Sermon Tone Analysis
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I’m not very good at social media, but you probably already know that if you’re on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
I don’t post very often - except to give away bread.
When I do, I don’t take very good pictures - in fact I sometimes re-do old pictures - especially of bread.
I suppose in some ways, I’m either a bit too private a person, or I just don’t think that things in my life are very social media worthy.
I certainly don’t think I could be called a social media influencer.
As I’ve been thinking about today’s sermon in our look through the Gospel of John, I began wondering about John the Baptist and how he might use social media if it existed in his day.
What would he post?
What would he share about himself?
Today, I think we get a bit of insight into that.
If you have your Bible, open it to John 1. We’ll be looking at verses 19-34.
Last week, we considered the Prologue to the book - the first 18 verses.
We got to see a glimpse into the overall subject of the book as we considered the way that John (the apostle or the evangelist) is working to present his view of the life of Jesus.
In the midst of this prologue, John briefly introduced another John - John the Baptist.
So, let’s briefly look back at what John as told us about John the Baptist.
He continued
So, at this point, John the Apostle wants us to know that John the Baptist has been sent from God to bear witness to Jesus.
We really don’t get to know very much about his ministry in this Gospel.
In fact, if we were to look in the other gospels, we would learn a few things about John the Baptist:
His birth was unique - as his parents were quite old and barren (Luke 1:5-24; 57-66)
He wore funny clothes - camel’s hair (Mark 1:6)
He had a strange diet - locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:6)
He baptized lots of people - calling them to repentance (Mk.
1:4-5)
He spoke harshly to religious leaders (Lk.
3:7-9)
He even baptized Jesus (Mt.
4; Lk. 3; Mk. 1)
He was put in prison at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Mt.
4:12; Lk. 3:20)
While in prison, he questioned whether or not Jesus was the One (Mt.
11)
So if we were living in Israel at that time, we might have heard about some of these things regarding the life and ministry of John the Baptist.
However, here in the gospel of John - we really don’t get very much of that background information.
We are simply told that there was a man sent from God would bear witness about Jesus.
Right on the heals of the Prologue, the Apostle records John the Baptist’s testimony about himself and his ministry - you might say - his social media posts.
Even though the author is the Apostle John, because he is recording John the Baptist’s testimony - we are going to consider some things that John the Baptist wants us to know.
I know - it’s confusing with two guys being named John.
So, if John the Baptist had Instagram or Facebook and this section of Scripture chronicled his feed, he would be communicating some things - information that gives us a glimpse into his world.
First of all, let’s consider...
What John wants us to know about himself: He’s Nobody
I realize it sounds harsh, but based on some of John’s language it’s true.
John is not concerned about what people think of him.
In fact, when questioned, he makes it clear that he is not very important.
At that time, there seemed to be a lot of Messiah fever.
All sorts of people were stepping up, claiming to be the Messiah.
John, himself, was raising a lot of eye-brows.
So these religious leaders were confused by John.
Here was a man who came to his religious and theological convictions outside of the normal paths.
He was not a student of anyone famous.
He did not appear to attend any of the big rabbinical schools.
He was simply called out by God for a purpose.
Apparently that purpose was impactful.
As he stood east of the Jordan, he was calling people to repentance and inviting them to prepare for the Kingdom of God.
These religious leaders are confused, but John is not.
John knows that he is simply an instrument to be used by God.
They knew that Messiah would be coming - and John is straightforward - it’s not him.
They knew that Elijah would precede the Messiah - and John communicates that he is not Elijah.
Now, if you’ve read elsewhere in Scripture, you may have heard that John is Elijah - in fact Jesus called him that.
So how can John claim to not be Elijah and Jesus claim that he is?
Elijah was one of the greatest and most notable prophets of the Old Testament.
God worked miraculous things through him, and then, at the end of his ministry he was taken up and did not die.
I think that because John is focused on the work that he was called to - he is not concerned about the bigger narrative - he simply wants to prepare people for Jesus.
The people who were questioning John continued their inquisition:
Baptism was not necessarily uncommon.
It was used as a means of initiation for Gentiles who converted to Judaism.
But here, John is baptizing Jews and Gentiles - anyone who would come and repent.
I think John wants us to understand the importance of the One who would follow him.
In their culture, untying the strap of a sandal was beneath nearly everyone.
Disciples of a Rabbi would do some humiliating things in their process of learning, but untying a sandal was too low.
It was reserved for servants or slaves.
In communicating this, John essentially telling us that compared to the One who is to follow- he is lower than a slave - He’s a nobody.
We don’t really know how long John ministered.
Realistically, it was only for a couple of years.
He is known as John the Baptist because he called be to repent, initiated them into the Kingdom of God through baptism, and prepared the way for Jesus.
John’s ministry wasn’t about himself - it was about Somebody else.
Relatively speaking, he was a nobody.
That’s not to say that he wasn’t important.
I think John had a big role to play - it just wasn’t about him.
But when you think about it, so often God calls people in their weakness and obscurity in order to be an instrument in his plan.
The song we sang a few minutes ago chronicled some of that
Moses was fearful
David was a shepherd
the 12 disciples were “outsiders”
Esther was an orphan girl who got called to prominence
Joseph was a slave and a prisoner
Ruth was widowed
We could go on, but I think it’s important for us to realize, and I hope encouraging, that nobodies are important to God.
Which brings us to our next post that John might make.
In this post, we get to learn...
What John wants us to know about Jesus: He’s Somebody
In John 1, the testimony of John the baptist continues.
John’s entire ministry comes to a culmination with the introduction of Jesus.
He wants people to know what kind of Somebody Jesus really is.
In these verses, he gives us some clues...
Jesus is the Lamb of God (John 1:29)
There is a lot of debate and discussion surrounding what John would have meant by this.
John may have had Isaiah in mind:
But I think that one thing is clear - the Lamb will remove our sin.
I don’t think John had any idea just how that would be fulfilled.
Ultimately, later in the Gospel of John, we will get to witness just how this would happen as Jesus was crucified - paying the penalty for our sin.
But not only is Jesus the Lamb of God, John wants us to know that
This Somebody is superior (John 1:30)
We’ve already seen this a bit in John’s comment about not being worthy to untie a sandal - but here John communicates that Jesus is following or succeeding John - but ranks higher than John.
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