Introduction:
How to Prepare to Know Jesus:
- Your heart must be Ready . (John 1:19-24)
Isaiah 40:3 - A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
- Your heart must Exalt . (John 1:25-28)
- Your heart must Receive what He gives. (John 1:29-34)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:11-01:29
John 1, we're in a series called "Knowing Jesus." And the Gospel of John is written to take us from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus.
01:32-01:37
And last week we were in verses 1-18, which is really the prologue.
01:38-01:46
And we discovered last week that the only way that we can know Jesus Christ is He has to make Himself known.
01:46-01:48
And what did we find out about Jesus?
01:49-01:52
Well, we found out that Jesus is God.
01:52-01:53
He came to give life.
01:54-01:59
And He's full of grace and truth.
02:01-02:02
Are you there?
02:02-02:04
John 1, we're going to be picking up in verse 19.
02:05-02:06
You're still turning there.
02:08-02:09
You have a minute.
02:10-02:14
A few years ago, it was a Saturday morning.
02:16-02:16
All right?
02:16-02:20
It was a very cold, wintry Saturday morning.
02:21-02:28
And my wife said, "Hey, I need you to run to the bank." And I can't remember what business I needed to take care of at the bank.
02:28-02:33
And you're going to find out here in a second why I forgot what the business was at the bank.
02:35-02:45
But Erin said, "You know, you can just run through the drive-thru." Now again, this was a Saturday morning, the bank closed at 12, had to hurry up and get there before it closed.
02:45-02:50
Okay, it's Saturday morning, I don't know how it is at your house, but I was like bumming out, right?
02:50-02:55
But she's like, "Go to the bank." And when she said, "You can go to the drive-thru," do you know what I heard?
02:56-03:00
Like oh, I only need to get dressed from the waist up then, right?
03:02-03:11
I'm in my car and they're only going to see like the north part of me, so I can just be dressed like up top.
03:13-03:14
And that's what I did.
03:16-03:26
On the bottom, I was wearing a pair of old gym shorts, and of course my pasty white wintry legs that looks like they've never seen the sun.
03:28-03:32
And I had on this pair of winter boots.
03:33-03:34
Now, let's...
03:36-03:37
Don't get ahead of me.
03:37-03:38
Look at this picture here.
03:38-03:41
Now, this is a Google image, okay?
03:41-03:42
I yanked this online.
03:42-03:57
Okay, the pair that I had looked like they were on the final stages of leprosy and that somebody put them on fire and the fire was put out by a pack of rabid wolverines.
03:58-03:59
That's what mine looked like.
04:00-04:04
They were ratty, dirty, tattered, disgusting.
04:05-04:07
Okay, I hear you, some of you guys are laughing.
04:07-04:15
You don't keep a pair of shoes like that by the door to take the dog out or, you know what I'm talking about, right, they're just the shoes that you just kinda slip on.
04:16-04:18
Well, mine just so happened to be like those kind.
04:18-04:21
But like I said, they were an abomination.
04:23-04:26
But I'm like, but I'm going to the drive-thru, right?
04:27-04:32
So, nobody's going to see this, only this, and I'm going to look great.
04:33-04:35
And I went to the bank drive-through.
04:37-04:41
And again, I can't remember what the business was that needed to be conducted.
04:41-04:45
But I remember at the drive-through, the teller said, yeah, we're having some sort of a problem.
04:45-04:45
Can you come inside?
04:49-04:53
I said, yes, I can come inside, because whatever needed to happen, needed to happen right then.
04:53-04:55
I didn't have time to run home and finish getting dressed.
04:56-04:58
Plus, that would have been an awkward conversation with the teller, right?
04:58-04:59
Can you come inside?
04:59-05:04
Yeah, I can come inside in about a half hour.
05:04-05:06
I gotta run home and finish getting dressed.
05:08-05:11
No, that's not the conversation you wanna have.
05:11-05:14
So I'm like, you know what, sometimes you just gotta take it like a man.
05:16-05:28
So I went inside and was at the counter and the teller says, okay, I see here that she looked over the counter and she said, Why are you wearing that?
05:31-05:32
This is a true story.
05:34-05:39
And I smiled and I said, well, I didn't think anybody was going to see me.
05:41-05:52
Well whatever the issue was, she couldn't get it figured out so she had to call over like some manager and the manager comes over and she goes, oh yeah, I see the problem here.
05:53-06:12
And the manager looks over the counter, and she goes, "What's up with them boots?" And I said, "I didn't think anyone was going to see me." So they're taking care of the banking business, and I'm standing there almost totally humiliated.
06:14-06:16
And here's where it went into totally humiliated.
06:17-06:18
I'm just kind of standing there.
06:19-06:28
I turn around and standing behind me is my high school English teacher, Mrs. Lucy Dollar.
06:31-06:33
And I said, "Mrs. Dollar!" Remember Mrs. Dollar, Chris?
06:33-06:52
I said, "Mrs. Dollar!" And she goes, "Jeff Miller!" She says, "Why are you dressed like that?" But I said, "Because I didn't think anybody was going to see me!" I wasn't ready to meet people that day.
06:55-06:56
And here's the point of that story.
06:56-07:01
When it comes to knowing Jesus, that's part of the problem for us.
07:03-07:05
It's not that He's not ready to meet us.
07:06-07:10
Our problem is we're sometimes not ready to meet Him.
07:13-07:18
We sort of show up to church half-dressed, hoping that we don't meet Him.
07:20-07:31
Well, God sent someone to not only introduce Jesus, but to tell us - this is it, this is the sermon today, church.
07:32-07:36
God sent someone to tell us how to prepare to meet Him.
07:38-07:41
And that man's name, we call him John the Baptist.
07:43-07:45
He was the last Old Testament prophet.
07:45-07:47
He was the first New Testament preacher.
07:48-07:51
He was the most popular preacher of his day until Jesus.
07:55-07:58
And he received the greatest compliment any person had ever received.
07:58-07:59
Matthew 11.11.
08:00-08:05
Jesus said among men born of women, no one has risen greater than John the Baptist.
08:07-08:11
And honestly, I think John the Baptist is one of the most interesting men who ever walked the planet.
08:15-08:24
And you can read all about him in the Gospels, especially Luke 1, Luke 3, and we're not going there today.
08:25-08:31
Because John the Apostle who wrote this, he's not really interested in John the Baptist's biography.
08:32-08:33
He's only interested in his message.
08:33-08:42
So we're just going where the text goes here We're going to see that John the Baptist's message was to announce the coming of the Messiah, and here it is.
08:43-08:47
He's going to call people to prepare to know Him.
08:49-08:50
Don't show up half-dressed.
08:53-08:55
Prepare yourself to know Jesus.
08:55-08:59
So if you're taking notes on your outline, you're going to see this in the text.
08:59-09:01
Here's how to prepare to know Jesus.
09:01-09:02
And number one is this.
09:02-09:05
Your heart must be ready.
09:05-09:07
Your heart must be ready.
09:07-09:08
Look at verse 19.
09:10-09:26
It says, "And this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?'" You're like, "Who are these Jews that sent these priests and Levites?" Well, he tells us - jump down to verse 24.
09:27-09:38
He says, "Now they had been sent from the Pharisees." You're going to see that throughout the Gospel of John when he references the Jews something like 70 times in the Gospel of John.
09:39-09:45
It's always referring to these elite religious people who wouldn't believe in Jesus and actually hated Jesus.
09:46-09:49
And here we get their debut in the Gospel of John.
09:51-09:51
Verse 20.
09:52-09:58
Okay, so they're like, "Who are you?" Verse 20 says, "He confessed." This is John the Baptist.
09:58-10:02
"He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.
10:04-10:06
Like what does that mean, confessed and not confessed?
10:06-10:07
What does that mean?
10:07-10:14
Well, this was actually a Jewish figure of speech in the day, and it was used for emphasis.
10:15-10:21
Giving a positive, and then giving a negative, and then doubling down with the positive again.
10:23-10:26
And I'm not going to give you a whole grammar lesson, but here's the tail end of this.
10:26-10:27
Here's what this means.
10:28-10:35
The structure, the way this is written, indicates that John the Baptist was repeatedly asked this by so many people.
10:35-10:37
"Hey, are you the Christ? Are you the Christ?
10:37-10:40
Are you the Christ?" And he was repeatedly...
10:40-10:43
So he repeatedly had to keep denying that.
10:43-10:44
"No, I am not the Christ. I am not the Christ.
10:45-10:46
I am not the Christ. I am not the Christ.
10:46-10:51
I am not the Christ." And that's what this is saying.
10:52-11:02
Repeatedly asked, repeatedly answered, "I am not the Christ." and they asked him, "What then, are you Elijah?" Why did they ask that?
11:02-11:07
Well, in the Old Testament, in the book of Malachi, Elijah was associated with the coming of the Christ.
11:08-11:16
The Bible says that John the Baptist came in the power and spirit of Elijah, but John the Baptist was not literally Elijah.
11:16-11:22
He wasn't like the reincarnation of Elijah or anything like that, just in the power and spirit of Elijah.
11:23-11:35
So they said, "What then, are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." Then they asked, "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No." What do they mean by the prophet?
11:37-11:45
Well, Deuteronomy 18.15, Moses told Israel, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.
11:45-11:55
It is to him you shall listen." And Jewish history always associated that prophecy from Moses as being the Christ, The "the" prophet is coming.
11:56-12:11
And they're like, "Oh, you must be the guy that Moses was talking about right back in Deuteronomy." And John the Baptist is like, "Nope, I'm not him either." Look at v. 22, "So they asked him, 'Who are you?
12:12-12:14
We need to give an answer to those who sinned us.
12:14-12:20
What do you say about yourself?'" They're like, look, John the Baptist was so popular.
12:21-12:23
He was so popular.
12:23-12:25
They knew he had to be something.
12:26-12:37
They're like, you don't have this wild, bug-eating, fur-wearing preacher out in the middle of the wilderness with thousands of people coming to get baptized.
12:38-12:41
And you don't have a guy like - you've got to be something, man.
12:41-12:42
You've got to be something.
12:43-12:43
So who are you?
12:44-12:46
They're going to be asking us, and we've got to tell them, who are you?
12:48-12:50
John the Baptist gives them the answer.
12:50-13:02
He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord!'" As the prophet Isaiah said.
13:04-13:06
So John says, "You know who I am?
13:06-13:06
I'll tell you who I am.
13:06-13:11
I'm the voice." And that's a reference to Isaiah 40.
13:11-13:17
In verse 3, it says, "A voice cries in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord.
13:17-13:30
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' Isaiah tells us before the Messiah comes, He will be preceded by a voice in the wilderness that says, "Hey, hey, hey!
13:31-13:32
Clear a path for the Lord!
13:33-13:40
Clear a path for the Messiah!" Now yes, John the Baptist was in a literal wilderness.
13:41-13:44
But this statement obviously has a spiritual meaning.
13:46-13:52
He says, "Prepare the way of the Lord." John the Baptist didn't work for Pendot.
13:53-14:05
He was like, "We're going to make straight the paths, we're going to fill in the potholes, we're going to get the obstacles out." And you're like, "I know, Pastor Jeff, because Pendot doesn't do that." This obviously has a spiritual meaning, right?
14:06-14:07
Because you need to prepare yourself.
14:09-14:11
The Lord's coming and you need to get ready for that.
14:13-14:22
In other words, he's saying, You need to create a highway in your heart for the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
14:23-14:30
You have to be ready - hear this - you have to be ready to know Christ.
14:32-14:42
I am not saying that once you get your act together, then you can know Jesus.
14:43-14:47
Because if that was the case, no one would ever come to Christ.
14:48-14:48
Amen?
14:50-14:52
See, this is about your heart.
14:54-14:57
Is your heart ready to know Christ?
14:57-15:04
Or, this is the picture, are there obstacles in your heart?
15:04-15:05
That's the picture here.
15:05-15:18
It's like there's this highway to your heart and Christ wants to come into your heart, but there's boulders and garbage and things that need cleared out of the way that's blocking him from coming.
15:20-15:22
Are there obstacles in your heart?
15:25-15:26
What do you mean by that? Let me give you a couple examples.
15:27-15:38
One, the very first church I pastored, Clear Creek Community Church in Ohio, I was, um, that's a long story, but I didn't apply to be the pastor of that church.
15:38-15:40
I ended up as the pastor of that church.
15:40-15:41
That's a whole other story.
15:42-15:43
You know, buy me Starbucks sometime and I'll tell you about it.
15:43-15:51
But I was the pastor of this church somehow while I was going to Bible college and while I was working about five other jobs.
15:51-15:56
One of my other jobs was I was a magazine vendor for Walmarts and Kmarts and I would just invite people to church as I was at work.
15:56-15:57
I'm like, "Hey, you wanna come to my church?
15:57-16:09
"Wanna come to church?" And there were a couple cashiers from the one Kmart that came to church for a couple of weeks and then they stopped coming.
16:09-16:15
So the next time I was doing the magazines, I saw them and the girl's name was Gina.
16:17-16:23
I said, "Gina, I haven't seen you in church." And I'll never forget, this was over 20 years ago, I'll never forget what she said to me.
16:25-16:34
She said, "I can't go to church and still live the way that I want to live." It was sad.
16:35-16:36
But what was she saying?
16:37-16:46
She's saying, "I'm not ready to know Christ." In other words, to use this John the Baptist picture here, she's saying, "The highway's not clear, and I'm not willing to clear it.
16:48-16:58
There's some obstacles that I'm just not willing to remove." You're like, "Man, you have a biblical example of that." Yeah. How about Matthew 19? Remember the rich young ruler?
16:58-17:00
That's like his whole story, right?
17:01-17:09
Or the guy came to Jesus and said, "What do I have to do to follow you?" And Jesus said, "Well, keep the commandments." And the guy was like, "OK, I totally did that." And Jesus said, "There's one thing you lack.
17:09-17:14
Solid possessions. Give the money to the poor, and then you can come and follow me." And the guy went away sad because he had great wealth.
17:14-17:15
Remember that story?
17:17-17:25
See, Jesus knew that the obstacle on the highway to that man's heart was money.
17:25-17:27
Jesus said, "You want to know me?
17:29-17:32
Get the obstacle out of the way." And the man walked away sad.
17:35-17:38
because his obstacle meant too much to him.
17:40-17:46
So the question for you and I this morning is this, what's your obstacle for knowing Christ?
17:49-17:56
What's on the highway to your heart that's a big roadblock to your relationship with Jesus Christ?
17:58-18:04
In other words, what does your heart want more than it wants Jesus?
18:07-18:09
That's really the issue here, church.
18:10-18:11
That's really the issue.
18:11-18:17
Your heart wants something more than it wants Jesus, and it's not willing to get that obstacle out of the way.
18:20-18:22
For some people, like the rich young ruler, it is money.
18:24-18:30
My work, my job, the money, it's just too important to me to get really serious about coming to know Jesus.
18:31-18:33
For some people, it's their schedule.
18:33-18:35
"I'm just too busy. I'm just too busy to know Jesus.
18:36-18:40
And I can't seem to fit Jesus into my schedule." Wow.
18:43-18:45
For some people, it's pornography.
18:48-18:55
Man, I'm stuck, and I know that it's this roadblock that Christ wants to deal with, but I am not willing to deal with it.
18:58-19:02
For some it's a relationship that you know you shouldn't be in, but here you are.
19:03-19:08
You're stuck in this relationship, and you know Christ wants to deal with this, and you're not willing to deal with it.
19:10-19:11
Maybe for some it's comfort.
19:13-19:16
You know, it's just easier for me to live my life on my terms.
19:19-19:23
Yes, yes, yes. Jesus, He forgives.
19:25-19:26
Jesus cleanses.
19:27-19:30
Jesus transforms when you come to know Him.
19:31-19:41
But the problem comes when you know that coming to Jesus means that you have to deal with this hard stuff and you'd rather not come to Him.
19:42-19:44
Because you don't want Him to deal with the hard stuff.
19:45-19:45
That's the issue.
19:48-19:53
It's not the lack of wanting on His end, or the lack of power to deal with it on His end.
19:53-19:58
It's your lack of willingness to let Jesus do what only Jesus can do.
20:01-20:03
And see, that's why John the Baptist showed up.
20:03-20:10
He's like, "Hey, the Messiah's here! Clear the path!" Because He's going to change everything.
20:12-20:14
But don't show up half-dressed.
20:15-20:16
You've got to be ready.
20:19-20:26
What needs cleared from your heart to prepare the way of the Lord into your heart?
20:27-20:29
In other words, finish this sentence.
20:31-20:37
If I'm going to follow Jesus, I know that I am going to need to get rid of blank.
20:39-20:40
What goes into blank?
20:44-20:45
And that's what you need to do, right?
20:46-20:47
That's what the Bible calls repentance.
20:50-20:52
And you're like, "You know what, Jeff?
20:52-20:54
I know I need to do that. I know.
20:56-20:58
But how am I going to be motivated to do that?
20:59-21:01
It's here, it's just not here.
21:01-21:04
How am I going to be motivated to do that?" I'm so glad you asked. Look at number 2.
21:05-21:13
"Not only your heart must be ready," number 2, "your heart must exalt Him." "Your heart must exalt Him." Look at verses 25-28.
21:14-21:25
Because they asked him, "Why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize you with water.
21:26-21:43
But among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." These things took place in Bethany in Jordan where John was baptizing.
21:45-21:46
Your heart must exalt Him.
21:48-21:49
That has to be your motivation.
21:51-21:56
Looking at the text here, obviously these people that came to John had a big authority issue.
21:57-22:07
They're like, alright, so if you're not the Christ, and you're not Elijah, and you're not the prophet, then where do you get off doing this baptism thing that you're doing?
22:10-22:10
You see John's answer?
22:11-22:16
His answer was basically, "Look, what I'm doing is just the symbol.
22:18-22:20
I'm not the main event here.
22:21-22:26
You guys are putting the spotlight on me, but the spotlight doesn't go on me.
22:26-22:32
The spotlight goes on Jesus Christ." John's like, "Your problem is you don't know Him.
22:33-22:37
That's why you're focused too much on what I'm doing instead of what he's doing.
22:40-22:41
You can't miss this.
22:41-22:43
Oh gosh, this is a whole other sermon.
22:44-22:46
And I know we've already had - this is like the second sermon of the day.
22:46-22:47
I get that.
22:49-22:51
Man, I wish I had the time.
22:52-22:53
Let me say this.
22:53-22:58
Despite John the Baptist's popularity, John the Baptist knew his own identity.
23:00-23:04
And that is a much bigger achievement you might think it is.
23:06-23:06
Why?
23:09-23:10
Think of this man.
23:12-23:14
Thousands and thousands of people were coming to him.
23:14-23:16
How many times do you think he was asked if he was the Christ?
23:19-23:20
I'm going to be honest with you.
23:21-23:27
It's hard for me to wrap my brain around how did that not go to his head?
23:27-23:28
Right?
23:28-23:29
Could you imagine?
23:30-23:35
Thousands, "Are you the Christ?" They thought this guy was so awesome, they're like, "You have to be the Christ.
23:35-23:37
You have to be the anointed One of God.
23:37-23:40
You have to be the One promised in the Scriptures.
23:40-23:53
That has to be you." And you know, after you have people applauding you for so long, it's real easy to start to think that you must be pretty special.
23:55-23:58
But John the Baptist knew his messages did not make him great.
24:00-24:02
was the subject of His messages.
24:03-24:04
That was great.
24:07-24:10
In the same way, you have to see Jesus Christ for who He is.
24:11-24:12
We covered that last week, right?
24:12-24:15
We saw in the prologue, He is God.
24:15-24:16
He is the Creator.
24:17-24:18
He is life.
24:18-24:20
He is the light that leads to the life.
24:20-24:22
He alone makes people children of God.
24:23-24:24
He's full of grace and truth.
24:24-24:27
He alone is the revealer of God.
24:27-24:43
And when you get that, like John, when you really get who Jesus Christ is, you realize, again like John, I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes.
24:46-25:00
But at the same time, this God, this awesome, holy, sovereign, transcendent God, This God wants to know me and wants me to know Him?
25:03-25:16
This God wants a relationship with me and He's just saying, "Hey, I want to live in your heart so can you clear a path?" There's your motivation.
25:18-25:19
When you see how awesome He is.
25:20-25:27
You're like, "Yeah, I'll get rid of anything You've got to stop me from knowing this God.
25:29-25:31
You've got to see Jesus for who He is.
25:31-25:32
You've got to exalt Him.
25:32-25:37
And that humbly motivates you to do whatever it takes to know Him.
25:38-25:40
Your heart must exalt Him.
25:40-25:45
And then finally for today, jot this down, your heart must receive what He gives.
25:46-25:53
Your heart must receive what He actually gives.
25:55-25:56
Look at v. 29.
25:59-26:24
It says, "The next day, he (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!' This is He of whom I said, 'After Me comes a man who ranks before Me because he was before Me.'" Speaking of the deity of Christ there.
26:25-26:28
Verse 31, John says, "I myself did not know Him.
26:29-26:35
For this purpose, I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to Israel.
26:37-26:50
And John bore witness, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him." I myself did not know Him.
26:50-27:11
But He who sent me to baptize with water - that's God - said to me, "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." And I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
27:12-27:14
Your heart must receive what He gives.
27:17-27:21
Jesus Christ's baptism is what officially kicked off His ministry.
27:22-27:30
And here, we don't really have the account of the baptism, but sort of John giving us a flashback, a recalling.
27:30-27:34
Here's what happened when Jesus came to me to be baptized.
27:35-27:39
Did you notice, even John the Baptist said he didn't know Jesus at first.
27:39-27:41
Did you notice that he said that twice?
27:41-27:42
Like verse 31, verse 33?
27:44-27:45
I didn't know Him.
27:48-27:48
Why?
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Because Jesus looked like every other Jewish man in the area.
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Right?
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You had thousands of people coming to John the Baptist, and it wasn't like Jesus was eight feet tall and glowing with the blonde hair like you see the American portraits of Him.
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He didn't look like that at all.
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So all these Jewish men coming to John the Baptist, he's like, "I didn't know who the Christ was.
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There wasn't anything except this one sign.
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And yes, they were related by blood and all that.
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That's another story.
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But John said, "I didn't know.
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I didn't know." But when Jesus was baptized, it was confirmed.
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And John saw it and he bears witness.
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He says, "This is the Son of God." on board witness to two things in this passage.
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Two things that the Son of God offers.
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Look at verse 29.
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This is one of the best verses in the whole New Testament.
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When John says concerning Jesus, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." We might be familiar enough with the message that we lose the impact, I have to try to imagine this statement as a first century Jew.
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They're waiting for the Messiah.
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And in their mind, it's going to be this awesome warrior king that's going to come through with his sword and just mow down the Romans.
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That's what they're looking for.
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They're looking for Samson on steroids kind of thing, right?
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And the Messiah's here, and what does John the Baptist call Him?
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He calls Him a lamb.
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And again, I think the impact is lost on us, Imagine a first century Jew.
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What's the first thing they think of when they hear "lamb"?
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Like, oh, a sacrifice.
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Lambs are these weak, helpless, defenseless, heading for death creatures.
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This is the Messiah.
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John's like, yeah, this is the Messiah.
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He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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Now that obviously doesn't mean Just because Jesus came, all sin is gone.
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What this means is this.
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For the whole world, there is One Who can take away sin.
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Remember, v. 12 says that we have to receive and we have to believe in His name.
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And when you do, when you receive Christ, The Bible says He takes away your sin.
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Takes away.
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See, that's huge.
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That's huge because in the Old Testament, countless sacrifices were made.
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Countless rams and lambs and birds and goats.
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There are just constantly sacrifices being made, but none of those Old Testament sacrifices could take away sin.
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they could do was atone sin or cover sin.
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And there is a big difference between covering sin and taking away sin.
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There's a big difference between covering something and taking away something.
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You understand the difference?
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Let me illustrate that for you.
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A few months ago, Cade was-- we have this little storage space in our house, under our house, a little crawl space where we store decorations and toys and whatever.
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And Cade was under there looking for something.
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And he came up and he said to Aaron, he goes, Mom, do we have any toy rubber snakes stored under there?
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And Aaron's like, "Jeff!" So I'm like, "What do you see, Kade?" Kade's like, "I saw a snake. Do we have any toy snakes down there?" And I'm like, "I don't. Do you?" And Aaron's like, "Jeff, you're going to have to deal with this." So do you know what I did?
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As I went into the kitchen, I got one of her tea towels, and I crawled under that crawl space.
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And I found the snake, and I put the tea towel over the snake.
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And I'm like, done.
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[LAUGHTER]
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Snake is covered.
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Is that what Aaron wanted?
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Do you see now the difference between covering and taking away?
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You know what I actually did with the snake?
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Was I put him in a little bin and it was a little guard of snakes.
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I played with him for a little bit, but I took him away someplace else.
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Didn't have the heart, I didn't have the heart to kill him.
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I mean, but do you see the difference between covering and taking away?
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That's the difference between what happened in the Old Testament to sin and what Jesus Christ does to sin.
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And he doesn't just throw the tea towel over it.
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He takes it away.
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Or to put it another way, sin is a debt against God.
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And the Old Testament sacrifices, well, they were like a credit card.
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You know, a credit card doesn't actually pay for something.
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You know that, right?
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A credit card covers the amount that's owed.
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But that bill still comes.
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Payment still needs to be made.
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And you see, the Old Testament sacrifices were sort of like that.
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Every time a sacrifice was made, it was just swiping the credit card, swiping the credit card.
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Okay, you're covered.
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But sin is still there.
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You're covered.
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Then Jesus comes along and He's cash.
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Jesus is cash.
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He makes full payment.
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Not just covering the debt.
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Jesus takes away the debt.
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That's the first thing Jesus offers.
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That's taking away your sin.
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The second thing Jesus offers, verse 33, when John says, "This is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." John's baptism with water in those days was a symbol of readiness.
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Jesus offers the real baptism.
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Baptism in the Holy Spirit is when you receive Jesus Christ.
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His Spirit comes and lives inside you.
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God's Holy Spirit comes and indwells your heart.
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And that leads, 100% of the time, to transformation.
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If you haven't changed, then you don't really know Christ.
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Because when the God of the universe lives in your heart, you will change.
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Jesus Christ changes your desires, your purpose in life, your attitudes.
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Everything changes when you come to know Jesus Christ.
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So your heart has to be ready to receive what He gives.
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What He wants to give is taking away your sin and baptizing you in the Holy Spirit.
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That's what He's offering.
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But what are you looking for from Jesus?
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"Jesus, get me out of this trouble that I'm in." Or, "Jesus, get me a husband." Or sometimes that one comes before the first one.
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Or, "Jesus, please make me wealthy." Or, "Jesus, at the very least, will you please pay my bills?" I'll let my business take off.
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Jesus, bring me more customers.
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Jesus, will you please make my life easier?" But you know, Jesus didn't promise any of that.
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And there are so many people who end up disappointed in Jesus because they're trying to cash checks that He didn't write.
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Now, sure, 100%, Sometimes, Jesus provides these things to His children.
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But, what we see in this passage is what Jesus Christ always offers everyone.
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That's to take away your sin and to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
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In other words, the thing that Jesus Christ offers everyone that you can take to the bank is forgiveness and transformation.
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That's what he's after.
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The external stuff, yeah, maybe, possibly.
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He's a father. He'll make those decisions.
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Trust him with that. Great.
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But these are the two things that he will give the person that turns to him.
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Forgiveness and transformation.
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And some people don't receive Christ because they're looking for things from Christ that Christ didn't offer.
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Are you ready to receive that?
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Are you ready to know Jesus?
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Then I would say exalt Him.
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Clear the path in your heart to know Him.
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Somebody today might be ready to do that right now.
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And I'd like you to bow your heads.
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As the worship team comes forward, we're going to pray.
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Bow your heads.
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Let me ask you, have you cleared any obstacle in your heart?
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Did you prepare the way for the Lord?
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Listen, whatever that obstacle is, Jesus knows what it is, and He will forgive you for whatever that is, and He will transform you.
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But you have to be willing to allow Him to do that.
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Have you exalted Christ in your heart?
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To say, "This God is worth knowing, a God that would adopt me as His child, a God who would love me and give me everything in Christ, every spiritual blessing is mine in Christ.
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This is a God who wants to forgive me and transform me." Father, we bow ourselves before You today.
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There are people here that know You.
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That while they are saved, while they do have Your Holy Spirit, they just haven't been walking with You.
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They've allowed obstacles to get back in the road that yes, Father, from Your perspective, we have fellowship in Christ, but Your Word is very clear that we can hinder our own walks with Christ.
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We can feel distant, not from Christ's doing, but from our own doing.
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I pray, Father, that today is the day of repentance.
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And Father, for the person here who doesn't know You, maybe for the first time, the lights are coming on.
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I pray, first of all, Father, that You would be greatly magnified in their heart.
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That they would see Christ for who He is.
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This glorious and gracious God, full of grace and truth, who loves us and wants better for us, wants to forgive us, wants to transform us.
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Father, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would grab that heart right now.
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That they would see the beauty of the Lord.
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Clear whatever obstacle is in the way.
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Father, we don't want to be a people who only get half-dressed and hope we don't run into You.
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Father, prepare us.
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By the power of Your Spirit, Father, by Your grace, grant us repentance and prepare us to truly come to know Jesus Christ.
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It's in His name that we pray.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:19-34
What was your biggest “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain John the Baptist’s mission. What was He telling to do concerning the coming Christ (John 1:23, see Isaiah 40:3)? How was baptism a way people were preparing themselves?
How is “exalting Christ” a motivator to “knowing Christ”?
How would you reply if someone asked you, “How can I grow in exalting Christ in my own life?”
Read John 1:29. What is the significance of “taking away” sin?
*Bonus: John the Baptist got the greatest compliment in the history of everything - Matthew 11:11. What do you think it was about John that made Jesus say this?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another. Each of you list an “obstacle” that needs cleared from your heart to “make straight the way of the Lord”.