6. Making Sense (1:19-28)
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Jeremy: [00:00:00] Let's play a little game. I'm going to say a statement that is either true or false, and you are going to decide which it is. Now, if you're watching this video with other people, I want to encourage you, just shout it out. Whatever the first thing that comes to your mind is, and let's see if you can figure this out.
Here's the statement. Humans have five senses, true or false.
Now the answer is actually, False. This idea goes back to Aristotle who wrote about five senses, but scientists today think that we have as many as 22 to 33 different senses. They may be going, what on earth are these senses? I have never heard of them. There are things like kinesthesia, which is the sense of movement or thermoception, which is a sense of heat or equilibrium section, which is a sense of balance.
There's all sorts of ways that we perceive the [00:01:00] world around us. Now even with all of these senses, all 22 to 33 of these. we still struggle to make sense of things. We still struggle to figure things out. Now today we're going to revisit John the Baptist. We've already seen him in chapter one, but what we're going to see in the verses today is that even the people who are around John the Baptist couldn't make sense of who he was.
He was such a unique person that they could not figure out what was going on with him. And this is something that you see throughout his ministry. that people often misunderstood or didn't have a box to put him in. And that led to some, uh, reactions that they had to this person. Now we're going to begin reading in John chapter one verses 19 through 23.
It says this, this was John's testimony. When the Jewish leaders sent priests and temple assistants, from Jerusalem to ask John, who are [00:02:00] you? I'm trying to figure it out. He came right out and said, I am not the Messiah. Well, then who are you? They asked, are you Elijah? No. He replied. Are you the prophet we were expecting?
No. Then who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself? And John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah, I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the Lord's coming. It's such an interesting exchange here. Now I want you to think about how much significance John has at this point.
He is being asked whether he's the Messiah and he's being asked whether he is a great biblical prophet. I mean, either one of those would make you obviously famous. And these are the kind of things people are assuming about him. You must be the Messiah or you must be a great [00:03:00] prophet. We love whenever our efforts put us in the spotlight.
And I can only imagine John's got to have a little bit of ego inside of him. That had to have felt nice to think, wow, that's how significant my ministry has become. This is what people want. Are wondering, but John doesn't spend any time entertaining that ego. He has a really succinct answer and he goes back to the old Testament.
Now he's quoting Isaiah. The passage comes from Isaiah 40 verses three through five, which say this, a voice of one calling in, in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness, 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 mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. [00:04:00] That's a pretty good answer to their question. John's like, no, no, no, I'm not the Messiah. I'm not Elijah the prophet. This is who I am. I am. I'm getting things ready. For God to reveal what God is up to. Now let's keep reading in verse 24 and we see their reaction to this great answer.
Then the Pharisees who had been sent asked him, well, if you aren't the Messiah or Elijah, the prophet, what right do you have to baptize? Like if you're not these people, then what are you doing? John told them I baptized with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognize. Though his ministry follows mine, I'm not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandal.
This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing. Notice how quickly they shift on him. They go from, you must be the Messiah. You must be the prophet [00:05:00] Elijah or some famous prophet. And when John says, no, I'm not, they quickly turned to go, well then what right do you have?
To be baptizing people the way that you are. What right do you have to be stirring all these people up? They could not figure out what to make of John the Baptist. So let me give you two takeaways today as we look at the life of John the Baptist that you and I can learn from and we can apply to our faith today.
Number one, John the Baptist is a great way to think of the Bible. You see, the mission of John was to point us to the true light, which is Jesus. And I would suggest this is how we should understand scripture. It's designed to point you to Jesus. I love how Brian Zan says it. He says, the Bible is a 1200 page book that doesn't introduce the main protagonist.
Until page 939, like what kind of a book waits that [00:06:00] long to introduce fully the main character Of the story now we've already seen in john chapter one that jesus was around at creation We've explored how john is tying that in but we don't fully meet jesus until the incarnation until jesus becomes One of us and just like we don't stop with john the baptist.
We don't just focus on him We don't stop with the bible now a lot of christians get this confused and they think oh This is the word of god. This is All we need. No, no. This is just like John pointing you to the person of Jesus. You shouldn't get stopped on John the Baptist and you shouldn't get stopped on the Bible.
Keep going to where both of these are pointing you to. And that is the person of Jesus. The second thing I would say is that John the Baptist is a great way to think about our role today. Now, as you and I, as we are trying to follow [00:07:00] Jesus, John the Baptist is a great model for us to say, Hey, this is what it should look like to point people to Jesus.
Now let me just say this, that just because you call yourself a Christian doesn't mean that you're actually pointing people to Jesus. In fact, I would say never has it been more true in my lifetime that I have seen that people who claim to follow Jesus who are not actually pointing people to Jesus. In fact, when the rise of Christian nationalism in our country right now, there are more and more people who are using Jesus sounding verbiage and things that look Christian from afar and sound Christian from afar, but they're not actually pointing to Jesus.
In fact, a lot of them are pointing to power, pointing to this need we have for influence. And control and security and for us to make sure we are taken care of [00:08:00] And you look at a lot of christianity today a lot of things that get said in the name of jesus We should just stop and ask the question. What are you actually?
Pointing to is it actually pointing to something that looks like jesus? Or is it not in fact, I would say much of the theology That we even preach that evangelicalism has come to accept in america Doesn't point you to jesus when you start to unpack. Well, what would that mean about god if this were true?
And a lot of this comes because we don't know how to do what john the baptist does here We don't know how to remove ourselves from the focus. We, we like that ego hit. We like when we have the influence and we have the control and we have the power as the church to make things the way we think they should be done.
And it, John is modeling a radically different way to do it. John deflects all of that and says, not about me. I am preparing something so that you can see [00:09:00] Jesus. And this is an example that more Christians. would do well to model today. Christine Caine says it like this. You will never really know whether you are in it for you or for the cause until you are overlooked.
It's time for us to spend less of our energy asking how it will affect us and more time figuring out, are we pointing people to good news? Are we pointing people to Jesus? Because that ultimately will be good for them. I hope you will join us on the next week of rebuilding faith. See you soon.
