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A Lamb at the River - Matthew 3:1-17; John 1:1-51

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When Jesus turned 30, He presented Himself to the nation of Israel in public ministry. His first appearance, however, seemed so out of character for the kind of Messiah that people were anticipating. What was He doing getting baptized in a river with everyone else? John was about to find out—and so was everyone else.

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12/22/2002
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A Lamb at the River
Matthew 3:1-17; John 1:1-51
Skip Heitzig
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When Jesus turned 30, He presented Himself to the nation of Israel in public ministry. His first appearance, however, seemed so out of character for the kind of Messiah that people were anticipating. What was He doing getting baptized in a river with everyone else? John was about to find out—and so was everyone else.
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Rediscovering Our Foundations

Rediscovering Our Foundations

We live in an age where truth has become a relative term. But the Bible leaves no room for doubt when it comes to the absolute nature of truth. Unfortunately, our culture is vastly biblically illiterate. In this series, Pastor Skip Heitzig gets back to the roots of our faith, looking at what the Bible has to say about God, Christ, the Trinity, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell. Learn to stand on a firm foundation in the midst of an unstable culture.

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  1. John's Denunciation of Sinners (Matthew 3:1-17)
    A. The Messenger
    B. The Mission
    C. The Message
  2. John's Proclamation of a Savior (John 1:29-34)
    A. The Change in Time
    B. The Change in Emphasis

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1929 "A Lamb at the River" Matt. 3; John 1 Rediscovering our Foundations

Well good evening. We're going to take communion in just a few minutes. I want to start tonight by doing something just a little bit different, I hope that you would all participate. I want you to take a pen or a pencil and probably you carry one or somebody next to you has two, you could borrow one or borrow theirs after their done. And just take a part of that bulletin, maybe tear off a little corner of it. I want you to write something on there. Just tear off a little corner and right there so nobody else can see it, all alone if you can, you might want to cover this up with your hand. Write on there your worst sin. I told you you'd want to cover it up. (laughter) Write on that little piece of paper just the worst sin of all of the many that we all commit, just your worst sin. Then, you might want to fold that paper in two or three or four or five or fifteen times so it's secure. But could you imagine having your name on a tag and then that worst sin underneath it and you wearing that publicly?

Gordon MacDonald in one of his writings asks us to imagine something like that. He said, "Imagine yourself down at the Jordan River, John is baptizing. You have a Type A personality and you see how it's going, people are just smothering around him and it's not really organized. So you think, "I've got to help things out here," and so you tell people to form a line. And you have your little table and you simply tell people, "Now tell me your name and your worst sin. And then you're going to wear that and you're going to walk up to John and he'll baptize you. And so a guy come up and he says, "What's your name?" He says, "My name is Joe." "Joe, what's your worst sin?" He said, "Well, I stole some money from my company and I tried to cover it up." So you write "Joe, thief and liar, and you put the sticker on him. Next Mary comes up and Mary says, "Well there's this girl at work and she's much prettier than I am and she's smarter than I am. I don't like her. So I've been telling people all around the office lies about her." So you write "MARY" on that tag in bold letters, "Jealousy and slander," and you put it in on her. And then another fella comes up and he says his name is Pete and you talk to him and Pete says that he's leaving his wife and having an affair with one of her best friends. So you write, "Pete, Adultery and divorce." Then suddenly you notice in your line you notice Jesus Christ, he's standing there and you're thinking, "Now of all the people to be standing in this line, he's not one of them, he's never sinned, ever." And you say, "Jesus, with all due respect, you don't belong in this line." But he insists he's staying there. In fact what he does is he sort of doubles back through the line of people who have already put their stickers on and he starts taking all of the stickers off every person and putting them all over himself. And you say, "Now that doesn't look right," you beg him, "Lord please take, take those stickers off, especially the worst ones. I mean at least take off adultery and murder." But he insists, "No! I have come to bear the sins and to forgive the sins of the world." And then you watch Jesus as he walks up to John and John takes Jesus and immerses him totally in the water and as Jesus comes up, you realize that the ink was washable ink. It's washed off in the water, it's no longer there on the sticker, it's clear white little stickers. And you realize that all of the sins that were written down are washed downstream going into the Dead Sea. And that scripture comes to your mind that God would cast all of your sins into the deepest sea. Well you hold onto that sticker for just a few moments. You might want to clench it tight or put it in a vest pocket until the end.

Tonight we're going to look at a story in the New Testament about John the baptizer. I like that term better than John the Baptist because frankly we don't know what denomination he was, we know he was Jewish. (laughter) He was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. But John is going to do something that speaks to once again the purpose of this person Jesus. Now we have sort of discovered the last few weeks, have we not, that all of these appearances of Jesus during this hidden time, these silent years, these thirty years when he was in Nazareth. And then a dedication and a circumcision and a visitation; all of these instance spoke of the purpose of his life. The magi spoke of the purpose of his life. Simeon in the temple spoke of the purpose. The angel that announced, "His name will be called Jesus for he will save his people from their sin." All of that spoke to the purpose of Jesus. And once again at age 30, here now is the presentation of the Messiah to the world, beginning with a baptismal service at the Jordan River. And John the Baptist is going to learn a vital lesson and he changes his whole ministry from this point you will see.

Now before we jump into Matthew 3 and we want to look at as I said, John, Matthew 3 and John chapter 1, we know that Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins. They were about six months apart. We know that Mary visited Elizabeth, that is Jesus' mother visited John's mother for a period of three months in Judea. And we know that John also had a very miraculous birth, not a virgin birth of course like Jesus, but miraculous nonetheless because his mom and dad were well past the childbearing years. And the scripture tells us in Luke 1 that an angel appears to John's dad, Zacharias while he is in the temple and says, "Do not be afraid Zacharias, your prayer is heard, your wife will bear a son and you will call his name John. He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. He will make ready a people prepared for the Lord." I imagine that made an impact on Zacharias and Elizabeth and I'm sure that as little John was growing up in the home they reinforced that. Can't you hear them saying thins like, "You know John, you're a special kid. God has a very unique purpose for you. You've got to discover what that is." And I'm sure they recounted the miraculous birth, the visitation by the angel, etcetera.

Well, there's two events I want to draw your attention to, one in Matthew, one in John, both about John the Baptist. First is John's denunciation of sinners, which most of us are very familiar with. He had a unique style of ministry. His denunciation of sinners. That's the focus really of Matthew 3 but the focus of John 1 is the proclamation of a savior. Those two instances, those two things sort of cast the personality of John.

Let's look at Matthew 3, verses 1 through 6, let's just begin there, "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying, 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' For this is he who is spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the lord, make his paths straight.' Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him at the Jordan, confessing their sins." A couple of things about this messenger, we know that he was a PK, you know what that is, right? A Pries'ts Kid, a Preachers' Kid, but he was a levitical priest's kid. Zacharias was in the course of Abijah and was a descendant of Aaron and his job was to be a priestly minister in the temple, which means when John would grow up, since that was his lineage, that would be his occupation. There were high expectations that people had for John. He would be a priest, he would follow in his father's footsteps in the temple. Those were the expectations upon this young man from a, birth up. I have a PK, I have a son, an only begotten son, as most of you know. And I am sensitive to this issue, maybe more than most, because I know that PKs have incredibly high expectations placed on them. I've overheard for years things like, "You shouldn't act that way, you're the preacher's son." You know, like his halo is a little more polished than every other kid. And just not normal, he's above normal. And I'm sensitive to that. And I just tell him, "Be a normal kid. Be godly but be you, all right?" I was in a store with him one night, I'll never forget this nor will he, he was much younger and you know I can't, I really can't go anywhere without somebody saying, "Hey, how ya doing?" Well this was a night where somebody wanted extensive counseling. And my son had gotten used to this but in an emotional moment he said, "You know I hate going anywhere in public with you Dad because I never get to be with you. We never get to just be together." So as a parent raising a PK, I always try to be sensitive and guard that aspect, which is sometimes difficult. But here's John, his name should have been Zacharias but the angel said, "You're going to call him John" and that's what his name was. Now look at his description, he's an eccentric kind of a guy, he looks, sort of sounds like a hippie, a recluse guy who eats bugs and he's into fur, right? I mean you probably have a wild looking guy in your mind's eye. John the Baptist. Now he ate locusts. Uh, no thanks. Don't care to try. I've heard the stories of missionaries and I've also heard that when you're in their country you always want to eat what they serve you, otherwise you'll insult them. And I think it's always more insulting to vomit what they give you rather than just say, "No thanks." Now we don't know if these were literal bugs or they were the pods of the carobs, that's what several people in the Middle East and scholars that they were called locusts, these little carob pods. They could be literal bugs because the law of Moses allowed this to be eaten. It was not an unclean bug. And when I read that, I thought, "So what? I don't care of it's not unclean, I'm not touching it." But he did. But his whole life was like a protest, wasn't it? I mean he was a recluse, he wasn't with everybody else, he acted differently, he dressed differently and he spoke differently. He's out in the limestone desert of the Dead Sea where the temperatures can reach well in excess of 120 degrees Fahrenheit and it's just an ugly ugly barren place. And I bring that to your attention because though he is in the middle of nowhere in that what we would say God-forsaken place, people flooded, came to him. Look in verse 5, look how it's put, "Jerusalem, all Judea and al the region around the Jordan went to him." That I love because I have read all these fancy church theories, saying, "Whenever you plant a church, make sure it's in a strategic neighborhood location, conveniently located by shops and stores and malls." You know what? John was in the middle of nowhere and people came to him. And I'll tell you why they were drawn to him, it wasn't because he was a weird looking guy eating bugs, they were drawn to him a) because of his conviction, b) because of their anticipation. He was a man of deep conviction, driven by conviction. He didn't care what people thought of him. That's pretty obvious by the way he dressed, what he ate and what he said. B) There was an anticipation of a change, a Messiah. I've told you before, history records that there was this intense belief that the Messiah would appear shortly. There hadn't been a prophet in Israel for 400 years until John came along. And suddenly he is a voice, a voice of God. Speaking of that, look in verse 3, we have his mission given. He says, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'" Now that's a quote right out of Isaiah 40 which leads me to believe that John the baptizer based his entire ministry upon Isaiah 40 and probably spent a lot of time in the book of Isaiah. In fact, it could be that in response to Isaiah 40, go read it on your own sometime, not now, after tonight; and you'll get an idea of how that could have influenced him to leave the suburbs so to speak in Jerusalem and live in the middle of nowhere and just be prepared intensely by God. But he declared that he was the prophetic fulfillment of the Messiah's forerunner. "I am the voice predicted by Isaiah to help prepare the way of the Lord." Now anybody listening to that message two thousand years ago would have gotten it. Because two thousand years ago whenever a king would come into one of his provinces, a herald would come first and would say something like, "Get ready, the king is coming." And it was an embarrassment to that community not to be ready. Roads would be fixed, debris would be cleared. If there were any uneven crooked places in the road surface, they would be leveled, fixed, to make ready the coming of the king and the entourage of the king. And that's what John the Baptist was doing in a spiritual sense. He was getting people ready for the Messiah's coming. So he was a man with a mission and his mission was to point to somebody else, not to himself. Verse 11, "Indeed I baptize you with water, unto repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. One of the things I've always admired about John the Baptist is as fiery and as eccentric and as powerful a preacher as he was, it wasn't about John, it was always about Jesus. He was always the voice pointing the way to the person, the victor, Christ. There's a great story about the great conductor Leonard Bernstein who was approached by one of his biggest fans who said, "Mr. Bernstein, in your opinion as a conductor, what is the hardest instrument that you find in an orchestra for you to fill." And he quickly said, 'Second fiddle.' And he quickly said, 'Do you know I can find plenty of people who will play first violin or first chair in any of the instruments with great fervor and enthusiasm but to find somebody who will be second and play with the same enthusiasm is sometimes impossible. Yet," said Bernstein, 'without them there is no harmony.'" There was harmony in the kingdom of God because John the Baptist was pointing the way to the right One.

Now, look at his message, verse 2. He is saying, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Verse 7, listen to this, "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduccees coming to baptism he said to them, 'Brood of vipers.' (Let me translate that in modern English, "You bunch of slimy snakes." That's what that means. "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit worthy of repentance and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones, and even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." Wow! I don't think he would have won a popularity contest back then, do you? I mean, listen to him. Does that sound kind of harsh? His audience comes, "Brood of vipers. Who warned you from the wrath that is to come?" Question: Is John harsh? Answer: Yes and no. Let me explain. He's not being harsh in that he's being truthful, he's being honest, he was right, there is and always has been a coming wrath of God on sin. In fact, a lot of Christians don't like to talk about this but one of the major themes of the Bible is the wrath of God. It's the flipside of the gospel. Let's call it the dark side of the gospel. You know the bright side of the gospel is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in his would not perish but have everlasting life." But that, the flip side of that is the perishing part. In fact, in the same passage of scripture, down in the 36th verse, we read, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe in the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him." And by the way, the wrath of God is not unique to the Old Testament and not present in the New Testament. That's a false idea that has come through history. It's a theme that dominates the Old Testament and the New Testament. Here's a New Testament passage, Romans 1, "The wrath of God is being (present tense) being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." In other words, there is a continuous revelation of both the wrath of God and the grace of God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now listen carefully, when we talk about the wrath of God, don't get in your mind this flying off the handle idea. God never gets "ticked off." So when the Bible speaks about the wrath of God it's not any impulsive outburst where God would capriciously level something at someone he didn't like that day. Rather the wrath of God is a settled determined response of a righteous God against sin. And it would be nice to never have to talk about it, wouldn't it? You could ask any preacher that, "Would you just love it if you never even had to mention the wrath of God?" I think every preacher would go, "I'd get a lot less letters. A lot less angry folks. A lot les roast preacher for lunch on Sunday." It's be great not to talk about that but to just talk about the love and the mercy of God but you would be a false messenger if you did. John was a true messenger of God. And imagine if you had a nurse who's duty it was to convey what the doctor said to the patient. And the doctor said, "Go tell the patient she has cancer." "Oh no, I don't deliver those kind of messages." Just all the nice messages that they're healed and they're okay and they don't have to pay you, I'll deliver those messages. I don't want to deliver any bad news, that wouldn't be a faithful messenger." Now John was a faithful messenger of God proclaiming the wrath of God that was coming. However, and here's the switch, here's the change, however, that was the truth but it wasn't the whole truth. You see, John the Baptist did see accurately that the Messiah would be the coming judge. What he didn't yet realize fully is that the Messiah would also be the coming Savior first. And that's what he's about to find out.

Now I want to compare something, you have hopefully Matthew 3 and John 1 marked out because we're going to turn to John 1 in just a second. I'm going to take you on a quick excursion to compare two passages. And I want you to stick with me, okay, just hold on, follow me, don't wander or draw pictures or open up what your wrote and show it to somebody. Just hold on to it and follow me. I want you to notice what I see as a change in John, both a change in time and a change in emphasis. Now in Matthew 3 verse 13, Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him saying, 'I need to be baptized by you and you are coming to me?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Permit it to be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And then he allowed him. When he had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

Jesus comes to be baptized, John is confused, "I don't get this, what are you doing here? Of all the people you shouldn't be here. But Jesus does it anyway. Why? He does it for a few reasons. Let me give you two quick ones. Number one, he's doing it as an example of obedience. Now think about this. Jesus, did he need baptism? Unh-uh. But as an example for our obedience he did it. Now if you ever tell me, I' don't need to get baptized." I'm going to point out this scripture. You can't tell me you don't need to be baptized when Jesus said, "If you love me keep my commandments." And he said, "Go get baptized." Then he did it. And he didn't need it. Do you? Do I? Uh-huh. But there's something else. He didn't just do it as an example. He did it as an example of obedience but he also did it to identify with disobedience. To identify with disobedience. He said, "John, John, do it man. We need to fulfill all righteousness." What does that mean? The word righteous or righteousness means the state of being what you ought to be. Or we might say it's the state of being right with God. "John, I'm in these waters identifying with sinners, liars, cheaters, adulterers; because I want to make them right with God. This is the only way to do it." "John, baptize me, this is important." Because the very sin that you denounce, I've come to wash away. I'm identifying with these folks. "John, you denounce sin. You proclaim against sin hard. And that's good, you're right, it's true. But you'll never cure it that way, John. And Jesus came in identifying with them and was baptized. That's why John is shocked by the way because he didn't expect the Messiah to do that, to be that.

Okay, he comes out of the water, what happens? They see the Holy Spirit looking like a what? A dove. And depending on where you read, this is typically seen as the Holy Spirit as a picture of purity or peace because a dove is a.... Not in the Jewish mind. In the Jewish mind the dove was a symbol of one thing. Sacrifice. Especially for the poor. The rich brought bowls, if you couldn't afford it, the poor brought a dove. It was a symbol of sacrifice. And this was a message to John and everybody else that this Messiah who would one day judge the world finally would intermediately first come to eradicate sin, to wash sin away, to deal with it. This Messiah is God's sacrifices for all classes of society. Not just Pharisee, not just Sadducee, not just rich, not just good; all the way down to the poorest of the poor and the worst of the worst.

There's a story I've always loved about a poor black woman who tried to join a very fashionable upscale downtown church and she was rejected so to speak. Time and time again, the ushers didn't want to seat her, the elders didn't want to admit her into their fellowship. One day in a very pious tone, one of the elders said, "Why don't you go away and pray about it?" So she did. They didn't see her. Six months later this elder is downtown where she's scrubbing floors in the foyer of an office building. He recognized her and said, "You're that woman, aren't you, who tried to join our church six months ago. I remember. And I told you to go have that little talk with God. Did you ever have it?" She said, "I sure did." "Oh you did?" "Yes I did." "Did he ever say anything to you?" She said, "Oh yeah, he did. I prayed about what you told me to pray about. I was complaining before the Lord that I couldn't join your church. And the Lord just said, "Don't worry about it." He understood completely, that he had been trying to get into your church for years with no more luck than I had." So here is the Messiah, the Holy Spirit, endorsing him as the sacrifice for the poor.

Now, turn to John 1. Verse 29, "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 is preferred before me because he was before me. I didn't know him but that he should be revealed to Israel,' Now listen to him because he's speaking about something that happened past tense. I did not know him but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore wines saying, 'I saw (past tense) the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and he remained on him.'" This is John telling a past tense event. "I did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said, '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."

Now I'm going to suggest to you based on the suggestion of some and I believe it to be true that there is a gap of time of six weeks, forty days between Matthew 3 and John 1. And here's why, Matthew speaks about the baptism of Jesus and the temptation in the wilderness. John doesn't mention the baptism of Jesus, doesn't mention Jesus being tempted in the wilderness but picks up after the event. And John is giving comment on the past event. He's picking it up after Jesus' baptism. And so there's probably a six week, forty days, while he's been in the wilderness, he went to the Jordan River first, he went to the desert, came back to the Jordan River. The second time John sees him he says, "Look, the Lamb of God." You say, but wait a minute verse w9 ways "The next day John saw Jesus." Right, but it doesn't say the next day after the baptism. He doesn't even mention the baptism of Jesus. It's the next day after the Jerusalem delegation came. Go back to verse 19, "Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent the priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him 'Who are you?' Notice the word when, it's a word denoting time. Verse 29, "The next day John saw Jesus." Look at verse 43, "The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee." Look at chapter 2 verse 1, "On the third day, there was a wedding in Canaan." What John is doing is describing four consecutive days in the early ministry of Jesus and the next day isn't the next day after Jesus' baptism, it's the next day after the Jerusalem delegation came and said, "What are you doing?" But it was forty days after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. That's the change in time. All of this leads to what I want to end with: the change in emphasis. Did you hear his message? Did you pick up on that? Listen to it again, listen carefully. Verse 29, "Behold (or Look! Check it out! Wow!) The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Do you notice a difference in this message from the first message? Yeah, sure you do, a big one. The first one is, "You bunch of snakes. Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come? There's somebody coming who's mightier than I am." You see, the first time he pictured Jesus as the mighty lion of Judah ready to pounce in judgment upon his pray. Now he gives Jesus the light of the Lamb of God who's going to deal with all of the sin that will eventually bring the wrath of God." Do you know that you could sum up the message of the whole Bible in that one phrase? "Behold the Lamb of God." That's the message of the book, Behold the Lamb. The question asked in the Old Testament is, "Where will we find the Lamb?" Genesis 22. It's answered in the New Testament, John 1, "Behold the Lamb." In heaven we're going to sing "Worthy is the Lamb." And as we do during the tribulation period, Revelation 6 speaks of the wrath of the Lamb. That's the message of the whole Bible. "Look, behold the Lamb of God."

Question: why the change? Why the change from 'you bunch of slimy snakes, you're going to get it, which is true, if there's no repentance, that's true. But what changed it from that to, "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Now there's not a change in the truth or a change in the message, just a change in the emphasis. Number one, the baptism of Jesus, he went into the water, there was a dove, the animal of sacrifice; he's identifying with sinners. Number two and this is conjecture here, everything else has been pretty factual up t o this point, I'm going to conjecture, because if t her eis a gap and his first message was wrath and judgment, the second was, "Behold, look at the Lamb." I can only conjec ture that in the forty days, Jesus after he was baptized went into the desert that Isaiah the prophet is what is on the reading platter of John the Baptist. I'll bet John said, "You know, it was so weird to see the Messiah come into the water, identifying sight sinners and then this animal of sacrifice, this dove above him, where's that scroll? Let me read through that again." So he probably looked over familiar passages like Isaiah 24, Isaiah 63 that speak of the final judgment of the Messiah over the world. He probably read Isaiah 32 which speaks of the glorious reign of the kingdom of the Messiah. But he also would have found Isaiah 53 which rung a bell, a light came on. He read it carefully, slowly, "He was lead as a lamb to the slaughter, a sheep before its shearers is silent, he opened not his mouth." I think that during that forty day interim that John the Baptist matured. He understood, "Ah, I've been looking at the final act of judgment, not the intermediate act of cleansing. I've been seeing the judging one, now I'm understanding the saving one." He's both.

Great story about two men going to college together. One became a banker, the other became a judge. The banker embezzled money, he had to be sentenced by his friend the judge. His friend leveled the stiffest penalty possible, an incredible amount of money as punishment for the embezzlement of the banker, his friend. And after the gavel went down, his friend the judge took off his robe, stepped down, embraced his friend and said, "I know you couldn't pay the fine. I want you to know I sold everything. My house, liquidated all my accounts and I paid your fine." As judge he did the right thing. As friend, he did the gracious thing. He was both judge as well as savior. And that's what John is understanding about Jesus.

Now, we're going to pass out communion. As you're getting ready to do that and you're holding that little piece of paper, I want you to think of two things: Number one, I want you to think of the need for grace. Some of you grew up, all you heard is "the wrath of the Lamb. The wrath of God." And you know what? That's true, that's a major theme of the Bible. But that's only part of the picture. You've met the lion, it's time fo you to meet the lamb. Savior, forgiveness, the need for grace. Number two, the need for growth. The need for growth. John the Baptist knew the Bible pretty well and he already started his ministry, now he's growing even still in his understanding of Jesus and his faith in Jesus Christ. Question: Are you discovering new truths about Jesus? Are you growing so that when you read the Bible you go, "Wow, I just noticed that. Wow, and then respond.

I want to close with this, Howard Hendris wrote this about his daughter Bev. "One day when Bev my second daughter was quite small, but quite interested in growth. She promised me that she would grow while I was gone on a ministry trip for a couple of weeks. When I returned and stepped off the plane she greeted me with, "Daddy come home quick, we've got to see how much I grow." So we went home to the closet door and measured, it couldn't have been more than few millimeters maybe but she jumped up and down. "Daddy I told you, I did grow." Then we went into the living room and had special time and a long talk and she asked me one of those questions. "Daddy, why do big people stop growing." As you receive the elements tonight think about that. You stop growing spiritually when you stop welcoming discovery. You stop growing spiritually when you stop welcoming discovery. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what I want you to do. We're going to pass out the elements. As they pass them out to you, we want you to make an exchange. While the communion board is coming up, come on up guys, you take those notes that are folded several times so nobody can see them, and pass them all the way to the aisle. And as we pass out the elements that speak of the broken and the shed blood of Christ, you give the communion board member all of those little pieces of paper from your aisle. I'm going to take them all and put them in this trash can. They're gone. It's an exchange. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God.




Additional Messages in this Series

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9/15/2002
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Does the Truth Really Matter?
2 Timothy 4
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Today I begin a new series I am calling Rediscovering Our Foundations. I am concerned about the vast biblical illiteracy that exists in our country in general and in our churches in particular. Truth is commonly seen by our culture as relative and not fixed. Often sentiments such as, "Well, that is your truth, but it's not my truth," are expressed by many. But if truth is absolute, then why not stand up for it? Why be embarrassed about it? What do you really believe about God, the Trinity, Christ, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell?
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9/22/2002
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Is Anybody Up There?
Hebrews 11:1-40;Romans 2:1-29
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We all remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her three friends come to approach the Great Oz. Out of the corner of their eye they notice a man pulling levers behind a curtain, working the mechanical, smoke-breathing Oz. The man then reacts by announcing, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" But how can they not? The man is the explanation for everything to them. They discovered that Oz didn't really exist! So how do we know that God exists and isn't a fabrication or projection of our own imaginations?
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9/29/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 1
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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In this series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, it's time to consider your own personal foundation. What is the final resting place for your cares, concerns, griefs, surprises and sorrows? Where do you turn for answers to life's deepest questions? What is your authority? How sure are you that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired Word of God? Can you articulate to others the difference between the Bible and other "sacred" religious works?
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10/6/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 2
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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Last week, we discovered exactly what the designation "Scripture" referred to and how books of the Bible were considered as part of the inspired text. We also learned what inspiration means and how God used humans in His process of having exactly what He wanted written down. But anyone can claim inspiration for their work. Yet how do we know that the Bible is the authentic Word of God? Moreover, how can we share with others its uniqueness so they, too, may listen to its message and apply it?
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10/13/2002
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The God Who Knows It All!
Psalm 139:1-6
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A little boy climbed his neighbor's apple tree when he saw their car leave. He didn't realize that while he was stuffing his pockets full of apples, another neighbor was watching through a pair of binoculars and saw the whole thing! God isn't spying on people, trying to catch them doing something wrong; but God is aware of everything. Such a truth has a profound effect on us: it can either be very comforting or else extremely unsettling.
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10/20/2002
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Are You a Big-Godder or a Little Godder?
Psalm 139:7-24
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11/10/2002
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Wholly Holy!
Skip Heitzig
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In this current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've considered some key attributes of the God we know and love. He is omniscient (knows everything); He is omnipresent (everywhere present); He is omnipotent (operates at full power). But there is another key attribute that is seldom considered, yet is fundamentally key in understanding the Bible—God's holiness. Let's observe one man's encounter with this holy God and what it means to us.
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11/17/2002
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Good Man, Mad Man, Con Man, or God-Man?
Matthew 16:13-17
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No other person from history has generated so much controversy and speculation, as well as written literature, as Jesus Christ. Theologians, philosophers, poets and pundits have all weighed in concerning who Jesus is. What is often forgotten is that Jesus can never be overestimated! John said that the, "world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25) about His accomplishments.
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12/1/2002
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A King Among the Critters
Luke 2:1-7
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In our current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've come to the person of Christ. Last time, we considered His identity; today, we contemplate His nativity. For the next few weeks, we'll look closely at Jesus' birth, His early years, ministry, and death on the cross, which was the very purpose of His birth. It's my hope that we'll all emerge with a fuller understanding of Jesus and a deeper desire to worship and serve Him. Today, let's look at the strange circumstances of His birth.
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12/8/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 1
Luke 2:1-52; Matthew 2:1-23
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Jesus' upbringing and boyhood has been the subject of much speculation and endless controversy throughout the centuries. Myths have developed about Jesus based (interestingly enough) on what isn't written. The Bible gives us five cameo glimpses of Jesus from early boyhood to age 30. We'll look at three of these today and then two more next week. We discover that Jesus' whole life was marked with purpose.
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12/15/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 2
Luke 2-3
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We don't give much thought to Jesus growing up, developing into adolescence and then into manhood. But of course He did. Luke is really the only New Testament author who gives us information about these early years. He speaks generally about Jesus' growth as well as specifically about Jesus' capacity as a young boy of 12. At each stage of His life, Jesus demonstrated He knew His purpose for His life on earth.
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1/12/2003
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The Holy Spirit: Invisible, Personal, Powerful
John 14-16
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Today in our series Rediscovering Our Foundations, we consider the Holy Spirit. Most of us have heard of Him, but who is He exactly? What does He do? How important is the Holy Spirit to your personal life, your family life, your work or your leisure time? Perhaps A.W. Tozer was right when he said, "For multitudes of Christians profess today the Holy Spirit is not a necessity. They have learned to cheer their hearts and warm their hands at other fires." It is my sincere prayer that will change for us in the few weeks ahead.
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1/19/2003
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The Gracious and Holy Hound of Heaven
John 16:5-11
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Having understood Who the Holy Spirit is (Person, not just power; Deity, not just dignitary), we now find out what He does, specifically what He does in the world of unbelievers. Since the greatest gift God ever gave to the world was His only Son (John 3:16), it stands to reason that the greatest sin one can commit is to reject the Son (John 16:9). How does the Holy Spirit both sentence the world as prosecutor and yet lead people away from judgment? And what role do we play in all of this?
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1/26/2003
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I Need Somebody, Help! Not Just Anybody
John 14-16
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To live one's life for God in an ungodly world sounds like mission impossible, right? It would be as if we had to do it without help. But be strengthened by this thought: God never intended for us to do it alone! That's why He has provided His people a Helper, the Holy Spirit. This ever-present divine Person is very busy helping God's people become all He wants them to be.
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2/2/2003
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Brand-Spankin' New Apostles!
Acts 1:1-8
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The legendary missionary to India, William Carey, didn't see obstacles; he saw opportunities. He was the "Let's go for it!" kind of guy. In fact, one of his most famous sayings was, "Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God." Carey did both and saw results! The Holy Spirit can take ordinary men and women and do extraordinary things with them. He is the God who "makes all things new" (Revelation 21:5). Such a truth can only create a sense of wonder and excitement in the heart of a child of God. After all, what new thing could God do through you?
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2/9/2003
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Unholy Responses to the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 4:30
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You might say that we live in the "Age of the Holy Spirit." Jesus promised Him to us after He was done with His own earthly ministry. We have seen that He is very active both in the world among the unconverted and in the church among God's own people. But He has one overriding goal-to bring glory to Jesus Christ in every life. What does that mean to us? It means a total surrendering to Him. As Oswald Chambers said, "The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a guest in a house. He invades everything." But what happens when people don't respond to Him rightly? Then what?
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2/16/2003
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How Can Three Be One?
Matthew 28:16-20
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1+1+1=1. Is this new math? No, it's the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. At the very heart of the Judeo-Christian faith is the belief that there is only One God. Yet the Bible clearly teaches the plurality within the Godhead—three persons who are distinct from one another yet perfectly One in essence. What are we to make of all this? Why is it important? And more fundamentally, how should it affect us personally?
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2/23/2003
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The Exceedingly Un-Holy Spirit
1 John 5:19
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Satan, the prince of darkness, has been around a long time. He has studied mankind for thousands of years, marking his strategies according to what he sees in us and what God's plan for the world is. He hates what God loves; he fights what God establishes. And let's remember, he's got help! Other spirit beings have joined his rebellion and control the system known in Scripture as the world. John even said, "the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). What should we know about this arch-nemesis of God in order to stand against him?
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3/2/2003
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Touched by an Angel
Luke 1-2
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As even the title suggests, angels have become popular in modern culture. But whether we know it or not, we've all been "touched an angel." Martin Luther helped us to understand their role by remarking, "An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body, for the service of Christendom and of the church." He was partially correct, but angels serve an even greater role than being strictly for the church. Their ministry goes beyond us and is principally concerned with the glory and majesty of God.
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3/9/2003
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Man, Has God Got a Plan For You!
Genesis 1-3
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Alexander Pope once remarked that, "the chief study of man is man himself." That may be true, especially in our culture, but this could also be the reason why mankind is so desperate and spiritually thirsty. Looking only to ourselves rather than beyond ourselves can get pretty lonely! But why are we here? What is the purpose of mankind inhabiting this planet? How can I fulfill the God-given destiny that He originally designed for me?
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3/16/2003
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From Creation to Corruption
Genesis 2-3
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How did we, as the human race, get into the colossal mess we find ourselves in? Was it always this way? And what do Adam's actions, acted out so long ago, have to do with us in this modern technologically advanced age? Am I at all responsible? Can the effects ever be undone? Let's look at these issues in the opening chapters of Genesis.
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4/27/2003
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Church-Building 101
Matthew 16:13-20
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The church was God's idea; it was never man's notion. Jesus Christ is the founder, director, architect, owner and builder of the church. But there is an awful lot of confusion about what a church is supposed to look and function like. Today, we look at the first New Testament mention of the church and look at our spiritual origins. As we are Rediscovering Our Foundations, let's also rediscover our spiritual roots as the people of God.
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5/4/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 1
John 17
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The church is not a place, but a people (a called-out assembly of people who gather together and whose heartfelt conviction is that Jesus is Lord). Jesus laid claim on the church—it belongs to Him ("I will build My church"). So then, what does He want His church to be like? What should mark us overall? In Jesus' longest recorded prayer before His crucifixion, He prays for four characteristics that are to mark the people of God. Today we look at the first two.
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5/25/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 2
John 17
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Church shopping and church hopping have become one of American Christians’ favorite pastimes. We want a church that suits us, helps us, and pleases us. But since Jesus paid for it, it’s His church (Acts 20:28). So what does He want from us? What should the people of God be like? What ingredients and activities ought to be part of our makeup? In this series, Rediscovering our Foundations, we must rediscover the foundational purpose for our existence as His church.
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6/1/2003
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How to Build a Beautiful Body
1 Corinthians 12:3-22
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6/22/2003
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The Last Days
2 Peter 1-3
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On October 30, 1938, the day before Halloween, the novel War of the Worlds was made into a radio broadcast featuring Orson Welles. As millions of Americans were listening, the play was performed so it would sound like a news broadcast about an invasion from Mars. Many thought they were hearing an actual news account of an invasion from Mars and concluded this was the end. Some even committed suicide as their final fatal act! In Rediscovering Our Foundations, what can we know about the last days of this world and what can we do to prepare?
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6/29/2003
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I'll Be Back
John 13:31-14:6
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A little boy was trying desperately to tell his friends about what Jesus' return would be like. He described Jesus' coming in glory as being "greater than Superman, Batman, and the Power Rangers put together!" Of course even that would be an understatement. Jesus came here 2000 years ago and then left; but He promised to return. What will it be like? What difference should it make to us right here, right now?
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7/6/2003
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The Burning Question
Revelation 20:11-15
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Hell is an eternal and biblical reality that has been relegated to the junk pile of modern myths. Woody Allen once said that hell is the abode of all people who annoy him. The word hell is used on a daily basis in people's dicey language patterns—usually as a fill-in expletive. Of all the Christian doctrines unfolded in Scripture, hell is the toughest one to handle. Most love the notion of a blissful heaven awaiting them; few cling to the idea of a literal hell to punish the lost.
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7/13/2003
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Heaven: Our Final Frontier
Revelation 21:1-27
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Captain Kirk and his starship Enterprise weekly traversed the galaxies on the famed Star Trek episodes. That was fiction! But one day you will inhabit the recreated millennial earth in a glorified body and then explore the vast kingdoms of heaven in the eternal state. That is reality! It will be so different than what you're used to that it's linguistically impossible to convey its vastness. But there's enough here to whet the appetite for heaven!
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There are 29 additional messages in this series.
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