“The Case for Christ - John the Baptist: The Voice of Witness” 

Turn in your Bibles to Luke 3 and I will start reading with the last part of verse two and read through verse six.

'...the Word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet, saying, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'

It was nearly twenty years after Jesus is seen in the temple as a young boy when John the Baptist suddenly appeared into all the country around Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

This was the fulfillment of the prophecy about him given in Isaiah 40, part of which we just read.

Isaiah started out with God speaking and saying, ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people...every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made straight, and the rough places plain...’.

And the question to that announcement was: ‘What shall I cry out? - What is it that I should tell them?’

God answered and said: ‘Tell them - remind them, of their fraility - remind them how transient life really is. Tell them that the grass is green for just a little while, but it fades away quickly. Tell them the flowers of the field are beautiful, but only for a short while.

Tell them that everything about life is transitory - no matter how good and how beautiful it looks now, it will all fade away.

Tell them how life is - it is like ‘a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes’. 

That is, tell them ‘now is the day of salvation’ - tomorrow may be too late - life is too transitory, too fragile to fritter it away with that which does not satisfy in the long run.

Tell them - the Lord is coming to bring salvation - tell them to get themselves ready for it!’

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’

This was to be John’s ministry: he would appear as a leveler, to bring all men to one common plane.

And what was that common plane?

His message gave the answer: ‘...all flesh shall see the salvation of God’ - all would have the opportunity to see God’s glory in Christ.

Yes - that common plane was the need for man to recognize his sinfulness and to get ready to accept and receive the salvation given by God.

What John would tell them was about Jesus Christ - he was there among the people to be a mighty witness of Him - a witness of the Christ of God - a herald of the Messiah.

He would stand before the people with this testimony of the Scripture to back him up - a testimony of God Himself - a testimony with which the religious leaders could not argue.
(John 5:39)

He was the man who would tell the crowds of people the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he would do it with bold, plain speech.

He would stand before them to bring to the hearts and consciences of Israel their dire need for the Savior Who was about to come into their midst.

So, fearlessly, in Luke 3:7, he started with: ‘O, generation of vipers - O generation of vipers...’ - now, that is an attention-getter - that was a start with a jolt!

Yes - there is the time when the Lord must first get undivided attention to start His redeeming work in man. 

Often times, the Lord will sound His divine trumpet loudly, thunderously, but very clearly to the heart at a time so vital as this!

‘O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 

‘Who warned you, who deluded you into thinking that it is possible to evade God, who encouraged you to try it?’, he chided.

Of course, John knew there were those who had come to be baptized but who were insincere about it, so he went on:

Bring, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance, and stop saying within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

These people were in the place of covenant relationship with God but their lives were bringing disrepute to God.

They figured that they were safe from the judgment of God simply because they were Jews - the heathen were all headed for damnation - but not they!

This was shocking news to them! ‘You need to repent’, John said: ‘Your physical descent from Abraham is not important. Because you say you are one of Abraham’s children, does not mean you are a child of God. If God needed children, He could create them out of stones. You need to be born anew. 

Just because your lineage stems from God’s chosen does not mean you are one of His! Just because you look good to yourselves does not make you good before Him.’

‘The axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.’

‘Any tree, no matter what its roots are, from Abraham or from wherever or from whatever - any tree that does not follow the coming blueprint of God’s salvation in Christ - must be cut down.’
 
‘The axe is laid to the root’. Did you notice that it did not say, ‘the axe is laid to the fruit of the tree’?

In other words, the fruit is not the issue here. It is the sickness of the tree that is the issue. That is what produces unacceptable fruit. If it were just the fruit at issue, it would be a matter of giving up our bad ways, giving up our evil behavior, just reforming ourselves and replacing it with good character and we would be saved.

Oh, no - for how can we make a bad tree produce good fruit by cutting off the imperfect fruit? The next crop will be just more bad fruit. It does not change the nature of the tree at all.

‘The axe is laid to the root of the tree’ - the bad tree needs to be replaced with a new tree, a good tree that would bring forth good fruit. It must follow God’s plan for salvation to be acceptable with Him.

This was how John prepared the way for the Messiah - preaching a complete change of mind and heart.

‘Away with the trifles - away with the unimportant and the non-essential. Let us get to the root of it all!

Sweep away those obstacles - that self-righteousness - that smug complacency about the place you think you have before God - get rid of it all - chop it down right from the very root of it all - throw it to the fire - burn it up!’

This is the only way for the Lord to make a ‘straight path’ - to have full and ready access into hearts.   

Neither they, nor we, can afford to deal with trifles when the eternal is in view. Getting to the root so the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world can start anew is the only way.

They were lost - they could not make atonement for their own sins - they needed a complete change.  

So John made his witness plain and preached the need of the baptism of repentance. His baptism would outwardly acknowledge their lost, inner condition.

And the One coming soon Who could change them inwardly would be their salvation, so ‘prepare the way - prepare the way’ was his jolting message.

Now - let us turn to John 1, starting with verse 19 - John 1:19 - to see his comforting message in his consistent, strong, and irrefutable witness of Christ.

By this time, John’s preaching aroused consternation among the official religious leaders in Jerusalem so they sent a delegation to check out his activities.

Verse 19: ‘And this is the testimony of John when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, ‘Who are you?’

And he [John] confessed and did not deny...he admitted with complete candor, I am not the Christ...’.

He emphatically denied any claim to being the Messiah: ‘I am not the Christ’. 

And he pointed to Him without any hesitation - ‘...there standeth One among you...it is He, Who...is preferred before me, Who takes rank over me...’ (vs 26-27).

And in vs 34, ‘I saw and bare record, I publicly declare before you all, that this is the Son of God...behold Him...behold the Lamb of God.’

Listen - John had his eyes fastened solidly on Jesus - his attention was strictly upon the Christ.

He was not impressed with the many who followed him; their very number could have inflated his ego to the bursting point.

Oh no! - He fixed his eyes on Jesus in an attitude of worship, praise, and admiration of Him. He had no eye for any one but the ‘Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’ 

He preached the need of Jesus. Someone has said: ‘Those who preach Christ best see Him best’ and John, surely, fit that class.  

‘Oh no! I am not the Anointed One - I am not Christ’, he said. That led to the next set of questions.

‘They asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ And he said, ‘I am not’. ‘Are you a prophet?’ and he replied ‘No’.

There we have it - the function of a witness. John did not beat around the bush, neither did he expound on the subject of Elijah, nor any of the Lord’s prophets.

He was not among them to talk about himself nor any other human personage.

He told only what he knew - his answers amounted to ‘I am not’ and ‘No’.

‘They said unto him therefore, ‘Who are you? so that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What do you say about yourself?’

And John told them how he saw himself when they asked him that question.

He said: ‘I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.’

He saw himself as only a voice - only a voice - a voice that kept crying out, preparing the way for the Lord so they would be ready to receive Him when He came among them.

It was a voice - that which was only heard, never really seen with the human eye - something like the wind that cannot be seen, only its effects are evident.

What a place to be for the Lord to use him effectively - to see himself as nothing but the vehicle by which the words God wanted him to speak and make known.

He did not bemoan his physical background: he was a desert dweller, one who lived on locusts - grasshoppers - and wild honey. His wardrobe consisted of clothing made of some scratchy camel’s hair. He wore a leather girdle around his waist - very plain - very simple.

He had nothing great or wonderful to offer as far as this world goes - only Jesus, only a voice to tell about Him.

And, then, in verse 25, his inquirers continued to ask: ‘Why then do you baptize if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’

‘And John answered, I baptize in water: but there standeth one among you, Whom you do not know, He Who comes after me, and Whose sandal-thongs I am not worthy to unloose.’ (vs 26-27)

He was no more than a voice and, to match that attitude, he saw himself as not even worthy to untie the straps of Christ’s sandals!

In those days, when walking on the sweltering and dusty paths, one’s feet became hot and dirty and sweaty.

And, if he entered someone’s home as a guest, the first thing done was to wash his feet.

But the host did not do that: that was a job fit only for a slave to do when he was ordered to wash the guest’s feet.

That was a disgusting job - it was too much to expect from anyone other than a slave to do.

The story goes that students under the tutelage of a rabbi were expected to perform all sorts of duties to relieve the rabbi of minor chores so he could devote his time to study.

And one of the regulations written said: ‘Every service which a slave performs for his master shall a disciple do for his teacher, except the loosing of his sandal-thongs.’

That was going too far - it was too lowly, too demeaning for even a student under his teacher to do! 

Yet John, in all humility, when it came to Jesus Christ, put himself down below the position of a slave and said: ‘I am not even worthy to unloose the thongs of His sandals!’

John took the meekest of all places - even below a slave - he was comparing himself to the superiority of Jesus, to His glorious Light - that put him in a less-than-a-servant place.    

His job was to bear witness of Jesus and he did it without looking for any acclaim, nor honor, nor glory for himself.

And, so, John faithfully preached to the inquirers the same message of comfort about the coming Messiah.

Now - turn to verses 30-36 of John, chapter three - verses 30-36 - to see John’s final witness of Jesus the Christ.

He knew it was time to exit the scene. ‘He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease’, he said when he saw Christ’s’ ministry gaining ground among the people.

He laid claim to nothing when he introduced Christ’s ministry to the people, nor did he think about competing with Him.

He did exactly the opposite, for, in verse 29, he spoke of being full of joy because he knew that the success of Christ’s ministry took unsurpassing precedence over anything he had done or could do.

His joy was complete - he did what he came to do - he had shown them Jesus!

So - he went on, saying, ‘The One [that is, Jesus] Who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth [that is, John] belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One Who comes from heaven is above all...’.

He referred to Christ’s heavenly origin as proof of His divine superiority. Jesus came from heaven - John came from earth. ‘...The One Who comes from heaven is far superior to me’, John told them.

For all to see this fact is paramount and John could not leave without pointing out this one last truth of Christ. 

Unless one knows that Jesus is from God, unless one is absolutely sure he is facing God’s Son when he looks at Jesus Christ, he never really sees God, never really beholds Christ.

It is His heavenly origin that is the source and guarantee of everything that He says and of everything that He is.

Verses 32-33: ‘He [Jesus] testifies to what He has seen and heard, but no one accepts His testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful...’.

And, here, John introduced the tension and the struggle every man would have when facing Jesus Christ.

Although both John and Jesus bore witness of the truth of God in Christ, neither could guarantee that the witness would be universally accepted.

No one can coerce anyone to accept Him, for each person who hears Jesus must decide for himself.

There are those who will refuse to behold Him - will refuse to accept the testimony of Jesus.

And there are those who will accept, who will see, who will behold - who will gaze and fix their eyes upon Him - they will pay heed to Him - they will certify, they will be the ones who acknowledge that God is true.

When men do not see their lost condition, they do not care about taking this as a serious consideration - the single most serious consideration - of life.

But when the Holy Spirit of God awakens a man to see his need, he is ready to receive Christ.

And when the jolting ministry of repentance starts taking place, when men realize the axe is laid to the root of the tree, and they come before God and ask Him to show them their Savior, then John's message of: 'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world' takes hold and starts its effective, comforting work.

John had come in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. His voice was the divinely-ordained voice of God - the voice of this great and perfect work of the salvation of Christ. 

He appeared suddenly to introduce Christ’s public ministry, a ministry that would startle, yet gladden when accepted.

To this very day, it echoes the same message - one that jolts and makes new - that comforts the heart when men behold the ‘Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world...!’

I pray it takes hold in each one of us, to fill the voids, to bring down all the high places, to make the way straight and plain, that we all can see God’s glory in His Christ to its fullest measure!

Amen! So be it! Let us pray!