1/19/25 John 1:34-43 “The Most Important Person in the World!”

16 Jan 1/19/25 John 1:34-43 “The Most Important Person in the World!”

1/19/25   John 1:34-43       “The Most Important Person in the World!”

Have you ever had one of those moments in life where, looking back, you can see that your whole life hinged on what happened at that moment?  I don’t know about you but I have had several, some good and some not so good.  I went to a basketball game one evening and it was a barn burner.  It came down to the last shot.  The ball went up and sat on the rim as the buzzer sounded.  Then it fell out.  I felt really bad for the young man who missed that shot.  It brought back memories of a shot just like that, that I missed 60 years ago.  I think that moment for me might have been a turning point in my not so illustrious basketball career.  Another moment in my life that changed everything for the better was when I first came to know Jesus Christ.  I have never felt anything so wonderful in my whole life as the moment I first believed.  Nothing has ever come close and nothing ever will.  It was the defining moment for me.  Today, we are going to look at the first chapter of John and see a defining moment for the disciples.  Let’s see if we can get Jesus under our skins like the disciples did.

Edward Frey helped me out with this by giving me the idea for these comments.  Maybe I should say that the Holy Spirit directed me to Edward Frey, after all the Holy Spirit is in charge of everything good.  Anyway, our society tells us, “Seek your place in the world!”  However, God tells us, “Seek the kingdom of God.”  Our culture tells us to find ourselves.  You can never be anything in life unless you find yourself.   But God tells us to “lose ourselves and then find life.”  Here’s one that really cracks me up.  Our society tells us that you have to be a self-made person.  You can browse any online bookstore and you will find pages of books on self.  Our society seems to be all about self and self and self.  In other words, life is about me and me and me.  But God calls us to become “members together of one body.”  Our culture teaches us to look to your own needs and interests while God calls us to have “the attitude of Jesus Christ, who took on the nature of a servant.”  Our world promises that you can have it all.  God tells us to consider things of this world rubbish that we might gain Christ.  The world also demands that we be on top of our game.  God calls us to be crucified with Christ.  I would say that we seem to have just about everything backwards, thanks to Satan!

This is one of those passages in the Bible that God seems to be working overtime if that were even possible.  Please remember that it is John the Baptist who we are talking about here.  John sees Jesus coming toward him and says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”  My question to you is, “how in the world did John the Baptist know this information?”  It had to be the Holy Spirit!  The Holy Spirit should be just pouring into us through this reading.  Do you remember last week where I asked if you had the Spirit pouring out of you?  Well, here we should have the Spirit pouring into us.  This is how the writer John introduces Jesus to his readers.

It was important for his readers to know who Jesus was.  He was the Lamb of God.  He was the one who would take away the sin of the world.  As great as everyone thought John the Baptist was, he was mighty small compared to Jesus.  He calls Jesus the Son of God.  John wants everyone to know that this is the long awaited Messiah.  They had been waiting all their lives and here he is in their midst.  Most people didn’t recognize him so it is up to John the Baptist to set the stage.

We also need to have the stage set for Jesus in our world today.  We have a lot of misconceptions about who we are in relation to Jesus.  Much of the information that is floating around today is absolutely wrong.  We like to think that Jesus is one big wish granter for me.  This is definitely not true.  Jesus will give us what we need to have in order for the world to progress His way.  Sometimes this coincides with our wishes and then all is great.  But I would say that most of the time, it doesn’t.  Then, in our ignorance, we are left standing around shaking our heads.  This is not who we are.

We also seem to think that Jesus is our servant.  Well, He is in one sense of the word but we have to know what that sense is.  Jesus will be our servant if we are obedient to Him and do what He wants of us.  To be obedient, we need to be servants to the world.  We also think that He is in charge of our destinations.  When people tell me they can’t believe in a god who sends people to hell, I know that I’m either talking to someone in a serious crisis or someone who knows very little about God, Jesus or the Bible.  Hopefully you all know that it is your choice as to whether you spend eternity in heaven or hell.  It is your choice and your choice alone.

There are many misconceptions but I’m just going to name one more.  Many people or maybe even most people believe they are more powerful than God.  You are not God.  You never have been and never will be.  You are not only ‘not God’ but you are not a great prophet.  You are not great kings or queens.  I think that about the best we can be in the kingdom of God is a humble witness.  That is what we are called to do and that is who we are.

So we have to know who we are in relation to Jesus if we are going to be that witness.  I once saw a good question in a Billy Graham publication.  ‘Do you know Jesus Christ or do you know about Jesus Christ?’  I think we get into all kinds of trouble when we know about Jesus.  Here’s what I mean.  When we know about Jesus, then we think we have the answers to the questions.  We have a tendency to think of ourselves as a little higher than the non-Christian.  We have the tendency to sit around and talk about Jesus and not do what He tells us.

However, when we really know Jesus things are different.  When we know Jesus, we don’t need the answers.  Jesus has them for us.  Most of the time we don’t really have time to sit and talk about Jesus, because we are busy trying to be Jesus in this world.  We are out there helping the poor and needy.  We are making hospital visits to people we don’t even know very well.  By the way, here is a tip for visiting people.  It is easy to visit people you know well and you should do this.  However, we are spreading the good news of Jesus Christ when we are visiting people we don’t know that well.  This is how the word of Christ is spread.

There are many more misconceptions and ideas about who we are not.  But let’s take a look at who we are.  When John the Baptist is asked the question ‘who is he?’ referring to John the Baptist, please notice the response.  John could have said that he was the great baptizer.  He could have said that he was going to be the right hand man of the Son of God.  He could have said all sorts of things that would help him inflate his own ego.

But that was not who John the Baptist was.  He was a good man.  He was an honest man.  We sometimes like to think of John as not being one of the most savory characters in the Bible but I hope that we don’t think like this at the expense of his being a wonderful Christian.  He told the Pharisees who were trying to destroy him or at least understand him, that he wasn’t worthy of tying the sandals of the one to come.  Incidentally, in those ancient times, the lowest slave or person of the household was the one who tended the feet of any visitor.  This was a lowly job but a required job if you think about walking around all day in sandals before socks had been invented.  John is saying that he is the lowest of the low compared to Jesus.  And yet in the eyes of Jesus, he is exalted like all people.  We have to bend down low in order to be taken up high.

He tells us once again that God is in charge of this situation when he says ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’  How in the world would John know this unless God is working in him?  John knows that he is just the messenger.  He is telling us that he baptizes with water but the one to come will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

I think that this is a very important concept in identifying who we are.  First of all, we only baptize with water.  John tells us that we are to baptize with water so that Jesus can be revealed to us.  This is one of the reasons why it is ok to baptize infants and children.  This is the beginning of the process where Jesus will be revealed in their lives.  When we get to confirmation time, hopefully these people who have been baptized with water for the revealing of Jesus will be open to be baptized by the Holy Spirit allowing Jesus to live right inside of them.  That is the goal in confirmation.

And why do we spend so much time in this area?  Because who we are.  We are all children of God.  There is not a person here that God doesn’t love.  There is not a person in the community that God doesn’t love.  There is not a person in the world that God doesn’t love.  This is important to remember when we have all these terrible commercials telling us how ugly we are and we need face cream or how we need a diet or how we need to get into shape.  Some of this stuff is ok but the majority of it is aimed at us by the devil so that we are dissatisfied with ourselves.  This isn’t who we are.  You have been created, yes created, by our God to be the perfect you.  There is no other you in the whole world.  There never has been and there never will be.  You are the perfect version of you.  We get into trouble when we want to be a version of some model on a magazine cover or a TV commercial.  This is an especially troublesome area for young people.  You were made by God in a perfect way and God doesn’t make mistakes!

In our perfectness, we are called to be the voices of Jesus in this world.  I always liked the way Rick Warren summed it up.  He said, “Our job is to glorify God and edify others.”  That statement says it all.  We are children of God put here to worship God and spread the Good News of God to others.  Whatever gifts you have been given, you are to use for the betterment of the world in the name of Jesus.

The trouble with this world is sin.  There is not one problem in the world that you cannot trace back to sin.  There is not one problem in your life that cannot be traced back to sin.  If this country would just turn itself around and start to worship Jesus and spread the word of Jesus to all we know, we would see sin on the decline.  All the rotten things in the world would start to decline.  We try to pass the buck on sin but it is the reason for all your trouble.  Whenever I bring this up in conversations, I am looked down upon as if I don’t know what I am talking about.  Sin is rampant and we all sin.  However, the good news is that we are all children of God.

We also have to know who God is and that is something that is trying to be forgotten in this society.  St. Augustine once said, “Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the truth itself.”  In John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  Jesus Christ is everything.  He is the real deal, the whole deal all wrapped up in one package.  You won’t find the truth in a whiskey bottle.  You won’t find the way in a bag of marijuana.  You will not find life traveling around trying to find yourself.

You see, we have the tremendous luxury of having Jesus Christ with us at all times.  He loves you at all times.  He reassures you all the time that He is always there.  If you don’t have this reassurance, then confess your sins to Him and ask Him to live in your life as Lord and Savior.  This is what most people miss.  They miss that Jesus is right next to them and can live inside of them.  They miss that the truth is right here all the time.  They miss that there is nothing they cannot do with Jesus.  He makes wonderful promises and He has kept every one of them.  He is totally trustworthy because He is trust.  He is total love because He is love.  You cannot have love without Jesus.  That is who God is and I haven’t even scratched the surface.  I could be here all day if I wanted to continue to tell you who God is.  He is that good and you should praise the Lord for that.  Do I hear an “Amen!”

So, the next time you are feeling out of sorts with Jesus think about this from Henry Bosch.  Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40 and Jesus for 3.  The results of those 3 years has impacted us infinitely more than the combined 130 years of teaching from these 3 other people who have been considered the greatest philosophers of antiquity.  Jesus painted no pictures but the finest paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci received their inspiration from Him.  Jesus wrote no poetry yet Dante, Milton and scores of the world’s greatest poets were inspired by Him.  Jesus composed no music and still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection of melody in the hymns, symphonies, and oratories they composed in His praise.  Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched and made possible by this humble carpenter from Nazareth.

And if this isn’t enough, then know, know that Jesus will always have time for you to inspire you, to lead you and to love you.  You are the most important person in the world to Jesus.  Take this tremendous love that He has for you and embrace it, cherish it and then spread it to your best friend.  I am so glad that Jesus is our God.  I’m so glad that He will never run out of love for you.  That is a promise.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.