The Word Incarnate: The Lamb of God, the Son of God

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

• Opening Prayer, and John 1
• John, the Voice in the Wilderness
• The Son of God
• The Lamb of God
• We Are Witnesses
• A Story of Mercy
• Closing Prayer

Opening Prayer, and John 1

Why don’t we stand, we’re going to pray for the word and pray for the children. They have to go to rehearsal. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather together. And as Jake said, Lord, we thank you most of all for your presence. We thank you for the precious promise that were two or three are gathered. You were there in our midst and we know you’re here, Lord, we sense your presence through your Holy Spirit. We thank you for the worship team as they lead us.. We ask your blessing upon them. We ask today that you would bless the children as they rehearse, as they prepare for next week to really, through drama, communicate your gospel. We pray for any guests that will be here next week, Lord. We ask that you’d open their hearts to receive the glad tidings of great joy that Christ the Savior has been born and that He is willing to save them. I pray that for any here today that don’t know you, Lord, that you might open their eyes to understand, their hearts to receive the great love that you have for them that was literally incarnated in your son, Jesus Christ. We ask your blessing on the word. May it bear much fruit in our lives. I pray in Jesus’ name. All God’s people said, amen.

All right, kids, kids, you can go to rehearsal. If you would open your Bibles to John 1, the Gospel of John, Chapter 1. Is anybody familiar with the old Christmas tradition where the actual Christmas tree went up Christmas morning? Yeah? Kids go to bed, there’s no tree, there’s nothing, When they wake up, boom, because Santa came and Santa put up the tree. Really it was Mom and they all knew because she was sleeping on the couch when they got it. No, I’m kidding. Jesus is going to show up, huh? Well, the problem is we’re meeting Christmas Eve. Can he come a little bit early? He’ll be here next Sunday. Oh, he’ll be here next Sunday. Okay. He’s going to make an early appearance for us. I like that. Good. In chapter one, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning, He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made, and that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, meaning the light, and the world made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right or the authority to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, 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 beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness we have all received, grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, or some of your versions may say the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. Now 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 Messiah. And they asked them, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Then they said to him, who are you? That we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness makes straight the way of the Lord. As the prophet Isaiah said. Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him saying, why then do you baptize if you’re not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them 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 strap I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day, John 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 was preferred before me, for he was before me. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. Amen.

John, the Voice in the Wilderness

This morning I’d like to speak briefly about John, as well as Jesus, of course. But at this time of year we talk much about Jesus and the coming of Jesus and the incarnation of Jesus, the virgin birth of Jesus, et cetera, and often John gets overlooked. John is a very significant person in the New Testament. We know that John was a relative of Jesus. Jesus’ mother Mary was related to Elizabeth. And we don’t know what exactly their relationship was, but they were relatives. So it’s very possible that Jesus and John were cousins, second cousins, third cousins, but some way they were related. We had time, we could read the text, but in a loop we get the story, we get much information about John, and there we learn of the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth. John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. In some ways, you could argue that next to Moses, he was the greatest because he had the privilege of being the forerunner of Jesus Christ. That is to say that he was, as Jesus said, if you can receive this, he is Elijah. In other words, he was the one that was to literally make the path straight, to clear the way for the coming of Messiah. What an awesome privilege, amen. to think that you were going to be the voice that declared the coming of the Messiah in your generation. So he was the Messiah’s forerunner. John’s office was not to be the light, not the light.

Here in John 1, notice this, it says in verse 6, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness. Now, here we are, now, here we are, [audio unclear] And then all of a sudden he says, by the way, there’s a guy named John that lives in the neighborhood. This guy’s gotta be important, right? Here he is put right next to the eternal word. He was sent from God. He came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. But he says in verse eight, he was not that light. John, if you will, was a lesser light, I like to call John a lamp. Jesus was the light, the true light, that light. John was a lamp. He held out a lamp to those in his generation showing the way to the true light. But he wasn’t that light. Rather he was to be a witness, or a martyr is the original word, a martyr to the light. He says that he was a voice in the wilderness.

[audio unclear] God, the will of God, the moral will of God. And so John was willing to preach to Kings, to Herod, saying that Herod’s marriage was unlawful, which it was, according to biblical law. And for that offense, he was thrown in prison. Now while John was in prison, we’re told that he sent some of his disciples to Jesus. And they came to Jesus and said, John has a question. Are you the coming one? Do you remember that passage? Are you the coming one? Now many commentators say John must have had a, John must have been struggling with his faith. Here he is in prison, maybe he’s languishing, maybe he’s depressed, maybe he’s confused. And so he sends his disciples to Jesus and said, well, are you the coming one? Now, I have a problem with that interpretation in light of John’s declaration here. Now it is possible for someone’s faith to falter. It is possible to have doubts, very grave doubts at times in your. Your walk. But I think John was doing something else. I think John sent his disciples to Jesus, not for John’s benefit, but for theirs. Now remember, when, when, and we can see it here in John, John understood his role. He understood that he was a forerunner. He understood that he was a voice. He understood that he was the lamp, Jesus was the light. What that means is that his ministry, he knew was temporary and limited, right? If you go over to John three, if you wanna flip a few pages in your Bible, look what John says in John chapter three. What really starts in 22, but we won’t read the whole thing. This is what’s called the last testimony of John. He says, verse 26, and they came to him and said to him, Rabbi, I was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you have testified. Behold, he’s baptizing and all are coming to him.“ In other words, sometimes the disciples are saying, John, Jesus’ church is getting bigger than your church. What are you going to do about this? This is a bad thing. They’re going to Jesus. Now, can you believe that? Can you believe? I can believe that. I’ve seen the territorial spirit that’s in the church. I can believe that. People are following Jesus. His disciples are concerned. And so what’s John say?

A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He’s referring back to what we have recorded in John 1. Okay? I’m not the Messiah. I am going before the Messiah to point to the Messiah. He who has the bride, is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. Jesus is the bridegroom, right? And the church is his bride. John wasn’t the bridegroom. The church wasn’t his, and he understood that. He understood that the church belonged to Jesus, the bridegroom. He was simply the best man, if you will, at the wedding. Verse 30, he must increase, but I must decrease. John understood that his role was to point to Jesus and that therefore, you’re listening, Those following John were supposed to leave John and follow Jesus. They weren’t supposed to keep on following John. Jesus comes, he says, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the Son of the world, behold the Son of God, behold, this is the Christ, behold, this is Messiah. Basically, follow Him, look at Him, go to Him, and they keep on following John. Even after John’s thrown in prison. Now think about it. I mean, John’s like, I appreciate the visits guys, but what are you doing? My time’s up. God has shut me up so that you would now turn to the Messiah. So, so go to Jesus and ask Jesus who he is. You’ve heard me tell you he’s the Lamb of God. You’ve heard me tell you that he’s the Son of God. Now you go to Jesus and ask him who he is. And so they go to Jesus and say, hey, who are you? Are you the coming one? In other words, are you the Messiah? So I think John wasn’t, I do not believe his faith was faltering. I think John was rather point. Fulfilling his role as the forerunner And as a witness, and again and again, he was sending his disciples to the one they should follow, and that was Jesus. Go to Jesus and ask him who he is. I’ve told you from him. So John was honored to be a forerunner, the forerunner, if you will, of Messiah in his day. Not the light, but certainly possessing light, the light of the gospel, the light of the knowledge of the Messiah, but he was a lamp, a dim light compared to the true light, of course. But he also says that he was a voice when he was asked, well, if you’re not Elijah, if you’re not the Messiah, who are you? And he says, I’m simply a voice. And what does a voice do? A voice speaks, a voice cries out. So this was John’s method, simply to speak what he knew of Messiah. What was John’s message? Well, if you go back to John 1, I think his message can be summed up in the two titles that he gives to Jesus. The first title is in verse 29. It says, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,

The Son of God

The second title is in verse 34. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. These two titles really sum up Jesus and his work. Regarding his person, who he was, he was the Son of God. Now, when we hear the term Son of God, I think a lot of times we think of Jesus being, quote, related to God in a way that he may be he’s inferior to God, as if a son is inferior to the father. But in fact, to say that he was the son of God was really to assert his equality with God. And that’s exactly what’s being asserted in John 1, 1 through 5. That the word was in the beginning. In the beginning is really a phrase for eternity past. So if the son was there in the eternal past, The Son’s eternal and eternality is an attribute of God, right? Only God is eternal, so this Word was with God and it just, it says plainly, the word was God. So it asserts the deity, what we call the deity of Christ, that Jesus was truly God. Now when we say that he was truly God, this is important. We’re not saying that he simply had divinity. Now if you read Theology some of you do you find that there was a big dispute years ago About the words divinity and the words deity like oh, no here we go again But the point was many were asserting that Jesus was divine But they didn’t really believe that he was the God Then in other words, they were willing to say he was a God And there are different ways they arrived at that But he wasn’t the God And what Orthodox-Christianity teaches is that Jesus was truly, when it says that Jesus was God, it’s not that he was simply divine, an aguad, or a lesser god, or a related god, but that he was truly the one true God. So what’s involved in the birth of Jesus and the incarnation of Jesus is really the doctrine of the trinity. That is to say that the Son was equal with the Father in all respects, the only distinction being [audio unclear] Christians are often charged with being illogical for believing that God is one yet three persons. But the orthodox definition of the trinity is not that there are three gods. It’s that there’s one God in three persons, not one person with three persons. That would be a logical contradiction. There’s one God in three persons. And again, we can’t fully understand how a being can subsist in three different forms, although I don’t like the word form, but I don’t have a better one, because we don’t exist that way. But when we say the word was God, we don’t mean, John doesn’t mean that the word was a lesser God. As a matter of fact, it’s very interesting that in this verse, my version says, in the beginning, was the word and the word was with God. Did you ever say that? Yeah. Yeah. It’s interesting because the Greek proposition here, it can be translated with, but actually that’s like not the main way it’s translated. The Greek proposition here could be translated and the word was facing God. Okay. And the idea, I think there’s two ideas here. One is fellowship. but I think the other is equality. The notion that they stand together face to face. You understand what I’m saying? In terms of their eternality and their deity, they are the same. Dissection of persons. This person, this son of God? Also was the creator of all things in verse three. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. So Jesus, regarding his person, couldn’t be made because he made all things. Understand what I’m saying? He didn’t make some things, he made all things. So he was not a created being in terms of his person. Now his body and his human nature were created. And through Mary, without the aid of a human father, this is called the virgin birth. But the incarnation means that God, the second person, joined himself with human nature, not just a human body, but a whole. And so we have a Savior who is both fully God and fully man. You’re like, well, I don’t understand that either. Welcome, welcome to the mystery of the faith. Right? The mystery of the faith. Now people say, well, you know, you believe this stuff, it doesn’t make any sense. Nothing in scripture is fundamentally illogical. It’s not contrary to reason, but it’s certainly beyond reason. To say that there are limits to our ability to understand God, if we’re not willing to say that, then certainly we’re not ready to enter the kingdom of God. Because that shows a profound lack of humility. You hear what I’m saying? Jesus said we have to become like children to enter the kingdom of God. We need to humble ourselves and acknowledge and say, I don’t understand all this. I remember when I got saved, there was a lot I didn’t understand. I didn’t like take a theology test and get all the questions on the Trinity rite and all the questions on the the enthroning person of Jesus rite and all the questions on how it relates to salvation in the atonement. I got, I got, pass this long exam. Can I be saved now? No. I knew a couple things. I knew I was a sinner. I knew Jesus could save me. How do I know? Because he said so. I wanted to be saved. I got saved. Now, I’m all for making things clear to people, but coming to Christ is more than just an intellectual change of your opinion. Repentance is the whole man. It is the mind, the heart, the soul, the will, the affections, it’s everything. Repentance is a change which is wrought in us which brings us into submission to God. All right, submission to God. And we submit our intellect, our emotions, and our will. All of us, our whole person, we submit to God. So I really got off on a tangent, I didn’t even know where I was. Oh, son of God, yeah.

The Lamb of God

So, John declares that Jesus is the Son of God, but he also says that he’s the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Calling him the Son, he’s referring to his person. Calling him the Lamb, he’s referring to his work. Jesus came, as we know, to die. He lived that he might die. He was born that he might die. And so, we celebrate at this time of year the birth of Jesus, but the birth of Jesus is meaningless to us apart from his death. I mean, it would be kind of cool God came down for a couple of years and lived, you know what I mean? Like that’d be neat. See how he did it. How did God deal with stuff? And so we can read the gospels and learn how God in the flesh dealt with things. But then if he just left and left us in our sins, what are we celebrating? Right? An example, a moral example? Is that all we get from Jesus, a moral example? No, we get salvation from Jesus. We get redemption, we get forgiveness, we get all the things the Bible talks about in that word salvation, which is a huge, as Dan Benz would say, a huge word. Right, Dan? Huge. Huge word. encompassing every aspect of what Jesus accomplished on the cross through his, what we call his passion. Jesus Christ died on the cross, John says, or he refers to him as a lamb, and of course in Jewish thought, what was the lamb for? It wasn’t to take home and keep as a pet. What was the lamb for? That’s the imagery. To sacrifice. Sacrifice for what? For sin. And when you read the Old Testament and you see this system that’s developed by God to impress upon the people over and over and over and over the necessity of an atonement. The necessity for death because of sin. The necessity for shed blood over and over and over. I mean when you read some of the Old Testament laws, I mean it’s like the priests have to cut it up this way and they have to put the fat over here and they have to put the entrails over here and they can only burn this here. You’re like, some of you guys are like, Yeah, that’d be cool. but what is all that? It’s impressing upon the consciousness of the people the holiness [audio unclear] the sin of the world. They knew exactly what he was talking about. They understood that John was pointing to Jesus as the Lamb, meaning the sacrifice, and through his death, now they didn’t understand all that we know now, but they understood enough from the Old Testament that this Lamb, this person, was going to die and somehow that death meant they could be forgiven. Their sins could be atoned for. That is good news. Now, if you were, she stole the show. [audio unclear] Can’t compete with that cuteness. If you were a Jew, now some Jews loved the ritual, you know. But when you read Malachi, which I really encourage you to read, I read it recently, Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, right? And Malachi kind of sums up the attitude of the Jewish people after generations and generations and generations of the Old Testament worship. Basically it’s summed up in one word, weariness. They, they were weary, they were tired of it. As God says through the prophet, you sniff at my sacrifices. They were just tired of the whole thing. So when Jesus came and John said, behold the Lamb of God, this was going to be the final lamb. No more, no more need after this for more lambs. Just this one lamb. Just one more sacrifice, one more shedding of blood, and all the blood would be over through this one lamb. And we read in the book of Hebrews where the author of Hebrews addresses this very thing. And he says, you have people, you have, you have the rituals going on, you have Moses, week after week, but Jesus sanctified his people once and for all. Once and for all, you can clap.

Jesus took away sin. The Old Testament blood of the animals covered sin. Hebrew, kaphar: covered. Jesus removed. [audio unclear] His atonement was not temporary till the next Day of Atonement. It was an eternal sacrifice. So therefore we’re told in Hebrews that those who come to Jesus can be saved to the uttermost, completely saved. Saved from every sin, every transgression, every violation of God’s law, every one past, present, and future. He takes away the sin of the world. That’s good news. That’s the glad tidings that are referred to in Luke. I don’t know about you guys but I was kind of raised in, how do I say it, a weird family. How do I sum this up? Raised in a church but there was no connection between that and family you know what I mean? It was like the church system that had a lot of rituals and a lot of regulations and no real gospel. No gospel. It was a religion of works. It was a religion of, it was a religion of, we that I’ve come to call white-knuckle Christianity. In other words, if you hang on, hang on, you just might get in. You know what I mean? You might make it. But since God really judges you by your works, it’s a good chance you’re not gonna make it. So you gotta be really good, plus you gotta keep all the rituals, and if you’re really good, if you’re good enough and you keep all the rituals, you might get in, and if you don’t get in, you gotta spend a couple thousand years in a bad place, and then you might get in later. Well, anybody with any self-consciousness, it amazes me that anybody can believe in works and be happy. I mean, can you actually believe that God is absolutely holy? Really holy? I mean, like, as my old pastor used to say, God doesn’t grate on a curve.

So look at the Ten Commandments and truly ponder them. And just to make sure, try to live them out for a while and see what you do. and then say, okay, I can do this perfectly because that’s what’s required. The holiness of God doesn’t mean we can try. Now, this goes against the whole spirit of the age because we live in a culture that endorses feelings. You understand what I’m saying? In politics it’s called identity politics. If you feel a certain way, then that’s your truth. It’s true for you. Now, it just so happens that how you feel about something may be totally irrelevant to the facts. But because you feel it, we must honor that. We must honor your feelings. So, now I’m not, I don’t think you should offend anybody’s feelings on purpose. But the fact of the matter is, some things in the word are offensive to the human mind. They, are offensive to the flesh. And so, one of the, these are gospels called a stomach block and an offense is because what it tells people, you would think people are like, I mean, I, I remember when I first got saved, like, man, why isn’t everybody getting saved? This is awesome. What’s the deal? Of course, it never dawned to me that I was resisting it for years. But once I got saved, like, everybody, this was just so obvious. Well, it is obvious once God removes the darkness, right? Once God gives you eyes to see is like wow I can see. Well you’re born again. You’ve entered the kingdom, right? It’s all new, it’s clear. So the defense of the gospel isn’t that God loves you. What kinds of people believe that? It’s not even that Jesus died for your sins, although some people don’t like the word sin anymore because You know, that’s kind of, maybe people get uncomfortable. The offense of the gospel is that if you understand the gospel, it’s that you, or I, before I knew Christ, you are utterly helpless to save yourself. That’s the gospel. It’s not like Jesus will save you, but if you don’t like that, you can do it your own way. It’s Jesus will save you if you understand you’re utterly helpless to save yourself.

Because it’s only at that point does someone truly throw themselves on Christ.

It’s only one person understands that they are utterly unfit and there’s nothing they can do either in their moral conduct or in their religious observance which can make them pleasing and acceptable to God. There’s nothing they can do but throw themselves on the mercy of God. Displayed in Jesus Christ. That strikes at the fundamental problem of fallen humanity and that is our pride.

We Are Witnesses

The religious systems of the world have produced many magnificent things. Whether it’s the Christian system, the Islamic system, and everything. Everything good came out of Islam? Actually, yes. But the problem is the root of the matter. The root of the matter is that we cannot save ourselves. We need an atonement. And I say need and I stress need an atonement. The gospel, when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes with the Father but by me. He’s talking about his atonement. There’s no other means of resolving the sin problem. But Jesus has resolved it. For those that come to him, their sins are put away forever. He died unto sin once and for all. He’s not sacrificed weekly. He’s not sacrificed when we take communion. He’s not sacrificed, He was sacrificed once and for all. And he put away sin because he was the Lamb of God, the Lamb. So John was a witness. He was a light. He came speaking as a voice, and his message was summed up in Jesus being the Lamb of God and the Son of God. So what does this have to do with us very quickly? because I have to take a long drive today. Number one, we, the church, we have the same office as John. We are witnesses. Now we may not be a prophet. We don’t get the privilege of being the forerunner in the sense that John was, the historical personage that was going to usher in the Messiah, if you will. However, we, like John, are called the witness. Let me rephrase that. We like John are indicative. I didn’t say we should witness. I said that we are witnesses. This is a fact. Jesus said you are the light of the world. Now John was never called that. As a matter of fact, John was called a lamp by Jesus later in the book of John. It was specifically said that John wasn’t that light, but Jesus says to his church, you are the light of the world. Astounding to think of. You were the salt of the earth. Paul said, we are ambassadors of Christ. Peter said you are a holy priesthood to show forth his virtues or excellencies. In other words, the application, the first application for us as Christians is remember who you are. Remember who you are. You are first and foremost a Christian. And being a Christian, this means you are, if you will. This is who we are. This is what the church is. As I said in a previous sermon we can be a bad witness or a good witness but we are a witness. We can be an effective witness or an ineffective witness but we are a witness. We can be an eager witness or an apathetic witness but we are a witness. When people look at us, they see the light. Question is, do they see a bright light or a dim light? But they’ll see the light. Because we are the light. But John also said that he was a voice. What does a voice do? Exactly, it speaks.

Or as John said, I’m a voice crying in the wilderness, crying out, the Greek word really means letting it rip. Really screaming, declaring, proclaiming, crying. Okay, we would say speaking, we would say preaching, communicating. As Christians, we don’t play charades and expect people to figure out the gospel because we’re good people. Rather, as Paul said, I believe, therefore I speak. He also said as well, how shall they believe or how shall they hear without a preacher? Of course they can’t. It’s true that we, as delight, as ambassadors, we should use social media, video tracks, any means we can to communicate the gospel, but these things must speak, if you will, the gospel. In other words, as Jesus said, what good is light if it’s put under a bushel? Now, I bet if I go to your house, I won’t find any lamps under the sofa. Am I right? Anybody got a lamp under the sofa? No. Some of you have put up a Christmas tree and I bet the lights are not under the tree. I bet they’re on the tree. Am I right? And a lot of you like to put a star on the top. You don’t put the star on the bottom and then cover up with a blanket. You put the star right on top. So everybody, they walk in, they go, wow. What an awesome tree. The lights shine, the stars glowing. And that’s how people are to be when they see the church. What a beautiful tree, full of light, full of glory, right? So we are witnesses, ambassadors, and what they do is they speak, they represent the will of their sovereign. So whatever means we use, these means must be communicating to those around us the content of the gospel. We must open our mouth for those who are being led to slaughter. We must open our mouth for those who sit in darkness. We must open our mouth for those who do not know the good news of the gospel. Any Amen’s? Now if there was a way that you could lead people to Jesus and never open your mouth, I would tell you how to do it. I don’t think there is one. Now your life, If the way you raise your kids and all the things you do, these can be things that can attract perhaps. They can draw. But at some point, people have to know the content of the gospel. Some point, they need to know Jesus, the Son of God, is the Lamb of God that takes away the Son of the world. That must be communicated to them at some point. And we do that through our words, through speaking, through being a voice. You know, we’re called Jesus’ body. And of course it’s a metaphor, it’s not literal. But there’s a lot of truth in that metaphor. Jesus’ body, his physical body, which was conceived in Mary of her substance through the Holy Spirit, that body is in heaven. Right? But he has this body on earth. And I believe that Jesus is trying to speak to people on earth. Now he does this through his Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus Christ is drawing men and women, children to himself, on a daily basis. There are people that you know. I believe that the Holy Spirit is convicting them. The Holy Spirit is dealing with them and attempting to draw them to Himself.

But here’s what God does. God deals, convicts, Jesus says it, read John, He says, it’s good that I’m going away because I’m going to send the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is going to convict people of sin, righteousness, and judgment, right? But then shortly after He says, and you also will be my witnesses. In other words, the Holy Spirit, I’m going to send Him and He’s going to witness. See, on a witness in people’s minds, their conscience, their heart, however you want to put it, he’ll draw. But you also are my witnesses, he says. So he’s witnessing to them internally, if you will, and then we come along and we’re the voice. We provide the content, the clarity, the message, the gospel, the glad tidings to them.

A Story of Mercy

I think I’ve told you the story, but I love the story, so I’m going to repeat myself. Is that okay? I don’t care, I’m gonna do it anyway. I’m gonna do it anyway. Let me just say this to preface. I think that part of the, what’s the word? Ineffectiveness of a contemporary American, I’m not talking about the church elsewhere, the American church, in the Great Commission, is due to the fact that many Christians actually think like deists. Okay, what I mean is they believe in God, they believe moral absolutes, they believe in a final judgment, but God is really out there. You know what I’m saying? I mean, he’s there, but he’s really out there. And we think of Christmas and God invades history as if God wasn’t here before. Am I right? Well, then Jesus ascends after his resurrection. Well, he’s gone. Darn. No more of God. So we function too often like that, not realizing that not only is that like totally unbiblical from an Old Testament point of view, but we have the further promise on the new covenant where Jesus said, it’s good that I’m leaving because now the Holy Spirit is coming and he can deal with everybody. I’m limited in my body, physical body. He’s not limited. He can deal with people everywhere, right? So, and he is. But do we believe that? He is. Here’s the thing, friend. You have no idea what God is doing in the hearts of the people around you. You have no idea. And a great story that illustrates us, as I said, I’ve shared it before. But years ago, right after my brother got saved, who basically led me to Christ, he He was working for a plumber, so he’d get these calls at weird times of the day and night, he’d have to go on a call, you know, and fix a toilet or something. Well, so one night he got a call and he had to go repair. It was a bad job, I mean getting down in the thing and covered with, he would come up from work, I mean, you, stinky, you know what I mean? So he goes and does this job, and then when he’s leaving the job, he realizes that he’s on the street where an old friend of his lives. So he’s like, I think I’ll just stop in. Pretty bold move since he basically was covered with feces and what else. Yeah. It’s all you. [audio unclear] Long-saved Christians don’t want to share the gospel.

The newbies want to do it because they’re excited. All right, so he shares the gospel. And the guy says, man, you won’t believe this. But just last night I had a dream. And in my dream I died. And after I died, angels were carrying me and hanging me over the pit of hell. Now, do you don’t think that was the Holy Spirit? Are you hearing me? And then the Holy Spirit led my brother to stop. So he had the internal of the this dream convicting him of his impending judgment Then you have God leading someone to share the cunt of the gospel to save him from his impending judgment Astounding But the story is not over so he shares the gospel and He left I don’t think he prayed with them, but he was he was very moved in light of the dream And I believe that he said he would certainly consider receiving Christ.

And so, you know, my brother left, didn’t think much about it, and then he found out a few days later that that guy died the next day in a car accident.

The mercy of God. The mercy of God, that that man received Christ that night and met Jesus the next day, I don’t know. But that’s our God, drawing and wooing and convicting people, but we need to be the voice.

We need to give them the gospel. And the more you share with people, the more you will learn, the more you will see and and discern how God is dealing with people. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shared and someone will say something like, you know, I was just thinking about going back to church. You know, I was just thinking about God the other day. You know, I was just thinking, why were they thinking? Because the Holy Spirit was convicting them. The Lord is alive. He’s alive and he’s working in the world today. He’s working in your workplace. He’s working in your neighborhood. He’s working in people’s lives. And we are called to partner with him. We need to make straight the way of the Lord. Make it clear. Remove the rubble. Clear up the objections people have. Clear up the confusion that people have so they can come to the Lord, just like John. Let me just say, John was honored, But I believe that we are honored also. That Jesus would call his church the light of the world, that Jesus would allow us to herald his salvation, his gospel. How beautiful are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of great joy. Some of you are thinking, oh gosh, another sermon about evangelism. I can’t wait till he’s done talking about this. because you see it as a duty, as a drudgery. It is a grand privilege. It is an honor that Jesus Christ has bestowed upon his church, which means it is an honor that he has bestowed upon you that you could speak the name Jesus to others. That you have been entrusted with the gospel of grace, that you can be the means by which those heading to destruction receive eternal life. It is a privilege in some ways greater than John, because we have the full understanding of the gospel that John didn’t have.

Closing Prayer

It is a privilege to be an ambassador. It is an honor to be a herald. And let us thank God for that. And then let’s be what we are called to be. Amen. Let’s stand together. Lord Jesus, no words are sufficient for your grace and mercy. Lord, this is one story I told today, just one example of the millions and millions and millions that you have delivered from destruction.

We thank you that you’ve sent your spirit into the world, not just into our hearts, but into the world to convict men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. We thank you that you’ve honored us to be your ambassadors. We thank you that we have a high and holy calling to be able to speak the words of eternal life to others. O God, make us grateful and thankful for this privilege.

I pray at this time of year, especially as we spend time with family and friends, Lord, that we might be the voice crying in their wilderness, that we would be the ones sharing with them the gospel of glad tidings. And Lord, I do pray for those we know, we pray for your Holy Spirit to continue and even intensify His work of convicting them. We pray that your Holy Spirit would draw them, that your Holy Spirit would enlighten them, that your Holy Spirit would prepare them for when we share the gospel with them and they would truly be saved. And I pray for anyone in this room or that doesn’t know you, they might understand, Lord Jesus, that your sacrifice was complete and perfect. There’s no more sacrifice for sin, but they must come to you in faith. They must rely upon you. They must trust you as their crucified and risen Savior. And if they do that, Lord, they shall be forgiven and they shall receive eternal life. And it’s a free gift of grace, not by works, lest anyone should boast. We are saved by grace, not by works. Draw them, Lord Jesus, to yourself. We ask in your name, Amen.