We're going to continue in worship today by diving into God's word. We've been in a message series the last couple of weeks called God became flesh. We're looking at the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John, who gives us this cosmic perspective of the birth of Christ. We've finished the first five verses today. We're going to be looking at verses six through eight, but I'd like to begin by reading those first five verses again, just to remind us of the context. John says In the beginning was the word a reference to Jesus, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning, through Him, all things were made without him, nothing was made that has been made in him. In Jesus, was life. In that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. As you can see, even if you weren't here over the last few weeks, the focus that John has been giving us is all on Jesus and making sure that we understand who this baby that was born in a manger really was who he is, that he's the eternal Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, the agent of creation, and the life, the ZOE life that we talked about last week, and the light of all mankind. There's so many rich, deep theological truths that we see in those first five verses and that we've unpacked over the last couple of weeks. But today, as you'll see, the apostle John completely takes a turn in the opposite direction. He shifts his focus off of Jesus, even though it's related. And here's what he says. In Verse six, he says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now what John are we talking about here? What John is this John referring to? This is the apostle John, who's writing the Gospel of John. But John is not referring to himself in the third person, he's not referring to himself here. He's talking about John the Baptist. Most of the time in the gospels, you'll see those words added on that title, John the Baptist. Well, here he just says his name was John. Now this is a rather simple statement that he's making here, but there's three things that I just want to quickly draw your attention to that John is saying here. And the very first one is this. He is emphasizing that John is just a man. There is a contrast here, a shift from what we saw in the first five verses about the Logos, the word of God, the Eternal logos, the agent of creation, right? And he's saying John the Baptist is one of those creations. He is not the creator. He's just simply one of the Creator's creations. John is being extremely careful here to make sure there's this clear distinction between who Jesus was and is as the eternal Son of God, and who John was as a man just like you and just like me. Now the second thing John says, though, even though he's making sure that we understand he was just a man, that he was sent from God, he says there was a man. And then he says that sent from God. The word translated, sent there is apostello, which is where we get our English word apostle from the word apostle there, or apostello means to send out to commission as a representative or as an ambassador. And so what we see is that John was sent from God to be God's representative for a special mission, and this mission was even prophesied about in the Old Testament. I don't have time this morning to take you to all of those passages, but one of those places is in Malachi, through the three the very last book of the Old Testament. It says, there, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly, the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty. And so we see that God, through Malachi, the Prophet, says, I will send my messenger one day in the future. And now we have the apostle John writing this, saying that messenger has come, and his name was John the Baptist. He's the fulfillment of this prophecy. And so when we look back again at John, chapter one, verse six, he says, There was a man, just a man, not the word. He was sent from God. He had a special mission from him. But then he says. Whose name was, and he tells us John. And even that is significant, though, because the name John means gracious, it means grace, or to be graced by God. And so God gives John, the Baptist, the name graced by God. And then he sends him out to prepare the way for the one whom John will describe later in this chapter as full of grace and full of truth. Now after John tells us these things and highlights that there was simply a man, but that he was sent from God, and his name was John, as he gets into verse seven, he tells what it was that he came to do and why he came to do it. And so let's look and see what he says there. He says he, John the Baptist, came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him all might believe. Who's the light? What light was he testifying about? Well, that Jesus, of course, we read about that in the first five verses. In verse four, remember that John said in him, in Jesus, was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. Jesus even declared in the gospels that he was the light. And so we see that John, the Baptist, was sent to testify, to be a witness concerning that light, if you're following along in your own Bibles, you might even want to underline the word witness and testify there, because it's an important word to John, he uses the noun version of that word 13 times in this gospel and the verb to testify 33 times. No other gospel writer uses it more than three times. It's extremely important to John and what he's trying to communicate about Jesus and who John the Baptist was, and all the things that he's saying here in this gospel now, when you hear those words, witness and testify, your mind probably goes to a courtroom. I mean, mine usually would, and that's probably an accurate view of this right a witness takes the stand to testify about first hand knowledge of something, about something involved in a case that is being looked at in a courtroom. And so what we see is that John, again, was sent by God as His Messenger to share his first hand knowledge about Jesus being the Logos, the word, and that in him was Zoe life, and that that life was the light of all mankind. John was sent to prepare the way for Jesus to get people ready for His coming. The God of the universe, was coming. He was coming to make his dwelling among us. And John was sent by God to prepare that way for the King to announce or Herald His coming. And John, again, tells us why that's what he came to do. But there's a so that clause that you see in that verse, this is what he came to do, so that for the purpose of that, through him, all might believe. I love the way that John writes this right up front. And then later on, if you were to read the entire Gospel, you would then see evidence of him doing just that. One of those places is in John chapter 10. We just want to highlight three verses there, beginning in verse 40, John says, Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to take the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, and many people came to him. They said, though John never performed a sign, though John wasn't the light, he wasn't the life, he didn't perform the signs that the Logos, the word the Son of God, Jesus, performed. He says, All that John said, all that John testified to about him, was true. And then he says, in that place, many believed. So John, chapter one, verse seven, he says that he was or six. He was sent from God, and then he was on this mission to witness or to testify. And then he shares this passage where he says, though John didn't do the things that Jesus, because he was just a man, he wasn't a man. He did testify and witness, and through that testimony, people came to believe in him and had their lives changed. But ultimately, it goes even beyond that, because John says he testified and was a witness that all might believe, not just the people in his day, but that includes even you and I today. See what we see about John the Baptist is that he was an important figure. All four gospels write about John the Baptist. They saw him as an extremely important part of what God was doing through the sin. Of his one and only son coming into this world to rescue and redeem mankind from their sin. And so it's through his testimony that even you and I come to believe today, and that we might find and experience that abundant life and light in our lives as a result of that belief, having put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. So now in the last verse, we'll look at today in verse eight, after having said this about who John was, he was just a man, but he was sent from God, and that he was on this mission, what he came to do, and why, he gives us one more thing to kind of think about, or make sure that we don't miss about what his role was in his redemptive work, God's redemptive work. So verse eight, he says, he again referring to John, the Baptist himself, was not the light. He came only to witness to the light. So once again, John does not want us to miss that Jesus is the light. John the Baptist is not the light. He was a light. Jesus said that he was a lamp that burned and gave light, but he was not the light that Jesus was. And this is important for John to highlight up front, because John was seen as someone who was great. I mean, Jesus, we're even even recorded in Matthew chapter 11 is saying, up until that time, that there is no one greater than John the Baptist. I mean, we're talking greater than Noah and Abraham and Jacob and Moses and King David and all of these figures that we see in the Old Testament. Listen, if you're if you're that great, then there's certainly a tendency that you could make the mistake that you are the greatest, right, when you're seen as someone that great. But John was not the light. He was just a lamp, but not the light. And so you don't want to go putting your faith in salvation in the wrong person. We don't put our faith and trust in John, the Baptist to save us. He was just a man, important man, but not the man, not the Lord and Savior. John's role was to not be the light. He wasn't supposed to be in the spotlight, if you will. He would be seen, he would be heard, people would notice him and what it was that he was saying. But even when that began to happen, his role was to deflect people's attention away from himself as a lamp into the actual light. As many have come to say, John the Baptist was a pointer.John the Baptist was a pointer. He pointed to the light we're looking at John chapter one and the PROLOG and later on in John chapter one, verse 29 he tells us that, or John says this The next day that John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Now we all know whenever we are trying to get someone's attention and we say, look, that we do what you point at, whatever it is that you're wanting them to look at, almost every single time you ever say, look, there's always a point that goes with it. And so most likely, when John the Baptist said, look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he was pointing to Jesus. In that moment, John the Baptist was a a pointer. That's what his role was. He testified concerning the light so that all might believe, believe what? Well, that he was the sacrificial lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins, plural, the once for all sacrifice to end all sacrifices for the forgiveness of all sins. And that's, of course, what Jesus would go on to do when he went to the cross. He took on all the sins of the world and paid the penalty for them, and offers his forgiveness to us by grace that we receive through faith. And so guys, this is who John the Baptist was, and what it is that he did, the apostle John tells us that he was a witness, that he testified about Jesus and pointed people to the forgiveness than the life that could be found only in Him. But what I want you to see today is that in a similar way, that is also our role as believers today, when we see Jesus meeting with the disciples in Acts chapter one, right after his death and resurrection, but just before him ascending back to heaven, he says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Two and you will be my witnesses. Underline that word if you're reading in your own Bible, my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The word witness there in Acts one, same word that the writer, the apostle John, writes in John chapter one about John the Baptist being a witness sent to testify. But here it's used in the to describe the apostles and what they would be doing once the Holy Spirit came, the disciples were going to be witnesses. They were going to become the pointers to Jesus, the ones who say, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And they could do so from personal experience, because their sins had been taken away. So they could say, look, he's the Lamb of God who's taken my sins away. He's the Lamb of God who's given me eternal and abundant life. He's the reason you're seeing this new power on display in this Zoe life on display in and through us. And the apostles would be able to say, it can be yours too, if you'll receive His grace by faith. So this is what we see of the apostles. Now you may look at that and say, Jason, you said earlier that it was our role today, and then you gave us an example of Jesus saying that that was the apostles role. And last time I checked, we're not the apostles. And you would be right if you were thinking that, or were to say that to me, we're not the apostles in the same sense that they were. But here's what I want you to see in Acts. Chapter Eight, I read that to you in Acts chapter one, they do receive the Holy Spirit. They do begin to go out and testify and witness about who Jesus was and the new life that could be received in him. People do believe they receive that new life and become part of the church. And then here's what we read in Acts, chapter eight, seven chapters later, says, On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Now, let me ask you a question, Who were those who had been scattered? Not the apostles, right? I mean, he's very clear here to say, all except the apostles were scattered. So these are just regular old people who came to believe in Jesus Christ, like you and me, who were now children of God, who were now brothers and sisters in Christ, who were just part of the church. They weren't professional pastors or the apostles in the sense that the 12 apostles were, they were just regular church members like you and I and Luke tells us that those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Now that's not the same word witness. It's the word that means to evangelize. They weren't preaching like I am on a stage in some formal sense. They're just proclaiming the good news about Jesus. Sounds a whole lot like witnessing to me, testifying about Jesus, pointing to Jesus. This is what regular church people were empowered to do and did as the LORD scattered them into all of these different directions. The Holy Spirit used them to point people to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and he does the same exact thing through you and through me. Today, when we put our faith and trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. We receive that power. We become his witnesses as well, and he uses us to testify and to point people to Jesus as the light. And the really cool thing about all of this is that Jesus, out of His grace, even puts his light in us, to shine his light through us, and empowers us to be that witness and to testify and tell other people about who he is. So the application is pretty simple when we look at these three verses today, for you and I, other than seeing clearly who John the Baptist and what his role being an important role to testify to Jesus in His birth and then his life and his death and his resurrection, is for us to count ourselves as witnesses as well, and to then be looking for who it is that Jesus, the Holy Spirit, is leading us to witness to, to testify to about Jesus, and when he reveals that to us, whether it's a neighbor or a co worker or a teammate or a friend or a family member, then let's do that. Let's trust that it's the voice of Christ in us, leading us who will also empower us to. Be that witness to testify about Him, to them, to just tell them what's true in our own lives. Man, do you know the peace that I have? Do you know the assurance I have? Do you know forgiveness that I feel, the new life that I have? And listen, brother sister, it can be yours as well, because Jesus was born into this world, and He died for your sins in the same way that he did mine. And so for those of us who have said yes to Jesus, this is the application for us, we in a similar role to John the Baptist, are pointers to Jesus, and we ask Jesus, who are you leading me to point to you today. Now for those of you who are here and maybe never said yes to Jesus, your application today is to take that step of faith to receive the forgiveness that the Lamb of God purchased for you on the cross so that you can be forgiven, you could receive the life that you are always meant to have, and then begin to walk in until the day he calls you home. And if that's you, today, I want to give you the opportunity to pray a prayer to receive him and put your faith and trust in Him. So would you bow with me as we close in prayer together