Preparing the way for the Lamb

 

As we’ve been considering what we can learn from John the Baptist, what are you learning, what is challenging you? Are you seeing yourself in John the Baptist? Are you seeing yourself in Isaiah Chapter 40?

 

We are called to live in the Scriptures and to submit to the Scriptures living in us – the Word of God is to be formative in our lives, in our souls – we are not called to force the Bible into our own image, or to make the Bible a captive to our parochial and proprietary viewpoints, but rather to live under the authority of the Word of God, allowing the Word to mold us, to shape us, into the image of Jesus Christ. As the Word leads us into a dynamic and transformational life in Jesus Christ, it necessarily leads us into lands and dimensions that dwarf our understanding. As someone from Montana might say, “Life in Christ is Big Sky country.”

 

How are you seeing yourself in the Bible? Can you see yourself in Psalm 139? Can you see yourself in Ephesians 2:1 – 10? Are you seeing yourself in John Chapter One? What do you look like in these passages? What do these passages look like in you?

 

It is one thing for the Biblical text to be on the page, it is another thing for the Biblical text to live within us.

 

Back to John the Baptist in John Chapter One; we see that John came so that Jesus would be manifested, made known, revealed. This was John’s purpose and calling and this is our purpose and calling. This reminds me of a time when I was the guest speaker at a church in Richmond, VA. As I placed my Bible on the pulpit and prepared to give the Sunday message, my eyes fell upon a bronze plaque affixed to the top of the pulpit, something that no one but the speaker could see, it was from John 12:21, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” I don’t mind telling you that it was sobering to read that verse, it was a reality check that I needed before giving the sermon.

 

John cries out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Isn’t this to be our cry? The centrality of our message? Aren’t we to be pointing others to the Lamb, as opposed to ourselves, our pet doctrines, our traditions, our doctrinal distinctives, our movements?

 

What would it look like if the professing church in unison cried, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”?

 

In John 1:35 – 37 we read, “Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.”

 

What do you suppose John felt when these two disciples left him and followed Jesus? Did he fell joy and satisfaction or did he feel resentment? Did he rejoice that his ministry was bearing fruit, or did he want these two disciples to stay with him?

 

How do we feel when those who were once focused on us, learn to follow the Lamb? What do we think, how do we react, when those who once paid attention to us and our words learn to have eyes and ears and hearts attuned to Jesus Christ?

 

Consider the words of John the Baptist in John 3:29, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.”

 

This reminds me of Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:2, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.”

 

Our calling is to point others to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It is to wed others to Jesus Christ; not to ourselves, our movements, our ministries, our distinctives. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31, Christ is everything and we are to glory in Him and in Him alone. We are to glorify Jesus Christ, not ourselves. John the Baptist modeled this, Paul the Apostle modeled this – are we modeling this? Are we more enthralled with our agendas than we are with Jesus Christ?

 

(And permit me to make this observation, we all, I suspect have egos. We all want attention and recognition. The question is what do we do with our egos, it is what do we do with our desire for attention and recognition. The wise disciple learns to deliver himself or herself to the Cross, the wise disciple learns to run to the Cross as soon as pride, vanity, ego, and self-glorification raises its head – the wise disciple cries out, “He must increase, but I must decrease!”)

 

Can we know a greater joy than the joy of being used by God to wed others to Jesus Christ?

 

What do you think?

 

How do you see yourself in John Chapter One? What are you learning from John the Baptist?