John 1:19-23
John 1 starts with the beginning of Jesus, and then around verse six, it goes into the mission of John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify on God’s behalf.
There are many things that speak to me in this passage. Starting with the fact that John’s testimony is included in a passage titled God’s Birth Story.
But also, this whole passage is kind of like a guide to testimony.
· In verses 21 & 22 people were trying to figure out who he was and they asked him if he was Elijah (a known prophet from 1st Kings 17-19) or if he was even the Messiah. People may also be more distracted by who you are than the things that you want them to know about you or your Lord.
· Vs 23 - We don’t have to know all of the answers, but we can lean on scripture as John did. [Isaiah 40:3-5]
· Vs 24-26 - We can’t save people ourselves, but we can lead others to Christ. – Boy isn’t that relieving? In fact, a friend recently reminded me that God calls us to obedience, not outcomes. Whew! We can just be bold in the areas that we feel the Lord leading us, and everything else is up to him.
Now let’s listen to (or read) Verses 19-23 and meditate on them.
19 Now, this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally, they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
[Here it is – pay attention to the words.]
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
-
-
-
WHAT BOLDNESS!!
He doesn’t even say – “You can refer to Isaiah.” Or “I feel led to tell you…”
He speaks as if he is God himself. He says I AM!
-
-
Do you and I DECLARE God? Is there AUTHORITY in our witness or even in our prayer life?
Sometimes we doubt what people will think. We doubt ourselves. We doubt the credibility of things we experience. **Did this really happen or am I just crazy?**
So we over-explain or get twisted up wanting to be understood, or we avoid the situation altogether.
But JOHN completely skips himself and refers to God.
They even asked him, what do you say about yourself? He was given an opportunity and still only gave the moment to God.
Where can you and I do the same?
-
-
-
Truthfully, even when we aren’t thinking about our testimony, when we’re alone, where can we give up thinking of ourselves and only declare and give the moment or our thoughts to God?
Isn’t our depression, our anxiety our worry, fear, and even sin, a result of our eyes being on ourselves instead of God.
Yet YOU are also part of God’s birth story.
YOU are a part of the great I AM.
YOU are the voice of the one calling in the wild.
Where in your life can you make straight the path for the Lord?
Let us pray…
No comments:
Post a Comment