John the Apostle and John the Baptist: Two key witnesses testify to Jesus

John 1:19-34 ESV

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." So they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."

Rev. Charles Han

A large amount of our world is dependent upon eyewitnesses. From news to justice, witnesses play a very large role. After the apostles, no one saw Jesus. Your faith rests upon those eyewitnesses. There are two that we will look at today: John, the Baptist and John, the Apostle.

The Testimony of John, the Apostle

John had intimate access to Jesus' life and ministry. The other three gospels are very similar. They share details and events. John's goal in this testimony is to prove that Jesus was the Son of God and that people would know, have faith, and be saved. This book is his personal experience of walking with God. John never calls himself by the first person. He always calls himself as "the apostle that Jesus loved." This is not arrogance, it is John's conviction that he was a sinner loved by God. This is John reflecting upon the great, awesome-ness of God's love.

Are you overwhelmed by the love of God? Do you personally feel His love for you?

If you don't, here are some reasons.

Maybe we are going through tough times. It is hard to see God's love through the current dark times.

Or perhaps, we take His love for granted. We don't reflect on God's love for you.

The Testimony of John, the Baptist

All four gospels discuss him. Among those born, there is no one more important than John, the Baptist. He was the first prophet to see the one who was prophesied to come. The expectation of the Jews waiting for the Messiah was at a fever pitch. John was baptizing and had a large following. When John was asked who he was, he never focused on himself... he was always pointing towards Jesus, the one to come. When John finally sees Jesus, John calls Him: "Behold the lamb of God" But this is strange, the jewish people were waiting for a savior to crush their enemies, a mighty king. Jesus came to John to be baptized. This water baptism is for sinners to repent. Jesus does this to identify with sinners and wretched. Up till this point, the Messiah was not associated with the sacrificial lamb.

Jesus, the son of God

In their time and day, the Jewish people expected a mighty human king. They were not expecting God himself. Even John the Baptist was surprised. He only found out when the baptism occurred. The Holy Spirit comes down to Jesus. God himself testifies to Jesus being the son of God. This scene is an echo of creation. The dove of the Spirit, God the father, and Jesus making a new world. Jesus is making the world anew. Those things we give to Jesus will be remade and brought back to life.

The Gifts of Christmas

John 1:1-18 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Rev. Charles Han

This is covering the prologue of the gospel of John. Every other gospel starts with the birth of Jesus. John starts before it all, even before creation. In the beginning...

Jesus brings tangible compassion.

The word became flesh and tabernacles with us. In the old testament, there was an intermediate. Now Jesus is among us, no more is there a priest, but instead bone of our bones, flash of our flesh. Our weaknesses, shortcomings, vulnerabilities, and pain...is felt by God. Jesus experienced all these things first. He became like one of us.

Jesus brings tangible grace

We need grace. We have constantly broken God's law, even this past week. It not only comes to those who are undeserving, but the ill-deserving. Not just giving love to those unknown strangers... But giving to those who have wronged you.

Application/Response

Receive the light with trust

Light both draws us in attraction. But light also exposes us, it shows us as we are. So it both attracts and repels us. Jesus beckons us to come into the light fully.

Receive the person of Jesus, not the religious symbols

We hear about love, joy, hope, peace... But those words are not just abstractions... They come in a person. Jesus is the literal embodiment of these things.

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Set Us Free From Life Under the Sun

Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:17 ESV

I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
I said in my heart, "I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge." And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
For in much wisdom is much vexation,and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?" And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Life under the sun = the fallen, sinful world.
Qoheleth is one of the names of the author. This name means professor or teacher. He is a kingly figure. One who has received great success and worldly pleasure.

He sums it up this way. Everything is absurd and futile.

Futility under the sun

The futility of work - Ecc 1:1-11

What does man gain for all his toil? Nothing new happens. Like the sun, clouds, and rivers. After you die, the sun keeps going, just like the rivers, etc.

The futility of pleasure - Ecc 2

He jumped into pleasure of all sorts: fun, entertainment, relationships, even sex. He found it empty and ultimately, unfulfilling.

The futility of wisdom

Increasing wisdom increases sorrow
The wise and the fool both suffer death.

The freedom that Jesus Christ brings

Jesus steps down from heaven and subjects himself to this futile and meaningless life. He does not consider this life beneath him. Jesus is the most wise. Wisdom increases sorrow. So Jesus became increasingly sorrowful. He lived a most wise life that lead him through poverty & suffering, and ended in death in the prime of life.

Jesus redeems the futility of this life.

For wisdom, where's the payoff? Wisdom, for the christian, is the cross. Wisdom will be rewarded in the life to come. If there was no resurrection, then wisdom has no payoff.

Pleasure is redeemed.

Jesus brings himself, the source of all joy and pleasure. God is the creator of pleasure. If you make worldly pleasure your greatest pursuit, you will come out empty. If you make Jesus the center, then pleasure is something to be enjoyed.

Work is redeemed. - 1 Cor 15:30-32,57-58

Living for Christ is worth living. We now have a purpose.
If Christ is not risen, then we should just eat, drink, and be merry in our futility.

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Give Us a King

1 Samuel 8:4-22 ESV

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, "Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day." But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, "No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, "Obey their voice and make them a king." Samuel then said to the men of Israel, "Go every man to his city."

Rev. Dan Whang

We will be trying to build a full picture of the coming of Jesus. So we will start in the Old Testament and move through the word to get the full story.

Israel has been living in the period of the judges. Judges were sent by  God to Israel when they were in trouble. No royal line, no government. Israel is at their best during this period. Israel humbly cries out to God for deliverance during Philistine attack. God delivers them and they enjoy a period of peace. Samuel gets old and tries to appoint his sons as judges. They do a horrible job. So the elders confront Samuel and ask him for a king.

This request is okay, but the heart behind it was sinful. They wanted a king like all the other nations. This was a rejection of their invisible king, God. It was also a rejection of their call to be a holy nation, called apart from among those nations. They felt that a monarchy was better than what God had arranged.

What kings are we demanding? Money? Career? What do we look for security?

Lessons to learn

We may earnestly pray, but we hold tightly to the way we want Him to answer us.

We must learn to simply cry out to God in humble dependence.

So God lets them have their way...

Saul, David, Soloman... Civil war.
Israel has a problem: sin and rebellion against God. God's agenda is not to conquer the enemies of Israel, but to conquer the hearts of Israel. In sin, Israel was God's enemy.

Fast forward to the birth and we see God's solution to sin and rebellion, Jesus. Through Him we have restoration and reconciliation with God.

Jump back to the conversation between Samuel and the elders. God had Samuel warn the people. The king they ask for will exact a heavy toll. They will come full circle and this king that they ask for, will drive them to cry out to God again.

Summary

We think we know best, even when we cry out to God. We reject our King. So stop, receive our king, the perfect king, Jesus. He will take from us. He takes our idols. And He gives back...living water, peace, rest,freedom, and eternal life.

How Can They Hear?

Romans 10:14-15 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

Mr. Kevin Cain

The Missionary God

Genesis 12:1-4 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Rev. Dwight Yoo

This chapter marks a change from macro level perspective to just one man, Abram. Genesis now focuses on this man and his family line.

God's Missionary Heart

Throughout Genesis, we notice a pattern of human sin and judgement. But if we look closer, we should notice that each judgement includes an element of grace. Protection for a murderer, promise of life after the fall, dispersal of people who do wrong... God has a heart for sinners. God could simply end it for all of humanity. Yet He does not. The heart of God is underestimated. He wants and loves sinners. Especially those who grew up in the church, we can overlook the heart of God. The bible is about God, the great missionary, searching out sinners to bring them home. From creation to new creation. He takes on our clothes, our language, comes to us, so that we could be saved. A note of application, Abram was blessed to be blessed. It is the same for us, we are blessed to be a blessing. After you have met Jesus, there is only one reason why you are still here. You have a part to play in expanding the kingdom of God. This call does not end when you finish college, when you have children, when you get a job, when you retire... it ends when we go home or Jesus comes back.

God's Enormous Enablement for Missions

Abram is called to leave when he is an old man. He is called to leave his family. That meant leaving everything that meant security in those times. It is a crazy call. But what follows is a set of crazier promises. God calls him to leave his family to make a universal family. He is asked to leave his nation, but will become a father of nations. The promise for those who answer the call of God is much more than what we are leaving behind.

Mark 10:29-31 ESV

Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,  who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

In this life, missionaries will find themselves as spiritual parents. They are enabled by God to give birth to new believers. Also, missionaries will get more of God. The presence of God is with those who walk in the path of God. Our experience of God becomes richer with our walk in His mission and plan for the salvation of every tribe and nation.

God's Method for Missions

God uses very ordinary people to reach the nations. The foolish and the weak are those who he uses. He picks an old man with a barren wife. The nation of Israel was considered least of nations. Jesus was a normal guy, son of a carpenter. He chooses disciples...fishermen. Normal people. Weak, scared, and normal people...those are the ones God uses.

Genesis: "After the rain"

Genesis 8-9:17 ESV

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, "Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
"Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it." Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

Rev Dwight Yoo

A Promise of Peace

God could have just ended the story of humanity here. But He does not. Instead God keeps His promise... What promise? The promise of love and intimacy from the beginning. He keeps His promise even when we break our part of it. God makes new covenants when the old one was broken.

God makes a promise not to flood the earth again. He will hang up His bow in the sky. He will no longer make war on mankind. Why? It comes after Noah's burnt offering. This sacrifice is not itself the reason. It is a symbol for the lamb of God. The one who would bring everlasting peace. The whole wrath of God is poured out onto Jesus. The judgement is taken by Christ. But there is a flip side. God will take up His bow again in the final judgement. The earth will end in fire.

A Pattern of Grace

You have to have storm clouds to see the rainbow.  This makes up part of the pattern for us too.  Israel went to the promised land after: slavery in egypt, the pharaoh's refusal and the sea in front of them.  And that's when they see God part the sea and destroy pharaoh's army.

Storms in life are not judgement for the Christian. They are so God can show us His character and His provision. We need rain for the rainbow. God shows up in the darkest of darkness. No storm of God's sending is permanent.

Proper response to Grace

After the flood, Noah sacrifices a burnt offering. This burnt offering is Noah surrendering his entire life to God. That is the only proper response to God's grace. Absolute submission to God. Giving the whole life over to God. His will be done. Not the Christian spin on the American dream.