember last time I was saying that words are important because they reveal and explain truth?
9 the word, ‘world’, is a very important word in the Gospel of John
John uses the word, ‘world’ 99 times throughout his 5 Books of the New Testament
The word ‘world’ has more than just one meaning, it has many meanings
Here in verse 9 it means the world we live in
Here in verse 9 it says, the eternal ‘Word’ was coming into the world giving light to everyone
That doesn’t that mean that everyone in the World will be saved
John goes on to say in verse 10 that although Jesus came into the world He created (our blue planet), the ‘world’ didn’t recognize Him
Here in verse 10, the word, ‘world’, means, the world of unbelieving people
John 7: 7 ‘The world (the world of unbelieving people) can’t hate you, but it does hate Me because I accuse it of doing evil’.
John 17: 9 ‘My prayer is not for the world (the world of unbelieving people), but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You’.
11 John goes on to say that even His own people, the Jews, the people of Israel, rejected Him
John 5: 39-40
12-13 However. To those who did believe in Jesus and accepted Him, God would give them the right to become children of God
Children who are ‘reborn’ according to the will of God
13 (NKJV) ‘who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of (the will of) God’
Ephesians 2:8-9 8 ‘God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it’.
14 At last the identity of the eternal ‘Word’ is revealed to us
Look again at the last phrase ‘and we have seen His glory’
The eternal ‘Word’, the Creator, entered time and Creation, becoming visible, in human form, to reveal God to Man (Mankind)
Philippians 2: 7, Colossians 2: 9,
Colossians 1: 15 ‘Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation’
Dear friends, in conclusion, believing that Jesus Christ is God, is essential to our salvation
Jesus said John 8: 24 ‘unless you believe that I am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins.’
So, Who did Jesus claim to be?
The Jewish people, who generally rejected Christ, knew exactly Who Jesus claimed to be, and that’s why they attempted to kill Him
John 5: 18, John 8: 56-59, John 10: 31-33
Are you saved? Do believe that Jesus is God? – Let’s pray together
revdotdavid 