John 1:19-34 (Sermon Outline)
Sermon Outline
John 1:19-34
I. Opening Illustration:
a. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, we’re first introduced to the world of Narnia, a once beautiful world that has grown cold and dark. The four siblings (Peter, Edward, Susan and Lucy) come through a magical wardrobe to a snow-covered forest in Narnia where they learn that it’s been winter for over a hundred years. Evil reigns. Hope is dead. But with the arrival of these children, things begin to change. The inhabitants of Narnia slowly begin to hope again. An ancient Narnian prophecy said before deliverance would come, two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve would appear. These children were messengers of hope. But the hopes of the citizens of Narnia are not in the children; their hopes are in someone else, a Lion named Aslan. The children hear an old Narnian rhyme: “Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, at the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, when he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, and when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.” The 4 siblings brought hope not in themselves but in the one who would follow their coming and bring deliverance.
b. As we continue our study of the Gospel of John this morning, we are going put our attentions upon a man who brought a message of hope, hope not found in himself but in someone else. John the Baptist points us to the One who can change our hopeless heart and make us hopeful and whole again.
c. In this morning’s message we are going to discover that John the Baptist, who has already been mentioned in (1:6-8) and (1:15-18), is put in the spotlight again, in order to further demonstrate how he played an integral part in introducing Jesus to humanity (1:19-34). Not only does John the Baptist powerfully testify to Jesus being the Messiah, the Son of God, but he also provides us a powerful example of what it means to follow Jesus. And so today as we continue studying the Gospel of John, the question we will be answering is: What does it mean to follow Jesus?
d. The first passage of Scripture we will be looking at this morning, we will discover that the religious leaders of Israel, a group of priests and Levites, are sent to interrogate John the Baptist. They will ask John 5 questions in order to find out who John the Baptist is.
II. Message: And so if you would please stand in honor of reading God’s Word, we are going to begin our time together by reading (vv.19-23).
i. READ: John 1:19-23
a. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Following Jesus will change WHO we are (John 1:19-23)
i. So here we see that the priests and the Levites come from Jerusalem to find out who this man is that God is using to prepared the hearts of Israel for the Son of God’s appearance. Who is this messenger of hope?
ii. They ask him, “Who are you?”
iii. It’s important to know that John the Baptist is one of the most important persons in the NT, as he is mentioned at least 89 times. In fact, as we looked at a few weeks back, Jesus said, there has never been a greater person born among men than John the Baptist. And even though John the Baptist is the greatest individual who has ever been born, his humility is put in the spotlight every time his name is mentioned in Scripture.
iv. And here we see theses religious leaders want to know what is so special about John. Why are the people coming to him? Why is hope beginning to rise in the hearts of this defeated nation?
v. And so the Priests and Levites come to John and ask him if he is the Christ, or Elijah the Prophet, or THE Prophet, and to each of these questions John answers no!
1. The first ask John if he is the Messiah – Mistaking John for being the Messiah was not as ludicrous as it might appear, due to the fact that speculations concerning the coming Messiah were not clear in Judaism back then. However, John’s answer to that misguided question is a three-fold declaration, “He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” This emphatic declaration stresses the intensity of John the Baptist’s denial. John clearly understood that he was subordinate to Jesus as the forerunner to the Messiah.
2. Elijah – The next individual that they asked John about was Elijah. “Are you Elijah?” That would seem like an odd question since Elijah was an OT prophet, and had been taken up to heaven hundreds of years earlier. However, the fact that Elijah was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot gave rise to theories that he had not died and was still alive. In addition to that, the last OT prophetic book, called Malachi identified Elijah as a divine messenger who would return in bodily form just before Messiah would return to establish His kingdom. But John was not Elijah, at least not in the literal sense. But he was however “like” Elijah, coming “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).
3. The Prophet: After denying that he is not the Christ, nor is he Elijah, they as John if he is the Prophet. They didn’t ask him if he was “a” prophet, they asked him if he was “THE” Prophet. They had in mind a prophecy from Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15.
vi. The Jewish entourage is no doubt becoming exasperated due to the fact that they were sent on a mission to gather information about this popular “preacher of repentance”, and thus far they have nothing to write back home about. So in frustration they ask, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” (v.22).
vii. John then tells them, I’ll let you know who I am! And he quotes Isaiah 40:3 in (v.23).
viii. READ: John 1:23
ix. John’s response was not what this delegation expected to hear. Rather than claiming to be someone important, he humbly referred to himself merely as, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness!” (Isaiah 40:3).
x. What a powerful example John is to us. He tells them I don’t care who you want me to be, and I don’t care who you think I should be. I’m going to tell you who I am, because my identity is not wrapped up in who you think I should be, my identity is wrapped up in who God’s says I should be.
xi. And its this idea that has inspired the first answer to this mornings question.
xii. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Following Jesus will change WHO we are (John 1:19-23)
xiii. It didn’t matter to John what others thought about him, or if others misunderstood him (1:19-22). What mattered to John was that he knew what God’s Word said about him (1:23)! John’s identity was not wrapped up in other people’s opinions of him. It was wrapped up in who God said he was!
xiv. And that is why John says to them, “I am a voice for God” that has been called to point people to Jesus! John is a voice on God’s behalf, and he was called to tell people to “Make straight the way of the LORD!” And by giving them this answer, John not only answers their question about who he is, but he also shifts the focus away from himself and only Jesus. The message he preached to not only the nation of Israel, but also to these individuals who were examining him was “Make straight the way of the Lord”, which was a challenge to them to prepare their hearts for the coming of Jesus.
xv. It is this idea of John challenging them to prepare their hearts for Jesus that leads us into the next passage.
xvi. READ: John 1:24-28
a. Following Jesus should cause us to POINT people to Jesus (1:24-28)
ii. Not content to let the matter drop, they further question John about his authority to baptize. If you’re not the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet that Moses foretold about, why are you baptizing people?
iii. But once again, we see that John answers them in (vv.26-28) by directing their attention away from himself and onto Christ. Instead of defending his baptism ministry, he merely acknowledged its limitations by saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal I am not worthy to loose.”
iv. What’s awesome about this statement, is John doesn’t say Jesus is coming soon, he tells them that He is “standing among” them now, or would be the next day (cf. 1:29).
v. This is another powerful example of how we are to follow Jesus, and is what has inspired the 2nd answer to this mornings big question.
vi. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Following Jesus should cause us to POINT people to Jesus (1:24-28)
vii. John did not seek to promote himself or his own agenda. He simply wanted to point people to Jesus and give Jesus all the credit for the good things that God is doing in John’s life.
viii. That is the great goal of the Church, to point the world to Jesus.
ix. In fact… LOOKING ON THE NEXT SLIDE: “Just over 100 years after the apostle John died, Tertullian, one of the early church fathers wrote about the spreading influence of believers, saying: “We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you – cities, islands, fortresses, towns, marketplaces… tribes, companies, palaces, senates, forums, we have left nothing to you but the temple of your false gods.” (cited in Boice, John 1:101).
x. Let that be true about Christianity today, that we go out from our church and spread out through the citied and the surrounding communities, pointing everyone to Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t it be awesome if in 20 years I could write, “We have filled every place among you – cities, countries, schools, rec leagues, restaurants, fire departments, accounting firms, post offices, gyms – we have left nothing to you but a few empty buildings that used to house things in opposition to God.
xi. This is what John the Baptist is doing here, he is setting the example for you and for me as to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We are called to point others to Jesus. Let’s not forget that this is what the entire gospel John is all about, pointing people to Jesus so that they might believe and then be saved.
xii. And that leads us into the final passage this morning, found in (vv.29-34).
xiii. READ: John 1:29-34
b. Following Jesus should cause us to INFLUENCE people for Jesus
xiv. John already stated in (v.23) that his purpose in life was to point others to Jesus and guide others into a relationship with Jesus.
xv. And here in (v.29), by referring to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John is alluding to the fulfillment of the OT sacrificial imagery, especially in regards to the Passover Lamb. John’s statement would have no doubt raised eyebrows and caught everyone’s attention, not only is Jesus the Lamb of God, but His sacrifice takes away the sin of the world!” Not just the sin of the Jews, but also the sin of the Gentiles. This goes along with what John preaches throughout his writings.
xvi. In fact, in 1 John 2:1-2 the Bible says, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
xvii. And so we see that John the Baptist was not only announcing the appearance of the Jewish Messiah, but also Humanities Savior, the Son of God who came to rescue us.
xviii. The title, “Lamb of God” is used only in John’s writings, and is the first in a string of titles given to Jesus in these remainder of this chapter.
xix. In fact, as we travel through this final section of chapter 1, we are going to begin seeing that one by one as people begin to encounter Jesus, they begin to say out loud who they think Jesus is. And though the religious leaders are confused about who John the Baptist is, John is the one that begins putting everyone’s attention upon Jesus. In fact, beginning with John the Baptist, this one chapter Jesus is given 7 titles.
1. The LAMB of God (1:29, 36)
2. The SON of God (1:34, 49)
3. RABBI (1:38)
4. MESSIAH/Christ (1:41)
5. Jesus of NAZARETH (1:45)
6. KING of Israel (1:49)
7. The SON of Man (1:51)
xx. These 7 titles prepare us for John’s use of 7’s that help shape the overall picture of this book, which we looked at in our introduction to the Gospel of John. The 7 signs (or miracles), along with the 7 I Am’s, and finally the 7 witnesses.
xxi. Altogether, the 7 titles John 1 presents to us make a claim, that Jesus is Fully Human, from Nazareth, and is the Messianic King and Rabbi of Israel. He is the Son of God, who has come as God’s sacrificial Lamb who will die for the sins of the world.
xxii. This is a HUGE claim to make about someone, and that is why John will so powerfully support this opening statement in chapters 2-12.
xxiii. But the big idea of this final section is the influence that John the Baptist had upon others for Jesus. We see this influence in the titles that he gives to Jesus, we see this influence in the life he lived and the message he shared. We will see this influence in how he connected people to Jesus, and those people then connected other people to Jesus.
xxiv. And this is what has inspired our final answer for this morning’s big question. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Following Jesus should cause us to INFLUENCE people for Jesus
III. Life Application:
a. And so as we bring this mornings message to a close, we have been looking at what it means to follow Jesus. We discovered by looking at John the Baptist, it means that Jesus changes who we are. It means we should be pointing other people to Jesus, and finally we should always be influencing others for Jesus.
