The Legacy of John the Baptist, Part 1

Nothing greater than the word of life. And so, take the word, which is life, and open with me, if you would, to John chapter one. The gospel of John, declaring the deity of Christ.

And we're gonna move off of John 6 today, John 1, verse number 6, and I'm sure you're happy about that, and move on to verse number 7, and even verse number 8, and even verse number 15, as we make our way through this great and glorious gospel. But it's all about the legacy of John. The legacy of John.

I'm not so sure John would think of leaving a legacy. I'm not sure that was uppermost in his mind, a lot like you and me, we don't come to church and wake up each day thinking that, you know what, I'm going to one day leave a legacy behind, until we get later in life, and we're about to die, and wonder what our legacy will be left. Well, what you leave behind is what you leave before, or what you leave before all the people around you.

You leave behind that which you live. If you live a glorious life that honors the Lord, you leave that legacy. If you live a life that dishonors the Lord, you'll leave that legacy.

The legacy you live always determines the life that you live before the people closest to you. And John would leave a legacy. In fact, you can sum up his legacy in three words.

And these three words will somehow be a barometer for your life, and the legacy that you will live and leave.

The first word is presentation. The second word is preparation. And the third word is proclamation. Presentation, that's number one. And then preparation, that's number two. And proclamation, that's number three. And those three words will inevitably make up our three points, this week, next week, and probably the week after, as we begin to understand the legacy of John.

So if you have your Bible, let me read to you John chapter 1, verse number 6. We'll pick it up there. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, said all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light, jumped down to verse number 15. John testified about him and cried out saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. Then jumped to verse number 19.

This is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. They asked him, what then, are you Elijah? He said, I am not.

Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Then they said to him, who are you? Said, we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him and said to him, why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you do not know. It is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he on behalf of whom I said, after me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. John testified saying, I have seen the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he remained upon him. I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, he upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.

I myself have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. This sums up John's legacy. It begins with a presentation, and that is that John came to present the preeminence of the light.

He came, number one, to present the preeminence of the light. He said, I am not the light, but I came to testify about the light. Notice six times in the passage we read, it talks about John's testimony, John's witness.

I am a witness, I am here to testify, I am a testimony to the light. He came to present the preeminence of the light. So others would be able to see what he had already seen and what he had already known.

This is where John's legacy begins to explode. The Bible says he did this because, as it says in Luke chapter 1, verse number 7, he came as a witness to testify about the light so that all may believe. That's why he did it, so that others would believe.

And that's the theme of John's gospel, John 20, verse number 31, these things were written, these things were a testimony, this was that which was testified before you, that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And John will give eight witnesses, eight testimonies throughout the gospel. This is the first of the eight.

John the Baptist is the first testimony to witness, to proclaim, to present the preeminence of the light. And John is a great witness. Think about it.

Number one, he's a prophet, right? Matthew tells us twice that everybody recognized him as a prophet. The Lord had not sent a prophet in over 400 years. Malachi was the last Old Testament prophet.

And so for 400 years there was silence, nobody had spoken from God. So when John comes on the scene, he is recognized as a prophet by everyone. So this gives him credibility.

It gives him credibility. He was the voice of God to the people. In fact, over in John 5, which we will see further in a moment, it says in verse number 35 that John was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

That's just a great verse to describe John. John was a light that was burning, that was shining so that you could see the way to the Messiah. And so John becomes this credible testimony because he's a prophet.

But not only is he a prophet, he's a priest. Because he's a prophet, he breeds credibility and because he's a priest, he breeds believability. Remember, his father was a priest and John was in the life and line of the priesthood.

So for all practical purposes, John's a priest. Now, he wasn't trained in the priesthood, he didn't follow his father in the priesthood, more about that in a second, but everybody would know about his believability as a priest because all they would have to do was think back just a measly 30 years to his birth. Do you not think that the priesthood, the 18,000 priests in the land of Israel at the time of Jesus and John, they didn't know about the miraculous birth of John the Baptist? I mean, Elizabeth was barren.

She was in her late 70s, early 80s before she gave birth to John. She was advanced in years, the Bible says. So all the priesthood would know because they would look at Elizabeth as being cursed because she had no child.

But then there's this birth announced by the angel Gabriel and so it was a miraculous birth. And on top of that, Zacharias was unable to speak for nine months. Do you think the priesthood didn't know about that? Of course he did.

They all knew that. And out comes John the Baptist and Zacharias is able to speak and continue his ministry and then he wrote this song, this prophecy in Luke chapter 1. And don't you think the priesthood knew about that? Of course he did.

So everything about John as a priest breeds believability because everybody knew about the miraculous birth of John. That's why when we get to it next week, when they ask the question, who are you? It's not like they didn't know who he was. I mean, John grew up in the streets of Jerusalem. John grew up with all these other priests and Levites and Pharisees. They all went to school together. They played together in the streets.

That's why they asked the question, who are you? It's more like, who do you think you are? The Christ? Who do you think you are, Elijah? Who do you think you are, the prophet? But you see, he was lying to be a priest and so it breeds believability. He was a prophet. But it breeds credibility.

But there's one more. John, unlike other priests, was a protester. And because he was a protester, it would breed integrity.

Because you see, he protested the hypocrisy of Judaism. He protested the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the scribes and the Levites. He would speak against, he would live against, he would even dress unlike the priests.

He would wear camel skin. Have you ever been around a camel? I have. I've rode several camels.

Camels smell to high heaven. Unlike any other animal, they smell atrocious. And their hair is like a wire brush.

It's not like a fluffy dog where you would lay down with them and put your head on their chest and say, wow, this is so soft and cuddly. No, they're camels. They're not comfortable at all.

But this is John's outerwear. I'm not sure how he was able to get the stench out of the camel skin. I'm not sure he could ever do that.

I think it was just wrapped in it. And so wherever he went, he smelled like a camel. But his whole life was to protest the hypocrisy of the religious establishment.

That's why he dressed the way he did. That's why he ate what he ate. And that's why he said what he did.

Completely different man. This was John. And so John the Apostle uses John the Baptist as the primary testimony to presenting the preeminence of the light.

Because not only is he the forerunner, he is the prophet, he is the priest, he is the protester who actually breeds credibility, believability, and integrity so that people would begin to understand who the Christ is based on the testimony of this one man and his legacy. And this is John's legacy. To present the preeminence of the light.

So John 5 says that he was a burning, shining light. And Jesus says, at first, you rejoiced in that light. At first, you were excited about the light.

At first. But after a while, we saw a couple of weeks ago, you thought John had a demon. But this is John the Baptist.

And so I thought today and next week, we would ask this question. How, how does John reflect the light? So he shines so bright. And then we're gonna ask the question, why did John reflect the light? Because to ask and answer the why and the how is to ask and answer the question on how you and I reflect the light and why we should reflect the light.

But the Bible calls us the light of the world. John says, I am not the light. But I came to testify about the light.

So all may believe, but the least in the kingdom is greater than the greatest man who ever lived. That's you and me. And that's because we are the light.

The Bible says you are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. And we are to let that light shine so that others will see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

And so we are to shine brightly for Christ. That's part and parcel to our legacy. We are to present the preeminence of the light by being the light of the world, by being the salt of the earth.

In fact, the Bible says in Peter that we are partakers of the divine nature and God is light. And the light lives within us. So part of our DNA is the light of the world.

That's part of our identity. And that light is to shine brightly. Paul would say we're to walk as children of the light.

Ephesians 5, verse number 8, we're to walk brightly as children of the light. Why? Because when you begin to examine your legacy, that is what it is you're going to leave behind, it begins with a presentation. The opportunity to present the preeminence of the light to all those around about you.

That's what John did. So I'm gonna make this really, really simple for you. I wanna bring the cookies down to the bottom shelf.

So all you gotta do is take the word light, L-I-G-H-T, in case you wanna know how to spell it, and just write it down the side of your paper in which you are taking copious notes because you're great students of the word and I know you love to take notes. And so just write the word light down the left-hand side of your paper and I will show you how John the Baptist reflected the light. So you will know how to reflect that same light because when you give glory to God, remember we are to give glory to the Lord, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of the Lord, right? First Corinthians 10:31.

And the glory of the Lord is what? The presence of God manifested in brilliant light. So when we as believers give glory to the Lord, we are reflecting the righteous radiance of our Redeemer in and through his redeemed. That's what it means to give glory to the Lord.

You're gonna reflect the righteousness of your Redeemer so others will see the purity and the beauty and the holiness of Christ in your life that they might, as John said, believe, believe. And that's the theme of John's gospel and that's the theme of your life and mine. We let our light shine so others may believe.

So how did John reflect the light? Well, let me explain it to you. The first way was lovingly and longingly. Lovingly and longingly.

Now we wouldn't think of John as a loving person necessarily. Oh, but he was. Why? Would you please remember this? Love is giving people what they need, not what they want.

But we think we love because we give to people what they want. We think we love our children because we give to them what they want. Probably when you do that, you show you don't love them.

Because loving is giving people what they need. And what did Israel need? They needed to see the light. They needed to hear the gospel.

Now remember, when John is speaking, the world is engulfed in darkness. John 3, verse number 19. They walked in darkness.

They lived in darkness, right? We live in a world that's dark. And that world that's dark needs to see the light of the gospel. Remember, John was a voice crying in the wilderness.

And yes, he was for location purposes in the wilderness. He was in the Judean wilderness. He was down by Bethany in the Jordan.

Now think about that. That's a 40-minute drive by car. How long do you think it would take people to walk from Jerusalem to Bethany? To Bethany beyond the Jordan, down below Jericho, if they were to make that track or that journey in a day? Long time.

And they were coming down by the thousands. By the scores of thousands to be baptized in the Jordan River. So it wasn't like they could just get in their car and drive down to the Jordan and get baptized.

They didn't have cars. They had to walk. So they wanted to hear this prophet.

They wanted to see this priest. They wanted to understand this protester. So they made this journey, this 30 to 35-mile journey from Jerusalem.

Because the Bible says that all of Jerusalem was coming down to be baptized in the Jordan. But you see, John the Baptist loved his people. He loved them enough to give them the gospel.

He loved them enough to give them the truth. He loved them enough to speak to them in a way that they needed to hear the truth. So when he reflected the light, he did it lovingly.

In fact, when they asked about repentance, listen to what he says. In verse 10 of Luke 3, the crowds were questioning him, saying, what shall we do? You want us to repent and be baptized, what do we do? He would answer and say to them, the man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none. In the U.S., food is due likewise.

And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, teacher, what shall we do? You want us to be baptized, what does that mean? He says, collect no more than what you have been ordered to, because tax gatherers would collect more for their own purposes. Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, what about us, what shall we do? He said to them, do not take money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages. Very lovingly, very kindly, he would speak to them and tell them, you want to repent, you want to turn from your ways, think about the other person.

Because the commandment of God is to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. So therefore, show your love to them. If you're truly going to repent of your sins, you're going to love your neighbor.

Almost as if to say, as I love you enough to tell you the truth. But he did it lovingly, and he did it longingly, longingly. Why? Because he had waited a long time to be the forerunner.

He had waited a long time to be able to come out of the Judean desert and be able to proclaim the gospel of the Christ. Why, because he lived in a state of expectation. He lived in a state of anticipation, knowing that Israel was living in that same state.

That's why it says back in Luke chapter 3, verse 15, now while the people were in a state of expectation. Why, because they were longing for the expected one. Remember, that's a title for the Messiah.

Psalm 118, Psalm 40, he's called the coming one, or the expected one. That's why we talked to you about Luke 7, where John would come back when he was in prison and say, hey, are you the expected one? Are you the one that we've anticipated? Are you the coming one? Are you the one that we've longed for? Because when John would preach and teach, he would do it longingly. Why? Because there was a longing in his heart for not only his people to know the Messiah, but there was a longing in his heart for the king to come and set up his kingdom, see? The same way for you and me.

We reflect the light lovingly and longingly because we live in a state of expectation of Christ coming again. We live in a state of expectation that Christ could come at any moment. And he's the king.

So we live in anticipation of that coming king. And this was John. Not just longingly, not just lovingly, but John would reflect the light instinctively and incessantly.

Instinctively. John didn't have to work up a message. Didn't have to think about what he was going to say.

Because it was part and parcel to his DNA. He was filled with the spirit of God from his mother's womb. No one else ever was like that.

So he was filled, controlled by the spirit of God from his mother's womb. So that, so that everything about his life would be under the control and domination of God's spirit that would move him through life so that he would instinctively always speak about the Christ always present the preeminence of the light. So he did.

Oh, by the way, the Bible says in Acts chapter 1, verse number 8, that when you receive the spirit of God, right? Power will come upon you when you receive the spirit and you will be my witnesses. Doesn't say you will do witnessing. Because we don't do witnessing.

We are witnesses. It's part of our DNA. You don't become a witness, you are a witness.

You don't become light, you are light. You don't become salt, you are salt. This is who we are.

This is our identity. So when the spirit of God comes upon you, you will receive power. And once you receive that power, you will become someone.

What? A witness. John says, I'm a witness. I came to testify to the truth.

It's what I do. When we become believers and we're infused with the spirit of God, we become witnesses. And so we are able to reflect the light instinctively.

It's what we do. It's who we are. But not only instinctively, but incessantly.

This is what John did. If you go back to John chapter one, in verse 19 it says, this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? Okay, that's day one. Day two is verse 29. The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him. Day three is verse 35. Again, the next day John was standing.

So John the Apostle gives us three consecutive days in the life of John the Baptist to show you the incessant nature of his presenting the preeminence of the light. It was something that he was always doing because his whole life was consumed about describing one person and the purpose he came. That's what John did.

That's who he was. That's why the Bible says preach the word in season and out of season. That's because the word is always in season.

It's never out of season. It's always available, it's always there. And we are to live a life that incessantly promotes nothing but the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is John who's a testimony, a witness to the light. His legacy is to present the preeminence of the light. He does it lovingly, he longingly.

He does it instinctively and incessantly listen to this one. He does it graphically and graciously or gracefully. He does it graphically and this is so important because John calls out sin, calls it for what it is because he knows that the wages of sin is death.

He knows that all of sin then comes short of the glory of God. So he's very graphic on how he portrays sin. That's why he says to the Pharisees, you are snakes.

You're snakes, you're a brood of vipers. He tells them who told you to flee from the wrath to come? Because you're about to experience the wrath of God. See? See? Because he knew that judgment was coming.

You compare John's reflecting of the light to our reflecting of the light. We've come to a place where we wanna present the light in a way that's non-judgmental, non-confrontational. You can't do that because when you present the gospel, it confronts every sinner in their sin.

So you can't water down the gospel to appease the sinner. You have to tell them that judgment is coming and that if they're not right with Christ, their soul will be damned forever and you call them into account. And John would very graphically, yet very gracefully, present the preeminence of the light.

And we'll talk more about that next week. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today and the brief opportunity we had this morning to look at the word of the Lord.

Thank you for John's testimony, that legacy that he has left. Our prayer, Father, is that we'd recognize that legacy and live in line with it, that we might leave a legacy that impacts those around about us. Pray, Father, that you'd be honored and glorified.

And for those who are here today and do not know you, we pray for their salvation, they would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord, that they might be able to present the preeminence of the light. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.