A Witness to the Light

John 1:6-8, 19-28 The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  What that means is that God has ordered our salvation in such a way that it is absolutely necessary for us to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ if we are to be saved.  No one will be saved if they have not heard the Gospel.

The Bible says that of his own will our heavenly Father has brought us forth by the word of truth.  The Bible says that we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. 

That you are a child of God and heir of eternal life is because someone spoke the powerful, life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ to you.  That was the mission of John the Baptist, to bear witness to Jesus.  The Bible says that:

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 

            Throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New, light is used to identify Jesus.  A special star shone on the birthplace of Jesus so that the wise men could follow it.  When Jesus was transfigured, the glorious light of Almighty God shone from his human flesh.  The sun refused to shine as Jesus died.  Jesus said of himself that he is the light of the world.

John the Baptist came to bear witness to that light—to speak of it and explain it and point to it in Jesus of Nazareth—so that all might believe in the light through his witness.  And his sermon was simplicity in itself:  Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That was his witness, his proclamation:  that Jesus was sent by God to bear our sins to the cross where his sacrifice would make us right with God by the shedding of his blood.  Then and now, no one can be saved by any other means than believing the message of John the Baptist.

But as important as John was, he was still only a servant whose job it was to bear witness to another.  The Bible says that:

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.  And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”  He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

John’s mission was not to convert anyone—only the Holy Spirit can do that.  His mission was simply to bear witness to the Good News of Jesus and the Holy Spirit would do the rest.

God promised that the word that goes out from his mouth will not return to him empty but will accomplish the saving purpose for which he sends it.  The Bible says that:  the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. 

That must have been a great comfort for John to know that God would do his saving work through him—that he wasn’t responsible saving anyone but for simply telling the truth of salvation in Jesus. 

So it is for us.  Too often our voices of witness are silenced because we are afraid that we have to argue or reason or convince people into heaven.  But that is not our job.  Our job is to bear witness to what we know about Jesus and trust the Holy Spirit to do his work through our message just like he did for John.

We know from the Bible how faithful his witness was and how powerfully God acted through John’s message because all of Judah came out to hear him.

They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

Moses had promised that after him would come another prophet much greater than himself.  Malachi promised that before the Messiah came, God would send a forerunner, someone like Elijah who would preach a message of repentance and reconciliation.  The people knew these prophecies about the coming Savior.

And when they heard John’s message and when they viewed his life that stood in such stark contrast to their own, they wanted to know:  was John the great prophet to come?  Was he Elijah raised from the dead?  Who are you?

What about us?  We know who John the Baptist was, the forerunner of Jesus.  We recognize the one he pointed to.  We believe his message that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

But has that knowledge and that faith transformed us into people like John who stand in such stark contrast to the unbelieving world around us that people want to know about us because they see something different in us?

The Bible says that we are to be salt and light in a dark and dying world—that we are to live our lives in such a way that people will ask us about for the reason for the hope we have—that our good deeds would shame anyone who would speak a word against us. 

Like John the Baptist, our witness to Jesus Christ, both in the words we speak and the life we live, is intended by God to have such a compelling effect on those around us that they are drawn to us so that we can tell them about Jesus as John did:

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.” 

            The truth kept John from claiming to be the great prophet promised by Moses.  That would be Jesus.  Humility kept him from claiming the mantle of Elijah (though Jesus would say that was exactly who he was.) 

But John would gladly tell the truth about himself because it served his mission.  He was the one Isaiah promised—the one who would go before the Lord to prepare his way by calling the people to repent of their sins and flee from the wrath to come.

That message was no more popular then, than it is today-- but neither is it any less necessary. 

We may not live in a physical wilderness like John but more and more we live in a cultural wilderness.  The bulwarks of civilization are crumbling all around us.  Decency and honesty and justice are increasingly rare.  Violence and filthiness are on the rise.

The faithful child of God more and more feels like a small oasis of Christian civilization in a wilderness of paganism and what makes our lives as witnesses so difficult is that we have a message that the world does not want to hear:  that a complete change of heart and mind and spirit is what is needed.

No one wants to hear that message.  To be told that you are on the wrong path in life—that the decisions you have made are misguided—that the best you can do is not good enough—that message is no more popular now than it was then but it is a message that must be spoken so that people can know and understand their need for salvation.

Then and now it takes courage to speak that message because people reject the idea that we have a right and responsibility to speak to them about things that matter eternally.

They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

            “Who do you think you are?”  “What gives you the right to say these things to me?”  Those were the kinds of questions that John faced.  If he wasn’t the Messiah and he wasn’t the great prophet promised by Moses and if he wasn’t Elijah raised from the dead, what gave him the right to tell people that they were sinners and that they needed a Savior?

            Now, John had a special responsibility and commission from God for his mission that went all the way back to the prophets who told of the coming of the Messiah’s forerunner.  But the answer he gave to this question about his right to speak the truth applies to all of us:

John answered them, “I baptize with water, 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 across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

            Here is the reason for John’s witness.  Here is the reason for our witness.  Because in the very midst of the people who need him the most, Jesus is unknown. 

When John the Evangelist begins his Gospel he says that the world was made by Jesus and yet the world did not know him—that he came to his own people but they did not receive him.

That is why John the Baptist came as a witness to the Light—that is why John faced the opposition of religious leaders—that is what John lived a life of courage and sacrifice—because there was an entire world full of people who desperately needed the one thing that they did not know- and could not know- apart from his testimony and that is a life with God through faith in Jesus.

Standing in their very midst was their Savior from sin and death and their sin-darkened eyes were blind to the truth of the Light of the World. 

John the Baptist could not remain silent in the face of that spiritual darkness.  His father, Zechariah, prophesied that John would give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and so he did by bearing witness to the Light of the World. 

Dear friends in Christ, the world has not changed in the last two thousand years.  If anything the spiritual darkness that encompasses the world and burdens human souls has only gotten deeper and more profound. 

What is still needed—now more than ever—are those who will bear witness to the Light of the World and say of him:  Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  Amen.