Jesus is the Life and Light of Man Part 2: A Witness to the Light - John 1:6-10

1:10In John 4, 1:4, In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. In verse 4 through 5, John describes the function of the light, the function of the light. Since God is, life is. And since God is and life is, light is. Light is true information about God, about true light, true life. And so light is that true information about God, because God is, true information about God also is.

1:49And so the function of the light, as John made clear in verse 5, is to shine in the darkness. The light shines in the darkness. Literally, light, the light in the darkness is shining. Truth about God is shining in the darkness. And just as physical or physical light removes physical darkness, there is a spiritual light that removes spiritual darkness. And that spiritual light is truth, as John is referring to it: truth about the living God. Truth. Light is truth, true information about the living God. And the incarnate light is that perfect expression, that blazing light, that true information, that exact, precise information about God, the incarnation. He's going to go there in a few verses. And spiritual darkness is the ignorance of the living God. So spiritual light is truth, true knowledge about the true God. And spiritual darkness is ignorance and even rebellion against the living God. So God is, and therefore light, true knowledge about him also is. But the problem is the God of this age seeks to blind people's minds to the light of God, to the truth of God. The God of this age has blinded men's minds to the light. And what John does is he sets the stage here for this ongoing battle between light and darkness that's going to go throughout the 21 chapters of his gospel. There is a collision between light and darkness that John witnessed. There is a collision that you and I witness, this battle between light and darkness, and there is a collision.

3:54The light is shining, it is invading, and because so, it invades the darkness, it collides with the darkness. And so, John talks about this ongoing battle, but he also talks about the triumphant reality back in verse 5 that the darkness has not overcome it. The darkness cannot overcome it, cannot overpower the true information about the true God. All men, everywhere, every person, will understand the true light about the true God. It cannot be surprised. Pressed. The question is: Do you respond in faith or do you wait until the judgment?

4:38But even in the deepest, darkest moment of the cross, the light was shining. Satan would have the devil, the adversary of God, would have Christ put upon a mountain, put upon a cross for all to see, and say, This one is a scum, scum of the earth. This one is not to be followed. That was the testament of the devil. Do not follow this one for sure. But then John steps up to the witness plate and says, Not so.

5:18This one is Lord. This one is God. This is the one in whom everything has been committed. This is your Creator. This is your God. And it speaks volumes about his love for you and I and about his coming kingdom. So John says, No, he is good. He is to be followed. And that message has gone and will continue to go forth until he returns. So that's the function. Of the light. It shines. We looked at those verses last time. Today, I want to continue working our way through and looking at verses 6 through 8 and look at a witness to the light, a witness to the light. Look at verse 6. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. See, the first public witness to the true light was John the Baptist. And in these short verses, John gives us a synopsis of John the Baptist's ministry. The Apostle John gives us a synopsis, summary statements about John the Baptist's ministry, and we will do well to pay attention to these details. It was the first public witness, a synopsis. John, we can say this about John the Baptist's ministry. It was certainly an authentic ministry, an authentic ministry that God Himself ordained.

7:15An authentic ministry. I mean, what is an authentic ministry? What is it? You know, it's a buzzword today. It's used in many church circles today. This is an authentic ministry. Authentic preaching. You'll see it on marquees. You'll see it around authentic preaching, authentic relationships, or authentic ministry. Question is: it's a great term, authentic, but what does it mean? Especially when you see such a wide range of those who would promote themselves as authentic, authentically what? And John's ministry gives us a clear picture in exactly what an authentic ministry is in God's eyes. What is an authentic ministry in God's eyes? And especially here at Emmanuel, we want to know that. How do we know that what we have going on here at Emmanuel is an authentic ministry ordained by God? Well, John, a quick survey of John's ministry, then these two verses give us, or three verses, give us a good synopsis of what a truly authentic ministry is.

8:32John was the herald of the new age, the new age of gospel proclamation, the new age of the proclamation of good news in Jesus Christ. He was the first herald, but he certainly was not the last. And so, in many ways, he's a model for us. And so, this morning, I want us to look at these summary statements at John's historical ministry. Ministry, John the Baptist, historical ministry. And I want you to see three aspects of a truly authentic gospel ministry so that you will give yourself more fully to such a ministry.

9:13So, number one: an authentic ministry. First, I want to talk to you about the commission. An authentic ministry is commissioned by God. A truly authentic gospel ministry is commissioned by God. Look at verse 6. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. Sent from God. Apostle. That's the same word we get apostle from. A true ministry begins in the mind of God, not in the mind of man. It's commissioned by God. And we see this throughout. This is the biblical pattern. This is the biblical pattern. You remember Exodus chapter 3? You remember Moses? In chapter 10, I'll read to this. You don't have to turn there, but I'll read some excerpts from it. Exodus chapter 3. You remember the commission of Moses? In verse 10, therefore come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh. So Moses has gone up, and he is witnessing the God there at the burning bush. God says, I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of the people. Of Israel out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go and that I should bring the sons of Israel up out of Egypt? He says, I will be with you. Go.

10:43Moses said, Who shall I say sent me? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. So with Moses, God came. He had a mission in mind. And he called Moses to step into it. Go. Same with Isaiah 6 or Isaiah. He appears to Isaiah in this glorious vision. And Isaiah is completely enraptured. And then he hears the voice of the Lord saying, Who shall I send?

11:25Isaiah says, Here I am. Here am I. Send me. And God says, Go. Isaiah or Jeremiah chapter 4. Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, Behold, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. Behold, I have put my word in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day. Over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up and to break, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

12:09And on through the scriptures, you see this pattern that God, that biblical ministry, a true gospel ministry, true ministry, is commissioned by God. You see, this certainly as in John the Baptist's life, if you come to Luke chapter 1, verse 15, you remember, John comes, or the angel comes to Zacharias and says, He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And certainly, as he is born, Zechariah prophesies and says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation in the house of David, his servant, a horn, someone to announce salvation. This is John the Baptist. This is what God has raised up.

13:40Verse 76 says, And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. You see, the point of all this is that God had thought through John the Baptist's ministry. He had commissioned it. He had a purpose and a goal in mind. And so God set it out. And he calls, sets him aside for an authentic ministry. And his office was distinct. He was the first herald. John the Baptist is the first herald to point and say, this is the one, Jesus. He was the first to herald the glories of Jesus, the one from Nazareth. And this honor was born in the mind of God, and it was given to John. So this is the biblical pattern. Authentic ministry begins in the mind of God. It is commissioned by God. And that is our commission today.

14:52The pattern hasn't changed. What God began, and get this, what God began through the preaching and teaching ministry of John the Baptist. He will complete through the church. Get that? John began heralding, saying, This is the one. This is the one. And he went before him. And guess what? God envisioned that there'd be a whole lot more coming after him, saying, This is the one. This is the one. We are called as individuals. And we are called as a church. And we have been commissioned with a ministry that is authentic, that is true, that was imagined in the mind of God, that we would believe the truth. And those who would believe the truth would then take that truth and pass it to the next generation.

15:46That is what we are about here at Emmanuel Baptist, proclaiming the truth about the light. See, the bottom line is that God set John apart for gospel ministry, and he commissioned him. The same is true for us. Every true gospel ministry begins in the mind of God. God's the one who imagines it, and he calls people to step into it. And, you know, there's a lot going on in our lives today, especially students. I know you get back. There's all kinds of directions, all kinds of activities to get involved in. There's all Kinds of things that compete for our time, and we get caught up in so many things and so many good things.

16:37And yet, I want you to consider how you're going to spend your time this year. You've got a fixed resource. How are you going to spend it? And I encourage you to invest your time, invest your treasure, invest your talent into an authentic ministry. One that was imagined by God, not one that came up in the mind of man and has you busy about a lot of things. Do that. Invest your time and energy in that, which is truly from God. Be part of an enterprise. Be part of that gospel enterprise. Give yourself more fully here at Emmanuel. This is an authentic ministry. I can assure you of that based upon the authority of God's Word. He imagined us being here. He gave us the words to share, and he imagines and envisions and is with us as we carry out his mission.

17:43So an authentic ministry is commissioned by God. Second, I want to talk to you about the purpose, the purpose of an authentic ministry. The purpose of an authentic ministry is to witness. It is to witness, specifically witness to the light. Look back at verse 7. He, speaking of John, came as a witness to testify about the light. Look at verse 8. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. So he came as a witness.

18:20It's interesting. I had a great time in Africa, by the way. I can't imagine more fruitful ministry in such a compact time. I just enjoyed the men. I loved the time we spent in there. And you've got to recognize that a lot of the people that I'm teaching are from very expressive, very charismatic backgrounds. One guy is pastor of the largest Pentecostal church in Le Longway and has 60 churches that he pastors. And that's bigger than our association here, by the way. And so things get kind of ramped up sometimes and a little more expressive. And we got in this one section about, we were talking about what a gospel minister is. And one guy in the back, let's talk for a minute about what gospel ministry is not. I said, okay, let's talk about what it is not. And we are not priests. Yeah, we are not priests. At least not in the Old Testament sense. We offer prayers. Yes, we offer the sacrifice of our lives, but we are not priests. We are heralds. Of a new covenant. We are ministers of a new covenant. A priest is one who goes on behalf of someone else. And he says, yeah, and we're not a substitute either. You know, substitutes are those who go in place of somebody else. We're not substitutes. We can't substitute ourselves for somebody else. There's one substitute. There's one high priest. We could put it as that. But then things got really interesting. We are not promoters of self. No, we're not promoters of self for sure. We see that all the time. We're not promoters of self. That is not what a gospel ministry is. And we are not entertainers. No, no, brother's right. We are not primarily entertainers. We are not people pleasers either.

20:14You're right. We are not to be people pleasers. Morphs the gospel. It reduces the truth of God to that which is palpable. So we are definitely not people pleasers. And we are not saviors either. We are not heroes. Yeah, the brother's right. We are not saviors. We are not heroes. He says, and I hear this voice, we are not the vicar of Christ either. No, we are not the vicar of Christ. We are not Jesus' deputy leader here on the earth. You're right. Give him a star. And then this guy stands up. We are not witch doctors.

20:57I say, okay, you're going to have to explain that one because I'm not. Going to be, I'm not going to be able to preach that sermon for you. What do you mean we are not witch doctors? He says, Let me tell you something about the witch doctor. He comes to the villages and he holds himself out as the fixer of all things, that he can take care of whatever's wrong. He is the one who holds himself out as the one who could meet every need and solve every problem. And he goes into the spiritual realm to do it. And so the witch doctor comes around with all these charms and all these gadgets, and it's not uncommon for them to carry a Bible, by the way. And they go into the villages holding himself out as some sort of fixer of everything.

21:40I said, that's good, brother. We're not witch doctors. If you look back at the text, and all that is certainly true, gospel ministers, we are not any of those. And John makes it very clear in verse 8: yes, and we are not the light. John the Baptist, he was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. So a gospel minister, we've looked at what a gospel minister is not, but what is a true gospel minister?

22:18Look back. A true gospel minister is a witness. A witness. Let this sink deep into your mind. True gospel minister is a witness. And a witness is someone who confirms or testifies to something on the basis of personal knowledge. He gives a testimony. This involves courtroom language. This one, literal translation would be this one, he came, but it's literally this one, John the Baptist, came as a witness. He came as a witness. Let me tell you something about a witness. A witness is one who knows what he says and says what he knows.

23:07You get that? A witness is someone who knows what he says and he says what he knows. He or she does not speculate. He or she does not speak about his or her own opinions, but testifies to what he or she knows to be the truth. That is a witness. Oh, Friday morning, I'm in there. My wife is out walking, and I get this phone call from my wife, which is very rare when she's out walking. I'm like, uh-oh, what's going on? Creepy guy in a truck or something. You know, I don't know. And so she says, you need to come out. There is this beautiful, full moon that is going down the horizon. It is so glorious. I just had to get you. So I get up and start walking out, and then a lot of our kids get up, and we go outside, and we see the moon, full, beautiful. Golden, yellow, just full and bright as it's setting in the western sky. And that's a picture of what we are: a witness to the light. The moon does not emit light. You know the analogy. It reflects the light. It is a testament to the light of the sun. It is not the light. And that was John's ministry. That is what a witness does. A witness is a blazing reflection of the light, a testimony to the existence of the light.

24:37So I've looked at what a true minister is not, looked at what a true minister is. Now I want to look at what a true authentic gospel minister does. Look back at verse 7. He came as a witness to testify about the light. A literal Greek is, he came to witness. He came as a witness to witness. It's the same word. He came as a witness in order to witness. I love John's gospel. It's so simple. I mean, he puts it there very easily. His vocabulary is very simple. But he testified. Literally, he comes to witness. He comes to establish the certainty of something. He came as a witness with the goal to witness.

25:25And that's really a prominent idea in the whole. Book of John is going to be the witness. There's going to be the witness of the signs. There's going to be the witness of John. There's going to be the witness. And it is John witnesses. And the idea here of testimony, he testifies. It's actually stronger than preaching here in this context. The idea is, he, yeah, he's certainly preaching. And it's even stronger than the idea of prophecy here. What John is saying is saying, this is the one. He's putting his testimony. He's putting his validation. He is attesting to the truth with everything in him. And he is pointing to the Messiah. He has completed the Old Testament prophecy in his testimony. And he is saying, after all that is said in the Old Testament and the promise of one coming, John is standing up there on the horizon of human history and saying, Here it is. Here he is. This is him.

26:28And that's what gospel ministry does. Testifies. All about testifying. All about testifying to the light. Notice that, to the light. And John's testimony is going to go on. We'll look at that more in chapter 3, verse 29 and on. But John's testimony is going to be: Jesus is to be followed. Jesus is the bridegroom. He's the one who must increase. He is the one who gives the Spirit. All things are in his hand, and he who does not obey him resides under the wrath of God. He's going to go on and testify. But it's important to understand that the testimony, this testifying ministry that John began, the dawn of Christ's ministry is the same ministry, the same testifying ministry is seen in the apostles.

27:30We'll see it throughout in John's Gospel. Peter, you remember in Acts chapter 2 and verse 38, Peter's ministry was a witnessing, a testifying ministry. You remember in Acts chapter 2, he says to them after the Holy Spirit had come and they were all baffled by what was going on. And Peter preaches a sermon. He comes to the end and he says, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. That was Peter's minute, solemnly testifying. Be saved from this perverse generation. You are under the wrath of God. If you do not know Christ, you are not. Are under the wrath. That was Peter's testimony, and Paul echoes it. In Acts chapter 20, he goes to Ephesus and he calls the elders together and he calls them together. He says, You yourselves are witnesses that I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house. And this is what he did: solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the testifying ministry, the witnessing ministry of John the Baptist is the same testifying ministry that John embraced, that Peter embraced, that Paul embraced, and it was passed on to us to continue the proclamation. We are primarily a witness, a testimony, or a testifier to the light.

29:30You know, one of the reasons I believe the church is in decline in America is we have stopped testifying to the truth about God and His Son. We have lost this testifying, testifying. We were at a camp this summer, and my kids, and this is a camp that touts itself as being authentic, and one of the small groups saying basically to my kids that using tracts. And using preaching is not what God wants us to do. He wants us to be in relationship with people and that kind of this friendship evangelism approach. And I get it. We must be about relationships. We must be about people. But for it to be truly authentic, there must be a testament. The testifying makes sense out of my relational.

30:25I'm not just a swell guy, or I'm not just a swell person trying to help you. I'm testifying to something. But this is what true ministry is. We're not priests. We're not substitutes. We're not entertainers. We're not even witch doctors. We are witnesses. We testify. We solemnly testify to the light of Jesus. He is the exact reflection, the exact radiance of God's glory. He is the one. You cannot know God unless you know Christ. There isn't another one. If you do not know Christ, if you have not repented of your sins and you have not placed your faith in him, you are under the wrath of God. You will be under the wrath of God. If you continue to live in sin, that's evidence that you do not know him because he does set captives free. This is the testimony of Scripture. If you walk in darkness and say you belong to him, you're wrong.

31:34And the minister is to bring the truth of God to bear upon the audience. I would love to, let me just move on. No, I'm not going to move on. I'm going to press this on you. We hear so much that the ministry is about interpreting or the authority. So many schools put the authority in the interpreter and not in the meaning. Let me give you an example. I'm going to read to you a section from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is what it says, para 85. The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether it's in its written form or in the form of tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the bishop of Rome. So, in other words, what the church is saying, what the Catholic Church is saying, is that we are the authoritative interpreters, that the authority is vested in the interpreter. Interpreter. That's all great, but then you start talking to some of the Orthodox priests in the area, and they'll start telling you, well, no, the Catholic Church was a schism, and really we're the ones that are the authoritative interpreters of truth.

33:16And that all that come off the Catholic Church are basically schisms of schisms, schism of a schism. So we're the authoritative interpreters. That's all great, but then here comes Joseph Smith that says, guess what? No, no, no. The Mormon, as we are the authoritative interpreters. Then you've got the watchtower over there with the Jehovah's Witness saying, no, we are the authoritative interpreters. And then you still have Islam over there coming on and saying, no, we are the authoritative interpreters of the oracles of God.

33:45So who's right? Can we not get out? Do we have to just pick one and just hope that we get the right one? And here I am speaking to you today from the scripture. Am I the authoritative interpreter of scripture? And the answer is no. Authority is not in the interpreter. The authority is in the meaning of the words of God. That is where authority lies. That's where it is. It is in the meaning of God's words.

34:16We may have very different theories about the law of gravity. And I learned very early that if you go outside and you jump off a high place with a trash bag, you won't float down to the ground like they do in the cartoons. That won't happen. You hit the ground pretty hard. So, no matter what your interpretation of the law of gravity is, you are still subject to it. Same is true with spiritual law. It doesn't matter what your interpretation is of it, you are still subject to it.

34:53So, the authority is in the meaning of the text. However, and we are called to testify to what these words mean. We are to testify, and a valid testimony carries all of the authority of God's Word with it. A valid testimony, this is what it says, this is what it means. You guys go and be good Bereans and go see for yourself. You are subject to the Word of God, and this law is binding upon you, and it's we are just testifying. I have read this, I have studied this, this is what I've seen, this is what I've come to know to be true, this is my testimony. And a valid testimony carries all the authority of God's Word with it. Well, need to move on. Three aspects of an authentic gospel ministry: there's the commission, there's the purpose, and then there's the goal. The goal of an authentic ministry is faith. It's faith. Look back.

35:53Look back at verse 7. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that, and here it is, all. Might believe through him. There's three objectives stated in verse 7. There's the general objective: John came as a witness. There's the specific objective, John came to testify about the light. But then there's the ultimate objective, the goal of it all, is so that all might believe through him, through John the Baptist. So, John's witness to the light was for the ultimate goal of bringing about faith. You see, John was a conduit of the light.

36:38The final aspect of an authentic gospel ministry is it has faith in the hearers as the goal. Not just meeting some physical need, though that may be part of it, not just accomplishing some other task, though that may be part of it. The ultimate goal is faith. Faith. True gospel ministry is a means to produce faith. As John was testifying to the light, God was using his testimony to draw people to the light. He was a conduit.

37:21And what a privilege that true gospel ministry is a means to produce faith. So a gospel ministry. Ministry begins in the mind of God. It's commissioned by God. It has a purpose. The purpose is to witness, to testify to the truth of the light. This is what we see in John's ministry with the goal of bringing people to the light. Listen, I speak this to the pioneer leaders and pioneer, everybody who is involved in pioneers on Friday night. Look, feed them, that's great. Befriend them, yes. Play games with them, yes. And in all that, make sure that you come to them as a witness. That's what you're primarily here for: as a witness to testify to them about the light of Christ. And don't ever back off of the truth and your task of testifying.

38:23So, authentic ministry has a commission, it has a purpose, and it has a goal. You know, in closing, I want to share an illustration of a time I was on the underground caverns. You know, you know, you guys have visited some of those underground caverns all over the U.S., right, or the world. You go down, they're all over the place, or they're in several places. We have some in Texas, but this particular one happened to be in North Carolina. And when we got down deep in the cave, you know what the tour guide tells you to do, right?

39:00Turn off your lights. There's absolutely no light in these caverns way down there. Turn out your light and see if you can see your hand in front of your face. Anybody ever done that? The darkness is so thick that you really cannot see your hand in front of your face. There is no light, no light. And we can think that we can think of light. Like we've got light in this room right now, and you can see me, I can see you. But we can think of light. I think John thinks of light in this way. It's a link. Light is a link that connects the viewer to the view. I can see you all because there's light in the room.

39:47If we were in abject darkness, I couldn't see you. And light is that medium whereby the viewer can see the view. Light is a link. It reveals what is there. Just as like a flashlight reveals what is in a cave to those stumbling around in the dark, there is a spiritual light that reveals God to a world stumbling around in the darkness of their ignorance and rebellion. There is a darkness about in our world today, and that's and the spiritual light is Jesus. And Jesus, see what happens is people don't. Understand God. And what John is saying is, here comes the light. He is the light.

40:38And Jesus is that medium that lets us see God. He's like that light that turns on and lets us see God, makes knowing God possible. He is the exact representation of his being. He is the radiance of God's glory. And knowing Christ is knowing God. He is that light. Well, one thing after we turned our flashlights back on in that cave, our guides told us of a true story of two teenage boys who lost their light in the cave. And that's a bummer. You know how, you know, teenagers probably go down there with one light, little low batteries or something. They get down there, one trips, falls in the water, and they're down there in the middle of this hole. How do you get out? Well, they certainly would have died, but there was a little stream running through the cavern, and they took to the stream and just followed it for three days. Cold, hypothermia, they banged up, bruised up, beat up, and all that stuff. But they followed the stream until they could see a little glimmer of light where that stream daylighted out of the cavern and into the open area. And that is how they survived. But that is to a large degree what we are about. We are about testifying. To the light, testifying to the light, that people would know who Christ is, know what he says about God, so that they would come into the light and so leave the ignorance and quit stumbling around in their darkness and their rebellion. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for John the Baptist ministry and just this picture of an authentic ministry. Father, may this be us. May we respond. Father, may we insert ourselves into a ministry that you have commissioned with the purpose of testifying to the truth with the goal to see people come to faith. And Father, we just thank you for this in Jesus' name.