Can I Get A Witness?

During the weeks leading up to Christmas, we are spending our time together at the church where I serve in a sermon series entitled light. During this series, we are looking at an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. Last week, we talked about the reality that as we move closer to Christmas, we can often find ourselves in a place where we are wrestling with a growing darkness of stress, frustration, and anxiety that can threaten to surround us and overwhelm us as we attempt to hit the fast forward button toward Christmas.

However, this idea of wrestling with darkness is nothing new. Throughout history, humanity has wrestled with darkness and dark times. We discovered that during the first century, darkness seemed to be expanding across much of the known world as the Roman Empire ruled over most of the world, including Israel. Politically, socially, economically, and culturally, the culture of the first century seemed to be covered by a darkening cloud of stress, frustration, and anxiety as the Roman Empire ushered in a time of higher taxes and oppression. And it was into this time of growing darkness that something happened in history. Something happened in history that literally split history in two.

 We then looked at the opening verses of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John and discovered the timeless truth that Jesus Christ is the eternal expression of God that is the source of life and light for humanity. We discovered that as the Word, Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate disclosure of Himself. Jesus Christ, as the second member of the Trinity, is the eternal Divine Being who has always existed in a close, personal relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

As the Word, Jesus Christ is the hands of creation through whom all creation came into existence. And as the Word, Jesus Christ is the source of life and a light for all of humanity. While the evil and destructive power of selfishness and rebellion attempted to overcome and defeat the light, as the Word, Jesus Christ has prevailed over selfishness, sin, rebellion, and death.

We ended last week by asking a natural question that arises as a result of what we talked about , which is “Well Dave, how do we know that Jesus has overcome, because the world still seems to be a dark place? How do we know that Jesus is the eternal expression of God that is the source of life and light for humanity?

So this week I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we jump back into the opening sections of the gospel of John, we see John provide the evidence to back his claims regarding Jesus by introducing us to another person who played an important role in God’s story. So let’s meet this person together, beginning in John 1:6:

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

John brings us into this section of his account of Jesus life by introducing us to a man named John. When John states that John was a man sent from God, he is revealing for us the reality that John was sent by God with a mission that was designed to accomplish a specific objective. And that mission and that objective was that John would be a witness that would testify about the Light.

As we discovered last week, the Light here refers to Jesus Christ, who is God’s ultimate disclosure of Himself. Jesus Christ, who John also referred to as the Word, is the source of life and a light for all of humanity. And as the Light, Jesus produces light into the darkness to occupy that darkness. John’s mission was to act as a witness who confirms or attests to the truth of Jesus being the Light on the basis of his personal knowledge and belief. You see a witness does more than confirm and establish truth. A witness makes a commitment to the truth.

And by confirming and establishing the truth of Jesus as the Light, John would be the vehicle by which all men might believe in Jesus as the Light. Now this word believe, in the language that this letter was originally written in, means to entrust oneself with complete confidence to someone or something. John was to proclaim Jesus as the Light so that all may come to place their trust in Jesus through his message.

And to make sure that no one became confused, John explains that this messenger from God named John was not to be confused with the Light. This messenger named John was not the Light. Instead this messenger named John was to point people to the Light.

Now you might be wondering “Wait a minute Dave. Who is this John? Are you referring to the man named John who is the one who wrote this letter? Are you referring to the John who was the person who had the closest relationship with Jesus while He was on earth? Are you referring to John who was Jesus best friend? Who is this John? I’m confused.”

The person that John is referring to here is not himself. Instead the person who John is referring to here is another man who was named John the Baptist. John the Baptist was Jesus cousin. And in another account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew, we see Matthew, describe John the Baptist to us. Now John the Baptist was called John the Baptist not because he was a Baptist instead of a Methodist or a Presbyterian; he was called a Baptist because of what he did. John wasn’t a Baptist, he was a baptizer.

Matthew describes John as a rough and tough dude. John lived out in the wilderness and wore an outfit made of camel’s hair with a belt that probably had one of those huge belt buckles on it. He lived off the land, eating locusts and honey. Now, can you imagine what John looked like? This was probably a pretty intimidating guy.

Now another question that arises here is “Well Dave, what exactly was the testimony that John the Baptizer gave when it came to Jesus as the Light? What proof did John the Baptizer provide that confirmed and established that Jesus was God’s ultimate disclosure of Himself. What proof did John the Baptizer provide that confirmed and established Jesus Christ, as the second member of the Trinity, as the eternal Divine Being who has always existed in a close, personal relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. What proof did John the Baptizer provide that confirmed and established Jesus Christ as the source of life and a light for all of humanity?”

If you those questions are running through your mind, I want to let you know that those are great questions to be asking. And fortunately for us, just a few verses later in John 1:19, we see John record the testimony of John the Baptizer when it came to who Jesus was as the Light.

Tomorrow, we will look at the testimony of John the Baptizer…