Life as It Was Meant to Be
Tom Shrader works through John 1:1-34, establishing the eternal nature, divine identity, and creative power of Jesus Christ before turning to the theme of life and light. Drawing on cultural surveys, personal illustration, and quotes from figures like Maya Angelou and various everyday people, he demonstrates that no created person, place, or thing can satisfy the deepest human longing for meaning. He closes by holding up John the Baptist as a model for evangelism, urging every believer to bear verbal witness to Christ so that others might believe.
“You will never find happiness through a created person, place, or thing. There is an uncreated person, Jesus Christ, who will satisfy you.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2003/2004)
Recorded: 2003 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 19 min
Themes: meaning of life, identity of jesus, light, evangelism, witness, purpose, satisfaction, eternal life, searching for meaning, new believer, skeptic exploring faith, feeling empty, young adult, struggling with purpose, afraid to share faith, spiritually curious
Scripture: John 1:1-34, John 1:19-28, John 1:29-34, John 1:35-51, John 3:30, John 10:10, John 20:30-31, Genesis 1:26, Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20, Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 1:1, Hebrews 1:10, 1 Peter 3:22, Philippians 2:10, Matthew 11:11, Matthew 5:48, Mark 1:4-5, 2 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 2
Theological Themes: christology, deity of christ, logos, incarnation, trinity, bearing witness, preexistence of christ, soteriology
Full Transcript
Who Do You Say That I Am?
Open your Bibles, if you would, to the Gospel of John, chapter 1. We continue our study in the life of Christ. I want to make certain that you realize we are going to keep in front of you throughout this series the very question that Jesus Himself asks: who do you say that I am? That is Jesus' question. For the sake of this discussion, it really does not matter what everybody else thinks. Who do you say that Jesus Christ is? Do you understand that He is God come in the flesh to dwell on this earth, to go to that cross, to die so that you will have eternal life? And have you responded to that as the Bible has called you to respond? That is the question I want to keep in front of you.
As we look at the life of Christ, this is, in a sense, God's biography of Jesus. We take Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, bring them together the best we can in chronological order, and we have a complete biographical sketch of the life of Jesus Christ, penned by the authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is an ambitious task, but we are excited about undertaking it.
In the Beginning Was the Word
Last week we began with verse 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." F. F. Bruce writes that John intends the whole of his gospel to be read in light of this verse. John is very clear in chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, about why he is writing and why he selected what is included: that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you would have eternal life. That is John's intent.
So he actually precedes the beginning in the very first verse. In that first verse, John declares three things: first, Jesus is eternal; second, Jesus was with the Father, separate from Him; and third, Jesus is God. Wherever you place the beginning on the timeline — whether 10,000 years ago, a million years ago, or a billion years ago — Jesus predates it. Jesus is eternal. He was with the Father, which tells us He was separate from the Father, with Him but distinct, and yet He is God.
One God, Three Persons
What we want to teach you is simple, and yet it is also profound — really beyond our total comprehension. The Bible teaches, and teaches clearly, that there is one God who manifests Himself in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:26, when God decides it is time to create man, He says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness." He does not say, "I will make man in my image." There is a plural personal pronoun. Why is it there? Because there is one God who manifests Himself in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is what John is declaring in that first verse.
Verse 2 is somewhat repetitious: He — Jesus — was in the beginning with God. Then in verse 3: "All things came into being by Him. Apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being." Jesus created all things. Everything that has come into being has come into being as a result of His creative work. Hebrews 1:10 confirms this: "Lord, in the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands."
Jesus Created, Not Built
Paul carries the same idea in Colossians chapter 1. He is writing to a church that has been infiltrated with false teaching — specifically, that Jesus was preeminent among all creation but was still a created being. That is clearly false doctrine, and Paul is determined to correct it. So he writes: "For by Him" — and he has just told us that Him refers to Jesus — "all things were created."
Now, this point is very important: Jesus created all things. He did not merely build all things. There is a huge difference. Consider someone skilled enough to build an engine. They could build one, but they could not create one. If you put that person in a room with four walls, a floor, a ceiling, and nothing else but doorknobs, and said, "Create me an engine," they would say they cannot. They could build an engine, but they need parts — gaskets, pistons, and all manner of other things. They can build, but they cannot create.
Do you see the difference? All of a sudden, your understanding of God and who He is gets bigger, because He is not building the universe. He is creating the universe. It was void. Formless. He created it all.
I thought I was being very ambitious this week. I decided to get on the web, do a little research, and come up with statistics that would dazzle you — to get an elementary view of physics. It was a stupid idea. I did not understand anything I read, except for one thing. There was a Q&A that I came across, and this person was asking —
The Order of Creation
Based on the earth being a certain number of billions of years old, the universe could not be the width we say it is in light years. Creation would not allow it to expand that fast, that quickly. The astrophysicist who answered this objection said something remarkable: when creation took place — and this is a secular scientist speaking — it didn't take place in just one spot. It seemed to take place across the board. It wasn't just one moment where everything banged outward from a single point. There was a creation that took place across the universe.
There is an order in the universe. That is the point. God created it, and He is a God of order, and you can see that. There is no place where that is more clearly demonstrated than in the universe itself. Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen." Psalm 19:1 declares, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God, their expanses declaring the works of His hand."
One Nobel Prize winner writes this: "According to everything taught by the exact sciences about the immense realm of nature, a certain order prevails, one independent of human mind. This order can be formulated in terms of purposeful activity. There is evidence of an intelligent order of the universe to which both man and nature are subservient." I can tell you what that is.
Christ as Creator
Go back to Colossians 1. In the beginning, Jesus created both the things in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created by Him and for Him. John MacArthur helps with that phrase: thrones, dominions, rulers, and authority. John writes that these terms refer to various ranks of angels. Far from being an angel — and remember, that was the false teaching that had come into the church at Colossae — Jesus created the angels. Scripture is clear that Jesus is not an angel, but the Creator of angels. He is above the angels, the angels worship Him, and they are under His authority.
Peter writes in 1 Peter 3:22 that "Christ is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after the angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him." Paul tells us in Philippians 2:10 that there is a day coming when "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth" — and that includes every created thing, including the angels.
Now when we get to verse 17 of Colossians 1, we receive some new information. Verse 16 tells us that He created these things — everything that was created was created by Him, not merely built by Him, but created by Him, including the angels and all the authorities and principalities. Verse 17 adds this: "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." That tells me that God did not simply wind this thing up and walk away. He is not a distant God. He is a God intimately involved with every aspect of life — your life. He has the hairs on your head numbered. He knows what you are going to say before you say it, and yet at the same time He created and holds together the entire universe.
A Fragile Balance
This is a very fragile, delicate balance we have on this planet. Donald B. Young, in a work titled *The Design of Nature*, writes this: "A change in the rate of the earth's rotation around the Sun or on its axis would be catastrophic. The earth would become either too hot or too cold to support life. If the moon were much nearer the earth, huge tides would inundate the continents. A change in the composition of gases that make up our atmosphere would also be fatal to life. The slightest change in the mass of the proton would result in the dissolution of hydrogen atoms." That would result in the destruction of the universe, because hydrogen is the dominant element. The universe, according to Donald B. Young, appears to be carefully designed for the well-being of mankind. There is this fragile balance. How is it that the earth rotates at exactly this speed and on an axis at exactly this angle? God holds it together.
Bob Hage and the Mystery of Gravity
My favorite illustration of Colossians 1:17 comes from a man named Bob Hage. I first met Bob probably fifteen years ago or more, down in Tucson, where he was vacationing. He was a man who had worked for McDonnell Douglas in the development of the Mercury, Apollo, and Gemini programs, and he served as a liaison between McDonnell Douglas and the original seven astronauts. Every time he is in town he comes to the Bible study, and he was here just three or four months ago. He had just finished a book covering a hundred years of aviation, from the Wright Brothers in 1903 to the Space Shuttle in 2003.
As he worked in the space program, he became fascinated — and you can get a sense of this from the quotations we have already cited — by the order of the universe. That fascination led him to think that perhaps there was a creating power behind it all, and he began to seek after this Creator under the idea that it might even be God. He spent a couple of weeks with Francis Schaeffer, two powerful minds exchanging truth. He came away essentially confused and unaffected by that experience.
Then one day he was home working in his office, talking with a colleague on the phone. They were simply musing back and forth about gravity. They knew what it was, but they could not fully explain how everything worked within it. They knew they could do the calculations — they knew they could send a spacecraft around the earth and gravity would hold it in place, and they knew exactly what thrust was needed to propel a vessel out of earth's orbit and into orbit around the moon.
the Psalmist, who said, "This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." I think the meaning of life is to know God and to make Him known. But I'm not sure.
The Light and Life Found Only in Christ
John begins to give us more information in verse 4: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John introduces two themes here that run through the balance of this gospel. The first is life — a word John uses more than any other New Testament author, appearing 35 times in this gospel and at least 15 times in the verb form, to live. He says that if you want to have life, if you want to understand life, you are going to find it in Him, in Christ alone. You are not going to find it anywhere else.
John then introduces the idea of light and darkness, which we will expand on further as we move deeper into the gospel, but we will touch on it today. When he speaks of light, he is speaking of the Bible giving us light — showing and demonstrating to us what holiness is, what purity is, what truth is. But first, the focus falls on that opening term: in Him was life.
Three Dimensions of Life
When John talks about life, he is talking about life in three areas: physical life, spiritual life, and eternal life. We have already acknowledged the first. Jesus creates all things, and we are never going to understand this life apart from Christ. Beyond that, there is spiritual life and eternal life. When we talk about physical life, we are talking about life on this planet — living here, finding meaning, finding purpose, finding direction.
A study released on October 1st, just a couple of weeks ago, reported that the happiest nation in the world is Nigeria. In this country, we rank sixteenth. Nigeria was at the top, followed by Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Puerto Rico as the happiest places on earth — apparently replacing Disneyland. Russia and Romania were among the least happy.
What was striking, as CNN was reporting this and showing pictures of people in Nigeria, was that from our perspective, these people had absolutely nothing. They were poor. And yet you could not help but look at the images and ask: how can they possibly be happy? They don't have ESPN. They don't have MP3 players.
The Failure of Wealth to Deliver Happiness
A study covering the years 1960 to 1993 found that the average American saw real income double, yet we have less happiness, more depression, more fragile relationships, less vocational security, more crime, and more demoralized children. The study concluded that money is only very modestly connected to happiness. It stated, "In every country that we looked at, as wealth increased over years, the well-being, the happiness, and the life satisfaction of the people in those countries has not increased. There is only a slight tendency for people in rich countries to be happier than those in modest countries."
The story concludes with this sentence: we are soaring materially, yet we have doubled the rate of divorce from forty years ago, tripled teen suicide, quadrupled juvenile delinquents, and quintupled the number of babies born to unmarried parents. We live in a world sending very confusing messages, because the marketplace message is that you can find happiness, you can buy happiness, you can earn happiness. What we have discovered is that is not really true.
I can buy medicine, but I cannot buy health. I can buy a bed where I can set the firmness to exactly what I want, but I cannot buy sleep. I can buy a house, but I cannot make it a home. So where do we find happiness?
What the World Says About the Meaning of Life
Every December, *Life* magazine gets a little spiritual and does a feature on God, or Mary, or Jesus. A few years ago they did one on the meaning of life — gathering famous and not-so-famous people to speak about life's purpose and where meaning and fulfillment are found.
Tom Robbins, the author, writes this: "Our purpose is to consciously, deliberately evolve toward a wiser, more liberated and luminous state of being. To return to Eden, make friends with the snake and set up our computers among the wild apples. Our mission is to jettison those pointless preoccupations and take on once again the primordial cargo of inexhaustible ecstasy."
Maya Angelou is a significant voice in our culture, someone Oprah continually elevates and who is widely regarded as a major, influential figure. Here is what she writes: "Since age two, I've been waltzing up and down with the question of life's meaning, and I'm obligated to report that the answer changes from week to week." And then she says this: "When I know the answer, I know it absolutely, and as soon as I know that I know it, I know that I know nothing."
Where True Life Begins: The Story of Hage
Returning to where we began — that story captures exactly what John is saying. The scientist Hage could not explain gravity. He had the data, the equations, the training, and still could not assemble it into a coherent answer. Then his uneducated housekeeper, who had overheard the conversation, said simply, "I can explain gravity." He asked how. She opened to Colossians 1:17: "Christ holds all things together."
It was the voice of that cleaning lady and the Word of God, used by the Spirit of God, that opened his eyes to see who God truly was. Today he is a major advocate and apologist for the Christian faith. That is what the universe is telling us. You can see the evidence, but unless God opens your eyes and reveals to you who Christ is, you are never going to fully understand, comprehend, or be able to assemble those things together.
In Him was life. If you want physical life — life on this planet with meaning, purpose, and direction — you will find it in Christ alone. The world offers a thousand substitutes, and the data shows that none of them deliver. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. But for those whose eyes have been opened, everything begins to come together.
The World's Answers About Life's Purpose
About 70% of the time, her conclusion is that there's a grand design. What she's saying is that 30% of the time, she doesn't even know if there's a purpose, or a life, or anything here — and yet we're buying her books and listening to her.
I said famous and not so famous. Jose Martinez is a taxi driver. I try to read this all in one breath, because you just have to let this hit you. "We are here to die, just live and die. Drive a cab, I do some fishing, I take my girlfriend out, pay taxes, do a little reading, then I get ready to drop dead. You've got to be strong about it. Life's a big lie. Nobody gives a damn. You're rich, you're poor, you're here, you're gone, you're like the wind. After you're gone, other people will come. We're going to destroy ourselves. Nothing we can do about it. The only cure for the world's illness is nuclear war. Wipe out everything and start over."
Then there's Willie Nelson. He says, quoting Matthew 5:48 — and don't worry, you're safe — "Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." His argument is that the purpose of life is to reach perfection, to achieve perfection. Man must use his imagination to create a mental image of himself as a happy, healthy person, perfect in every way. Wanting to be perfect is all that's required. God has a perfect picture in His mind of everyone living in love and peace and harmony. Since God always gets what He wants, it's not a question of whether man will reach perfection, but when. What's particularly alarming about that is he begins with a Bible verse.
Frank D'Amafrio is a barber. "I've been asking why am I here most of my life. If there's a purpose, I don't care anymore. I'm 74. I'm on my way out. Let the young people learn the hard way like I did. No one ever told me anything." Just picture Frank and the family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. He's saying, I don't know, I don't care, let them learn like I did, nobody told me anything.
The last one is Leonard Nimoy — Mr. Spock. "I find the question, why are we here, typically human. I'd suggest, are we here, is a more logical question."
The Lie the World Sells Us
I camp on this because it's so close to the way I think. In my own personal experience, I know the lie of the world. The lie of the world is that you can find happiness in this world. The reality is you will never find happiness through a created person, place, or thing.
I'll speak autobiographically. Susan and I started dating. I was very attracted to Susan on a couple of levels — first, just the physical level. She was absolutely beautiful, and she was a really good dancer. I wasn't, but I tried.
What really attracted me to her, though, was that she was so opposite from me. I had become so cynical, so beaten up, so convinced that everything was a joke. She was so sweet and innocent, naive. I used to say to her, almost mocking her, "You live in a tree. What planet are you from?" All the while, I was just wishing she would lower that ladder down out of that tree and let me climb up into it. She didn't. She couldn't.
I remember standing at the front when she walked down the aisle that day. She was incredible. She was beautiful. We stood there, and he said, "Do you take her to be your wife?" I said, "I do." He said, "Susan, do you take Tom to be your husband?" I honestly thought — and I know this may not make sense — there was still a shot she'd say no. She said yes, and I thought, this is it. This is extraordinary. I am the happiest guy in the world.
About two, two and a half months into it, I came home one day and said to Susan, "I've got news for you. You're not making me very happy. I'm not happy. You don't make me happy." She said, "Well, let me tell you something. You don't make me happy either, and I'm miserable."
No Created Thing Can Fill What Only God Can
Here's what I want you to see. Susan, then and now, is everything a man could ask for in a wife, a lover, a parent could ask for in a child, or a friend could want in a friend. I trust her with anything. She is the only person on the planet with whom I share certain things, and she would never, ever do anything to hurt me or undermine me.
But she's not God, and I was asking her to be God. I was asking her to satisfy all of my needs, all of my desires, to fill my heart — to do what God says no human can do. No created person, place, or thing will satisfy you. But there is an uncreated Person, Jesus Christ, who will satisfy you.
The Temporary High of the World's Pleasures
This is a great time of year. College football — I absolutely love college football. We're watching the undefeated teams get beaten. We've got a key game coming up against Iowa State. Basketball is getting ready to start. And you're watching what the Cubs are doing. How can you not be swept away?
But sports is a great picture of something important. Let's say the Cubs win another ball game. Let's say they get to the World Series — let's say they're playing the Yankees — and let's say the Cubs win. We all go crazy. But do you understand that the following year, after about 30 games, if they're 10 and 20, the Chicago Tribune is going to be asking, "What's wrong with Dusty? Doesn't he know how to manage? These guys got fat, dumb, and easy last year. They rested on their laurels." It doesn't mean a thing. I guarantee it.
Life Found Only in the Light
There is life in Him, and nowhere else. Jesus says in John 10:10, in this very gospel, "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. He who believes in Me has eternal life." That is the truth. John's whole purpose in writing is that you might believe, by reading these things, that He is the Son of God, and then by believing, you would have eternal life.
Do you have life? Are you one of the walking dead? You look great, you can move around, you have the new car, the stuff going on, the clothes looking good, but you are dead inside. That is what he is talking about. Are you alive spiritually?
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it. The light is shining — Christ is the light. He shines before the darkness, and He comes into a world that is dark. One of the things we know about light and darkness is that they cannot coexist. This room is either light or it is dark, and once that light comes into the room, there is nothing the darkness can do about it.
The light has come into the world, and it is the person of Christ. However, the light has not necessarily come into the life of each individual. You could still be sitting here in the darkness.
What Light Does
Let us talk for a moment about at least three things that light does. Number one, it is a measurement. We talk about the speed of light and measure distance that way. Number two, light energizes — it gives life. Consider a nuclear winter, where the sun is blocked out; we need that light for life. The third thing light does is reveal. It allows us to see things as they truly and really are.
Jesus comes into the world as the light of the world. In Him, you have a measurement. What is the standard? Perfection, holiness, sinlessness. You and I want to compete with one another about who is really good and what good things we do, and who does the better thing, maybe even the best thing. But that is not the right comparison. Your measurement is against Him.
He is also the life-giver. You find life in Him and Him alone — you will find life nowhere else. That is what Paul writes in the book of Ephesians to the church at Ephesus. He said, "You were dead in your sins and trespasses." You were in the darkness. But then the light comes, and He reveals things as they really are. He reveals how futile it is to try to find meaning and purpose in a person, place, or thing apart from Him. He holds up that light, and now you can see life for what it really is.
Darkness Cannot Overcome the Light
Darkness could not comprehend it — perhaps a better word is overcome it. Darkness is not able to overcome or conquer light. The light shines in the darkness. We were in the darkness, and now we are in the light.
Natural man can never understand these things on his own. If you are here today and you are not a Christian, you are never going to figure this out by yourself. This is never going to be something you can sit down and logically navigate your way through and arrive at an answer. Unless the Spirit of God opens your eyes to see this truth, as 2 Corinthians 2:14 makes clear, natural man will never understand spiritual things.
So what do you pray? You pray, "God, open my eyes. Let me see this. What I want more than anything else is to really understand life." If you are here and you are in the dark, you cry out to Him: "Father, I am lost. I do not know. I am confused. I cannot see. I think I have life, but I am miserable."
The Hollowness of Earthly Success
Have you experienced that hollowness? Some of you, at very different levels, have had extraordinary successes — maybe in business, maybe monetary, maybe in sports. Are they not always a little hollow? Are they not always ultimately a little bit empty? I am not saying they are not important. I am just saying they are not life-giving.
That is why a player can stand there after a tough game and say, "Listen, I got to watch my daughter play soccer yesterday." When you have lost a yard in seven carries, you start to get perspective. You begin to see what really matters. Haven't you heard people who have had a life-changing experience — a near-death experience — who suddenly say everything is different? Their relationships are different, the way they see everything is different. Why do we have to take someone to the brink of death before they draw that conclusion? Why do we have to almost lose it all before we see it clearly? Why can we not simply look at it now? But that is the way we are.
He said, "I am life." True life for men comes in Christ.
John the Baptist Introduced
In verse 6, John introduces us to a new character. His name is also John — John the Baptist. Very briefly, here is what John tells us about John the Baptist.
John the Baptist: A Man Sent from God
There was a man sent from God. We tend, I think, to minimize John the Baptist. Matthew 11, verse 11, Jesus says this: "Truly I say to you, among those born of woman, there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist." Let's stop and think about that. Not Abraham, not Joseph, not David, not Elijah, not Jeremiah, not Joshua, not Moses — none of them greater than John the Baptist. He tends to be a figure that we just skip right over, yet he is an extraordinary man.
He seems to be at least a charismatic figure to some extent. Mark 1, verses 4 and 5 says this: "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and all the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins." People are responding. He is this man sent from God.
John's gospel does not really give us John the Baptist's message, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke do, and that is that he is preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sin. Here is really his job description, in verses 7 and 8: "He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all may believe through him. He was not the light, but he came that he might bear witness of the light."
So here was John's message and purpose in three things. First, he says: I am not the light. Second, I did come to bear witness of the light. Third, the purpose in my bearing witness is that you might believe.
I Am Not the Light
With your Bible open, we can look at each one of these points as they unfold through John's gospel. Look at verses 19 through 28. John is making the point: I am not the light. This is the witness of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem asking him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am not the Christ." In verse 23 he describes himself as "a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." I am a bulldozer, he is saying. I am here to make a path clear. That is what I am. Do not focus on me. Do not come to the messenger and put your faith in the messenger. It is the One I am pointing to that matters.
Behold, the Lamb of God
In verses 29 through 34, the next day he saw Jesus coming 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 rank higher than I and existed before me." And he says he was not even worthy to untie His sandal. I bear witness — behold, the Lamb of God.
To that Jewish audience, they would know exactly what John was saying. Here comes the ultimate sacrifice. There will be no more killing of bulls or goats or doves. It is done. It is finished.
I went to see the film Luther on Friday. One of the things powerfully made in that movie is how the Catholic Church kept people in the business of works. Jesus did not come along and say, "I died on the cross — now I've done My part, and you've got stuff to do too." He said, "It is finished." No more indulgences, no more purgatory. You are either saved or you are not saved.
He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and He either did it or He did not. What the Jews understood is that this destroyed the entire sacrificial system, because there is no more sacrifice to be made. That is what the book of Hebrews is all about. Jesus Christ died once for all, so we do not have to bring Him to the altar and kill Him again in a mass. He is done.
Bearing Witness That You Might Believe
And John bears witness — why? That you might believe. Hebrews chapter 1 tells us that in the old days God spoke through the prophets, and now He speaks through the Son. John bears witness of the Son.
Back in verses 35 through 51, he bears witness again that you might believe. The next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked and saw Jesus. He said, "Behold, the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard him speak and began to follow Jesus. Something magnificent about John the Baptist is not only that he is not the light, but that he bears witness of the light so that others would believe.
Through verse 51, you see Jesus assemble the team that will follow Him. John said, "I want you to believe in Him. I do not want you following me. I want you to follow Him."
Following John's Model in Evangelism
So here is how John the evangelist describes John the Baptist in verses 6, 7, and 8. He is one sent from God. He came to bear witness of the light. His hope is that all would believe. He is not the light. He came to bear witness of the light.
Let me ask you this. At the beginning of this series we said we pray that God would put in our hearts collectively and individually a passion to share this truth with others. Are you following John the Baptist's model in terms of evangelism?
John says: I am not the light of the world. It is important to have a real, accurate view of who you are as you begin to evangelize — not to think of yourself more highly than you truly are. That kind of pride will stop your testimony. John chapter 3, verse 30, John the Baptist says, "He must increase and I must decrease." If you are going to go and share this truth, you have to have a realistic view of yourself, and you have to have a life that provides an effective testimony.
James Boyce writes this: "Living the faith is a most essential basis for effective witness. If we do not live what we profess, the profession will be discredited. Yet living the faith is not itself witnessing. Witnessing is speaking."
Witnessing: Verbal Testimony for Christ
Sharing the gospel means speaking to others about Jesus Christ. This is implied in the very word itself, for witnessing is a legal term which points to verbal testimony rendered in a court of law. If we are to do this effectively, we must be able to tell who Jesus is, what He said about the depravity of man's nature, why His death and resurrection are essential elements of the solution to the problem of man's sins and depravity, and how one comes into a personal relationship with Christ.
So I am asking: are you doing that? When is the last time you have been a witness for Christ? I am not talking about a silent witness. I am not talking about living in a way where you create thirst and hunger in somebody else. I am talking about when is the last time you sat down with someone — a friend, a family member, or a total stranger — and shared with them who Jesus Christ really is.
That is a very important question. And if the answer is that it has been a while, then you have to ask why. Some would say, "I don't know enough." Stop. If you know enough to believe the gospel, you know enough to share the gospel. If you know enough to believe that Jesus died on the cross, that you are a sinner, and that in His death and resurrection you can find eternal life, then you know enough to share it.
It is not enough to just know this. It is not enough to just live the Christian life. You have to be a witness — bear witness, give testimony. That is one of my deepest desires in this series: that those who are here and do not know Christ will hear the gospel and respond, and that those of us who are followers of Christ will be challenged on a frequent basis to be God's mouthpiece and share this truth.
Praying for Opportunities to Share
Are you even seeking opportunities to witness? Do you even pray for them? I want to ask you to make this a constant part of your prayer life for the rest of your life — that God would present opportunities for you to share this truth, and that you would have the courage and the boldness to share it.
I was teaching a study at Grace Community Church about twenty years ago, and we were talking about this very thing. I challenged the group and said, "Pray this prayer right now." A man came back the following week and said, "You are not going to believe what happened." He told me that after that session he went to his car and prayed, "God, bring it on — bring me somebody." That night he and his wife had a couple over for dinner. He did not know them well; his wife knew her better than he knew him. They ate dinner, had conversation, and the men went outside to sit. The other man turned to him and said, "Can I ask you something? Can you tell me how I can know Jesus Christ?"
Now, it will not always be that clear. But people are asking you this question all day long in one form or another. You may say, "Nobody has ever asked me that." But they have. When someone asks you, "How come your marriage works and ours is struggling?" what they are really saying is, "Who is Jesus?" When someone says, "How come you don't have nearly what I have, and yet you seem happy and I'm not?" they are asking you, "Who is Jesus?" It really is as simple as that.