Jesus, The Revealed One

John 1:19-34

March 19, 2006

As we have been studying the Jesus of the Bible, we saw some amazing truths about Jesus in John’s opening segment.

Jesus is the Living Word of God.

Jesus is the Light of the World.

Jesus is the Embodiment of Glory.

Jesus is the Epitome of Greatness.

Jesus is the Essence of Grace.

Jesus is the Exponent of God.

He truly is the greatest phenomenon

That has ever walked across the stage of this world.

This morning we see another fundamental truth about Jesus

He is the revealed one.

Jesus is not the recognized One, as though He was some figure in history that we have decided to elevate.

Muhammad was recognized by men as a prophet

Joseph Smith has been recognized by men as a prophet

Buddha was recognized by men as a prophet

Gandhi was recognized by men as a prophet

Confucius was recognized by men as a prophet

Jesus is not the recognized One

Jesus is the Revealed One.

John 5:31-40 "If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. "There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. "You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. "But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. "He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. "But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. "And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. "You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”

Jesus testified about Himself,

John the Baptist testified about Jesus

Jesus works testify as to who He is

The Scripture testified as to who Jesus is.

And perhaps the most important of all.

Jesus was revealed by God Himself as the Savior of the World.

God revealed it at His baptism.

Matthew 3:13-17 “Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, " This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

God revealed it at His Transfiguration.

Matthew 17:1-8 “Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, "Get up, and do not be afraid." And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.”

God revealed it at the Triumphal Entry.

John 12:27-32 "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, " This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."

God revealed it at His crucifixion.

Matthew 27:54 “Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

God revealed it through His Resurrection.

Romans 1:4 “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,”

God will reveal it through His Return.

Psalms 2:7-9 "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 'You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'"

And this is the reason why we have here the testimony of John.

John said in verses 33-34

“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 have testified that this is the Son of God.”

When we are talking about Jesus,

We are talking about the God-revealed Savior of the World.

It is not as though we just like Him and want you to like Him.

It is not as though we just want you to be like us.

It is not as though we just want to force our beliefs on you.

It is that Jesus is the Only way the Father has ever revealed.

There is only One whom God has ever declared

Savior of the World, and His name is Jesus.

And this morning in our text,

You will see the impact that this revelation had on John’s life.

I want you to see four points that John makes

In order that we may give Jesus the proper place in our lives.

#1 JOHN TOLD THE PURE: HE IS PERFECT

John 1:19-23

“This is the testimony of John”

If John were here, this is what he would want you to see.

John was a low profile, non-confrontational, feel good preacher.

He very simply told people, repent, or you will go to hell.

Luke 3:7 “So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

And it didn’t matter if you were a common person, a wealthy person, an authoritative person or a religious person.

Luke 3:10-14 “And the crowds were questioning him, saying, "Then what shall we do?" And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise." And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than what you have been ordered to." Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, "And what about us, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages."

This type of preaching flew right in the face of the religious elite,

So here in verse 19 we see the “good” people being sent to John.

“the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem”

These were the examples of purity and righteousness.

Certainly John, he would back off of his message.

But when they come asking John “Who are you?”

John doesn’t hold back.

He confesses he is not the King they are waiting for.

He confesses he is not Elijah whom they are waiting for.

He confesses he is not the Prophet they are waiting for.

You see, John was not interested in who he was,

Or who the people thought he was.

John was interested in only One person.

So when they say a second time in verse 22, “Who are you?”

John replies, “I am A voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.”

If you are unfamiliar with what that meant,

When a King was about to arrive in a town,

He would send his HERALD AHEAD OF HIM TO PREPARE THE WAY.

That is what John was doing.

He was telling the people they were not fit for a King.

This may have been fine for the local rabble,

But John has the priests here before him.

Even they needed to clean themselves up.

We must realize Jesus is perfect. He is holy. He is righteous.

Jesus is perfect.

Throughout His stay on earth, He endured every single temptation, And yet never sinned one single time.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

He was so perfect they couldn’t even lie about Him and condemn Him.

Mark 14:55-59 “Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, "We heard Him say, ' I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'" Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.”

When we talk about Jesus, we are talking about perfection.

And if we are to honor Him as He deserves, we must clean ourselves up.

The word is called REPENTANCE.

And Jesus deserves it.

IT IS TIME WE QUIT ASSUMING HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT OUR SIN

IF HE DIDN’T CARE, THEN WHY DID HE SEND JOHN?

IF HE DIDN’T CARE, WHY DID HE DIE TO SAVE YOU FROM SIN?

We understand this about God.

Deuteronomy 23:14 "Since the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.”

We owe Jesus our repentance, He is perfect.

I WOULD ARGUE THAT THIS IS THE CHARACTERISTIC JESUS LOOKS FOR THE MOST IN PEOPLE.

To some He was extremely compassionate

(Woman at the Well, Woman caught in Adultery, Zaccheus)

To some He was extremely critical

(Pharisees - 10 times in Matthew calls them hypocrites)

WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE?

One was repentant, one wasn’t.

Think about the woman caught in adultery.

“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone…”

“Go and sin no more”

You do not go to Jesus in arrogance, you go to Him in repentance.

This is why tax collectors, and sinners, and prostitutes found favor, But the religious elite did not.

When you come to Jesus, you come in repentance,

I don’t care how pure you are, and John testified to this.

Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

John told the pure He is perfect

#2 JOHN TOLD THE EXPERTS HE IS EXCEPTIONAL

John 1:24-28

Now we are given a little more light on the subject.

“they had been sent from the Pharisees”

We all know who the Pharisees were,

They were the legalistic, self-proclaimed experts on God.

They a little problem with John’s message.

Matthew 3:7-8 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;”

I think we can all see why John wasn’t real popular among them.

They come questioning John’s authority to tell people to repent.

“Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

He quickly gives them an answer

And then forces the focus back on the One he is testifying about.

“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.”

DID YOU CATCH WHAT JOHN DID?

He took the opportunity to tell these experts about the truly exceptional One.

The experts need to realize that there is One more exceptional than they.

We talked about Sunday night, that Jesus is the Epitome of Greatness.

John the Baptist was called the greatest man born of woman,

And John says I can’t even untie the sandals of this man.

JESUS IS EXCEPTIONAL.

He is not just WISE, He is wisdom incarnate. (Proverbs 8)

He is not just TRUE, He is the truth. (John 14:6)

He is not just MERCIFUL, He is the sacrifice for sin. (Romans 5:8)

He is not just a WAY, He is the only way of salvation. (no other name under heaven)

Jesus is exclusive and Jesus is exceptional.

You cannot find another to compare to Him throughout the course of history.

Put Him against any other, and watch them all fall to pieces.

Put the morality of Gandhi up against the righteousness of Jesus

Put the dreams of Joseph Smith against the prophecy of Jesus

Put the sacrifices of Buddha against the cross of Jesus

Put the intimidation of Muhammad against the power of Jesus

None of them ever walked on water

None of them ever commanded the storms

None of them ever gave sight to the blind

None of them ever healed the lame,

None of them ever conquered the grave

DON’T YOU DARE LUMP JESUS TOGETHER

IN SOME GENERIC POOL OF PROPHETS

JESUS IS EXCEPTIONAL!

John points that out to these experts.

They need to honor and glorify this One who is better than they.

The concept here is called WORSHIP

Jesus deserves to be worshiped, He stands alone

Philippians 2:9-10 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,”

John told the pure He is perfect and deserves repentance

John told the experts He is exceptional and deserves worship

#3 JOHN TOLD THE MULTITUDES HE IS MERCIFUL

John 1:29-31

When he saw Jesus walk by, there was but one thing he could shout for the crowds to hear.

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

He wanted the multitudes who had realized their sin

To see there was One who could actually take their sin away.

He told them that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

He is that sacrifice of God that atones for sin.

We often sing

“Are you washed, in the blood, in the sole cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless, are they white as snow, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”

I wonder if we have a person in here who doesn’t have a church background if they have a clue what we are talking about.

In the Old Testament sin was real and evident.

They had constant sacrifices

(Day of Atonement & Passover)

JESUS WAS NOW THE SACRIFICE

Garments represent character in the Bible.

His blood washes us clean.

Isaiah 1:18 "Let Us Reason" "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”

John was testifying that Jesus is the gracious One.

Jesus is MERCIFUL

Who but Jesus would have given Peter a second chance?

Who but Jesus would have prayed, “Father forgive them?”

Who but Jesus would have replaced the ear of the soldier?

Who but Jesus would have spoken to the woman at the well?

Who but Jesus would have given the hemorrhaging woman a second look?

Who but Jesus would have called tax collectors?

Who but Jesus would died on a cross for you and for me?

Jesus is Merciful

Jesus is the sacrifice for sin, and as such we owe Him our TRUST.

The pure still needed to repent

The experts still needed to worship

The multitudes still needed to trust

WE TRUST HIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH WAS SUFFICIENT

Jesus deserves TRUST.

Matthew 26:26-28 “While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”

John told the pure He is perfect and deserves repentance

John told the experts He is exceptional and deserves worship

John told the multitudes He is merciful and deserves trust

#4 JOHN TOLD THE WORLD HE IS THE SON OF GOD

John 1:32-34

John just gives a blanket testimony of who Jesus is.

John said, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.”

In other words, God has revealed that Jesus is His Son.

This indeed is the Son of God.

Sure we talked about His power over nature

His power to heal the sick, and raise the dead and conquer the grave,

BUT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD?

Mark 2:7-12 "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'? "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" — He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home." And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE ELSE WHO CAN FORGIVE SIN?

Only the Son of God can do that.

Jesus is the Son of God.

SO DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT JOHN EXPECTS OF YOU?

Surrender, Submission, Obedience

There is no other who on the face of the earth

That deserves your obedience more.

John 3:35-36 "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

There is only One who has been revealed by the Father.

There is only One on whom God has stamped His approval.

Jesus is Perfect – He deserves Repentance

Jesus is Exceptional – He deserves Worship

Jesus is Merciful – He deserves Trust

Jesus is the Son of God – He deserves Obedience

DOES HE HAVE IT?

Have you ever cried out to Jesus for forgiveness of your sins?

Have you ever presented your life to Jesus in worship of Him?

Have you ever trusted Him with your soul for all eternity?

Have you ever surrendered your life to Him as Lord?

Have you ever given Jesus the proper place in your life?

Not only that, but

Jesus deserves for you to testify of Him just as John did.

He deserves for you to tell the world that He is:

Perfect, Exceptional, Merciful, & God made flesh

We are going to have a time of invitation.

I am going to ask you today to give your life to Jesus Christ.

By that I mean, to confess your sins, to worship Him, to trust Him and Him alone, and to confess that He is Lord

I am going to ask you to testify to that today,

And then to testify to that in this world for the rest of your life.

Today you can have Jesus Christ,

Can Jesus have you?

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."