Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:47 — 27.3MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | TuneIn | RSS
John 1:1-14
He who was “sent from God” is a special person. Moses was called. The disciples were called. Paul was called. These were all people who were more than just people. They were “sent from God.”
Anyone who accepts the call from God is sent from God. Not everyone who accepts God’s call and is sent fulfills his mission. Some get distracted. Some shirk their duty and their calling. These people leave a work that is unfinished.
John the Baptist was a “sent one.” The prophets spoke of him.
Malachi 4:1-6, Luke 1:67-80
The God who called and sent John new that he would accept this calling and would devote himself faithfully to the calling.
Luke 7:22-28
John the Baptist was not a “shaking reed.” He knew his calling from very young. He lived very carefully. He had a strong sense of why he was alive and what he needed to do.
Mathew 3:1-12
John the Baptist spoke with power. His message was a powerful message. There were many people who received his message readily.
When Jesus came to John and asked to be baptized John initially wouldn’t do it saying, “I need to be baptized by you!” When John did baptize Jesus we remember that the Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon Jesus and God spoke saying that Jesus was his “beloved son in whom he was well pleased.”
Mathew 3:17
This was the introduction of Jesus to the world. It was clear to all there (or should have been) that Jesus was the son of God. John remains very clear that he was only there to introduce Jesus.
John 3:23-36
Our concern should not be that people remember us. Rather we should be concerned with whether God knows us and whether or not we’ve been faithful in doing what He wants us to do.
Jesus was the center of John the Baptists life and ministry. His aim was to serve Christ singly.
It wasn’t long after Jesus baptism that John the Baptist was put into jail. Johns disciples continued to visit him even while he was in prison. They kept him up to date on the “happenings of Jesus.”
John eventually sent two of his disciples out to ask Jesus if he was who he said he was or not. The disciples returned and told John all about what was happening around Jesus.
Johns ministry and influence went on. Paul tells us that John fulfilled his course – he finished the work that he was asked to do.
All of us have a calling and are sent if we have responded to the call of Jesus. Again, not everyone who accepts the call and are sent fulfill their mission. Some get discouraged. Some give up.
Let us, by God’s grace, seek to be faithful as John the Baptist was faithful.