Title: The witness of Christ’s coming redeems you!
Text: John 1:1-6, 19-28
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
In our Men’s Breakfast Bible Study this month we were having a talk about Psalm 66: Vs 1-4 which reads:
66 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”
The topic was the times in our lives when we shouted for joy to the Lord! And we all had times that we thanked the Lord for healing and peace and blessings in our lives. I related a story of a dear friend that was putting on a concert of his own music with a number of very skilled musicians and had a packed house at the Unitarian church where the concert was being held. I had been witnessing to him for a number of years and just before the concert he came up to me and said, “I’m going to thank God … for my music gift and blessings!” I looked at him I said, “That’s nice but … God has a name.”
For him it was enough to thank God, but for those gathered who may trust in other gods, all gods or no god, having a distinction is important.
And it is in that name of Jesus that we indeed find salvation, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
The witness of Christ and his coming redeems you!
Last week we looked at John the Baptist, who was the messenger sent to prepare the way for Jesus. Today, in the gospel reading, John is a witness to the priests and Levites sent from the Jews who asked him:
“Who are you?” The religious elite want to know who he is, why is he baptizing and if he’s a prophet?
John confesses that he is, “Not the Christ,” not Elijah and not even a prophet but he does confess to who he is:
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” He is the one prophesied about in Isaiah, who would herald the one who would follow him, but be greater than him and whose sandals, John … was not even worthy to untie.
The Jews expected the Messiah and John tells the truth in his interrogation and nothing but the truth when he says that he is not the one they expect, but is the one who makes straight the way of the Lord. He calls all to repentance, so that they might turn from their sin and place their trust in the one coming after him, who he calls the light of the world that John bore witness to.
We too fail to bear witness to the light of the world Jesus Christ.
This past Sunday a small group from the church bore witness in song to some of our shut-ins as we sang Christmas Carols and delivered fruit baskets. Many of our visits were to places with names like, The Pines of Clarkston, Pine Tree Place and Lockwood Senior Living; places not religious in name or Christian in focus. We sang some traditional secular favorites but mostly Christmas hymns, “Away in a Manger”, “Silent Night”, “Joy to the World” and “The First Noel”. It was a witness in song to whom we serve, for whom we wait, and why we care. Others heard the singing and the witness too.
Bearing witness in the years to come, in the public sphere might become more difficult as the focus of religious freedom and those who oppose it tries to limit our freedom to speak the truth in love and may limit us to no farther than the door of the church you exit.
22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us.
Ill.
In his book Dare to be Like Jesus, Leslie B. Flynn tells a story of a Christian baroness, living in the highlands of Nairobi, Kenya, and a young Kenyan national who was employed as her houseboy.
After three months he asked the baroness to give him a letter of reference to a friendly sheik some miles away. The baroness, not wishing the houseboy to leave just when he had learned the routine of the household, offered to increase his pay. The boy replied that he was not leaving for higher pay. Rather, he had decided he would become either a Christian or a Moslem. This was why he had come to work for the baroness for three months. He had wished to see how Christians acted. Now he wanted to work for three months for the sheik to observe the ways of the Moslems. Then he would decide which way of life he would follow. The baroness was stunned as she recalled her many blemishes in her dealings with the houseboy. She could only exclaim, "Why didn't you tell me at the beginning!"
Leslie B. Flynn, Dare to Care Like Jesus.
Isn't that just how you and I feel at times when our witness as Christians falls short? We know we missed the mark as witnesses to Christ. Do others see in us Christ … or the sinfulness we are bound to? And if only we had known what they were looking for in us we might have acted in a more Christ like way.
John came as a witness and to call to repentance those who like you and me are born sinful and unclean. He came to prepare the way for the one who would “Make straight the way of the Lord.”
It is this one who came, begotten of the Father, who would take on human flesh so that all separation from God, whether mountains or valleys would be made smooth. That by his birth, born of a Virgin and made man, that he might restore what had been broken by sin.
So too you, who have been brought to faith by that same light of the world, Jesus Christ, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and by faith believe.
For the LORD loves justice;
and hates robbery and wrong;
He will faithfully make restitution,
through his everlasting covenant with you.
9 Those who are his shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants, who are you and me;
shall be acknowledge,
as the LORD’S children and blessed.
10 You will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
and your soul shall exult in God,
for he has clothed you with the garments of salvation;
he has covered you with the robe of righteousness, [which is Christ]
and as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to grow,
so to the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to grow before all the nations.
It is that witness and light that shines forth in you that brings god’s word to those who need to hear. It is that peace and comfort that you have received and also proclaim to others and it is that witness of Christ that binds up those broken by sin, releases those who are captive and brings good news to the poor. As we joy in his first coming and rejoice at this babe born in a manger we too wait for his second coming when he will gather his children to himself.
The witness of Christ’s coming redeems you!
To this we all shout for joy! And just as the men learned in our Breakfast Bible study you too can know peace in all circumstances knowing you will be kept blameless in Christ.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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