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Read John 1:19-42 & John 3:22-35

Do you prefer a shower or a bath?

Do you enjoy your shower or bath?

Is there any serious purpose for your shower or bath or is it just for pleasure?

Enter John the Baptist.

[2] HE BY DEFINITION BAPTISED PEOPLE. Why were they baptised? Was it because it gave them a warm feeling of pleasure or was their a more serious purpose?

John the gospel writer does not speak much about the baptism but we know from  the other gospels that John baptised people because they wanted to express their repentance.

John was a herald calling for a massive motorway building program in the spiritual area of our lives. Preparing for the Messiah. He was popular in his day but today, we don’t like that sort of religion, do we? The one that sounds negative and talks about sin and righteousness and judgement. We don’t mind a Jesus who will feed the hungry and heal the sick but a Messiah who expects us to leave our dependence of the world and concentrate on following him, that is fanatical. The people of John’s day felt the same but it is what John proclaimed. Be washed by baptism to remove sin and start behaving like you are turning away from sin.

In this Gospel, John the Baptist’s message is portrayed as pointing out that Jesus is far superior as himself. The imagery of not worthy to loose his sandal strap is lost on us but John, who was an older cousin to Jesus, recognised that the coming Messiah was way out of his league.

 In fact he only has limited understanding of his own role. Jesus later points him out as the Elijah they were expecting. John is clear, though, that he is the herald. He claims a prophetic role which, given 300 years when there was no prophet, was amazing in itself. The reason the Pharisees ask the questions they do is to evaluate his claim. The key question is where do you fir into the scriptures? Not a bad place to start. They at this point were concerned about how the scriptures related to their lives. Only later when they became uncomfortable with the new kingdom did they shut their eyes to God’s word and became blind.

[3] John’s answer is to point to Isaiah 40.

READ Isaiah 40:1-11 is a turning point in Isaiah’s prophecy. Isaiah is about to introduce the Messiah and a new kingdom of righteousness. The voice, which is John the Baptist, is a call to prepare for God to arrive!  So John recognises that there is some else who is about to supersede him. John understands that the Messiah is significantly greater than he.

[5] In verses 29-34 we have a series of revelations about the Messiah. First Jesus is identified as the Messiah. How does John come to this conclusion? You might think he knew about the prophecies about Jesus’ birth and that put him on to it. But although they may have informed him the final proof was the appearance of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove on Jesus at his Baptism. The dove is not Jesus being made God, it is Jesus being identified as the Messiah, the anointed one of God. In Isaiah speak “Here is your God”

There is a strong resonance with creation in this event. The spirit of God is moving over the chaos , the Father speaks and the Big bang happens. In John 1: 3 Jesus is the creator because he was with the Father. Here in the new creation Jesus is the Word as the Holy Spirit moves.

But John knows more. He proclaims Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

What do you understand by that?

He was to be a sacrifice. He was to be a sacrifice for sin. He was to be a sacrifice for sin for the whole world. 

The first no-one understood. Messiah was a leader to take them from Roman rule into a new world. The idea of sacrifice did not really make sense.  But John knows about a different Messiah, the one prophesied but not understood. The Messiah of Isaiah 52-53 made no sense. But John knows prophetically that this is a key element of Jesus’ ministry.

He is a sacrifice for sin. That makes sense of John’s call for repentance.  It crashes straight into our modern thinking like a bull in a china shop. Sin, yes, sin. Jesus is declared not as a Badedas shower but an essential cleanser and cleaner of our lives.  If you abandon the idea of sin with all its ugliness, then Jesus is not an essential ingredient in your life. Jesus comes because sin has to be sorted. John the Baptist’s message is Repent! Sort out your sin, be aware of its consequences and turn away. Jesus has come to deal with sin not just gloss over it. His followers are ever to be senstitive to sin. On Thursday we spoke of the struggle with sin. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world not just mop up the mess we make. He wants us to have real joy and peace that comes from a relationship with himself. That begins at the cross where he is the sin bearer but it goes on to the resurrection where he is the life. Never ever think that sin is not serious. We to often make light of it but God does not. Our salvation is  God creating his perfect life in our lives and every time we sin we deny his power to complete the work he has begun. 

Thirdly, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world. This is a universal gospel not just a Jewish one. It took the disciples some time to get their heads round it but by the driving of the Holy Spirit over their prejuces they soon were tramping the Roman roads, spreading this good news to the far reaches of the Roman Roads, even by Ad 300 to a strange barbaric people on a cold, inhospitable island called Britain. In a later period of history, the Holy Spirit drove men and woman out through the sea lanes of another empire to spread the gospel to the known world, Tha happened in the 19^th Century. In the 20^th Century the church grasped that this message was for everyman and sought out isolated peoples to share the good news. Today, the church in Asia is spawning a great missionary wave. Some looking to bring the gospel to these shores as rightly they are seeing the western democracies as decadent, godless and in need of evangelisation.  Jesus is the Saviour of all the world.

[6] Sees Jesus’ ministry of baptising with the Holy Spirit.

This touches a t the heart of John’s Gospel. The transformation is spiritual, expressed in the physical. John and Jesus’ disciples baptised by immersing in water, a symbol of rebirth. Jesus, John the Baptist declares, does it for real. He baptises in the Holy Spirit. So the question this morning to you is “Are you baptised in the Holy Spirit or was your baptism only by water? John will develop this concept further in ch 3:1-21 by describing it as ‘new birth’. Whatever words we use the underlying event is the same. Has God completely transformed your life or are you still unwashed, unprepared and subject to God’s wrath? The solution is not baptism by water, it is baptism by the Spirit.

Clearly I do not believe that baptism in the Holy Spirit is separate from being born again or being saved. Sometimes Christians describe a special experience of the Holy Spirit as being baptised or being filled with the Holy Spirit. But the special experience, while being desired, and even sought after is not what John is speaking of here. He is speaking of the experience each one of us has when we invite the triune God to enter our lives and take control.

The expression Holy Spirit needs explanation. It means God’s breath. In the Old testament there is a brilliant vision that explains it called the valley of dry bones. You can read about it in Ezekial 37:1-14 page 868 in your Bibles. In it dry bones become a living army because of two things. First a prophetic word, Second and most important, the prophet is told to command the wind to give the bodies breath.

In spiritual terms we cannot live unless we have the breath of God in our spirits just as we cannot physically live unless we breath. We cannot live the Christian life unless we are baptised in the Spirit because unless we are fully immersed in the life giving atmosphere of the Holy Spirit we are going to grasp for every breath. Sadly, maybe because we are not willing to be fully immersed in God, too many of us are sipping rather than filling our lungs with the breath of God. As a result we are barely recognisably more alive than the rest of the population. The Holy Spirit should made such a difference to us that the world will know he is in us even if they refuse to believe in him.

[7] Thirdly John recognises that Jesus is the Son of God.  In ch3:22-36 we get the idea what this means. Jesus is uniquely ‘come from heaven’ He is the long awaited Messiah, He is the great one. John’s mission is complete, now Jesus is to be the one to follow and he is worthy of worship.

In verse 34 we hear the affirmation that Jesus speaks the words of God and Jesus has the Spirit without limit. In fact the Greek words could mean Jesus gives the Spirit without limit. This is the revolution in revelation. Until now God has given his spirit to particular people at particular times. Now Jesus has and gives the Spirit without measure. Father and Son are seen here as God gives the Son – a human being everything in his hands. From now on it is your response to Jesus by which you will be judged. He is the Son of God.

[8] To summarise the message of John as written in John!

·        Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world.

·        Jesus will baptise with the Holy Spirit

·        Jesus is the Son of God.

·        John is the prophet that heralds the new order.

·        John is a servant, Jesus is everything. John points to Jesus that is his mission. Its yours as well.

·        If you want to know more, read up on John the Baptist using the guide you have been given.

·        If you want to know more of the work of the Spirit, spend time in prayer, reading your Bible and seeking God’s face.