John 1:6-8
If you’ll remember, after one of our Presidential elections, tensions were high and we were all waiting for the results from the electoral commission. The then electoral commissioner, Afari Djan, held a press conference, and made this famous statement: “The name of the game is evidence”. We were all expecting a long talk from him and then declare the results for the elections. But no, with those few words, he closed the press conference, stamped his authority as an electoral commissioner and diffused the tension the whole nation was sitting on. If you watched that press conference, it was one of admirable courage.
Now you and I know the place evidence plays in our lives. If you make a payment, you keep a receipt for evidence. If you take a case to court, your lawyers tender in evidence which sometimes includes witnesses—people who testify of facts they know. And your case is as good as your evidence.
This morning, I want us to consider a title A Trustworthy Witness. The word witness basically means to give evidence or testimony about something. So simply, a trustworthy witness is an evidence or testimony that can be trusted. And in this sermon we will focus on John The Baptist as a witness that can be trusted. If you look at the whole chapter or prologue, it is like the apostle John piecing together his evidence to prove the person of Jesus. He opens his gospel by telling us about the Identity of Jesus. And last week we looked at the verses 1-5 and addressed who Jesus is. We learnt of Jesus’ Pre-existence, in that he existed before time began (1:1a). We also learnt that Jesus is the Second person of the Trinity (1:1b). The text tells us clearly, the Word, which we identified as Jesus was with “someone”. Then from the last phrase of the verse, we concluded Jesus is God—the Word was God. We also saw that he is the life and light of the world. And finally he is the God man (v.14).
Immediately John finished with the identity of Jesus, at least partly, he introduced another person—John the Baptist. As you read further the chapter, you will notice this switching between Jesus and John the Baptist going on.
vv.1-5 is about Jesus
vv.6-8 is about John
vv.9-18 is about Jesus
vv.19-34 is about John The Baptist
vv. 35-51 closes with Jesus
If you look closely at what is going on here, the reason John the apostle introduces John the Baptist is because he presents John as a witness to who Jesus is. He tells us John the Baptist was sent by God as a witness to the light. When John therefore introduces John the Baptist into his prologue, it was as if he himself is presenting John the Baptist as a witness to give evidence about who Jesus. Examine the chapter closely and you will notice anywhere John the Baptist appears in Chapter 1, he is giving evidence about who Jesus is. Look at the opening of verse 19 “And this is the testimony of John…” Look also at v.29-30; 32;35. Not only John the Baptist, but John also presents us with others in the chapter who testify or gave witness about Jesus (vv.40-42;46). So the whole chapter is presented to us with evidence or witnesses for who Jesus is. And these testimonies or witnesses are a Trustworthy Testimony. At this point I will spend some time to give my own evidence for which I have titled this sermon a Trustworthy Witness.
The Person Of John The Baptist
The apostle says a lot about John the Baptist. He was a man. He was sent by God. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light. But how can we be sure all these things the apostle says about John are true? It is such a bold claim to say someone is sent by God and so I think we must examine that claim. The whole chapter as I have tried to break it down is about evidence and testimony about the person of Jesus. And so rightly we must examine John’s claims.
Where do we start to examine the claim? We begin from what John says: “There was a man…” This is a good reference point. To say John was a man obviously points us to the fact that John the Baptist once lived as a human being. And as a human being, we can trace his roots. Naturally, if you don’t know anything about John the Baptist and you hear someone saying the things John says about him, you will ask “Who is this John and at least make an effort to trace his roots” Every one of us seated here has roots. We have a family. For some tribes or cultures in Ghana, if you mention your surname, you can be traced to the family you came from. And one of the reasons for surnames I believe is to be traced to our families.
Now all the gospels reported about the life of John The Baptist (Matthew 3, Mark 1:4-11). Luke however gives us detailed information surrounding the birth of John The Baptist and in that account we are able to confirm all John the apostle said about John the Baptist. You will find the narrative in Luke 1:5 through to the end of Chapter 2 (Read some portions). My point is that John the Baptist’s roots can be traced as a real person who lived. And the circumstances surrendering his birth all testifies to what John says about him: a man sent by God.
Also, we cannot ignore the character of John The Baptist. What a nice opportunity for him to get all the attention when the religious leaders came to question him about his identity. He could have identified himself as the Christ and get all the attention (v.20). Then we see his famous words in John 3:30. He was a humble man (John 3:30), He stood for truth and lost his life. I suspect the reason John does this is because the Bible speaks of two or more witnesses. So his evidence about who Jesus is wont suffice. He needs to bring in other witnesses. Like writing a thesis, John lines up his sources and cites them.
John The Baptist Spoke On The Authority Of God
In Ghana, there is a street language where we call the Police aban—which means government. So every police man or woman in uniform is aban. Why? Because they have the backing of the government to maintain peace and order and enforce laws so to speak. So when a Police man stops you when you are driving and asks you for some information, say your licence, they are doing that on behalf of the government. They carry the authority of government. That’s the picture I want us to see in the ministry of John The Baptist. Once he has been sent of God, he has the backing of God and he speaks for God. He witnesses and declares what God says. We have already looked at the circumstances of his birth and all that was said about him. Now when the text says he was sent by God, it means that John’s witness and testimony about Jesus’ was God’s. What John says about Jesus, is what God says about Jesus. John the Baptist’s ministry was backed by the authority of God. So John’s testimony about Jesus— the light— is the testimony of God about Jesus. What John says about Jesus is what God wants us to hear (vv.31-34).
Note also how John’s testimony was not about himself: he was not the light. Then John gives proves to the fact that the Baptist was not the light.
Another important thing about this also is that when the text says John was sent as a witness to bear witness of the light, it gives us some understanding that God has not left himself without a witness. In fact God always takes the steps to reveal himself to humankind (v.31). When Adam and Eve sinned, it was God who came looking for them. And God has been looking out for sinners since the fall. He has revealed himself in the natural world and the Bible says no one has an excuse to say there is no God. On top of that God has always sent people out into the world with his message so sinners would be called to repentance (Romans 10:14-15).
John The Baptist’ Spoke On The Authority Of Scripture
The Bible is our final authority by which everything is measured. And when you look at John the Baptist, he posits or places his ministry in the eye of Scripture. He doesn’t define his ministry by any signs or wonders or power ministry. In fact, one of the testimony about him is that he did no miracle but all he said about Jesus was true (John 10:41-42).
John solely defined his ministry by Scripture. Describing his ministry, he quoted Scripture (v.23). “As the prophet Isaiah said”. This is equivalent to our modern day language of the Bible said. And what John was referencing was Isaiah 40:3.
The Ultimate Is Faith In Christ
From the text, we know the end for the testimony of John the Baptist. His testimony was not to call attention to himself. His testimony was to point to Jesus. We see that in the phrase: that all might believe through him. What are we to believe? We are to believe in the light.
Last week, I noted that Spiritually, all human beings, without a saving knowledge of Jesus are in darkness, that is, living in sin and separated from God. And this is why the light came. Jesus as the light of the world brings life and light into our world.\This interpreted to mean they are dead without the light of Christ. But when we turn to Jesus from our sinfulness, he brings light and life into our dark, sinful world.
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