In 1968 the American Artist Andy Warhol made
a comment that is often repeated in the YouTube age in which we live. He
said, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” He was
commenting on the fleeting nature of fame – it only lasts for 15 minutes –
and our culture’s habit of moving from one fad to another within a short
time.
But in our generation that quote is repeated over and
over again, and it is taken to mean that everyone will be famous, and should
be famous for at least a short time. We live in a time when chasing fame
has almost turned into a frenzy, thanks to such innovations as reality TV,
webcams, phone cams and YouTube.
Pew Research Center in Washington D.C. asked the next
generation ages 18-25 what they believed was their most important, and their
second most important life goal – 51% said it was to become famous.
I don’t tell you that to slam the present generation –
in a sense we can’t blame them since they are one of the first generations
who have had a camera in their face the entire time they’ve been growing
up. We have every birthday, Christmas and first day of school recorded,
thanks to Sony. Is it any wonder that they are called the “look at me”
generation?
But in another sense they are giving expression
perhaps to a greater degree, of a desire which we all long for, and that is
recognition. None of us likes being ignored. If you do a task at work you
like to be recognized. If you clean the kitchen at home you like to be
recognized. Not many of us are so selfless that we don’t like to be
recognized. When I got my degree a couple of years ago, I knew the
graduation ceremony would be long. I knew it would be held in a hot
auditorium. I knew that I would be processed like cattle on the way to
market with hundreds of other students. But there was no way you could keep
me from that one minute walk across the stage to shake my professor’s hand
and receive my diploma. Why? Because I wanted the recognition – even for a
brief moment for all the work I had done … “Look at me.” We all want to be
recognized. No one likes to be invisible.
And all of this which is so much a part of our culture
makes it difficult to understand John the Baptist. I mean, a quick read
through the gospels tells us that he is a peculiar fellow. You may know
that he’s a bit different from what we are used to. We know from Luke’s
gospel that he is a “P.K.” a Priest’s Kid. His parents are Elizabeth and
Zechariah, he is a cousin of Jesus. We know from Matthew’s gospel that he
lived in the desert and preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
near.” (Matthew 3:1-2)
We know from Mark and Matthew’s gospel that he wore
clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he
ate locusts and wild honey. (Mark 1:6). He is the original Survivor Man!
He is called John the Baptist – that’s not his last
name. He is not the son of Zechariah Baptist. No, he was probably called
John the Baptizer – it refers to the fact that he baptized people – as a
sign of their desire to turn from their old way of living and begin living
for God. (See Matthew 3:11)
But I would suggest that’s not what makes him strange.
That’s not what makes him so different from many of us. I think the fact
that makes him strange is that he doesn’t want any recognition. He never
says, “Hey, look at me.” He doesn’t want any fame. Not 15 minutes,
nothing. In fact he deflects all attention away from himself. Why is that?
Look at our text. One day John is out in the
wilderness, preaching and doing his baptism thing – and the whole baptism
thing wasn’t too strange. The Jewish faith did practice baptism but only
for those who weren’t Jewish. If you weren’t Jewish and wanted to join the
Jewish faith you needed to be baptized. Jewish people didn’t need to be
baptized. Why should they? They were “in” with God. Only those who were
outside the faith and therefore unclean needed to be baptized.
But John the Baptist is baptizing everyone. Non-Jewish
and Jewish – everyone need to be spiritually cleansed to follow God and
prepare for the coming of the Messiah.
So, the religious leaders of the day have to check this
out. They are after all responsible for the spiritual welfare of the people
and they want to know what this fellow is up to. They want to know who John
is, “Who do you think you are, baptizing everyone?”
And so he tells them in verse 20 – he “confesses
freely” there is no hesitation, “I am not the Christ, I’m not the one
promised by God.”
“Oh,” the religious leaders say, “well then, are you
Elijah?”
Now it was believed, according to Old Testament
prophecy, that the prophet Elijah from the Old Testament would mysteriously
come back to earth before the Messiah came. He was mysteriously taken to
heaven – we read in 2 Kings 2 that he was carried up to heaven in a
whirlwind, accompanied by a chariot of fire and horses of fire. He would
mysteriously come back again and had to come before the Messiah could
come.
So God speaks through the Old Testament prophet of
Malachi and says at 4:5, “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before
that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.”
This is what was believed and they ask, “Are you
Elijah the one who heralds the coming of the Messiah?”
And John says, “No I am not Elijah.”
Jesus, when speaking about John the Baptist in Matthew
11, will say that John is “the Elijah who is to come.” (Matthew
11:14). Does that contradict what John says here? I don’t think so. I
think John is being consistent with who he believes himself to be and we’ll
see that in a moment – he doesn’t take any place of recognition on himself.
And I think Jesus is saying that John the Baptist is actually fulfilling the
role Elijah – he is the one promised by God.
John says, “no I am not Elijah.”
So then they ask John, “Are you the prophet?”
And this question comes from the Jewish belief that before the Messiah came
a prophet, like Moses would come. So we read in Deuteronomy 18:18, “I
will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will
put my words in his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him.”
“So, are you him?” And John says, “No.”
Well, say the religious leaders, “Who are you?” And
John says at verse 23, “I am the voice.”
Just a voice. He’s not anyone special, he’s just the
voice. He doesn’t even use his own words, he quotes the prophet Isaiah, “Make
straight the way for the Lord.”
What does that mean? It means, “Prepare the way for
the Lord. Get ready, prepare yourself because the Lord, the Messiah is
coming.”
It’s interesting that John will not claim to be Elijah
or the prophet who were to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, but he is the
voice who proclaims the coming of the Messiah – he fulfills the role.
So he says, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”
On Tuesday of this week, you may have heard, that there
will be a huge party in the United States as they celebrate the inauguration
of Barak Obama. And you can bet during the last number of months, weeks,
days and even as we speak, all of Washington has been preparing for his
arrival. Potholes in the road are being filled. Bare dirt gullies are
being sprayed with that fake grass. Graffiti is being scrubbed off of
bridges and walls. Why? Because someone important is coming and we don’t
want him to have to look at any dirt. We don’t want him to have to look at
any mess. We don’t want him to have to experience any pothole, any dip in
the road. All must be perfect because the president is coming, prepare the
way!
Well this is what John is saying someone important is
coming and he is preparing the way. Make crooked ways straight – the Lord
is coming. John is simply a voice announcing his arrival.
And I wonder if we had a chance to ask John,“Well, are
you satisfied with just being a voice? Don’t you want your 15 minutes of
fame? How can you stand just being a voice, faceless, nameless, pointing us
away from yourself? How can you do that?”
And I think John would reply, “Well do you know who’s
coming after me?”
And if we were the religious leaders of the day we
would say, “No”.
And John says at verse 27 – well there is one who comes
after me. He is so great, he is so awesome that I am not even worthy to
untie the laces of his sandals, which was a job that reserved for servants
actually. And John the Baptist is saying that “I am not even worthy to be
his slave. I am lower than a slave compared to the one who comes after me.”
And we say, “O, come on.”
And John says, “No really, he is that mighty, he is
that awesome. He is not just a man. Look, there he is.” He says at verse
29 – “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Now there are some scholars who believe that John could
never have said such a thing. This whole idea of a lamb who dies for us and
in our place and takes our sin is a Christian concept, not a Jewish
concept. They say that the apostle John living in a Christian environment
is putting those words in the mouth of John the Baptist.
You know what I think? I think John the Baptist
actually said these words and the apostle John is simply reporting this
amazing truth. I believe that the apostle John would say to everyone – “Do
you know what John the Baptist said about Jesus even before the cross? Even
before we understood this whole idea that Jesus took our sin and died in our
place? He pointed at Jesus and said, ‘Look, the lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world.’ Isn’t that amazing?”
I doubt that John the Baptist fully understood what he
was saying. Kind of like Peter who says to Jesus when he is asked, “Who do
you say that I am?” And says, “You are the Christ.” A marvellous
confession. But he didn’t understand what that meant – because he takes
Jesus to task for talking about dying and rising three days later. And
Jesus has to rebuke him.
I mean who of fully understands and grasps all that
Jesus is – but we still use concepts and images in an effort to articulate
our belief and understanding as full and complete as it is in Christ – yet
if we are honest beyond our ability to grasp fully.
And so John the Baptist says, “Look, the lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.”
Now let me explain that picture from this side of the
cross. We believe that sin is rebellion against God. It is turning our
back on God and refusing to live the way He wants us to live. That’s sin.
And because sin means turning our back on God and refusing Him, it means we
refuse everything about God – His rule, His authority and His life.
So, Scripture teaches us that wages of sin, the result
of sin is death – after all, we are turning away from the one who is life.
So the only way for sin be dealt with is for death to
occur. We don’t sin anymore when we die, do we? The Jewish people had a
system –a system given to them by God – to look after sin. They could offer
an animal, a goat, a ram to take away their sin. They could transfer their
sin onto the animal and the animal would die in their place and they would
be cleansed.
But these sacrifices needed to be repeated over and
over. What was needed was a person to die on our behalf. After all, it was
people not animals who turned their back on God. So we needed a person to
act as a sacrifice for us, like a lamb upon whom we could place our sin.
But it can’t be any old person – it has to be a perfect
person, He can’t have any sin of his own – if he is going to take our sin.
He can’t have any of his sin that needs to be dealt with - he has to be
perfect, sinless.
John the Baptist identifies Jesus as being that
person. He’s the one who dies for us and instead of us.
Do you see Jesus that way? The Lamb of God who takes
your sin? Who is your substitute in death – who dies our death so that we
can know life? Do you see Jesus that way?
Wouldn’t you do anything for someone like that? If
someone saved your life, wouldn’t you devote yourself to them? Wouldn’t you
be so grateful, so thankful, so appreciative that you would do anything for
that person? You would say, “I owe them my very life.”
Did you hear about the miracle on the Hudson this week?
A US Airways plane splashed landed on the Hudson River after hitting a
flock of Canadian geese. Captain Sullenberger (or Sully as his friends call
him) is credited with bringing that plane down safely without anyone killed.
All 155 passengers say that if it wasn’t for the pilot
we would be dead. They owe him their lives.
Do you see Jesus that way? Do you see Him as the one
you owe your very life to? He is the one who is the Lamb of God who died
for you and for me and without His sacrifice on the cross we would be dead.
Dead now and dead forever – forever without God. Forever dead.
For those of us who have grown up in the church I think
we need to pray, “O Lord, save me from taking Jesus’ sacrifice for me
lightly. Give me eyes to see Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world.”
And I wonder if our failure to see Jesus this way has
led the church in North America as being so lukewarm. So hesitant to truly
give our whole lives to Him. We don’t see that He is the one who gave His
all, His life blood so that we might have life.
I know it’s possible to see Jesus this way here on
earth, but I also wonder if the full vision of it won’t strike us till we
get to heaven. I don’t want to offer that as an excuse for us not seeing
Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I mean, John
the Baptist saw Jesus that way and he only had a partial vision. We on this
side of the cross – we’ve been given a full revelation and have no excuse.
We have no excuse for seeing Jesus as the one who takes away our sin by
dying on the cross for us.
But there is a reality that when we get to heaven and
look at the beauty and the wonder and the awesomeness of heaven we will say
to Jesus, “You left heaven for me?” Then we’ll gaze at Jesus and we will
say, “ You are so awesome, You are so wonderful, all majesty and strength
belong to You – You are so holy – You died for me?” And the wonder of the
Lamb of God will fill us.
Indeed when we read the book of Revelation which gives
us a peek into heaven itself, we are told that this is what is happening in
heaven right now. Did you know the Messiah is referred to as a Lamb 28 times
in the book of Revelation?
And listen to the exalted place the lamb of God has in
the hallways of heaven. Revelation 5:11-13 - “Then I looked and heard
the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten
thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living
creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power
and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.”
Revelation 7:9-10 “After this I looked and there
before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the
Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their
hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Revelation 21:22 “I did not see a temple in the
city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are it’s temple. The city
does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives
it light and the Lamb is its lamp.”
Listen, I really think that we need to raise our
concept of who Jesus is. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world and as a result has all of heaven singing, “Holy, holy, holy…”
And we are a generation who says, “Look at me”. But
when we see the Lamb of God it is, “Look at the lamb of God – the One who
loved me, and died for me. I am nothing compared to Him. I am not worth
looking at – I’m not even worthy to untie the laces of His sandals.”
But this isn’t the full picture that we have in this
text. John the Baptist in verse 32 says Jesus is the one authenticated by
God. He is the one on whom the Spirit has come down from heaven and
remained.
That’s important. The Holy Spirit had come in the past
and enabled His people to do the work of God but with Jesus the Holy Spirit
came and remained. That is, He is the one in whom the Spirit finds a true
home.
Now at verse 31 John says something strange. He says, “I
myself did not know him.” Now we know that John did indeed know Jesus
because He was His cousin. We learn that in the gospel of Luke. He is not
saying that he wasn’t acquainted with Jesus – he’s saying he didn’t know in
his heart, in his soul, it had not been revealed to him that Jesus was the
one … UNTIL the Spirit came upon Jesus.
The Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus means that Jesus is
the one authorized by God. He has God’s seal of approval.
My brother Mark sells annuals through Home Hardware
called, “Mark’s Choice” and he markets them as being “proven winners.”
Truly you don’t want to plant any other kind of annual because they have not
be personally chosen by the great garden master, Mark Cullen.
Well the Holy Spirit coming and remaining upon Jesus
demonstrates that he is approved of God. He is the one who has authority.
He is the one affirmed by God, supported by God, here
is the one!
And we think of all things, all the people in the world
we could follow – why would you follow or give your life to anything that
is not of God? Why would you give your life to some philosophy or person or
idea that is not approved by the one who created you, knows you, loves you,
cares for you. Jesus is that one – give your life to Him. This is what
John says, “He’s the one.”
John continues to point away from himself and to Jesus
Christ and says in verse 34, “He is the very Son of God” Himself.
And as we learned last week this is tantamount to saying, “this man is God.”
Is this the Jesus you’ve discovered? Is that the
Jesus? Sacrificial? Authoritative? Majestic? God in the flesh?
That’s the secret you know, as long as we have this low
view of Jesus you and I will always be greater in your own eyes than we
should be.
We’ll often believe in a Ptolemy gospel. Do you know
who Ptolemy was? He believed that the center of the universe was earth.
Sun and moon all revolved around it. But then Copernicus came along and
said, “No, no, no. It’s the other way around. It’s the earth that flies
around the sun.” Oh, that we would have such a high view of our Lord that
we would realize that He is to be the center of our universe, not the other
way round. We are not even worthy to untie the laces of His sandals.
Oh, you say, this is poor psychology. I don’t’ think
so. Because I’ve seen in my own life - the effects of this Ptolomy gospel.
Where it is always “look at me.” It’s a prayer life that says, “Lord, do
this, Lord do that, do this, do this.” It’s a life of service that says,
“I’ll do this and this and this, but not that or that or that. And I’ll
only do this and this and this if you do this and this and this.”
When I was young we had a cleaning lady who came once a
month and cleaned the house. And I can tell you mom would have fired her on
the spot, if she said, “You’re lucky I’m here today. I’ve had a busy week.
While’ I’m here I’m going to lay down and watch my favorite program. I’d
like tea at 10 and lunch at 12 and while my car is in the drive could you
please wash it?”
Is that the way we treat our Lord? He’s the lamb of
God – He is the one on whom the Spirit rests. He is the Son of God All
love, worship and devotion, obedience belong to Him. We don’t deserve
recognition – it’s not about us – it’s about Him.
All this has significant implications for evangelism.
Do you find it hard to tell others about Jesus? Every time you want to
share your faith, your hands grow sweaty, your mouth dries up. It may be
that we are so concerned about what people think of us that we fail to open
our mouths.
But when we have this high view of Jesus, the Lamb of
God , approved by God, God in the flesh. Then we don’t really care what
others think because all we want is for them to see Jesus.
It’s bad psychology – perhaps – I’ll admit that we all
need to be recognized. We all need recognition. It’s part of our DNA. But
do you know what happens when we point to Jesus, when we give our lives away
to Him, in service, in worship, in obedience? He recognizes us. The Lamb
of God, the one on whom the spirit rests, the Son of God – bestows honour on
us. He commends us. He takes delight in us.
He says this about John the Baptist, the one who said
that he was not worthy to untie His laces, “I tell you the truth: Among
those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the
Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
(Matthew 11:11)
We live in an age where everyone wants to be famous
everyone wants to be recognized, but when we discover Jesus, when we have
such a vision of Him all that fades for He is the Lamb of God – before whom
we must bow; upon whom the spirit rests – authorized by God; the Son of God
– possessing maximum authority.
For this is the one who is high above us and who is
worthy of our life, our soul, our all.
Copyright MBC and Rev. Dr. Tom Cullen -
January 2009
